Went to Legoland Windsor yesterday

jonnyburgo

Great place, stayed at the Beaumont estate hotel on Saturday night, out for a curry to a great place in Old Windsor and then out all day on Sunday at Legoland with Kids And Mrs Burgo, great place, rides not too extreme for the young uns they were able to go on all of them, although the boy who is 9 said he would have liked some to a be a bit more scary. So probably more suited for under 9's

What I did notice is how loads of families were shuffling around the place looking at their phones and how many little kids were i-padded up the whole day, especially in the queues for the rides. Technology as surrogate parents. Same at the hotel at breakfast kids pissing about on games whilst the parents are both twattering or facebooking away. Can people really not face the idea of being alone with their thoughts for two minutes, or god forbid talking to each other? Maybe I'm just behind the times.

xSkarloey

A good time to go to Legoland Windsor is right at the end of the season in October. Yes the weather can be bad but you can dress for it. The beauty of it is that if you hate queueing the waiting time is right down.

I see what you mean about screentime, but let's face it the waiting involved at these places is a 'kin mare sometimes. If it helps them stay sane why not?

Just don't take an ipad on the log flume...

Grumpyrocker

Our kids have tablets, but we only let them use them at home and for a limited time. We went to Legoland last year. Stayed in the hotel on site overnight as we were travelling from Dorset and didn't want to do it all in a day.

The kids really loved it but the crowds were a bit much for me. Our youngest (four at the time) loved the pirate show and must have watched it five times, and he went on the train ride at least four times. 

The only bit we didn't do was the water park. We got to that point in the afternoon and it was a primary coloured Hieronymus Bosch paining. Hell with fountains. A million screaming kids. We suggested to our kids we weren't going to do any water stuff and would they like us buy them some more lego. 

The thing I liked the best was the submarine.

jonnyburgo

The longest queue yesterday was only 20 minutes so pretty quiet, would be a nightmare peak season I reckon.

EricTheWeary

My kids are too old for it now but we went a couple of times. I liked it, lot of walking as I remember it so probably not brilliant for the infirm.
When we went to the Olympics we were in the family bit and I was amazed that pretty much every child seemed to have an iPad or similar to keep them 'amused.' Whilst I suspect watching water polo isn't every child's dream day out there seemed no effort to engage them with the process of what was going on and this was probably a once in a life time experience.
Next I will start going on about people who spend gigs messing about with their smart phones and taking selfies... :x

Hertz32

@Is_Ser_Fluffehh and I are going on saturday for her 17th birthday, first saturday of easter so it is gonna be PACKED. Might have to fork out for those queue jumping things, pending how expensive they are gonna be.

Emp_Fab

My absolute favourite place to go when I was a kid was Bekonscot Model Village... http://www.bekonscot.co.uk/  Purely magical !

richardhomer

I took my son to Legoland when he was 8 - he loved it.

Truth be told, so did I....

stickyfiddle

Emp_Fab said:

My absolute favourite place to go when I was a kid was Bekonscot Model Village... http://www.bekonscot.co.uk/  Purely magical !

MrsF grew up half a mile from that. I never went though. 

They're building a Legoland in Dubai. I can't helping thinking the bricks will melt in the summer but we'll see. Went to the Danish one when I was about 10. Absolutely brilliant

Dalefty

I have to go there, I loved lego as a kid, do they let you play with the lego, and would I draw strange looks and unwanted attention going with my girlfriend and not bringing a child with us?  I confess when I'm in shops that sell lego I'm always tempted to buy myself a set, but get put off as I figure the cashier will laugh at me because the kit would be for me to play with and not a child.

DaLefty

crunchman

Living reasonably close we have annual Merlin passes, which get you into Chessington and about 40 other places as well as Legoland.  Legoland is great for young kids - ours are 6 and 3.

Chessington is quite good as well, and might be better for a 9 year old.  There are one or two bigger rides but it's still pretty family friendly for young kids.  You have the animals there as well.  Although I do remember going one time when our older one was about 3 when the lions were getting amorous - or playing piggyback as she called it!  Now she is getting bigger I took her on the Vampire for the first time last summer.

I'm meaning to take them on the London Eye sometime as that is covered by the Merlin Pass as well.

