Best Vacation Ever! – LEGOLAND®

You have to just love summer, well the idea of summer I should say.  As a kid, there was no other season I loved more—school’s out, sun’s out and that meant I was out… until the sun went down.  Growing up in Santa Clarita I spent my summers in the pool, on the lake or camping with my family during vacation.  After starting my own family, the idea of vacation completely changed.  With 2 small kids, under 5 years old, it felt very overwhelming the first time we visited family on the east coast.  By our second trip we felt like pro’s—so when I was presented with a “stay-cation” to LEGOLAND®, I was absolutely ecstatic.  My husband and I packed the kids up, and we headed south for our first visit to the LEGOLAND® California Resort & Hotel.
Located in Carlsbad, just 90 miles south of Los Angeles, LEGOLAND® California is a 128-acre family theme park created by the LEGO® Company.  The park is the first theme park in the United States created by the Danish toy maker.  We chose to make the drive down during nap time, and it worked like a charm.  When we arrived the Resort the Hotel staff was prompt and courteous about getting us into our room and ready to enjoy our stay.  In 2013, LEGOLAND® Hotel opened with 250 themed rooms for guests to continue their LEGOLAND® experience overnight in a hotel completely designed with kids in mind!  Our LEGO® NINJAGO room was beyond cool!  The room came complete with a private “kids” getaway including a TV, bunk beds and a trundle bed that could sleep 3 to 4 kids.  Separated by a modern and stylish bathroom, the back half of the room featured a quiet retreat for the grown-ups including a king size bed with enough room for a travel sleeper for the baby, a large television as well as a beautiful view of the pool and the ocean. Our 4 year old son, Ben spent the first 20 minutes on the top bunk bed yelling “Best vacation ever” before we even left the room.
The hotel is filled with millions of Legos placed all over the hotel and in the resort.  There are more than 30,000 LEGO® models in the Park created from more than 62 million LEGO® bricks. These models range from a Brontosaurus named Bronte (made of more than 2 million LEGO® bricks) to a tiny rabbit in a magician’s hat in Miniland Las Vegas made of just four bricks.  The Hotel and Resort staff also wear LEGO® miniature characters on their badges and if you ask politely they will trade a character with you at any given time.  Sarah at the front desk was kind enough to give Ben and our daughter Rosie their first two mini-characters to start them off for the stay.  On the way to dinner we worked on our Treasure Hunt, which asked the kids four questions and provided a four-digit combination to open the Treasure Chest in our Hotel room.  The safe held a special surprise for the kids on the day we checked out — a safari themed LEGO® build kit for each of the kids.
LEGOLAND® California offers more than 60 interactive rides, shows and attractions, as well as restaurants, shopping and beautiful landscape features specifically geared for families with children ages 2 to 12.  In 2014, LEGOLAND® Water Park expanded with LEGO Chima Water Park completely immersing guests in a popular LEGO brand with interactive water play areas and a wave pool!  Surfers’ Cove is the newest California beach-themed expansion of LEGOLAND® Water Park opening this summer! Surfers’ Cove features six water slides extending 100-feet where guests can jump on mats and race against each other for the fastest time on Riptide Racers water slides. After competing, racers can pose with a LEGO® winner’s trophy for a photo opportunity to prove they won the race! Kids can enjoy Wipeout Lagoon — an epic “spray ground” where multiple water jets splash on and off creating a wave effect. Plus, LEGOLAND® Water Park’s culinary team has created Beach Street Tacos to enlighten taste buds of water racers of all ages. And, of course, cool LEGO® models add to the beach theme including LEGO® surfers, LEGO® seagulls, LEGO® crabs and a LEGO® lifeguard. A surfing dog model sits on top of a wave at the peak of Riptide Racers perhaps as a “judge” to see which racer reaches the bottom quickest!
We spent most of our time in the Splash Zoo, an interactive area for toddlers featuring giant DUPLO Zoo animals, and enjoyed lunch from The Beach Front Grill.  With the option of late check out, we were able to let the kids play through lunch before we headed back home to SCV, right during nap time!
LEGOLAND® California Resort & Hotel is located at One LEGOLAND® Drive in Carlsbad, California.  For more information, please visit www.LEGOLAND.com. 

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