Are you planning a family vacation to LEGOLAND Florida and wondering how to make the most of your visit? As one of the largest LEGOLAND parks in the world, there’s plenty to see and do at this theme park designed for LEGO enthusiasts of all ages. However, with so much to explore, it’s important to plan ahead and make the most of your time at the park. We recently had the opportunity to visit and had an amazing time. Here are some of our favorite tips and tricks to help you navigate LEGOLAND Florida and create lasting memories with your family.
1. If You Want FasTrack, Buy It Days Before You Visit
LEGOLAND’s FasTrack pass lets you enter a ride from a significantly shorter (and sometimes no) line. There are two versions of the FasTrack pass: the Unlimited one ($99/person) that you can use for all rides, and the 3-Pack ($40/person) which works for The Great LEGO Race, Coastersaurus and The Dragon. We can’t tell you whether the pass is worth it or not because it’ll depend on the season that you visit. However, if you do want to buy these passes, we do recommend that you do so way ahead of time. When we went, passes for the day (and several after) were already sold out. So make sure you buy them from the website or app several days in advance if you really want to skip the lines.
2. Consider Staying at a LEGOLAND Resort
While staying at a LEGOLAND resort is not a requirement, there are some benefits to staying there. First, you get the carry on with the LEGO theme after the park, since the rooms all have LEGO decour. Each room also has a separate sleeping area for kids. We stayed at the Beach Retreat, and the kids each had their own bunk bed (and a free minifigure gift when they got there). The Beach Retreat has a free shuttle to the park that runs every 15 minutes, while the other two resorts are literally right next to the entrance. There’s also nice resort-style pools at each hotel, and we had complimentary breakfast at the Beach Retreat. So it’s super easy to get going to the park, especially if you want to arrive early (see below)!
3. Arrive Early for Low Waits at the Best Rides
When we arrived to the park entrance at [9:30]AM, we were already let in ahead of the 10AM opening time. This gave us some extra time to get to the rides we wanted, especially since we didn’t have a FasTrack pass. If you’re arriving early, I’d recommend making it to the back end of the park. Here, you can ride Flying School, Pirate River Quest, and The Great LEGO Race pretty quickly, since those rides typically have some of the longer lines. Afterwards, you can casually make it back to the middle of the park, stopping by Ninjago and Coastersaurus along the way for more thrills. Even if you can’t make it at opening, we found that the lines were pretty sparse up until around 1PM, when it started to feel more crowded.
4. Download the LEGOLAND Mobile App Ahead of Time
Since we were visiting for the first time, the LEGOLAND app really helped us navigate the park. The app has sections where you can filter out rides, attractions, shows, dining, meet & greets, shopping, and more. Through it, we found that the Elemental Masters live show was starting in 5 minutes and we were right next to the theater. We also linked our tickets to the app which made it easy to enter the park. Once you’re in the park, the app also tracks all the current wait times at the rides, which helped us plan what we wanted to do next and if it was worth it to wait in line. Ultimately, this app won’t be as fully featured as Disney’s, but it offered just what we needed to make our navigation across the park pretty smooth.
5. Buy a LEGOLAND Drink Cup for Free Refills All Day
Near the entrance to the park you will see a refresh station where you can purchase a refillable cup. This cup has a sensor on the bottom that activates the Coca Cola stations throughout the park. Getting the cup made it super easy to refill whenever we needed to. This kept the kids hydrated for a warm, active day! One thing to note though, it looks like the refresh stations implement a 30 minute timer so that you can only refill every 30 minutes. However, some of the restaurants, like the Deli Takeover, have traditional soda dispensers that you can use to refill without timers.
6. Bring Some Minifigs to Trade!
This is one of my favorite things to do at LEGOLAND! Minifigure trading is the equivalent to trading pins at Disney World. Throughout the park, you’ll see Model Citizens (their version of cast members) with minifigs on their name tags. Some stores will also have minifigure displays where you can trade. As long as the minifig you provide has head, body and leg pieces, you can switch it out for whatever is on display. We brought a baggy of minifigs that our kids traded throughout the day, and it was fun to stop by stores, kiosks and building areas to see what there was to trade. The LEGOLAND Coffee shop at the entrance also has a huge wall of minifigs that you can trade for. It’s fun to stop by at the beginning of the day, and then at the end to see if any minifigs have been traded in that you want as well.
7. Take a Break Watching a 4D Show
The 4D Theater in Fun Town (towards the middle of the park close to Miniland) was an awesome place to take a break. They have four different 4D movies showing every half hour. We watched the Mythica show and the Ninjago show. Both of these had 3D effects, water, light, and snow effects throughout the show. But most importantly, the theater was air conditioned and the seats were comfortable! This let us take a break while the kids enjoyed a ~15 minute short film. After each show we were refreshed and ready to take on another section of the park.
8. Visit the Big Shop at the End of the Day
The Big Shop is located right next to the entrance, and is the largest gift shop at the park. Here, they sell all kinds of souvenirs, as well as dozens of LEGO sets. There are LEGO sets from all kinds of brands, from Star Wars, to Harry Potter, to LEGO Friends and LEGO City. Chances are that when you visit, you or your kids are going to want a set from that store. We told our kids at the end of the day we would stop by the Big Shop and they can pick out a small set to take home. This kept them motivated and were also able to visit the other gift shops around the park to see the types of options that they’d then be able to pick from at the Big Shop. For those LEGO VIP members, be aware that while you do receive a VIP discount, you can’t redeem VIP points at this store since it’s operated by an outside vendor. This also means that they don’t provide Gift With Purchases like they do at the LEGO website. We were told that the LEGO store at Disney Springs was the place to go for that.
9. Bring Plenty of Sunscreen
This is probably the most obvious tip, but could be very easy to forget! LEGOLAND is in central Florida, which is known for some very hot and humid temperatures, especially in the summer! So make sure the whole family is staying protected by bringing your own sunscreen. Or else, you’ll pay a premium to buy sunscreen at the park itself. This is even more important if you’re also planning on visiting the waterpark, which offers more outdoors water fun.
