While our trip is mostly based on experiencing this country’s phenomenal National Parks, being so close to Carlsbad, home of LEGOLAND, we chose to make this the one amusement park of our 82 day excursion. We arrived with about 20 minutes to spare until the gates to the park opened. This extra time gave us the opportunity to check out the hotel that seemed to be built out of oversized Duplo blocks and Lego bricks, complete with enormous Lego figurines flanking either side of the entrance way and a fire breathing Lego dragon peering his head out of the second story.
Once inside, everything was Lego in the most incredible way. The carpet had Lego graphics. There was a huge pool of Lego bricks for the kids to sit in and use to build their own creations. There were statues built out of Legos all about that were apropos to where they stood. The bellboy was next to the reception desk, the waitress was at the front of the restaurant. Their was a curved pathway reminiscent of the yellow brick road with an inlay of multi-colored Legos that winded around through parts of the lobby. The framed artwork depicted Lego images. Even the bathroom was Lego themed.
We made our way to the back of the hotel and went out to wait by the gate. Atop the entrance were Lego figurines displayed as though they were constructing.
Once inside we were greeted by amazing, larger than life Lego creations.
The park was broken up into different sections, each themed with a type of Legos. For some reason that we could not figure out they staggered the opening of different lands and rides. One of the only things opened was the Coast Cruise boat ride. This took us all around the lake with displays of lego replicas of various cities along it’s bank.
We spent the morning and early afternoon going through a few of the sections doing the rides and experiences in each and admiring the Lego art throughout. Around lunch time all the girls wanted was ice cream. We got them each a scoop and sat and watched one of the shows while they ate. The heat was starting to intensify so we spent the rest of the afternoon going through the multiple sections in the waterpark. As it got into the early evening with the park closing at 8pm we felt we had to move on to finish seeing the rest of the sections. We grabbed a quick dinner and continued to explore the Lego utopia. With the relatively early closing time we felt rushed as we tried to beat the clock to get it all done. We were back at the campground by 8:30 and spent the rest of the night getting some laundry done.
