Twas six o’clock the morning of Legoland, and all through the house not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. Treading softly into the bathroom so as not to wake anyone up, I grinned as I carried a fluffy warm towel to the shower and who should I find sitting on the toilet!? None other than our little Millie, equally as excited and just as much unable to sleep as me!
So like two little school children (which is half right) we giggled in the bathroom and clapped our hands and hugged and it was lovely. Millie sat on the toilet talking to me about the rides as I showered and then we both got dressed and ready. Shortly after Gabriele woke I fed the children, tidied up, packed the bags and got the pushchair into the car all in the pouring rain. And finally it was Luca’s turn to get up just after eight o’clock and off we headed to Legoland!
We found a 2 for 1 ticket offer at Staples and so I dashed in as soon as the store opened to buy a pack of white printing paper for the benefit of receiving my free ticket – it pays to be penny savvy! It was only a forty-five minute drive from our house to Windsor and we had high hopes of the exciting things we’d see and do on the other side of the lego brick wall.
You can see our visit here:
To cut a very long story short, Millie had a wonderful time, she ran around the entire theme park and despite barely being able to keep her eyes open on the drive home she was telling us about all the other places she was ready to visit in the area. The weather fortunately held off right until half four when we were caught at the wrong end in the park as the sky clouded over and the heavens decided to open. So running with Gabriele in the pushchair and Millie on my back we made the monstrous dash back to the car which I think must be close to a mile away from where we were and to make it all the more challenging it was all uphill.
Millie With A Darth Vader Statue Made Of Lego At Legoland Windsor
Overall it was a lovely family day out and what made it so special was seeing the children so content and taking them to do something exciting. However, for us adults it was a little tedious, with only one person able to go on a ride with Millie and the other having to sit with Gabriele in the pushchair we were frequently separated for up to an hour at a time. The queue times for the rides were grossly underestimated or cleverly marketed as a “15 min queue” for a simple pirate boat ride with only a few people waiting in front took forty five minutes in total and we wouldn’t have gone on it had we known it would take so long as it stops you doing other things having to stand around waiting so long just for a two minute ride.
Millie Eating A Lego Burger At Legoland Windsor
The food left a lot to be desired, even I could have burned and overcooked better than the ‘restaurants’ at Legoland, and the prices throughout the entire day were a joke. £4.00 for one hotdog sausage in a dry bread bun, £9.00 for three bags of crisps and three donuts, £26.00 for a sandwich, jacket potato and children’s chicken and chips, and £81.40 for two tickets as we got the third free or it would have cost £126.00! So as parents we felt more than a little raped over the prices and to be honest we would expect a lot more for the price. It was like any other children’s theme park but cost twice as much and in my opinion didn’t have as good service or facilities as Thorpe Park, Gulliver’s Land, Whipsnade Zoo etc.
Millie And Luca On The Scarab Bouncers At Legoland Windsor
But the saving glory was the final ride that we went on, which lasted several minutes in the Atlantis zone as we went on a submarine tour with lego and live fish, sharks and stingrays. In hindsight we would have been better off going to a Sealife for the day or maybe it’s just me being old, begrudging paying so much for so little. Our total spend for the day came to £142.10 which made the cost of our visit 40p per minute, considering we spent 140mins queuing (£56.00 worth of time) and Millie only got to go on five rides (approx 2mins per ride x 4 + 7mins submarine x 1 = 15mins total ride time = £6.00 worth of time) whilst one of us waited on our own, in my eyes I think I should open my own theme park! In Millie’s eyes she’s seeing stars and we’re so glad she enjoyed it but are yet to think about going again in this lifetime.
So back to reality, it was great to spend some time together as a family and seeing Luca and Millie on the children’s rides was hilarious, they make such a great double act. Gabriele was a good boy as usual, the older he gets the more content he is to sit quietly looking around talking to the things that he sees and taking everything in.
I still haven’t had my period, I still have TWO POUNDS to lose to be back to my pre-pregnancy weight, and we only have sixteen days left until Gabriele’s christening which both Millie and I need to find shoes for! Eek. x x x