The beauty of the pass is that you can take them for 3 or 4 hours.  If you are just going for a day or two you feel you have to get there early and stay until kicking out time to get value for money out of your tickets, so by the end of the day everyone is seriously tired and grumpy.  Taking them for a few hours in the afternoon is much nicer.  Obviously that's not an option if you live miles away but it's nice if you can do it.

breakstuff

Go for it @DaLefty I still 'play' with my kids Lego now and again and I'm 44.The Star Wars stuff is brilliant but very expensive nowadays.My eldest has about £1000 worth of various Star Wars models and with the boxes and instructions he'll easily get that back when he eventually sells it.

This one's the cream of the crop and worth around £400-£500 at current values.

frankus

jonnyburgo said:

What I did notice is how loads of families were shuffling around the place looking at their phones and how many little kids were i-padded up the whole day, especially in the queues for the rides. Technology as surrogate parents. Same at the hotel at breakfast kids pissing about on games whilst the parents are both twattering or facebooking away. Can people really not face the idea of being alone with their thoughts for two minutes, or god forbid talking to each other? Maybe I'm just behind the times.

 You can download an app and buy a service from Legoland to get you to the rides at a specific time, save you having to queue. So at least some of that staring at phones might have been "how much longer till we have to be at ride X?".

As for it being a bad thing, kids these days are not the same as kids those days. Compared to the boys in "Brendan Chase" I think we were cossetted as kids. It didn't seem to hurt us, it just meant we weren't the same as the generation preceding us... which may or may not be a bad thing and we've no way of knowing

breakstuff

A few more,

jonnyburgo

That's awesome, there is a place there where you get full kits to build, then you have to take them apart and hand them back in though BAH!! the shops are very expensive though

Dalefty

breakstuff said:

Go for it @DaLefty I still 'play' with my kids Lego now and again and I'm 44.The Star Wars stuff is brilliant but very expensive nowadays.My eldest has about £1000 worth of various Star Wars models and with the boxes and instructions he'll easily get that back when he eventually sells it.

This one's the cream of the crop and worth around £400-£500 at current values.

 
You have kids as an excuse to buy lego and play with it, I don't have that excuse, and yes it's the Star Wars stuff I've been eyeing up in Tesco's and ASDA whenever I'm in them and walking past the toys.

DaLefty

chillidoggy

LEGO was way better when it didn't have all the shaped stuff, and we had to use our imagination. These days, it's just like putting an Airfix kit together, but looking more shit when it's finished, with all those pimples. They've sold out, I tell you.

Snap

on phones, tablets etc. I notice when out in the vening with my good lady wife, the amount of couples sitting in pubs, restaurants, not talking to each other, and fannying around on their phones. Its weird. I purposely leave my phone at home oif we;re out for a meal. Otherwise, the compulsion to fart around with it begins to creep.

ANd it is a compulsion. Cos, most of the time you are looking at shite, the same shite you looked at a few minutes ago, and hey guess what, it's not changed!

Dalefty

Snap said:

on phones, tablets etc. I notice when out in the vening with my good lady wife, the amount of couples sitting in pubs, restaurants, not talking to each other, and fannying around on their phones. Its weird. I purposely leave my phone at home oif we;re out for a meal. Otherwise, the compulsion to fart around with it begins to creep.

ANd it is a compulsion. Cos, most of the time you are looking at shite, the same shite you looked at a few minutes ago, and hey guess what, it's not changed!

I've noticed that too, on 'date night' as I like to call it, I leave my phone at home, my girlfriend gets my full attention, not a 2 inch screen - I use a mobile phone that still has real buttons and no camera, I think it cost me £9.99 or there abouts, it really was a bank breaking top of the range model obviously, it even has a colour screan, and a selection of fancy ring tones too.

DaLefty

JohnPerry

Been to Legoland a few times...v good, as these places go. Bleeding expensive. I REALLY recommend the Harry Potter studio tour though. I actually loathe the Potter books but if you're at all interested in film-making of any sort it's a must-see. It somehow manages to work for kids and adults, even Potter haters

EricTheWeary

JohnPerry said:

Been to Legoland a few times...v good, as these places go. Bleeding expensive. I REALLY recommend the Harry Potter studio tour though. I actually loathe the Potter books but if you're at all interested in film-making of any sort it's a must-see. It somehow manages to work for kids and adults, even Potter haters

I'm going this weekend. I think the whole Potter thing is bollox so we will see how right you are John!