LEGOLAND Windsor | Play-and-Stay Blog

Archive for the ‘LEGOLAND Windsor’ Category

Family Easter Fun

March 26th, 2012

Easter isn’t just a great excuse for chocolate eggs delivered by oversized bunnies; it’s also an outstanding time of year for UK attractions and theme parks, which open for the new season with loads of unbelievable goodies. This Easter holiday is an ideal occasion to enjoy some unforgettable family fun and electrifying thrills. Here’s a rundown of what’s on offer at the UK’s top theme parks and family days out when Easter hops along.

LEGOLAND® Windsor

LEGOLAND Windsor is now open for the 2012 season and it promises to be a jam-packed Easter with the opening of the new LEGO® Star Wars™ Miniland Experience, featuring six of the most iconic Star Wars scenes plus one from animated hit Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The attraction is a first in the UK, using 1.5 million LEGO bricks in an atmosphere of authentic sounds and lighting effects, and special event Star Wars™ Invasion celebrates its arrival at LEGOLAND from a galaxy far, far away on 24th and 25th March. Enjoy a child-friendly break to the unique family attraction this Easter.

Paultons Park

Lurking beneath the smouldering volcano is Paultons’ blazing new ride MAGMA, opening for sizzling thrills in time for Easter when the Park reopens on 23rd March. Brave adventurers will delve into the red-hot caverns in a bid to unearth the deeply buried Jurassic secret – but look out, because when MAGMA erupts you’ll be sent into a dizzy spinning rise 25 metres into the air overhead – then feel your stomach plummet as you drop back into the mountain! This fiery journey promises to be a real family treat for all riders over 1.10m.

Chessington World of Adventures

Join the exotic fun this Easter at Britain’s wildest adventure with brand new live show DreamWorks Madagascar Live! Prepare to Party. From 23rd March the little ones will love singing and dancing along with Alex, King Julien, The Penguins and all their favourites in this amazing new extravaganza. Meet the gang in their brilliant Jungle surroundings, plus pose for photos and check out the new African Trading Co. shop and Coffee Hut café.

Alton Towers

Everyone’s favourite prehistoric trio and acorn-chasing squirrel arrive at Alton’s Cloud Cuckoo Land in time for Easter for an immersive 4D encounter. Using a combination of fun-filled 3D footage and eye-popping physical effects that reach right into your seat, this Dawn of the Dinosaurs 4D Experience transports you straight to loveable Sid and Scrat’s ultra-cool world from 24th March.

As if that wasn’t enough, Alton also unleashes the fury of Nemesis: Sub-Terra, an underground lair of hair-raising horrors based on the mysterious backstory of the original corkscrewing classic Nemesis. Dare you embark on the nerve-shattering journey? Courageous explorers can step up for this scarefest from Easter.

THORPE PARK

Bag a white-knuckle break to the nation’s Thrill Capital this Easter, whether you’re a hardened thrillseeker or fun-loving family. Get twisted with the THORPE PARK Mash Up on 6th and 9th April, an explosion of Easter insanity featuring awesome live acts and a few breathtaking surprises. You’ll be among the first brave riders to get your adrenaline pumping on THE SWARM, Europe’s tallest winged rollercoaster, boasting a unique head-first inverted drop from a stomach-churning height of 127ft. For families with a taste for extreme thrills with their chocolate eggs, THORPE makes an epic Easter getaway.

Warwick Castle

Easter is an ideal time to explore the eventful grounds and historical activities of Britain’s Ultimate Castle, where families can enjoy recreations of the great siege and treacherous jousting contests with the coming of spring. The Witches of Warwick have arrived in the creepy Castle Dungeon, cooking up supernatural spells and mischievous mayhem in a bid to avenge their curse. Plus until 15th April you can catch a range of exciting shows throughout the day, offering sights of everything from majestic birds of prey and weapons of war to battling knights and the legendary tale of The Sword in the Stone.

With so much going on at the UK’s theme parks over the Easter holidays, you’ll want to treat your family to some unmissable seasonal fun this April. Book a Play and Stay ticket and hotel package today.

Five ingeniously innovative uses for LEGO

November 15th, 2011

LEGO brings out the inventor in all of us. Personally, I never managed to design much other than spectacularly un-aerodynamic aeroplanes and houses that look like they were designed by a mad, colourblind architect. However, some clever folk can make some truly impressive LEGO creations. Here are five of the best YouTube has to offer.

Combination safe

Everyone has their little cache of precious things, their personal treasures. No matter if your treasures are interestingly-shaped rocks and weird feathers, diamonds and designer stuff or 1980s Star Wars figures in original packaging, you need somewhere safe to store them.

