How to make the most of Legoland if you live locally

I don’t know anyone who doesn’t get excited by the thought of a day out at Legoland. People travel from abroad to come to Legoland! The Holiday Inn opposite our flat is permanently full of holiday-makers – not to come to Slough (haha), but to go to Legoland. And who can blame them, we’ve been regulars for years, in fact I wrote a blog post a couple of years ago about why we think Legoland is awesome. But as a local, I never really took advantage of how close we lived. Until now.

There is now a ‘Saver Annual Pass’ available which doesn’t cost that much more than a day entry ticket. It seems silly to buy a single day ticket, when for just £13* more, we could come back throughout the year. It’s valid on green days – basically term-time weekdays. So we can pop in after school or on inset days for a few rides or a mooch around Miniland. And I can come for days out with Lily while Tyler is at school. Under 3s are free, so she doesn’t need a ticket or pass.

The good thing about being able to come back to that there is no pressure to squeeze the whole of Legoland into one day. It is a real advantage of being local – something holiday-makers can’t do. That’s why it’s always crazily busy when the park opens at 10am – they HAVE to squeeze everything into one or two days. The admissions and bag check and gate queues are seriously long first thing. But with an annual pass, you can come in the afternoon when the rush has gone, scan your pass through the gates with no queueing.

Miniland is busy, busy, busy first thing in the morning, as people like to see it first before going on rides. But by the afternoon, you can walk around peacefully without the crowds and take it all in. We visited earlier this week, and were really, really, really excited to see NEW COUNTRIES in Miniland. There was the USA and a brand new Amtrak train (see above)!! Tyler’s dream is to see an Amtrak train in real life after watching YouTube videos since he was 2. So this was the closest thing to the real thing. Ahhhh! It’s so shiny and new, and it has the double-decker carriage. We watched it go round and round for possibly an hour! And that’s the great thing about having an annual pass – we could sit there for an hour and not feel like we’re missing out on the rest of the park, as we can do the rest another day.

There was Hollywood, the Statue of Liberty, the Golden Gate Bridge and so many more iconic American landmarks. The detail is amazing.

They had Route 66 with a car driving up and down the famous road. And there was Las Vegas..

Then we saw a row of even more countries new to Miniland. Here is Russia:

Australia:

China:

India (and a new train that ran behind the new countries):

And as well as the new, we spent a lot of time at the classic Miniland country of Holland with the yellow train that Tyler has loved since he was 2. And now Lily loves it too.

We went for a coffee and hot chocolates at the Hill Top Cafe, which I got 20% off the bill because I had an annual pass – WIN! Then we checked out the Model Making Studio – here we saw two ladies actually making the Lego models you see across the park. Amazing!

It’s a really interesting part to visit, and it was empty as I guess most people who are there for just the day are doing the rides. Not us locals though! We can see these extra bits of Legoland you might not have noticed before. We saw a whole wall of Lego figures.

The coolest Legoland timeline from 1996 to today, where you can see when different parts of the park were introduced.

The building of the model making studio is tall and round so you can see amazing views of Windsor and beyond from here – is that our apartment in the distance??

We decided to call it a day and make our way to the bus stop (Tyler wanted to get the bus, normally I would have driven). The 702 to London stops at Slough, and leaves Legoland at 22 minutes past the hour – it’s a 30 minute journey. And to get TO Legoland, the bus leaves Slough Bus Station at 13 minutes past the hour. The 702 is a double decker bus and there’s space for 4 pushchairs. It costs £6.50 return and the buses are now either pink or blue! If we were to drive to Legoland, the parking costs £6 – so it’s roughly the same whether we go by bus or car.

We plan to return this afternoon with our annual passes as Tyler has a half day at school, due to it being end of Spring Term. And we plan to come after school on the week of his sixth birthday in May, as that is when he’ll be allowed to drive a car at the driving school.

So that’s how you can make the most of Legoland if you live locally – get a Saver Annual Pass. It costs £60 until midnight tonight (29/03/18) – take advantage before it goes back up to £70. And if you do want a pass that includes weekends and school holidays, these cost a bit more – check them out online.

We are looking forward to coming back, and maybe we’ll see you there too!

Sabrina x

Disclosure: Legoland kindly provided us with saver annual passes for the purpose of this review. All words and opinions are honest as always.

*£13 based on a green day ticket being £47 and a saver annual pass on offer at £60 until midnight 29/03/18.