In the morning, we had to get up and get ready to go early. I woke the kids, had them get dressed, and then sent them to the kitchen for breakfast. It was a quick breakfast of oatmeal. Something that didn't take long to make or eat. When everyone was done we went down and got in the van for our drive to Carlsbad. It would take just over an hour to get to Legoland depending on traffic.
The freeway wasn't bad, but once we exited the freeway we got stuck on service streets. They had construction all over the place. We ended up taking a few detours, but we finally made it to the park. Once there, we had to wait to pay to get into the parking lot. We were luckily there pretty early. We were lucky enough to get close to the front. Once parked, we grabbed Dad's bag, the sun screen, and headed to the front gates.
The wait at the gate wasn't too bad, until we actually got up there. Their system had just crashed and for some reason their card readers weren't working. She ended up scanning my credit card old school style. It made me laugh because she didn't really understand how to use it and someone had to come over to help. When she was finally done with my card, we walked in the gate.
We then went to wait in another line. Our reasoning to be there so early was to be able to get Mom a motorized wheelchair. It's a first come first serve, we just hoped as we waited in line that there would be one available. When we got to the front, I sighed with relief, Mom was getting one of the last three motorized wheelchairs left. After signing all the paperwork for the chair, they handed us a map and explained how to use the wheelchair access lanes. With that we sent off to make a plan.
We decided just to go to one side and follow it around the park. We first found ourselves in Miniland USA. The first ride available to ride was the Coast Cruise. Once in the boat you float/coast through the entire Miniland USA section of the park. This is where you can see all the fun miniatures of real iconic places and buildings; Eiffel Tower from Paris, Big Ben from London, Taj Mahal from India, Mount Rushmore, Statue of Liberty, and so much more. I'm not sure the kids enjoyed it as much as us adult. We actually knew what some of these iconic places and buildings were, they had no idea.
After we got off the boat, we walked toward the next area, which happened to be Ninjago World. When we first walked through the arch we came across a character. I have no idea who he was, the kids knew and instantly got in line to be able to get a picture with him. The line was really short, so I didn't have a problem with it.
After a few pictures, we then went to ride the main attraction from that world, Lego Ninjago the ride. The ride was interactive and went through the story of the Ninja's and their training in order to defeat the bad guys. There were fireballs, lightning, shockwaves, ice, and so much more that you could control to help the Ninja's defeat the Great Devourer. While doing so you earn Ninja stars and at the end of the ride it told you whether or not you earned enough stars to become a Ninja. The kids had a blast on this ride. They were really getting into it. So much that they wanted to ride it again. I told them if we had time at the end of the day, we could come back. There was just so much to see and not a lot of time to see it in.
After we were done with the ride we continued to walk to the next area, Imagination Zone. We were just in time for the next showing at the 4D Theater. They were showing a Ninjao training video. During the video you actually saw, heard, felt, and smelt all the different elements that the Ninja's could control. It was fun watching the kids' reactions when a new element surprised them. Overall I would say this was a fun experience. Fun enough that they talked about it for a while.
After the 4D movie we continued our journey through the Imagination Zone and came across the first available ride, Aquazone Wave Racers. William sadly wasn't tall enough to ride this ride, so He, Mom, and I stayed back to run the water cannons while Dad, Gabbi, and Owen went and got in line. They waited a while in line, but while they did, William and I had fun trying to get people wet with the water cannon. When they finally got on the ride, we tried even harder to get them wet. William was successful a few times. It didn't drench them like we hoped, but it was enough to make William happy.
After they were done, we let William pick the next ride. He picked the Bionicle Blaster. It's exactly like the tea cup ride from Lagoon. I was just hoping that they didn't want to spin it very fast. No such luck. At that point, I was just glad that Dad wasn't helping them. They had to work it by themselves and it was actually kind of hard. They had fun trying though.
After the spiny ride, we walked to the next area, Land of Adventure. It was a lot like the kiddie land at Lagoon. It was made for the little kids who couldn't ride the big ride. William's eyes lit up when he saw all that he could do with no restrictions, and even better he got to drag Gabbi and Owen along with him whether they wanted to or not.
The first ride we went on in this land was the Lost Kingdom Adventure. It was awesome having Mom's wheelchair. We again got to go towards the front of the line. Once on the ride, they kids were ready and excited. They got to use blasters to help fight off the skeletons that lay hidden in the tomb. At the end you even got to see your score. All the kids scored higher than I did, but Dad beat us all.
After that the kids headed to the Beetle Bounce. William was so excited, the others not so much. This was a kid only ride and I was okay with that. Owen's face tells it all. You could tell this ride wasn't near as exciting as others. That didn't stop William from having fun though.
