Legoland and area

agamble

DIS Veteran
Joined
Apr 17, 2011
Taking the kids to Legoland for the first time. We are staying at the Legoland hotel 3 nights. Leaving in a few days. Any tips? It is hard to find information on non Disney parks. Moving to Ramona afterwards to enjoy a week at a timeshare. No other set in stone plans except the animal park and zoo and seeing Toy Story 4. Any must do activities? I do think we'll do a beach day later in the week.
 
We did legoland with our orlando go pass, if you have not bought your tickets yet you should check it out, there was so much to do in florida all part of the pass... check groupon for the best prices
 
We did legoland with our orlando go pass, if you have not bought your tickets yet you should check it out, there was so much to do in florida all part of the pass... check groupon for the best prices
Thank you. I'll keep that in mind when in FL next year. I bought tickets from Costco already. These are the CA boards, so I was asking about Legoland in Carlsbad plus the SanDiego zoo.
 
The Carlsbad Outlets are very near Legoland. There is a Ruby's Diner there (yes, that same Ruby's that is on the Huntington Beach pier and that is near DLR, too) -- kids love Ruby's for burgers and shakes! We always manage to spend more time and money than we should at those outlets. There is a small Disney Store outlet there, too. There is an Original Pancake House in nearby Encinitas -- kids love that place, too!
There is a fancy movie theater not far from the outlets (the kind of cinema with recliners seats and food service) -- it is in a Vons shopping center (I think one of the cross streets is El Camino Real) -- that might be a fun place to see "Toy Story 4."
How old are your kids? The wild animal park has photo safaris that are really fun -- ages 8 and up. We haven't done one in years, but we loved the ones we did. We got to feed giraffes and rhinos. :)
Have a great time!
 
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The Carlsbad Outlets are very near Legoland. There is a Ruby's Diner there (yes, that same Ruby's that is on the Huntington Beach pier and that is near DLR, too) -- kids love Ruby's for burgers and shakes! We always manage to spend more time and money than we should at those outlets. There is a small Disney Store outlet there, too. There is an Original Pancake House in nearby Encinitas -- kids love that place, too!
There is a fancy movie theater not far from the outlets (the kind of cinema with recliners seats and food service) -- it is in a Vons shopping center -- that might be a fun place to see "Toy Story 4."
How old are your kids? The wild animal park has photo safaris that are really fun -- ages 8 and up. We haven't done one in years, but we loved the ones we did.
Have a great time!
Thanks for the ideas. Our kids are 3, 6, and 9.
 
When you are staying in Carlsbad, you can eat at a Ruby's on the end of the Oceanside Pier in Oceanside.

I haven't been to Legoland in a few years. I suggest eating the apple fries while there. The aquarium is a let down, but since you'll be there for 3 nights, you'll probably want to go there. It doesn't take much time. I never went to the water park as my kids were already too old when they added that.

If you do like aquariums, the Birch aquarium is excellent. https://aquarium.ucsd.edu/
You could make it a full day in La Jolla by also visiting the wild seals and sea lions at the Cove and Children's Pool a few miles down from the aquarium.

The Zoo could take a full day. Balboa Park (which shares the same property) has lots of museums and is very popular. The Science museum is hands on and has a cool IMAX movie theater inside that shows docmentaries. https://www.rhfleet.org/

Ramona is a big drive from anything other than the Safari Park and there isn't anything to do in Ramona. I guess you'll be close to Julian, which is our mountain town that everyone goes to for apple pie. Julian is pretty dead during the week and very busy on the weekends.

I've lived in San Diego for almost 50 years and I can think of lots of things to do, but I keep getting thrown by the driving from Ramona. It will be an hour drive to anything I can think of and I hate being the car - so, that's making it hard for me to post a lot of stuff. Do you have any particular interests?

Saturday and Sunday there's an open house for a senior dog rescue in Ramona called Frosted Faces. The hours are very limited, but it is nice to see the compassion and the dedication that so many volunteers are willing to put in to save the former pets who have landed in various shelters because they are "old" or have health problems.
 


If any of your kids get carsick, maybe make plans to take a little rest somewhere in the morning after you come down from Ramona before hitting anything. The elevation change is about 1000ft between Escondido (if you are heading west to Legoland, coast, Safari Park) and Ramona and the road is pretty curvy in parts. If you're heading south that day (Zoo, Sea World, Balboa Park, Embarcadero, etc), you can go down from Ramona to Poway which is the same elevation change but a little less curvy.
 
When you are staying in Carlsbad, you can eat at a Ruby's on the end of the Oceanside Pier in Oceanside.

I haven't been to Legoland in a few years. I suggest eating the apple fries while there. The aquarium is a let down, but since you'll be there for 3 nights, you'll probably want to go there. It doesn't take much time. I never went to the water park as my kids were already too old when they added that.