What could be safer than an actual working combination safe? Maybe the lair of a covetous dragon, but apart from that, nothing, that’s what.

Desktop computer

It saddens me to say it, but the vast majority of desktop computers are hideous things. Boxy, dull-looking monoliths without the slightest thought given to aesthetics, computers are perhaps the most depressing purchase for the trendy and design-conscious.

To brighten up your PC, reach for your LEGO stash. The case in the video above may look like the lair of a tiny, plastic supervillain but the beauty of LEGO is that you can take a design and make it your own. Depending on what bricks you’ve got laying around you can re-case your PC in whatever colour or combination of colours you fancy. The really ambitious could even modify existing LEGO sets to house a computer…

3D printer

A LEGO model that can build LEGO models? Welcome to the future!

Sure, the process is slow, requires very specific software and the only models that ‘Makerbot’ can currently put together are very simple, but it’s nevertheless impressive. It’s can’t be long until some clever clogs improves on the design and makes a machine capable of putting together far more complex models or perhaps even replicating itself…

Hamster elevator

Everyone loves to spoil their pets, that’s why diamond collars and those bags you can carry little dogs in exist. The market for luxury products designed for hamsters is a little limited, but with a handful of LEGO and a bit of patience you can install a private elevator in your hamster’s home, allowing him/her to enjoy levels of luxury usually reserved for the super-wealthy.

Toilet-flushing robot

The age of the service robot is finally here!

Why flush your own toilet when you can have a robot do it for you? After years of waiting, we’ve finally taken a step towards having Jetsons-style domestic robots. A loo-flushing robot made out of LEGO may only be a small step, more of a tiptoe in the right direction, but it’s a step. Best bit? the flushbot will thank you for allowing it to flush for you, ensuring you don’t feel bad for leaving him in the bathroom all the time.

Weird and Wonderful Theme Parks Across the World

September 1st, 2009

Recently I came across a news story describing a Ferrari theme park due to open in Abu Dhabi in 2010. The park is set to become the world’s largest indoor theme park, with a red-roofed dome in the shape of a Ferrari GT. It will have more than 20 attractions, including the world’s fastest rollercoaster, a full-size racetrack and the region’s first Ferrari store.

Somewhat intrigued by the idea of a theme park based around the Ferrari, I went on a mission — to find a selection of other weird, wonderful and fascinating amusements parks. So brace yourself for robots, aliens, Lego and much more as I reveal my findings….

LEGOLAND:

Legoland Resort

Oh LEGOLAND! A family favourite and one I could not miss from this blog. Children over the years have had great fun building all sorts of wonderful Lego creations. So, what a great idea to turn a childhood favourite toy into a unique theme for an amusement park.

LEGOLAND has proven extremely popular worldwide with parks located in Germany, England, Denmark and the United States. Malaysia is also set to jump on the LEGOLAND bandwagon by 2012.

Suoi Tien Park:

Suoi Tien Resort

Diverting from Lego, I take you to Suoi Tien Park, a land of bright colours and Buddhas! Yes that’s right, this unusually themed park is based around the Buddhist religion.

Aptly named attractions such as Heaven Palace have somewhat distorted my previous conception of Heaven. I pictured chillaxing on clouds, however, here you splash around in a water park designed to look like the afterlife.

Think that sounds quirky? Well what about Hell Palace, similar but with frowning statues? Now I don’t know about you but I’m not sure if I could “let my hair down” and have fun if I am being glared at by sculptures. Will I face judgement if I visited Hell Palace over Heaven Palace? Where are the terms and conditions for this place?

On a happier note, the Tien Dong beach features an impressive sculpted waterfall, bearing the face of an emperor and you can even head over to Crocodile Kingdom, where you can feed some of the 1,500 live crocodiles. What this has to do with Buddha I don’t know.

Alien Apex Resort:

Alien Apex Resort

I never thought I would write about Lego, Buddha and aliens on the same day, but here I am. Fancy taking a trip to Roswell, New Mexico in 2010 for the opening of the Alien Apex Resort? I know what you’re thinking; how original! Yes I am afraid there are plans to place Roswell at the heart of alien activity once again after the famous incident in 1947.

Nevertheless the UFO-themed amusement park is said to include an indoor rollercoaster that’ll take passengers on a simulated alien abduction, which does sound sort of cool providing there’s no probing involved.

