My Top 5 Tips for Making the Most of Legoland Windsor

We’ve been wanting to go to Legoland for sometime as our daughter is at the perfect age for it, she’s 5.  We went on the weekend and had an amazing time.  Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of the day.

1) Don’t be a ‘Nobby No-Mate’

Legoland For Families

I’m always moaning that places don’t give breaks to families of three.   However, on this occasion I had 4 tickets and managed to persuade a mum at school to allow me to ‘borrow’ her son for the day, still a bit in shock that someone would leave their most prized possession in my care.  It was perfect, he had a fabulous time and my daughter had someone to share the excitement with.

2) Do it Backwards

Miniland at Legoland Windsor

When you first walk into the park, everyone naturally migrates to the right, working their way down the hill, starting with the Land of Vikings.  However, if you head left when entering the park and work your way down the hill towards MiniLand, where 40 million pieces of Lego have been used to recreate well known places, such as London,  you’ll miss the masses.

Plus, this means that you do Land of the Vikings, where you’re bound to get wet, at the end of the day and not the beginning, so you don’t have to walk around with a soggy bum all day!  Unless you’ve been clever enough to bring a rain poncho!

3) Jump the Queues

Legoland for Kids

If you’re feeling a bit flush, you can rent Q-Bots for the day.  It allows you to book in a time slot for your chosen ride so you don’t need to stand in the queues, prices start from £15.

We were very lucky when we went.  Firstly, it was fairly quiet, in terms of theme parks, so the queues really weren’t that bad.  We were also lucky enough to have special VIP tickets which allowed us to access the Q-Bot entrances, we felt a bit guilty at first doing this, but got over it fairly quickly as it meant we got to go on a lot more rides.

4) Catch a show

eatingatlegolandwindsor

This was pure chance and I can’t take credit for it.  Just before 12, the little ones started getting hungry so we headed to Lego City for a bit of lunch.  People were starting to gather but we had no idea what was going on.  We chose to eat at the Burger Ranch, which had typical Theme Park food, but had tables that overlooked the Lagoon and the Lighthouse and unbeknownst to us we practically had front row seats to the Pirate Show!

5) Bring your Swimming Kit

Splash Park at Legoland Windsor

Originally we were invited to celebrate the opening of Duplo Valley Splash and Play, the new water park.  We did bring swimming kit for the kids but we honestly didn’t think they would go in as the weather hasn’t been very good.  However, the sun popped out and they were determined.

It’s an amazing splash park, contained so you don’t have to worry about them escaping with a very comfortable viewing area for the parents.  The best bit was the giant bucket tipping and absolutely flooding the place.

Thanks to the Team at Legoland Windsor for an amazing day.  Something we’ve wanted to do for a long time.

 

Things to do at Thorpe Park if you’re 5

‘Mummy, you know that place we went to on the weekend, I call it the best place ever!’ M age 5

Thorpe Park was originally marketed for 16- 24 year olds, so when I first invited myself along, I was a bit worried that there would not be enough for my 5 year old to do.  I had a quick look on the site and there were a few rides for kids starting from 900mm through to 1.1m.

The first thing I had to work out was how tall she was.  Luckily, she takes after her mum and dad, she’s not freakishly tall but a bit taller than your average 5 year old.  Once I got her to stand still, I worked out that she was 116 cm.  Result!  Plus, we also got her to wear her Heely’s without the wheels which gave her another 3-4 centimetres.

These are all the rides that she was able to go on.  We may have been able to sneak her onto a few of the 1.2m rides but didn’t want to jeopardize her safety.

Thorpe Park for Younger Children

Rides for 5 year olds at Thorpe Park

900mm

  • Zodiac – spinning sensation, say good-bye to your lunch
  • Depth Charge – 4 lane super slide
  • Flying Fish – Bonus, the kids could go on without parental supervision!
  • Rumba Rapids – Yes, my bum got very wet!
  • Rocky Express – I can’t believe they went on it 5 times in a row!  I would’ve been sick.
  • Mr. Monkey’s Banana Ride – My daughter’s favourite as it gave her butterflies in her tummy.

1m

  • Logger’s Leap – a classic log flume with two drops
  • X – an indoor rollercoaster with a light and sound show

1.1 m

  • Storm Surge – swirling water ride

As you can see there was more than enough to entertain us for the day and we managed to avoid the Tea Cups.  If you count the Carousel she was able to go on at least 10 rides.

Disclosure:  our tickets were complimentary.

 

 

 

 

Win 4 Tickets to Thorpe Park

I’ve been on a few rollercoasters in my time, but I’m definitely not an adrenaline junky.  As I’ve got older I now find that I tend to feel quite sick if I go on rides.  However, my daughter is now 5 and a half, to date I’ve managed to avoid a lot of the big theme parks in the UK, but it’s only a matter of time before we will be visiting a few.

We’ve been to Eurodisney and Adventure Land in South End, but she was a bit younger so I was able to avoid a lot of the hair-raising rides.

I’ve just been having a look at the Thorpe Park site as I was putting together this competition.  I will need to measure her but it looks like she can go on quite a few of the rides.  Storm in a Teacup and Loggers Leap sound about my level but if I know my daughter, who like most children has no fear, I will be dragged on the scariest ones she is allowed to go on.

