My wife scored some free tickets to LEGOLAND that were going to expire yesterday, so since we had nothing else to do, we spent a few hours there. It cost us $12 to park so even spending a few hours there was worth it.
I’ve been a LEGO fanatic for a long time so I had expectations about the park. (We went about 6 months ago when someone else gave us free tickets.) The first thing I noticed when walking up was that the signs made out of LEGO bricks were faded and broken. The models in the park are made out of regular LEGO bricks put together with some type of acetone and then coated with a UV protectant. This kind of fading was seen all over the park. In addition I saw paint chipping in various areas along railings.
We saw some new models at the entrances to the other companion parks and they were bright and clean. While the park wasn’t dirty, it just seemed a bit run down. For a park that opened in 1999, I expected more. Last month we had free tickets to DisneyLand and the experience was completely different. The much older park was in tip top shape and everything operated smoothly.
We had lunch at LEGOLAND and even the concessions were not up to par. While the food was not bad, the chaos ordering is something you’d never see at a Disney park. If the operators of the park had a clue, they would take some hints from others attractions.
After a little research, I found that the majority owner of the park is the Blackstone Group which also owns SeaWorld, a park we visit often because my son loves Shamu (please no comments about whales in captivity or making money off these animals). SeaWorld is not quite on par with DisneyLand, but the park is well kept and for the most part is a great place to visit (they changed the Pets Rule show for Christmas and it was a disaster).
If LEGOLAND ever wants us to pay the $69 per person extortion fee to get in the gate, they’ll need to do some major refurbishing and possibly rebuild a lot of the models to make everything nice and shiny. I was amazed at how many people were there; I wonder how many return visitors they get. Maybe I’m just too picky, but if I’m going to spend my hard earned money I want to get value. Now if the park cost say $30 to get in, maybe it would be a different story. However at that cost I’d have to compare it to the San Diego Zoo and call the zoo a much better value.