Day 7 - Legoland

Today we ventured away from Disney. We decided to head to the fairly newly opened Legoland. I was really happy as we had scored a really great deal from the Mousesavers website. They have all sorts of deals on tickets, accommodation and really everything. So the deal we got onto was a Pepsi promotion which was buy one adult ticket and receive one free child ticket. You could use this more than once but you had to do it in a separate transaction. This was fine and I ended up saving over $100. It was also easy as you just printed the ticket at home. 

So with tickets in hand we entered the address into our trusty US Garmin and with a Maccas drive through detour off we set for Legoland. From memory it took about an hour to get there, probably a little less. I think we paid $12 for parking. I'm sure you could pay $20 for priority parking but we found it was about a whole two rows in front of where we got a spot. We walked over to the entrance and the tickets had problems scanning in but they just let us through. We grabbed maps and just decided to work our way through the park. 

We spotted this on the way and I thought OMG!

Entrance to Legoland

We made our way through mini land but decided to look at it all on the way back through. We wanted to get to the rides! Steve went straight onto Lego Technic Coaster. Peyton was too short and Brandon was to scared so I waited with the kids while Steve rode. He liked it, even though he looked like a big kid. Then we went to ride the Aqua Zone Wave Racers. I took my spot with the camera and Steve took the kids. Turned out that whilst they were both tall enough to ride, they both needed an adult to accompany them. Luckily I very nice gentleman that was a teacher there on a school trip volunteered to let Brandon ride with him. Brandon just the other day reminded us how we made him ride on the water ride with a stranger. Then we went and the kids rode the Technic Cycle, it looks kind of like hang gliders but with seats and bike pedals. The kids rode this together. We left the Lego Technic area and headed over to Lego City.

Some of Mini Land

Kennedy Space Centre

The Coaster Vehicle

Technic Coaster

Wave Racers

Brandon with the stranger

Technic Cycle

The big thing here was the Ford Driving school. We started off at the Junior version which has the same little cars but with just one oval track to drive round and round. Peyton liked this but Brandon wanted more. He wanted to go to the big kids driving school. It was for ages 6 and up but being a decently sized 5 years and 7 months took him. It was funny because while we were waiting in line I was having a tiny internal panic attack we'd be found out. I felt like a naughty school kid! Well it turned out they didn't even question him. We lined up in the nice air conditioned line, stopping about halfway for his "drivers licence photo" then waiting to be taken into the next holding area. Once inside we were shown a short film on road rules. It covered roundabouts, traffic lights, stop signs and signalling to turn. Then it was time to drive! Brandon had a ball although I think a few times he got confused about what side of the road he should be driving on. This is probably one of the coolest things to do for a kid. After his driving time was up we purchased his Legoland drivers licence. It was about $17. Steve and Peyton had gotten thirsty while they were waiting so they got yummy slurpee cups that were so nice, they tasted like a vanilla flavour. Bonus was they were refillable for just $3.00 

The kids driving in the junior school

Peyton and free licence

Driving in the big school

Traffic jam!

Slurpees!

Next the kids wanted to do the Rescue Academy, where they are in a fire truck, police or other rescue vehicle and it is a race to put out the burning building. They were a team but as they were both small they had some help from some ride operators. First you have to pump a lever up and down to make your vehicle move to the fire, then you get out and put the fire out and jump back in your vehicle and race it back to the start. They came second last but they loved having a go.

Rescue Academy

Fighting Fires

The Boating Academy was next. Steve took Peyton and I took Brandon. It was a fun boat ride where you got to drive around. A bit boring for me but they kids thought it was super fun.

Peyton and Daddy

Brandon waiting for me to hop in

Look at how far Steve's side dips into the water

After the boats we left Lego City for the Land of Adventure. First up was Peyton's first wooden roller coaster. Coastersaurus! She loved it! We saw the ride photo afterwards and had to buy it. Brandon was still not having anything to do with roller coasters so I took him on to the Safari Trek while we waited. It is a kiddies ride where you get in little safari vehicles and ride around a track seeing different animals made of Lego. We also got a snack while we waited. We got a waffle on a stick dipped in chocolate. I wan't that impressed by it though.