Robot Theme Park:

Robot Theme Park

Now, this I had to include. South Korea are intending to build two robot theme parks, with the first to be finished in 2013. Yes 2013 is a little while off but after all the theme is pretty “futuristic” (ha, at least I make myself laugh).

Robots are used in the nation’s key industries and the government are keen to promote the robotics industry. Apparently you will be able to see (what I can only picture as R2-D2 look alikes) compete in various events. Nothing screams “good day out” like watching robots in battle… right?

So there you have it, a selection of weird yet wonderful theme parks which exist or should exist soon. The question remains, what theme would you like to see as the basis for an amusement park?

Return to LEGOLAND

June 15th, 2009

This weekend, armed with three tickets, a picnic and big dreams of reliving last year’s fun, I took the family to Legoland for the day. The sun was shining, Stanley was practically wetting himself with excitement and the lovely Mrs Lane was no longer “with child” – fun times were ahead.

Last time we went to the park, Land of the Vikings had just opened and the place was packed. We queued for up to 45 minutes to get on some of the better rides.

Now, I’m not sure if it was because of the new area, Kingdom of the Pharaohs, or if Legoland just wasn’t as busy as before, but the queues were significantly smaller this time round. A quick look at the board on entry showed waiting times were reduced to 15 minutes on average. Was it because there were more rides to choose from?

Anyway, we took advantage of this and went on as many rides as we could while trying to sample the few we didn’t make it on last time around.

And we did it as well. This made me realise that Legoland Windsor is actually a great place to take the family for a short break as well as a day out destination. The only ride we didn’t get on was Jungle Coaster – at five years old, Stan was still slightly too small to go on it.

If there was one attraction that was the highlight of our day, it had to be the Bob the Builder show in 4D. It was only 15 minutes long, but the show was actually (as my boss would say) awesome. I won’t spoil it for you, but I will say this: the effects were spot on and there is a lovely little surprise at the end of the show.

We left the park at 7pm (the same time as every other Tom, Dick and Harry) and proceeded to sit in the car for another 30 minutes as we tried to get out. If you like traffic jams, you can stop reading now. But, if you want to escape the rush, hang back for a short while. Eat some food, wander round the shops for a bit, practice speaking foreign languages – whatever – the point is, leave later. You will escape the crowds and still get home at the same sort of time.

Legoland Windsor was nothing short of brilliant once again – I really can’t stress how great the place is, you just need to go there and see it for yourself. If you have small children and live the South, there is nowhere better to take them for a treat. I look forward to going back there next year when Stan will be old enough to ride the Jungle Coaster and checking out the new zone for 2010.

My Favourite LEGO Minifigs

June 1st, 2009

Back in the glorious early 90s when I was a lad, in the murky times before mobile phones or *gasp* the internet, LEGO was king. At my school your popularity rested on two things; 1) The quality of your bomber jacket and 2) The quantity of LEGO you owned.

Tragically my own bomber jacket was, to use correct 90s vernacular, naff. It was from a market. We weren’t poor, my parents just disapproved of bomber jackets and refused to pay more than a tenner for one. I overcame this enormous social handicap by having lots of LEGO, so much LEGO that on one occasion I attempted to make and dive/swim in a Scrooge McDuck moneybin – but with LEGO. It went terribly terribly wrong.

Although volume of one’s LEGO box (for it was invariably kept in massive plastic boxes on proud display in the corner of your bedroom) was important, it was not portable. To showcase your impressive collection on the playground you needed something small, yet something that showed how many different types of LEGO you owned, that something was the minifig.

Minifigs were awesome and the more unusual your collection the better. Some had hand-me-downs from the early days of LEGO, these old ones usually had stories attached to them. “My cousin won it in a game of Magic: The Gathering from this kid from Botswana, he said it was the only green spaceman ever made.” Stuff like that.

Everyone’s collection was personal, and everyone believes that theirs was the best despite mine clearly being better. I present to you, my five favourite LEGO minifigs!

5) Ice Planet pouting girl.

I can’t remember where I got her, I can’t remember where she is now but what I do remember is that, in my imagination, this plastic sex-bomb was Robin Hood’s girlfriend. Just how a bow-toting British folk-hero fell for a red-headed lady space-explorer I’ll never know.

4) Robin Hood (Forestman)

Having done a spot of research for this it turns out that Robin was actually just one of a collection of ‘Forestmen’. Hopefully Ice Planet pouting girl will still love him despite his life being a lie.

The best bit about Robin is that he had all his little accessories. Quite often Robin would swap his bow for Ice Planet pouty girl’s chainsaw and fell a few trees around Sherwood while she shot some baddies. Good times.

