This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
Orlando Recap, Part 4
Mar
20
2014
Day 5
This was the reason we came to Orlando – this was the day we were going to Legoland!
Legoland opened at 10:00 that day. We left in time for the 30-minute trip and parked the van at 9:55. There were a couple hundred people already in line, but they had all the gates open and the delay wasn’t too bad.
Our first stop was at Miniland. They had various cities re-created in Lego bricks.
A racetrack (I forget which one):
San Francisco (including Lombard St.):
Las Vegas:
They had the rest of the Vegas casinos too. And Miami, the space shuttle, some foreign cities, and some really foreign cities. Like Hoth:
Hoth didn’t make much sense, as it was hot and sunny while we were viewing the Hoth scene. But the cantina fit right in:
Yes, it played music.
And the Millenium Falcon didn’t exactly fly, but it did move up and down and it tried to glow. I’m sure the glow effect was much better when the sunlight isn’t so bright.
After Miniland, we made our way to the vehicles.
First, the boys drove cars:
These cars are better than the cars at Cedar Point because there is no rail to guide them. Your steering is meaningful.
Then the boys drove boats:
After a small snack, we headed to the Build and Test area. This was a room with Lego bricks and various ramps. They gave you wheels and axles when you entered, and you were supposed to build a vehicle for rolling down the ramp. You could race others if you wanted, but most people didn’t.
I remember being underwhelmed by this area and thinking it would be a short visit before we would be off to the next item. But the boys kept wanting to build more and race more, escpecially when they found the steeper ramp that functioned more as a jump.
I was eventually able to persuade them to leave, and we found our way to the waterski show area. We had about 30 minutes before show time, so we killed time by walking through the Cypress Gardens botanical garden which is right next to the ski show area.
Since it was the off-season, the gardens weren’t that impressive. At least not until we came to the old banyan tree. At first we thought it was a bunch of trees.
but then we realized that’s how the tree grows – it has secondary trunks supporting the branches. It’s one big tree.
We made our way back to the ski show and found a seat in time to watch the whole show. It was a little loud, but the older 3 boys enjoyed it.
They have a life-size version of the Lego pirate ship floating there:
Then the soldiers come skiing in:
Their skis are extra wide, to accomodate their costumes.
Then the pirates attack. The lesser pirates came in on skis, but the pirate captain – Brickbeard – arrived on jet ski.
Note that he is driving the jet ski while wearing a Lego costume – that means his hands are just semicircles.
The pirates and the soldiers clash and of course the good guys win, which they celebrate by making a pyramid on water skis.
Then we had lunch, then we went to the World of Chima area. That was more fun than we expected, because the ride there was a water ride.
As the boats go around a rather tame course, the riders on the boat can use several hand-powered squirt guns attached to the boat’s railings to squirt either other boats or people watching the ride. And there are a few squirting stations for people not on the ride to squirt back at the boat.
I had fun squirting the boats as the went by, but Gamma hid behind something so he wouldn’t get wet. The older 2 boys rode that one a few times and had fun there.
Next was the castle area:
They have life-size Lego horses for the kids to ride:
Gamma did that while the other kids played at the playground, a 3-story wooden structure with slides and nets and other non-Lego-y stuff.
I think that was Delta’s favorite place in Legoland – he was upset when we went to the next section. But he soon stopped crying and fell asleep.
There was maybe one more thing, then we went back to the cars so Beta could drive around one more time, then it was 5:00 and the park closed. We headed back to the entrance, and the boys got distracted by the Lego store there. Eventually we made it back to the van. There were no good restaurants along the way home, so we just stopped for ice cream instead.
If the water park part of Legoland had been open, we would have wanted two days there. But it wasn’t, so we were fine with one long day.
The tree grew large and became strong And its height reached to the sky, And it was visible to the end of the whole earth.
Daniel 4:11
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:59 am and has been carefully placed in the Travel category.
