Legoland is located at Windsor near London, not far from the M4,(m25) and is a theme park based on the popular toy Lego. Legoland like other Theme parks and attractions have been closed due to lockdown but reopened in July, they have had to make changes to the park to ensure they follow government rules etc.
With Legoland being one of the favourite theme parks, largely due to our love of Lego and they also have a good younger ride for our little ones, we were eager to get back some point, so we finally managed to plan a return trip and first of the year. But with everything that’s going on I was keen to also see how they approached there COVID precautions, being part of the Merlin group and having just visited Chessington id also be looking at comparisons, a more in-depth review of the park is here.
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What to Expect?
There are fewer people on the road so expect your journey to be easier to the park, however as you would expect this is flipped around upon your arrival, the first thing I noticed was they have car park signs to suggest having a parking space between you and the next car, we is an interesting idea, of course, there are fewer people attending the park as its a pre-book event only but I wondered how much of a strain this would put on the car parks?
Needless to say, there were many people ignoring it, you could see the first and second car park people had done it but then with later people arriving they thought “I could get close to the door” and filled some gaps, we followed the rules lol.
Now if you have ever visited an attraction and theme park you will know there are normally lots of car park attendants, and we spotted…..none, this was odd especially with extra rules in place, it’s not the staff are in close proximity? they are out in the open away from actual people in there cars, very odd.
The big changes you will see is the temperature, security and ticket trio, Security checks introduced a couple of years ago due to the terror issues in the country, Temperature checks are also being done with the aid of the Gun like a thermometer that reads your forehead.
So after having visited Chessington we knew what was coming and they had signs at the queue beginning and mid, but here there were a couple of odd things, there wasn’t really a sign suggesting the process, certainly not structured and clear if there was, and secondly we had the security first? which meant we were already in queues and interacting people before we got out the scan,
If we had a temperature ourselves and party, would be sent home and offered a refund, I know this because of Chessington but there was no sign in Legoland confirming this process, but being Merlin, its the same thing, it just felt the wrong way round?
Theme parks have issued Anti bac dispensers around their parks, and Legoland do have them, they are not as common as I found it Chessington, and on some of the rides they are little harder to find as they have been screwed into a place wherever they could, but again I didn’t really see signs on the ride and queue, to indicate this, however, what I did like is their dispenser was easy to use and the Anti bac was good, others can be smelly sticky etc, one main criticism of Chessington.
Masks are now common practice, and at this time mandatory in shops and certain places, again I didn’t really notice any signs, as it turned out a couple of rides are also restricted but I had to find them, but take note there are rides that have them, some don’t and these tend to be in compartment style rides, where you and your family are in a particular part of the ride away from others, but rollercoaster type ones, pirate ships or indoor based ones you would need a mask.
The odd ride was closed, and man of the smaller food and shop places were closed, to restrict people getting close, unfortunately, the new haunted mansion and the Shows in the middle of heart lake city are two that arent currently on.
I did check the App to see information but this provided little information regarding masks etc, but with this seemingly more relax mask situation, many almost everyone wasn’t wearing a mask, the Staff were but people were not, and social distancing was non-existent, but that for Legoland isn’t really there fault, but maybe something that annoys or concerns you.
With the park being closed during lockdown it allowed them to finish the new Duplo area, paint and retweak various rides and areas across the park, which makes it all look a little nicer and cleaner, these look excellent and if you haven’t been for a while worth visiting, there are painted pavement arrows, symbols etc… but unfortunately, lots of people aren’t following, though again there’s little signage to go with these.
The ride’s queues have been signed to leave gaps etc, this adds length to the queue but again people aren’t always following it, but with those depleted space on rides as I said earlier on some it feels like a full-length busy queue day, add to this every so often the rides will be temporarily closed and cleaned, this action takes a few minutes and not long, I assume they do this every 30 minutes like Chessington but again there was little signage and none of them said how often.
Overall
There are some changes to a normal visit, the event is only pre-booked! so you cant just rock up and buy a ticket, the being part is delayed compared to normal but being quieter and fewer people, in reality, the length of time will be the same, this also applies to rides, however, there are fewer people, but it still feels very busy, and people are right ear you, I’m also interested to see what the % of people they now allow in compared to before but again it did feel busy if I was visiting the park for the first time and my first place since the lockdown I would feel a little lost,
I didn’t find very informative, it was slick in. away, and that also concerns me as they were rush to get people in, the attendants in the car park not being there was odd, even when we left there was one person on the barriers with a queue of cars? normally there’s at least 2 or 3, and they would also be at least 2m apart.
The Masks situation surprised and annoyed me, with peoples participation’s but with also the lack of real focus from Legoland, in Chessington Sigs, Antibac, Mask signage etc was everywhere and you could tell people had that idea of “I better have my mask on” In lego land, I saw 2 people in the hundred of people we probably passed that had masks on around the park. So if this all concerns you please have this in mind as this might concern you.
We still enjoyed ourselves and the day wasn’t really ruined by everything that’s going on, and the park looks good, I like the new Duplo area, and I like the automatic refill stations going in which in reality these vender style outlets are the future, especially with everything that’s going on, I just feel that Legoland is still busy and they have designed things to be the minimum requirements with still wanting many people in the park.
