Spring Break Trip Day 6 Legoland Trip Report

Day 6 of our spring break trip was Legoland! 

It is no secret that Michael loves all things Lego. He is such a fun age and we had heard Legoland is perfect for younger/elementary aged children so we figured we'd better do it on this trip, especially since he was the only kid with us! 

Legoland is located in Winter Haven, which is about 45 minutes south of Orlando. We fueled up with our Starbucks and enjoyed the time together in the car. I actually enjoyed getting out of the Orlando area and seeing some "real" Florida- lots and lots of orange groves! Michael kept saying, "orange orchards" and was amazed to see the little oranges growing on the trees. If I would have done more research, I would have planned a side trip to a grove! 

Michael was feeling a bit under the weather due to tummy troubles right when we arrived but he perked up in no time! 

I was really going into this day without having much of a feel for the park at all. The map seemed confusing to me when I looked at it ahead of time and it was a bit hard to navigate the park. I had found some good tips online and made a rough schedule for us to follow. It did help knowing what for sure we wanted to hit and then we ended up skipping some things when they looked to young to Michael. 

Getting in the park was a pretty easy process (and close parking!) so even though we were there later than I had anticipated, it was still fine. It is also worth noting that Legoland doesn't open until 10a.m.- it was nice to not feel like we had to get super early for our day.

 We headed for the very back of the park first to check out Driving School. 

                          

This is fun because kids can drive these Lego cars that are not on a track- they are free to go wherever they want! They are supposed to be obeying the traffic signs to earn their driver's license but it was kind of a free for all! The cars went pretty slowly so no worries.  

Next up was Flying School which is a roller coaster where your feet dangle down. I had heard some reports saying that some adults will have trouble fitting into the rides and this was one I was worried about- not a problem at all. Neither Scott nor I had any trouble on any of the rides and we are both tall and not small people. 

It was definitely a bigger coaster than Michael was used to! It was fun and pretty short. 

Up next was Boating school, where you get to drive little boats around a course. For some reason this was a long wait for us. The boats are slow and load slowly. They had a little play area of Legos kids could do while they were waiting. Michael also got a new minifigure he enjoyed playing with while he waited. 

Michael and I rode together and Scott was in a boat behind us. Well...Michael and I got into trouble right away when we spun our boat completely around and got stuck! Luckily I managed to get us out the bind but by the Scott had passed us by. He stayed ahead of us the whole time and ended up finishing five boats before us! It is clear who the experienced boat driver in our family is (and who clearly needs to go to real boating school-hint, it's me!). 

Scott took this photo as he was laughing at us because he had already finished and unloaded while we were still on the course! 

After these three rides, we took a little break to let Michael play in this little zone where they could make cars and race them. He loved it! I think he could have spent all day in there. Scott scoped out the lunch situation and we decided to get some grab and go sandwiches and eat while watching the ski show at 12:15. 

We were super excited to see the waterski show. It is a throwback to the park's history as Cypress Gardens where they hosted ski lessons and ski shows. Fun fact- Scott's mom actually learned how to waterski at the original Cypress Gardens back in the 50's where her family took an airplane (a big deal!!) to Florida to celebrate her grandparent's wedding anniversary. I have seen some film footage from this trip and it is so neat. What a time! 

Scott and I also saw a waterski show on one of our first trips together when we went to the Wisconsin Dells when we were dating in college. 

We ate our lunch before the show started and they had nice seats and shade. 

The show was super cute and featured some waterskiing Lego people and also regular people. It was a cute story about Pirates and I was really entertained! I would not miss this!! 

Scott's favorite part was the super cool Nautique boats they used to pull the skiiers. This is the same brand of boat he has and I could tell he was just watching the boats the whole show! They were beautiful. 

Hopefully the show gave Michael a little bit of a spark to get up on waterskis sometime in the future. Water sports are so fun and he is a lucky boy to have a dad who is skilled in that area. If Scott can get me to pop up on a wakeboard, there is hope for basically anyone. :o) 

The waterski show is in the Cypress Gardens area so we explored over there for a bit. Legoland has preserved the original gardens which date back to the 1920s. I think it is actually a National Historic landmark and we were happy to view them. I really wanted to see the famous banyan tree and was pretty excited about it. Scott could not understand but when he saw it he got it. This tree is amazing! 

These photos can not even do it justice. It is HUGE and crazy looking. It is like something from another world. I loved it. Scott thought I was crazy for saying that seeing this tree was a highlight of my vacation but it was! I'd never seen anything like it before. 

There were so many lovely benches and places to sit in the gardens. We even saw a tiny crocodile! It would be fun just to relax, meditate, and enjoy nature for a whole day but alas....we had more to do! 

The Lego Technic Coaster was a fun one and a pretty crazy ride. It starts with a huge hill and then you spend the rest of it up high doing tight corners. You are in a tiny ride vehicle that I was pretty was made out of real legos and it kind of freaked me out. 

We also did the famous Dragon coaster that is on all the ads and was a must do for Michael. It was fun! 

(we were really into putting our arms up on everything this vacation if you can't tell!). 

We finally arrived at Chima. This was a water ride and so we decided it would probably be our last ride. It is a boat ride that you spray targets with and end up getting SOAKED on. We were so wet afterwards! It was super fun but crazy wet. 

We took some time before heading out of the park (and the Big Store) to finally check out Miniland. Everything in this area is so neat! 

The Star Wars area was definitely a favorite for all of us and I was proud of myself that I could identify all of the scenes now that I have seen every movie. Go me!

We also took a spin on Island in the Sky which takes you up to get views of the park from the sky. It was a really nice ride and relaxing at the end of the day since we could sit and it was shady. 

We spent some time looking in the multiple Lego stores and Michael eventually settled on a new Minecraft set he wanted to take home. It was the one with the "Iron Gollum"- don't ask me I have no idea. They had a ton of new Star Wars sets that I hadn't seen before so I think they just recently came out with a new line. Those Lego people are marketing geniuses! 

Overall, we had a really nice time at Legoland. I was glad we did it especially since we had the time and a rental car to get there. It was nice to end our trip with this day because it is the park we spent the least amount of time at. It was clear at the end of this day we were ready to go when we were ready to go- I think each day the heat, lines, and walking got to us a bit more. 

We headed back to our resort to spend some time swimming and enjoy the hot day as it was in the 90's! Michael loved swimming at this resort so much! This day was so beautiful I thought I could totally had spent the whole week just swimming and enjoying the resort. 

We swam and took a pizza from the restaurant by the pool back to the condo for dinner. It was awesome, easy and perfect. 

Sadly, that is it for our trip! :o( 

We had a really nice flight time out of Sanford (3:30ish) and so we slept in the next morning, did one last swim tour (we swam in all three pools to say goodbye and I actually teared up a bit to see Michael having such a blast), showered and packed and headed to the airport. Since Dave and Margie were staying at the condo the rest of the week, there was no worry about being out by a certain time and that was very nice. 

We even drove by Orlando Watersports complex on the way to the airport! 

We ate lunch at the airport, loaded up on snacks and magazines and headed back to DSM. Scott paid extra for the row with more leg room and it was pretty cushy. I loved being in the front of the plane, it felt felt less claustrophobic to me. 

The flight home was beautiful and a bit bumpy, but I dealt with it by watching the clouds change, the scenery and catching up on my podcasts from the week. 

When we arrived home the airport was crazycakes busy because everyone was arriving to DSM for the first round of the NCAA tournament. It was actually pretty good planning on end our vacation right before the tourney started because then we could spend the next four days immersed in basketball! 

I'll have my wrap up post up next! Thanks for stopping by!