Legoland

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Legoland

...Continued from yesterday:

    Though we arrived at Legoland (see yesterday's post) shortly after the park opened on a chilly, overcast Thursday morning,

...still we found ourselves already behind a great crowd of park visitors.

     On our way to the entrance gate we passed the soon-to-be-opened Legoland Hotel,  a massive, 350-room edifice that looked like a giant toy castle.

    Once inside the gate of Legoland one has the impression of having stepped into a colorful garden of earthly delights

...populated by Legos.

...and families with small children.

...and not too unmanageably vast for little legs or parents pushing strollers - I reckoned Legoland to be about half the size of the Ohio State Fair grounds. Maybe even less.

     A little past the gate entrance was a station at which one could upgrade one’s status to VIP, which I assumed expedited one’s arrival at the head of the ride lines.

     We bypassed this option and stopped at what appeared to be a good first destination, a boat ride around a Lego-laden lake,

…where we saw a Lego London Eye and Big Ben,

...a Lego Eiffel Tower,

...A Lego Taj Mahal,

...a Lego Mount Rushmore,

…and and an assortment of whimsical Lego creatures.

   It was a delightful ride,

...for which we'd nonetheless had to wait in line for over 45 minutes .

...while those with a VIP pass breezed to the front of the line through a special VIP gate.
     I told the others to go find another line to stand in. As for me, I intended to go check out the VIP dispensation.

     Shortly after I took my place at the end of a fairly long line a friendly Legoland guy came down the line and asked how many of us came here after standing in a ride line. A number of hands besides mine went up.
    The Legoland guy then tore off slips of paper from a pad, handed each of a us a slip and a pen, and proceeded to explain to us how the VIP pass worked.

    The paper each of us had been handed was an information form that we were required to fill out while standing in line so as to be ready to hand it in when we reached the desk.

   The Ultimate Pass, at $100 per person, cut the wait time for the rides by 90%. However the Ultimate Passes were already sold out.
    There were a few  Deluxe Passes left at $55 per person, which cut the ride time by 50%.
    I opted to buy each of us an Express Pass, which cut the wait time by 25%.

    So six Express Passes added $125 to the cost of the park tickets, which were $107 per child and $119 per adult.  But what the heck, it was Legoland. In for a penny, in for a thousand bucks.
     Anyway, how the system worked was that one was given a little device that resembled a Tomagotchi.

    One pulled up the list of rides, scrolled down to the ride one wished to ride, and pressed "reserve." One would then be given a time, anytime after which one could proceed to the express gate for that ride.

    This little ride-reserving gizmo actually afforded us an excellent plan of action, as while we were waiting for for our reservation time for one ride, we could either stand in line for another ride,

...or go spend some time in one of the many   play areas,

...or watch a charming stage show.

    My grand daughters were particularly enchanted by one entitled, "BFF, Best Friends Forever,"

...and were thrilled to be able to meet some of the friendly, lovely, cast members.

    Between our VIP ride reservations we also had plenty of time to stroll around the park and take in the attractions,

...including the model cities,

...New York,

...New Orleans,

...Washington, D.C.

...and of course, stop for lunch,

...which we did, at a spot we found that served the best ramen.

    And so we spent the day riding the rides,

...without too much line-waiting,

...seeing the sights,

...even the bathrooms were a sight,

...and doing what there was to do,

...including my grand daughters trying a game of skill for a prize  that involved climbing a rope ladder to the top without falling off,

...which one of the girls was, amazingly,  able to do on her first try.

     Then, our long day at Lego-land being done, it was time to go home,

...which we did,

...after a dinner stop at Denny's.