If you do like aquariums, the Birch aquarium is excellent. https://aquarium.ucsd.edu/
You could make it a full day in La Jolla by also visiting the wild seals and sea lions at the Cove and Children's Pool a few miles down from the aquarium.

The Zoo could take a full day. Balboa Park (which shares the same property) has lots of museums and is very popular. The Science museum is hands on and has a cool IMAX movie theater inside that shows docmentaries. https://www.rhfleet.org/

Ramona is a big drive from anything other than the Safari Park and there isn't anything to do in Ramona. I guess you'll be close to Julian, which is our mountain town that everyone goes to for apple pie. Julian is pretty dead during the week and very busy on the weekends.

I've lived in San Diego for almost 50 years and I can think of lots of things to do, but I keep getting thrown by the driving from Ramona. It will be an hour drive to anything I can think of and I hate being the car - so, that's making it hard for me to post a lot of stuff. Do you have any particular interests?

Saturday and Sunday there's an open house for a senior dog rescue in Ramona called Frosted Faces. The hours are very limited, but it is nice to see the compassion and the dedication that so many volunteers are willing to put in to save the former pets who have landed in various shelters because they are "old" or have health problems.

Thanks. We actually live in a rural area (not too far from Yosemite) about an hour from everything even grocery stores. But we do not plan to drive into Sacramento every day, as that is too much for me on a vacation. I like the idea of the seals and sea lions in La Jolla. That sounds nice. We will be going to the Legoland aquarium though since it is included in our tickets from Costco, so I'm not sure if we'll be up for another aquarium. We had considered going to Sea World since the Zoo and Animal Park have a ticket that includes Sea World too, but I'm really not sure how great it will be with the ages of my kids. Our youngest will just miss the 42" requirement on the water rides, and they've seen dolphin and seal shows at the Six Flags in Nor CA. So I don't know. We may just enjoy our resort for a few days.
 
Your kids are in the small sweet spot for ages @ Legoland. Any older they'd be bored, any younger they can't ride anything. Even so, 1 day there is plenty IMHO. The SD Zoo is the best but man is it pricey! We found the Wild Animal Park was too hot and too spread out, but a lot of people rave about it so maybe we just went on a much-too-hot day. Be sure and check out the other attractions in Balboa Park. There is a very good Children's museum and a fantastic model railroad museum that is maintained by a bunch of retired train nuts (seriously, that's meant as a compliment). As I remember the model train museum has odd hours - we actually had to plan a special trip to see it. You might also want to check out Old Town San Diego.
 
Have you been yet?
We’re trying to decide what to do next summer. We were planning Disney. Then we saw a review of Legoland and I think it may Be better for our kids with special needs. Less crowded, less visual overstimulation.

What do you think?

It'd be nice to take a budget trip and the following summer try Disneyland when we have our service dog.
 
Lego land is great for young kids. If you visit on a weekend or in the summer it will be busy, you can do most of the park in one day and hit everything in two days. The Lego land hotel I would stay away from, while amazing, as a special education teacher, it would be overwhelming for kids with sensory issues.
 
PSA - TODAY AND TOMORROW ONLY (8/4 and 8/5)...
Legoland is 50% off. Just buy tickets on their website.
 
Taking the kids to Legoland for the first time. We are staying at the Legoland hotel 3 nights. Leaving in a few days. Any tips? It is hard to find information on non Disney parks.

Now that you’ve been, do you have any tips? We are going for two nights in November.
 
Encinitas has a great Best Western that sits atop a hill for view and short walk down the street over the railroad tracks is Moonlight Beach and still allows night time campfires. Locals get their early to save the picnic tables but it is amazing to see at night. Their is a circular drive just above to pull in for viewing cause I wouldn’t walk at night.
The Metrolink stops at this town and goes all the way to last stop in Encinitas and walk to the ferry that takes you to Coronado to visit .
Amtrak has a different schedule...
 
Sorry I've been off the boards. We had a great time. We prepaid for one dinner at the Bricks restaurant and used a coupon they texted us for another. We also ate breakfast there all 3 mornings. It was great. We ate dinner two nights in the park. They had a kids eat free deal, which made it reasonable. We had no reason to leave the resort for 3 days.

The park is spread out and you will do a lot of walking. The rides were fun, but having a party of 5 was a bit difficult for some rides. The kids loved driving their own cars. The rides with the longest lines were the coasters. The early open for hotel guests is a bit of a joke. They only have 3 or 4 rides open. It is a good time to visit the Ninjago ride though as that one gets a long wait as soon as the park opens. The park opens in phases. 30 minutes for hotel guests, then part of the park opens to everyone, then they finally open the whole park. Kind of weird. My biggest tip would be to check hours as they vary by day. We didn't realize the park was closing on our last day as it was an hour earlier than the previous day. Get to the parks for the early open. Of the hours are short, stay all day. If longer break at the hotel and come back before closing. Also, they have several 3D movies in the theater and post a schedule. Check the schedule as some shows only play onve or twice a day. Have fun.
 

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