Awesome ride photo

Safari Trek

Ostrich

Giraffes

Meercats

Lions

Waffle on a stick

We then continued through The Land of Adventure and Peyton rode Beetle Bounce. She spent the whole ride cracking up laughing and squealing. Then we all rode The Lost Kingdom Adventure which is kind of like Buzz in Tomorrowland where you are in moving vehicles and shoot things with a laser gun. The kids liked it but we all prefer Disney's version.

A Lego Camel

Beetle Bounce

Laughing or squealing

Next we visited Lego Kingdoms and the kids rode the Royal Joust, I'm pretty sure they rode it twice. Then we all rode Merlin's Challenge and Brandon came off crying his eyes out. It was too fast and scary for him. So Brandon and I looked around at lunch options while Steve took Peyton to ride The Dragon Coaster. This  was the worst part of the day. They lined up for over 30 minutes only to be told at the front that Peyton was too short. This was completely ridiculous as the height limit was the same on the previous coaster and the Rave Racers. Steve said this and a manager was called and they measured her again and because he could fit a credit card between her head and the bar they said no. Now don't get me wrong, if she was too short then she was too short but 1. have some more consistency between attractions if they have the same height limit and 2. an apology would have been nice, i.e "I'm sorry you had to stand in line for half an hour in this heat for nothing". It was a big disappointment to an adventurous four year old girl. After this we grabbed some sandwiched for lunch (sorry no pics!) and then decided to start heading back. 

We stopped at The Forestmans Hideout which was a pretty cool playground. Then we went through Mini Land and looked at all the places made from Lego. Still on our way our we came across The Factory Tour where we saw how a Lego brick is made. We also purchased some Lego stuff. Brandon got a book with Lego and Peyton got a book with Ninjago Lego. We also stopped for a ride on the two storey carousel and met with a Lego dude. I ran and got one last slurpee refill and some of Legoland's famous Apple Fries. Verdict? Delicious! Our last stop was the gift shop where we got the kids a Lego Mini figure keyring each (Kai from Ninjago and Spongebob) and some magnets and a souvenir cup. 

Forestmans Hideout

Lego San Francisco

Lego Fishermans Wharf

Lego Painted Ladies

Lego Whitehouse

Lego Treasure Island Casino

Lego Las Vegas

Beautiful old cypress tree

Double Storey Carousel

Legolands famous Granny's Apple Fries

Making Lego bricks

We then drove over to Mall at Millenia to go to Macy's and exchange Brandons formal outfit. We then raced as fast as we could to The Polynesian Resort to make our dinner ADR at Ohana. One of my most favouritest dinner ever! Dinner was fab, we saw the Wishes firework display through the windows and the kids had a blast dancing and getting flower lei's. Here's what we ate:

Pineapple coconut welcome bread

Salad - Oh so yummy, the honey lime dressing is sweet and a little tangy and just tastes so good!

Three dipping sauces  - Peanut, Chimichurri and pineapple sweet and sour. All good!

Pork potsticker/dumplings and honey coriander chicken wings - drool.....

We also had lots of the meat skewers, well Steve did. I stuck to the prawn one but Steve tried all of them, the beef, pork, chicken and prawn. All very good. The noodles they serve were as yummy as usual too. 

Dancing

Cuties

Kids dessert - Vanilla ice cream with Mickey sprinkles

MY dessert! - Ohana bread pudding with vanilla ice cream and a seriously to die for banana and caramel sauce.

We rolled out of Ohana and went to check out the gift store. Brandon got the monorail set he had been eyeing off since 2011. Peyton got a Stitch nearly as big as her. Stuffed toys are now my nemesis. I didn't realise we collected so many. We came home with giant Stitch, Nala, a Lady from Lady & the Tramp and a Pumba. Not to mention the Simba she had brought from home. Next trip it has been noted.....NO stuffed animals! (we might bend at just one cause her please face is just too cute)

Stitch

Brandon and his monorail