Legoland Florida vs UK

[Dendycat]

My 7 year old is Lego ninjago mad. It is in our plans to do legoland Windsor at some point in the next year but we live up north and so it isn’t cheap as we’d have to make a weekend of it.
Has anybody been to both legoland Florida and Windsor and can let me know if they are very different as I’m wondering whether to do it whilst we are in Orlando and whether that would tick the box or if I’ll end up having to do both!

[miked1e]

Not been to any legoland but going to Windsor this Friday for a couple of nights. We are in Liverpool (not sure how further north you are) so we will likely give out feedback early next week…

Possibly a blog or vlog.

Sorry can’t help on comparisons.

[alkel2730]

I can’t answer your question but I can say we live in Yorkshire and felt the same as you - so far so never visited. We then decided to make a trip down at end of summer and I’m so glad we did, it was fab! It’s such an easy straight drive down. It’s way cheaper than the likes of Alton towers, especially if you get a voucher and I’d even go so far as to say the drive is easier, it really doesn’t feel far at all.
We stayed in the premier at Heathrow and that was cheap as and really close. Was a lovely lovely PI too.
We loved it so much we are going back next week. Defo don’t write it off in U.K., it’s easy to get to and much cheaper than the ones nearer the north.

I’ve heard Windsor is a lot better than Florida but I can’t say for sure from personal experience.

[cornishfrogboy]

I have visited Windsor, Florida and California Legoland and in my opinion, they are broadly similar and with much the same rides. I would say that they are all excellent if you have a love of Lego, but that the differences are in the World Showcases etc, that may be of more interest to adults than children.
The weather can of course, be an issue.

There are ways of broadening any trip (and in the process, cutting cost). Legoland is very close to the Bath Rd Heathrow Premier Inn where you should get a family room for well sub £50 a night and thus have access to the Prem Inn breakfast and evening meal deals.
The Premier Inn also places you rather close to Harry Potter Studios near Watford, Chessington Park and Zoo, Thorpe Park and the truly awesome Brooklands, depending on your interests… and of course, Windsor Castle. All of the above are W or SW of London with the exception of Harry P, which is NW.

Such a Legoland trip would thus become very budget friendly, depending on what options you might take.

[LLamb]

I’ve been to both and we are all Lego mad in our house. My feelings, it’s worth a trip to either and they are mostly the same. Although when we went in Orlando it was overbearingly hot, hotter than in Orlando. We went at the end of May and all but one of the food outlets was closed.

The rides are usual theme park type but with Lego shoehorned in.
The mini village is nice but Windsor was in dire need of replacing parts.
Our son liked the discovery center at Manchester better

[itz_baseline]

We’ve been to both and I have to say I was massively disappointed in both of them.

The Windsor one we did about 5 years ago and did nothing but queue all day. It didn’t seem particularly busy but we probably only rode on 5 rides all day. The Lego structures themselves have seen better days and the worst thing was the queue for the car park upon exit. It’s absolutely chaos. Cars everywhere, no staff trying to sort anything out, no obvious give way system….just hundreds of cars all trying to filter into 1 lane for exit, people pushing in, not taking turns…it took well over 90 minutes just to leave! I certainly wouldn’t go back.

With Orlando we got free 14 day tickets when buying our Disney tickets. We went 1 day out of the 14 and decided it really wasn’t worth it (even for free). Although the car park was much better the queues inside were pretty much the same story only with not much indoor queueing apart from the Ninjago ride…which again was chaotic as the staff didn’t manage the fast pass queues very well and everything was grid lock.

I know some people have had fab experiences, but I’d lower your expectations and then hopefully you’ll have a good time, but for me I wouldn’t go back to either.

[Geordieprincess]

We’ve done both. You get different Lego models (mainly UK vs mainly USA models) but the rides were pretty similar.
Major difference for me was crowds (although I am going back about 5 years so don’t know if Florida is still quiet). We did Windsor in Easter school holidays, 2 days including early entry as staying in the Legoland hotel. Queued and queued and queued and left in the afternoon then came back in the early evening after the National holidays buses had left so was a bit quieter.
Florida in August, everything was a walk on, rode favourite rides several times, left before closing because we were done. Had a 14 day ticket as was the same price as 1 day but didn’t feel the need to go back.

[mrsmickey]

We’ve done both, the U.K. one quite a few times (and California, and we’re off to billund in April too).

Legoland florida used to be a different theme park entirely called Cypress Gardens (and as you can imagine, has some pretty nice gardens). It also means they kept a few of the original rides so they do have some genuine differences to Windsor. The other big difference is they now have a Lego movie world, which replicates the rides that in the U.K. form Mythica area, so if your child is a big fan of the Lego Movie it’s a good place to go! It is a bit of a trick from Orlando, I think it took us about 90 minutes to get there. We went in June 2018 and quite a few of the rides were walk on, including NINJAGO which is usually a min 30 minute wait in the U.K.

The U.K. one was run down and tired, but they really spruced it up over lockdown and put a lot of effort in. If you are thinking is it worth it, then there are some cheap hotels nearby and you can often get discount tickets with things like hand soap and cereal boxes, as well as Tesco Clubcard if you shop in Tesco’s to make it a cheaper trip. Yes, queues can get big but if you use the app and get in early / stay late you can get a decent amount done in a day. The NINJAGO area is pretty cool, there’s climbing walls, activities and so on - I honestly can’t remember much about the florida equivalent. If you can afford it, an overnight stay in the hotel is quite cool, the rooms are pretty awesome

[Dendycat]

Thanks everybody. Given me something to think about. I probably won’t rush to do the Florida site but maybe I’ll see if he is still obsessed by next summer and do a U.K. trip. Will
Keep my eye out for deals. Thanks for the tips.

[Scotsmomma2]

I've not been to Windsor one,but we loved the Florida one,it was my Grandsons fav park,we stayed the night in a Lego beach retreat bungalow and had NYE in the park (fab fireworks)