Are you heading to LEGOLAND? This post is all about what to do when you are there to make the most of your day. I also have posts about how to get the cheapest LEGOLAND tickets, what to do to prepare for your visit and going to LEGOLAND with young children but this post has tips for the day you go to LEGOLAND Windsor.

There is so much to see and do at LEGOLAND it can be hard to plan your day

How To Make The Most Out Of A Day At LEGOLAND

Arriving At The Park

How Early To Arrive At LEGOLAND?

The advertised opening time is when the rides start eg in June it was 10am. The gates open about half an hour before this, so around 9.30am. If you arrive soon after 9am you can park close to the entrance, get organised, head to the gates and you should be one of the first to get in the park. This means you can head towards the more popular rides and be near the front of the queue when it starts. 

Unless you have priority parking (or you are staying in the Hotels) just head to the first available parking area. The parking on the left side of the car park is nearest the entrance and will save you a little bit of time getting in, but all the car parks are pretty close unlike some other big theme parks.

Once you have parked you head to the entrance where there is a bag check before the ticket barriers. The check is to ensure you have no glass, sharp items, bottle openers or alcohol. 

You are expected to purchase your tickets online in advance so you should have a QR code to get entry. You can save your tickets to the app, print them or show the QR code. If you want a paper map you should be able to pick one up here. 

After the barrier there are toilets, lockers and the main shop with a HUGE amount of LEGO to buy. It is a bit of a walk downhill from the car park and entrance to where all the rides are and it will take at least 5 minutes. You can get the hilltop train down or walk down the slope. There are some lego figures and slides on the walk to distract excited children.

There are LEGO creations all over LEGOLAND to spot

The Rides and Attractions

Although what you are interested in seeing will vary depending on the age of the children you are visiting with there is a lot to do at LEGOLAND and you won’t do it all in a day. On busy days you might only get on 10 rides so mix up waits with watching shows, the playground, the Magical Forest or building your own creation. 

Queue Times

Throughout the day the LEGOLAND app and electronic boards around the park stay updated with the current estimated queue times of rides and any closures. These are a really useful guide, but the times can change quickly, especially if a popular ride has an unexpectedly short ride time as lots of people will head to it. Very occasionally they can be faulty so if they seem a long way out on everything or they are showing rides are open when they are closed then it's worth ignoring them and going on how long the queue looks and how quickly it is moving.

Which Rides To Head To First

There are some rides like Flight of The Sky Lion and Coastguard HQ which seem to stay busy all day long. Water rides can get busier later in the day and are less popular when raining. There are also a few rides like Flight of The Sky Lion and NINJAGO where the queue (and ride) is inside so these queues can get busier if it rains.

If you get to LEGOLAND before opening then you can get in queues early, but hotel guests will normally be entering at the same time so they can make the rides near the hotels busy. They also get priority queuing on many rides for the first hour so they can use the reserve and ride entrances which will make it take longer to get on rides even if the main queue is short. The hotel guests priority queuing isn’t currently valid on rides in Mythica or the Viking River Splash Rapids, but the hotel is right next to Mythica so unless you are near the hotel when they barrier opens they will still get on those rides before anyone from the main gate.

If you want to see the shows then ones around lunch time tend to be busiest as people are stopping for a bite to eat, but you should still be able to find a spot.

Some theme parks get quieter towards the end of the day, but in term time LEGOLAND can close at 4pm so this doesn’t happen. In the summer months the rides close at 6pm so the last hour can be a little quieter.

If you need a break from queues then check out a show

Food And Drink

As suggested in my What To Do Before You Go To LEGOLAND post I recommend taking plenty of snacks with you to reduce the cost and to give you a way to entertain children in longer queues. There are restaurants and concession stands around the park offering sit down meals and take away food though. They all seem to have mixed reviews so it’s probably easiest to check out whatever is nearest to you when you are hungry.

Drink wise if you have a water bottle you can refill it with cold water for free at the six refilling stations around the park. If you prefer fizzy drinks then then buying unlimited refills (Coca-cola Freestyle) might save you money. 

Leaving LEGOLAND

The advertised closing time is when the ride queues close (outside of July and August this can be as early as 4pm). As long as you are in the queue before that time then they should run the ride until everyone in the queue has been on it. 

The Hill Top train runs after the rides stop to help get people out of the park, but the queue can be long with tired people wanting to avoid walking back up the hill. If you have the energy though walking means you get to enjoy Miniland with all the mini lego buildings.

The shop at the entrance also stays open after the advertised park closing time, it has so much in there including some LEGO sets exclusive to LEGOLAND so it is worth a visit, but it can be very busy at leaving time and there might be a queue to get in.

Getting out of the car park and on to the main road can take a long time (sometimes as long as an hour) so make sure everyone has been to the toilet before you go and is prepared for a slow exit just in case.