After they had had enough of the kiddie rides we went to the next area, Castle Hill. This area was full of all things medieval times. It was awesome. As you walked up the Hill, as you enter you are greeted by a gigantic Lego Dragon. It was huge. I can only imagine how long that must have taken to put together. It was immaculate.
Walking around Castle Hill the kids weren't sure what to do first. We ended up going to the Royal Joust. Each of the kids got to ride a horse and pretend that they were in a jousting race. I could tell Gabbi thought this was ridiculous, although she smiled for the picture when I asked her to, but both Owen and William seemed to enjoy it.
We then tried to go on the Dragon Coaster, but it was temporarily closed. Owen was really bummed, he wanted to see why it was called Dragon Coaster. We told him that we could come back later, if we had time.
We continued our walk through Castle Hill and the majority of it was little shops and places to eat. That wasn't exactly what we wanted to do so we headed out. On our way out the kids came across a building center. We decided to stop and let them have some building fun. They each made a Castle inspired piece. They did a pretty good job.
After we were done in Castle Hill, we went to a new area. It was brand new for the summer of 2018, Lego City Deep Sea Adventure. It was small, only had two items in it, but it looked cool. They had a small shop and one ride, the Deep Sea Adventure. It was a Submarine ride. The kids were so excited when we walked up to the entrance. I wasn't so sure about it, but then I saw the line that Mom got to use and I was okay with that.
We walked through the line with Mom and it took us practically to the front. There was a point where she did have to get out and walk the rest of the way, but the way was considerably shorter. It was awesome. They also had plenty to see while you waited, sea animals, interactive pieces, etc. The kids didn't even notice that they were waiting for the line to move. It was great.
When we finally got on the ride, they kids were so excited and a little bit worried. Gabbi was afraid that the ride would break and we would be stuck under water with no way to get out. We assured her that we would be fine and to enjoy the ride. While on the ride we moved in the water and surveyed all sorts of fish. We even saw a few small sharks, which Owen was super excited about. Along with all the sea life, you got to search for all sorts of treasure. As you came across certain items in our window you got to touch your window. It kept a tally at how much treasure you found. We were all treasure experts by the time the ride was over.
After we were done with our Deep Sea Adventure we walked back towards Miniland. This time we got to walk through the Star Wars section of the area. The kids couldn't believe what they were seeing, some of their favorite character all made out of Legos, some of which were actually life sized.
After seeing the characters, we came across the scenes. They had all sorts of scene from each of the main 6 movies. I was surprised by who much the kids could actually tell me about the different scenes we came across. Some of the scenes, they actually knew more than me. The loved it and were all over the place taking it all in.
Also while in Miniland USA were able to check out some pretty cool landscapes from places like Las Vegas, San Francisco, New Orleans, New York, and Washington DC. The kids didn't find the landscapes as interesting as I did. They quickly walked through it while Dad, Mom, and I really took it all in. The kids, once done with the landscapes, came across another building section, Coast Guard Build-a-Boat. It was crazy crowded, I was surprised that they were able to build anything, but once they did, they ran to the top and watched their boats float down to the bottom. When it hit the bottom, they grabbed the boat, and did it again. I finally had to drag them away for other kids to be able to have a turn.
We then made our way to Explorer Island. Here the kids were able to enjoy life sized Lego pieces of some of their favorite animals. One of their favorites was the lion that they could put their head it. They thought that was awesome. Even more so, they loved the Dinosaurs, well the boys did.
After checking out all the pieces we then went and rode some of the rides. First was the Safari Trek. We each got to board on Safari Jeeps and ride through the Jungle to spy some pretty cool African animals. We saw Giraffes, Elephants, Gorillas, Alligators, etc. The kids had a blast with it. They all said that they thought they were on a real Safari and preferred it this way to real animals chasing them around the Jungle.
When we got off the Safari Trek we walked over to the Coastersaurus. While walking there we got a really good sight of all the Dinosaurs. They were all over and the boys just ran over to all of them and began telling us what they were, what they ate, when they lived. It was awesome. I don't think I knew that much about one thing at that age. It was awesome to see. Once we had our fill of the Lego Dinosaurs, we went and rode the ride. It was similar to the Boombora at Lagoon and the kids loved it. They were riding with their hands in the air and big smiles on their faces.
After we were done in Explorer Island we then made our way to Lego Friends Heartlake City. This land consisted of all the girl Legos and Gabbi was so excited. When we first walked into the land she ran over to all the giant sized girl characters. She wanted to have pictures with all of them. The boys weren't as excited, however when they saw the giant Lego car, they happily hopped into the picture.
