Legoland California

Today was a day for Karl and Robin.  They had been so eager to go to Legoland!

I had read a fellow traveller's blog, in which he said that him and his 2 boys (just a bit older than our two) had visited Legoland.  He had been hesitant about it, and his wife went shopping with a pre-arranged pick-up time - he had to arrange a later time as they enjoyed it so much.  However, Eric had heard other stories.

Our verdicts: Karl says it is the same as Disneyland, with the best activity being the scenic dioramas of scenes from Star Wars movies.  Robin says it is the same as Disneyland, with the best activity being a roller coaster in Dino Island, called Coastersaurus (Eric was a bit upset with his knee, so sat that ride out).  Eric and I both feel that Disneyland ranks higher, in terms of cleanliness (Legoland was clean, it just had more little bits of rubbish and looked more dated in terms of chipped paint etc), thrill of the rides (having said that, Legoland is set up for 2-12 yr olds), effort (Legoland had rides with statues made with Lego around the rides, whilst there was more of the theme of the ride at DL).  Even the 4D movie, while fun to watch, seemed to be lacking in "panache" and lacking in effect really.  I agree with Robin in terms of the Coastersaurus being the best ride, and I did enjoy looking at the different buildings in the Miniland area.  Eric enjoyed Dune Raiders, where we sat in a cart and went through a darkened area shooting at targets - he scored more than any of us.

One interesting thing was that there was real focus on revenue at Legoland.  On the rides where they took photos during the ride, we could only buy them and were told we couldn't take a photo of the photo while it was on the screen (that's what we did at DL).  They had roving photographers at other rides, and again, we could purchase them at the exit.  There were also a lot of side-show stalls, where, for a price, you could throw balls to win prizes, or catch fish to win prizes, etc.  Money making everywhere.

After we left Legoland, we made a stop to look at the Carlsbad Flower Fields, rows of different coloured flowers, then drove part of the way back south to San Diego along the Pacific coast.

Once back, some dinner and the boys have spent the last 2 hrs making up the Star Wars Lego sets they bought today - their first big purchase (if they loose pieces, they loose it!).