q-bot - The Family Holiday Guide

/ TAG / Q BOT

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.

How to beat the queues at LEGOLAND Windsor Resort with the Reserve & Ride (formerly Q-Bot) Ride Reservation System

by Victoria Pollitt | Jan 1, 2019 | Berkshire, UK days out, Windsor

All you need to know about Reserve & Ride at LEGOLAND Windsor – how it works, how much it costs and is it worth it?

What is it?

Reserve & Ride replaces the Q-Bot system and helps you avoid the often long queues at Legoland Windsor – at a price.

Using Reserve & Ride means you don’t have to physically queue for the included rides.

How does it work?

Standing anywhere in the park and using your mobile phone, you reserve a place on a ride and are given a countdown waiting time (or no waiting time if you pick the most expensive Ultimate option).

So instead of waiting in the queue you can go on other rides or do other things. At any point after the time is up (you don’t have to be there at the exact moment), you go through the ride’s Reserve & Ride entrance where you will be able to bypass the normal queue.

You can make a reservation on only one ride at a time.

Options

There are different types of Reserve & Ride options at various prices.

Reserve & Ride Regular (£25 per person) – You do not have to physically queue but your wait – or your countdown – is as long as that for the people queuing. (Haunted House Monster Party costs £4 extra).

Reserve & Ride Express (£40 per person) – This cuts the waiting time in half, eg if the normal queue is 40 minutes, you only have to wait 20 minutes (doing what you please elsewhere) before you can access the ride. (Haunted House Monster Party costs £4 extra).

Reserve & Ride Ultimate (£90 per person) – No waiting time at all. Just book the ride and go straight through the Reserve & Ride entrance. Reserve & Ride Ultimate also Includes the free add-on for Haunted House Monster Party.

You can also buy:

Reserve & Ride One Shot (£5 to £7 per person) – This allows you to use Reserve & Ride at ONE included ride of your choice and get almost instant access to it.

Which rides are included?

Aero Nomad

Balloon School

Deep Sea Adventure

Desert Chase

Dragon’s Apprentice

Driving School

Duplo Airport,

Duplo Dino Coaster

Fairy Tale Brook

Fire Academy

Haunted House Monster Party (only included in Reserve & Ride Ultimate or available as an additional £4 add-on to Reserve & Ride Regular and Express)

Jolly Rocker

Laser Raiders

L-Drivers

LEGOLAND Express

Lego Ninjago the Ride

LEGO Ninjago the Ride

Mia’s Riding Adventure

Merlin’s Challenge

Thunder Blazer

Pirate Falls

Raft Racers

Spinnig Spider

The Dragon

Thunder Blazer

Viking River Splash

The rides within LEGO Mythica are not included in Reserve & Ride.

Where do you get Q-Bots from?

You can pre-book your Reserve and Ride through the LEGOLAND website here.

There is also a Reserve & Ride office just inside the main entrance at Windsor on the right and another at Heartlake City within the park.

What is the difference between Q-Bot and Reserve & Ride?

Q-Bot and Reserve & Ride are the same – Reserve & Ride replaced Q-Bots from 2020. The only difference is that Reserve & Ride always operates on your mobile device whereas LEGOLAND also offered handheld devices for Q-Bots users as an alternative.

Our review of Reserve & Ride

We used the reservation system for two days and there is no doubt it makes the park a more pleasurable experience.

You can get around so many more rides and if you work it correctly you can virtually hop from one ride to another without queuing all day.

It was a very rainy weekend and queuing for long periods would have been miserable.

The whole system is well designed and works seamlessly, the staff are very good at getting you on the ride as soon as possible.

However the cost is substantial.

Our Top Tips for Reserve & Ride at Legoland

*To benefit most, book your next ride as soon as you can – basically, as soon as staff have scanned your phone to let you on the ride before.

*Don’t wait until your countdown time is at 0 before going through the Reserve & Ride entrance. Go in at about two to three minutes, as often (especially on the indoor and larger rides) even this entrance has a short walk and wait before you board your ride.

*Check your dates and the weather. LEGOLAND will be much busier on a sunny day in the school holidays or at the weekend, than a rainy midweek day in October, when the Reserve & Ride system won’t save you as much time.

*It doesn’t cost any more to book Reserve & Ride on the day, so you can always wait and see when you arrive what the queues are like, if you can’t decide. HOWEVER, you risk not being able to get one as there are a limited number available.

*One way to make the Reserve & Ride cost effective is to use it as a means of cutting your visit from two days to one. On any school holiday or weekend it would be nearly impossible to see all of the park in one day without it. So it may be worth investing in a Reserve & Ride instead of a second day’s admission. That could add up for you.

*Reserve & Ride does not include entry to Legoland, you have to buy entry tickets separately.

*Children under 90cm do not need to pay for Reserve & Ride but can go with Reserve & Ride users on reserved rides – height, weight and age restrictions permitting.