lunch - The Family Holiday Guide

LEGOLAND Windsor – our 10 top tips to get the most out of your visit

by Victoria Pollitt | Jan 2, 2019 | Berkshire, UK days out, Windsor

Make sure your children enjoy their time at LEGOLAND Windsor Resort with our time-saving tips and advice on everything from parking to eating and queueing

1. Before you go

Buy your tickets online to save time and money, then you can go straight to the turnstiles when you arrive.

Plan which rides your children want to try and check out a map of the park.

Don’t forget to measure your child’s height to see which rides they can go on to save upset as they are very strict.

2. Parking

You must pay for parking before you leave the park – to save time, pay in advance online before you arrive.

Parking is £8 (or £7 in advance online) or £16 for Priority Parking in a closer car park (£13 online) which isn’t worth the extra if you plan to arrive early as you can aim for car parks B or C and drive up each row as far as possible to be close to the entrance.

3. Park opening

The park opens at 9.30am but you can only get as far as Miniland until the rides open at 10am (unless you are a hotel guest).

But if you do get there at 9.30am, you will get a good parking space, save time queuing for tickets and Q-Bots and be able to see around Miniland (or shop in the Big Shop) before the 10am rush to the rides.

Try to at least be in and down to Miniland for at least 9.50am, it’s about a five minute walk from the entrance. In good weather they put on a small show while you wait.

Miniland

3. Laser Raiders and Lego Ninjago The Ride

The longest queues are for the Ninjago ride and Laser Raiders. They are quite close together so try to get to your preferred one as soon as the park opens at 10am to prevent a long wait. (A lot of people have this idea, so don’t hang about)! Then do the other ride at lunchtime. The shortest queues are usually around 12 to 1pm while people have lunch. So jump on the ride you didn’t do first thing at lunchtime to minimise queuing.

4. Work backwards

Head for the Atlantis Submarine Voyage or Dragon roller coaster quite early in the day. These are in the two furthest areas from the entrance (unless you are staying at the hotel) and it pays off to do a long walk first and work your way back towards the entrance. You will be walking in the opposite way to most of the crowds.

5. Bring a picnic

Picnic areas are limited (especially undercover) but there are benches and grassy areas you can sit on to eat. To really save time, eat your sandwiches in the queue for a ride. If you are buying lunch there, the quickest snacks to buy are hot dogs, noodles or pasta pots, which you can also eat on the go. If you get noodles or pasta, ask for a spare pot! The portions are large for a child, so you can split the food between two children. Makes for a more affordable lunch and cools it down more quickly too.

6. Reserve & Ride (formerly Q-Bot)

We have written in detail about the Reserve & Ride system here, where you can pay to jump ride queues at LEGOLAND.

Essentially, you book on to a ride from anywhere in the park, via your mobile phone. Instead of waiting in a queue, you wait while going on other rides or doing anything else you want and when the countdown is up, you go through the special Reserve & Ride entrance of your chosen ride. You don’t have to go at the exact time, just as soon as you are ready. Your waiting/countdown time depends on which Reserve & Ride system you have chosen, there are three – regular, express and ultimate, costing a hefty £25, £40 or £90 per person. But they save you long waits and can be used on more than 20 rides.

To maximise the Reserve & Ride’s value, book your next ride as soon as staff have scanned your code to let you on the ride before.

Also consider the one-off Reserve & Ride on busy rides – they can be worth it to save an hour’s queuing with tired children.

Read our detailed guide on LEGOLAND’s Reserve & Ride system here.

7. Afternoon rest and a film

Use the 4D movie cinema as a chance to rest tired legs and sit down for 30 minutes.

If it is raining and you want to dry off, avoid the middle seats as you’ll get sprayed with more water as part of the 4D experience!

8. The shops

LEGOLAND has no shortage of LEGO shops. To save time, the Big Shop at the entrance has almost everything the smaller stores have under one roof, so you may be able to persuade your child to just look around just the one, although we didn’t!

The main store does get busy after 3pm so if you have a window before then and want to buy something, take it.

You can buy from any store and collect at the end of the day from The Big Shop or have purchases sent to the resort hotels, if you are staying in one of them.

9. No queues

Some of the rides and attractions can have no wait so to make sure you don’t spend all day queueing, do some of these throughout the day – Brickville, Castaway Camp, Miniland, the DUPLO Theatre Puppet Show, Splash Safari and the Star Wars Miniland Model Display.

10. Leaving

Miss the traffic through Windsor to the M4 by turning right at the roundabout when you leave LEGOLAND.

And if you did run out of time and want to return, you can upgrade to an annual pass and have your entry fee refunded.

/ TAG / LUNCH