There wasn't a ton to do in Heartlake City. The majority of it were building centers, eating place, and a shop. The only ride they had there was Mia's Riding Camp. It was basically a Merry-go-round made of Lego Horses. It didn't go very fast which bugged the boys, but that didn't seem to stop Gabbi from having fun on it.
After leaving Heartlake City we then walked into Fun Town. Fun Town consisted of a Duplo Playtown and Lego city attractions. We first started in the Duplo Playtown. It had a giant play place feel with Duplo blocks everywhere. It had slides, play houses, and plenty of areas to run and hide in. The kids played hide and seek for a little bit before noticing that there was a train. They quickly ran and got in line. When it was there turn they loaded the train and waited for it to start. William was so excited, especially when he was able to sit in the front by the train engine. He was on cloud 9 and was loving every minute of it. The older two not so much, but since William hasn't been able to do everything because of his height, I didn't really care.
After his fill was done with the Duplo Playtown we had our way farther into Fun Town. Immediately the kids knew exactly what they wanted to do, ride in the cars. They had a Driving School ride for all ages. Well, they had two rides that suited ages from 2 to 12. William had to ride the younger one (Junior Driving School) while Owen and Gabbi got to ride the bigger one (Driving School). William was not happy about that, but once he was in the car, I don't really thing he cared. Plus the line for the bigger one was longer, which meant William got to ride his as many times as he wanted while waiting for the other two to get done with their one ride.
Once they were done with driving school, we made our way farther into the Lego City attractions and found ourselves in line at the Fun Town Fire and Police Academy. It was a relay race in Fire trucks. We divided ourselves up into boy versus girls (Dad, Owen, William against Myself and Gabbi). We had to first run to the truck, pump the truck so it would move and once to the other side we had to get out and fight some fires with a water hose that actually shoot out water. Once the fire was out we loaded the fire trucks again and pumped the truck until we were back at the beginning line. Sadly Gabbi and I lost. The boys were ecstatic about their win, I just told Gabbi that we would get them next time.
After we were done fighting the fires we made our way to the Skipper school. It was similar to the Driving school, only this time we got to ride in boats. It again was boys versus girls and this time Gabbi and I finished first, which she happily gloated for a few minutes.
After the boats we then went to the Sky Patrol ride. Each of us were able to get into a Helicopter and control our ride by going up and down in the Helicopters. William loved having control of his Helicopter.
After all of our fun in Fun Town we made our way to Pirates Shore. There wasn't a lot to do that didn't include getting wet. That meant that Mom didn't want to ride any of the ride and Dad decided to stay behind with her, so the kids and I went through and did the few rides that were available. Once of which was the Splash Battle. We got to ride in Pirate boats and while doing do we got to try and shoot the other boats with our water cannons, but that also meant they could shoot us. They also has some water cannons on the perimeter of the ride were onlookers could do the same. Needless to say, Dad took advantage of the water cannon when we passed them. The kids had a blast, me not so much. I hate getting wet in regular clothes. The kids loved it so much they wanted to ride again. I told them no because it took forever to get through the line the first time.
When we were finally done and off the ride it was time to head to the front. The park was closing soon and the kids wanted to get a souvenir. As we were walking towards the front, out trek took us back through Castle Hill. The Dragon Coaster was no open, so we decided to hop on and do one last ride.
We walked through the line in no problem at all. There literally wasn't anyone in line, which made trying one more ride that much better. When we boarded the coaster the kids were anxious. They couldn't wait to see what the ride would be like. I have to admit, it was really fun. The kids were screaming, laughing, and just having the best time on the last ride of the day.
After that last ride, we then made our way towards the front. The kids had a choice from two of the different shops at the front. They of course went into the biggest of the two, which was fine with me. When we first walked in they couldn't helpe but stop for a few pics with some life sized Lego characters.
Once they were done with the pictures, they went inside the store to try and decide what they wanted. It took forever. I finally had to give them a time limit. They probably would have stayed in there forever if I would have let them. When all was said and done they all choose a Lego set. Gabbi picked a Disney Princess, Owen picked a Jurassic Park, and William pick a Lego City Car. The all talked about how they were going to build it when we got back to the hotel. Sadly they didn't realize how long the drive would be to get back, plus we still needed to stop for dinner.
After leaving the park, we snapped a few quick picks at the opening gate and then we walked to the van. After we were settled and ready to go, we quickly went online to see what there was around us to eat. We came across a shopping center just down the hill and decided on Pana Express. It was quick and easy and fit perfectly. It was nice to finally sit down and relax after a fast paced busy day.
