*LEGOLAND*

"everything is AWESOME .... " now that that song is in your head I want to share our recent vacation to LEGOLAND in Winter Haven, FL.

shirts from CreativiTEE Designs

Matt suggested LEGOLAND earlier this year, after we both decided Disney would wait until Brooke was at least 5 years old.  Brody has been into Lego's for a few years now and has been telling us about LEGOLAND from his Lego catalogs. Once I looked at the resort I was sold!

*Day 1*

We flew into Orlando which is only about 40 miles from Winter Haven.  We made a pit stop at CityWalk in Universal for lunch at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co then headed to our Adventure Themed Room. The second we pulled up the kids got SO excited ... it was amazing - I won't go into too many details about the resort, because the surprises were so much FUN!  We arrived on a Monday and chose a 2 day park hopper pass.  The first day we just hung out at the hotel .. there was so much stuff for the kids to do they thought is was LEGOLAND.  We ate at the hotel's restaurant, Brick's Family Restaurant, that evening and was highly disappointed, so I definitely don't recommend the dining package.  We arrived around 7:30p and apparently the buffet ended at 8:00p, so there was NOTHING to eat and it cost us $50.

*Day 2*

The restaurant did redeem itself a little bit the next morning.  A breakfast buffet was included with our room and we had the option to choose a time frame....we chose the 7:30a - 8a slot and it worked out great because when we left to head to the park the line was out the door for breakfast!  If you stay at the LEGOLAND resort you can enter the park 30 min early and you don't have to drive there because it was literally a 1 minute walk.  I'm not sure if we picked the right day or week, but it was not crowded at all ... 5 minute wait for rides and we could walk right up to the characters for meet and greet - it was HEAVEN!  The minimum height for rides was 34 or 36 inches and they could ride with someone at least 48 inches - it was perfect because Brody was 48 inches!!!  The park is only open until 6p so we left around 4p just when the FL afternoon storm rolled in - which was completely fine, because we were beat.  For lunch we ate at The Fun Town Pizza Buffet and it was really good ... still $50 for a pizza buffet, but very good.  One of the shows that we heard great reviews about was the Pirates Cove Show and it was SO neat - it's a MUST see!  For dinner we decided to go visit some local favorites .... Harry's Old Place and Andy's Drive In and Igloo both were so good!

*Day 3*

We had some pretty good planning on this trip, because the 2nd park day was far hotter than the first and we had planned to do the water park! You do have to walk through the main park to get to the Water Park, which was good, because we could hit up some of the favorites and see a few things we missed on the first day.  We did end up renting a cabana and was well worth it ... we had a place to go to get out of the heat, a safe, refrigerator and was able to order lunch to be delivered right there. We left around 5p and headed back and napped ... we wanted to do the PJ dance party at the hotel at 8p, so since we were so tired we just ate at the Brick's Restaurant again ... the buffet wasn't as terrible when it was filled, but still nothing to brag about.

*Day 4*

Home sweet home ... we traveled home and said good bye to all the primary colors bricks.  I feel like we will revisit LEGOLAND in a few years - it was truly a great vacation!

*Tips and Reviews*

• Bring some mini figures to trade - if not plan to buy some at $3.50 a pop - Brody had the best time trading!
• Stay at the resort - when the final email confirmation arrived a few days before we left I was rethinking the resort it since the nightly rate was $450, but it was SO worth it - that rate included: breakfast, 2-day park hopper, SO many activties for the kids, early park entrance, free self parking or $20 valet (and that was for the entire stay - with in/out privileges), treasure chest hunt in the room, characters walking around the lobby all the time, and probably so much more we didn't even get to!  
• NO dining package ... try a local place!