3) Merlin

Alas, these days good old Merlin will probably just get called Dumbledore. I have no quarrel with Dumbledore, in fact, after Captain Hook, Gore Lane and every gentleman explorer of the 19th century, he’s my hero. Merlin stood guard over my magical LEGO chest (a normal, non-magical LEGO chest filled with shiny pebbles).

2) The Shark

Always and without fail referred to as The Shark, this slightly unconventional choice was my bath-time LEGO pal. Any toys without flippers, fins or an obvious re-breathing system were banned from my bathtime. The Shark was scourge of the bubbles and once attacked and killed (broke) my sister’s Little Mermaid doll.

1) Mr Spooky (Ghost)

Ahhh, Mr Spooky. What adventures we had together, we haunted the LEGO castle, we haunted the fridge and we haunted the hell out of the dog. My relationship with Mr Spooky conclusively proves that letting children under 11 watch Tim Burton films alone is a bad idea.

If you think the top five from your own minifig collection are cooler than mine (you’re wrong) let me know and I’ll update the blog with a few of the better suggestions.

The comments box ladies and gents, it won’t bite.

Tenuous LEGOLAND Based Blog of the Week – The Cogitate Game

May 8th, 2009

I received an email recently that brought a shocking truth to my attention. Tenuous LEGOLAND® based blog of the week has been bereft of LEGO Technic stuff. I have no idea how I missed it, I’ve covered all sorts but generally it’s just good old reliable normal LEGO.

Personally I always avoided Technic, it all struck me as unnecessarily complex and I always preferred pirate ships to working cranes. What can I say, I always aspired to be a swashbuckler, not a builder.

Anyway, I’m drifting off-topic. What I really wanted to tell you about is the new game from The Institute of Engineering and Technology (thankfully shortened to IET) as you may have guessed as I’m writing about it in a LEGO blog, the game is based on LEGO, LEGO Technic to be precise.

The game (called Cogitate) was apparently designed to promote IET Discover and Inspec Direct and I can assure you, it’s disturbingly fun (and also infuriatingly difficult).

Simon Thomson, IET’s publishing director seems to be delighted that Cogitate is proving so popular and that LEGO themselves have got on board:

“Interest in the game has exploded. It was developed using a high-tech physics simulator, so the possibilities are limitless. To add to the fun, the LEGO Company found the game so inspiring they have allowed us to use LEGO Technic pieces as some of the components in the virtual contraptions.”

Give it a go, so far I’ve reached the dizzying heights of level two www.theiet.org/cogitate

Pick a Picnic Site – Competition Now Closed

May 8th, 2009

Summer’s almost here and what better way to enjoy the all-too-brief sunshine by going for a good old-fashioned picnic?

We’ve put together a list of the best spots to take your picnic blankets and cricket sets to in 2009. Take a look – if you are in the area they are well worth checking out. But we also want your suggestions for the best places to take the family for some al fresco munch.

Comment on this blog post with your ideas and we’ll send the three best suggestions one of these fancy new Play and Stay picnic rucksacks, containing:

Four spoons, knives, forks, plates, mugs, wine glasses and napkins.

Cheese/bread knife

Waiter’s corkscrew

Butter dish

Thermo-lined cooler section at the back

So, here are our suggestions. Give us yours, along with your reasons for nomination, in the comment section below:

Clumber Park

In the northernmost part of Sherwood forest and less than 40 miles from Alton Towers lies the beautiful and Idyllic Clumber Park. With 3,800 acres of open green space, more than 20 miles of cycle routes to get lost along and Europe’s longest double avenue of lime trees, the park offers peace, tranquility and adventure all in one spot.

Photo by D-Kav

Groombridge Place and Gardens

Located just outside Tunbridge Wells in Kent, Groombridge Place and Gardens is one of the best places to spend a day with the family this summer. Although it is not the cheapest park in the area (tickets can cost as much as £10 per adult in peak months), there is so much to see and do when you arrive. For older children there are a number of big swings and for the younger children there are a number of play parks. A walk through the Enchanted Forest will bring you face-to-face with dinosaurs of varying ferocity and there are even two bird of prey shows at set times throughout the day at no extra charge. The Drunken Gardens offer a welcome rest at the end of the trail and were the inspiration and setting for the famous Sherlock Holmes novel, The Valley of Fear. It may be over an hour’s drive from Windsor, but it’s well worth checking out if you have the time.

