We woke up Sunday morning (VERY early - did I mention the time change?) and had breakfast in the hotel. Can I just say that it amazes me to see people treating a hotel breakfast area like their home? Adults were eating in their pajamas! Little kids, sure, no problem. But adults? Very odd. But I digress...
The whole reason we chose San Diego as our destination was to take Spencer to LEGOLAND. After breakfast we told him that we were going to have to pack up our stuff because we were changing hotels that day. The picture below, albeit blurry, is his excited reaction when he found out we'd be checking in to the LEGOLAND Hotel! I didn't realize he knew the hotel existed, but the week before we left he said, "Did you know there is a hotel in LEGOLAND?" I played dumb, but I think he suspected something...
We took a short drive over to the LEGOLAND and did sort of pre-check-in since our room wouldn't be ready til the afternoon. I didn't take many pictures of the hotel lobby for some reason. I think Dave has some on his phone, so maybe I'll add them later. Our room included admission to the park, so we got our tickets, checked our bags and headed over to take advantage of early admission for hotel guests. Spencer was given a "slap bracelet" that showed he was a LEGO VIP, which let us ride a couple of things before the park opened.
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| Wall behind the check-in counter. |
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| Pool area (view from our room) |
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| Yeah, I cut off the top of the sign! |
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| We heard it was imperative to ride Sky Coaster first, so we took advantage of early entry for it. |
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| Spencer and Daddy in their coaster - I was in my own. |
LEGOLAND is really geared toward the younger set, which was perfect for us. There are plenty of tame rides and a few big ones (which hopefully we can ride if we ever go back!). And this place really has the whole waiting for rides thing figured out. Each ride has a waiting area full of LEGOS for the kids to play with while the parents stand in line. Genius, I tell you! We rode some boats, some little safari jeeps, climbed the "power tower," slid down a big slide, of course the sky coaster mentioned above, a little bitty log ride, played putt-putt, mined for gold, operated a boat in MiniLand, and just enjoyed all the special things along the way. We had so much fun walking around looking at everything and didn't put pressure on ourselves to "do" everything.
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| This was a neat fountain - when you step on a pad in front of an instrument, it joins in the song. |
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| Spencer collected some Fool's Gold and got a medal in return. |
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| Go Daddy! |
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| Spence was super excited to operate the boat by himself. |
This itty bitty log ride was a good warmup for the big, scary one we did at the waterpark...
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| Fun little putt-putt course. |
You probably know about the MiniLand - all sorts of famous landmarks
made out of LEGOS. Dave took a bunch of great pictures, but I'll only
include a few here.
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| Hollywood Bowl |
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| Mardis Gras Parade on Bourbon Street |
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| Empire State Building (right?) |
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| Guggenheim Museum |
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| There was a whole Star Wars area - not sure if it's permanent? |
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| Spencie and Chewie |
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| Mommy and Elvis |
After a delicious ice cream cone and a stop at the gift shop, we headed back to the hotel around 4:00 to see our pirate-themed room.
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| Excited to have his own "room" and more importantly, his own TV! What a treat to watch a couple of Chima episodes in bed. |
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| He solved some clues to get a code to open the monkey-guarded safe, where inside he found gold chocolate coins and some other stuff that I can no longer remember... |
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| Solving a puzzle to get the last number for the safe... |
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| 5! |
Oh, the hotel has the neatest elevator. When the doors open you hear "The Girl from Ipanema" playing. But when the doors shut, it's a different vibe...
There are little surprises everywhere, including a giant Whoopie Cushion in the carpet outside the lobby elevator.
We headed to the lobby for the nightly "show" and LEGO castle building competition. You can see in the pictures below that the hotel lobby has a big castle and pirate ship to play in and there are LEGO blocks everywhere. Spencer and Dave entered their creation, but sadly did not win. There might've been a little too much adult help with the project. :)
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| He's not part of the show, just decided to stand there with his sword and shield. |
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| The agony of defeat! |
We ate dinner in the hotel's Bricks restaurant - outside in the upper 60-degree temps! - then went back to our room. Funny story: The dinner was a buffet. When I came back with my plate, we got a lot of funny looks when Spencer loudly inquired, "Mommy where did you find that cauliflower? Will you get me some?!" Ha! Anyway, after we were in our room a little while, Spencer decided he wanted to go to the movie at the pool. He had said earlier that he didn't want to go, and since I had just taken a shower, he and Dave went down to watch it and I spent a few minutes checking on some things for work. (I only had to work for a few minutes the first 2 days to make sure a new project I had started right before I left was going according to plan, then I didn't open the laptop again!)
We had a great night's sleep and woke up bright and early again (still on Texas time) Monday morning. Next up: LEGOLAND Water Park!
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