Tidal Wave – a heart-stopping 85ft plunge into the blue!  At my age!!!!  This will be the end of me.

Tidal Wave Thorpe Park

 

X – A Roller Coaster that races through light and sound.  Eeeek!

X Thorpe Park

 

Heaven help me!

Are you an adrenaline junky and fancy winning 4 tickets to Thorpe Park? 

Enter by simply using the Rafflecopter form below.  Full Terms and Conditions can be found at the bottom of the form but in short it’s open to UK residents aged 18+.  As it’s a big one this competition will run for two weeks and closes on the 8th May 2013.

This competition is listed on Loquax, Prize Finder and Competition Hunter.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Experience the Magic: Eurodisney 2012

Sleeping Beauty's CastleWe’ve always wanted to take my daughter to Disneyland but we’re not currently in a position to do so. She is nearly 5 so is at the perfect age, old enough to remember it, but still young enough to experience the magic. So, when Auto Trader offered us a trip to Eurodisney outside of Paris we jumped at the chance.

The Journey

The journey was fairly easy. A Subaru Forester was delivered to us on the Thursday night. We drove to Folkestone to catch the Eurotunnel; the crossing was only 35 minutes, followed by a 3 hour drive on the other side. However, the motorways in France are so much better than here in the UK and so are the services.

I know very little about cars and am not a petrol head so can’t say a lot about the car except it was comfortable, easy to drive, much quieter than our own diesel Passat, excellent fuel mileage, loads of room in the boot and we even had enough room for ‘Yellow Bear’. According to my husband ‘it made the journey relaxing’. It had a rather odd locking system, but we eventually worked it out.

The park wasn’t brilliantly sign posted but I’d purchased France maps for my Sat Nav, which proved invaluable!

Accommodation

We stayed in the Hotel Cheyenne which is a Western Themed hotel, which is one of the Disney Hotels. The bonus of staying at one of the Disney Hotels, you get 2 hours in the park in the morning before everyone else. Bliss! Plus, each morning the Disney Characters come to the hotel to meet the kids and take photos, which allows you to avoid the huge queues to see them in the park.

Getting around Eurodisney is a breeze they lay on buses which run ever few minutes all day to run you to and from the Park and only take about 5 minutes. So you can always pop back to the hotel if you need a bit of a break, which we did!

The Park

Now for the Park, it was truly magical! There are rides for everyone. Yes, the queues are a long but to avoid some of the queues you can use the Fast Pass system which is free. Basically visit the ride, take a ticket then come back at your allotted time. Our daughter’s favourite rides were the Flying Elephants, Peter Pan’s Flight and It’s a Small World which we did several times. I still have that song in my head! One of our highlights was the Parade. Do make sure you see one while you’re there.

I have to admit, as slightly older parents it was absolutely knackering. I felt like I’d run a marathon but it was worth every minute. It wasn’t about us it was all about her. As you can see by the video, she had the time of her life and hopefully will remember it in years to come.

Disclosure: The entire trip was courtesy of Autotrader who have been uniting people with their dream cars for over 35 years. We can’t thank them enough for making our daughter’s dream come true.

Autotrader are currently running a fabulous competition where each week someone wins an ultimate driving experience.  Simple spin the wheel on the Dream Machine. #MyCarStory

Choosing a Theme

No word of a lie, I wasted a good part of 3 days looking for a new theme for my blog.  I have the same problem when I go shopping; I have something in mind and never find exactly what I’m looking for.

I trolled the internet and wordpress.org.  All I wanted was a customisable header and 3 columns (left and right sidebars).  I really didn’t think it would be that difficult.  I tried Vigilance, Mumrik, Vinica, Lysa, Atahualpa, JSo4w, Constructor, Blass and many more.  They all started off well but as soon as I wanted to do something simple like change the font, headers or column widths I became unstuck. I found I couldn’t get it exactly as I wanted, unless I had some knowledge of coding and cascading style sheets (css), which I don’t.

I really wouldn’t recommend messing about with the css unless you really know what you’re doing.  I did and I made a right mess of the template.  Luckily, I have a friend who managed to sort it out for me.

In the end, after speaking to @violetposy, I decided to purchase a theme!!!  Well, I persuaded my hubby to get it for me for Mother’s day.  I know it sounds insane to spend money on a Theme when there are so many free ones, but once I calculated the amount of time and stress it would save me it really wasn’t that expensive (£56).

The reason I like the Thesis theme is because of ease in which you can customise.  The options are endless and it doesn’t require knowledge of coding.  You can choose fonts; number of columns, where you want them and you can use a custom header. Here is an example of the design options.

When I purchased it I also noticed that they have an affiliates program so I thought what the hell.  I think it’s great and if I can earn a bit back why not.  So, if you decide to purchase the Thesis Theme from DIY themes, I would be most grateful if you used this link.

Other Posts in the Series

My Journey from WordPress,com to WordPress.org

Registering a Domain Name and Renting Server Space

Exporting Your Blog

Customising Your Header

Redirecting Traffic (TBA)

Plugins (TBA)

Technorati (TBA)