Photo by J. Lane

Kedleston Hall

The grounds and gardens of this 18th century mansion are another stunning place near Alton Towers to enjoy a family picnic this summer. There are 820 acres of man-made park and four walks of varying lengths for you to wander along. With superb child-friendly facilities such as baby change rooms and hip-carrying infant seats for hire as well, Kedleston Hall is a great place to go on your summer holiday.

Photo by Fredspickchers

Richmond Park

Less than a ten minute car journey from Thorpe Park is Richmond Park – the largest Royal Park in London at almost 2,500 acres in size. It is home to more than 650 free roaming deer and offers a myriad of landscapes including hills, woodlands, ponds and gardens. There are a number of facilities designed to make your day out easier (cafes, lodges and refreshment points) and there’s also a playground great for the little ones to let off steam in. Hire bikes, get a fishing permit or try your hand at a spot of golf – there’s enough fun and games here to last for days.

Box Hill

Box Hill is an outstanding area of woodland and chalk downland located near to London and LEGOLAND Windsor. Better suited for the active family, this park has some truly breathtaking views over the South Downs from its many nature trails. After a steep incline, you will find a visitor centre at the summit which offers a great place to stop for a picnic. Box Hill is awash with day-trippers in the summer months, make sure you get there early.

Runnymeade Pleasure Grounds

The Runnymeade Pleasure Grounds is a relaxing riverside park with access to walks along the River Thames and local countryside. The park is a great spot for a family picnic and has a number of attractions to keep you all entertained including a playground, paddling pool, cafe and boat cruises. It’s only three miles from Thorpe Park and might just be the best way to relax after all those thrill rides.

Full competition terms and conditions

Play and Stay Needs You

January 28th, 2009

Play and Stay is changing this year and we need your help.

Been to a theme park in the last 12 months? Taken some pictures of you and your family/friends on your favourite rides? Or maybe you made a video of your day out.

We are looking for your pictures and videos to display on our all new site. So, if you think you can help, please email us at playandstay@googlemail.com with anything you think we might be able to use.

If you are stuck for ideas, check out our photostream on flickr. New photos are being uploaded all the time and we would really appreciate your help in this matter.

We also have own youtube account where you can see a variety of ride videos. Check it out.

Thanks in advance, and stay tuned for news of the all new Play and Stay site as and when it happens.

order viagra phone

Tenuous LEGOLAND Based Blog Of The Week

November 27th, 2008

You know what makes a man? A good hat is what makes a man. My colleague, nemesis and fellow Play and Stay® blog contributor, Gore, knows the value of a good hat more than most.

You see dear reader, hats keep your head warm, they protect you from the ever-present threat of falling bird doings and they look good. People should wear more hats, particularly hats that are made of LEGO®!

Impossible you say? No gentle reader, ’tis not. You see in the wacky world of catwalk fashion, a world where girls in desperate need of a Jammy Dodger dictate next season’s trends, LEGO seems to be en vogue.

Designer, Jean Charles de Castelbajac displayed some LEGO® inspired outfits at a fashion show recently. Behold, ladies and gentlemen….the future of fashion!

If your retina survived the onslaught of primary-coloured goodness then congratulations, you have seen the future! Join the revolution, tonight I shall be making a pith helmet for day to day wear and a LEGO deerstalker for you know, special occasions.

Tenuous LEGOLAND Based Blog Of The Week

October 9th, 2008

Over the past couple of months we’ve brought you some pretty nifty LEGO® based gizmos. The LEGO toilet roll dispenser and the mindstorms Donkey Kong were particularly impressive. This week I want to go beyond impressive, past amazing and into the realm of record breaking LEGO action.

As you may have seen on the news or interwebs recently, the world record for tallest LEGO tower was recently beaten. A legion of children in Vienna have made a 96.7 foot tower, apparently to commemorate “100 years of Friends of Children”.

As usual, I have a problem with this new tallest tower. It’s only seven inches taller than LEGOLAND® Windsor’s tower, that’s just laziness! If you’re going to be mean enough to beat someone’s record at least do it by a considerable margin. The new tower is around 1,160 inches tall. The very least the Friends of Children and their army of tiny people could have done is round it up and build a 1,200 inch tower.

I think it’s for the best if we ignore the existence of this new record breaking tower until the Friends of Children try a bit harder and make it a bit bigger. Until then the record is still held (in our eyes) by our good chums over at LEGOLAND® Windsor. Here’s a video of their tower, if you want to know what the new one looks like just imagine Vienna in the background and add a few inches on top.

Really tall things are not the only LEGO records, there are also really long things, really big things and lots of little things close together. The longest LEGO structure is apparently 5179 feet long and it lives in Shopville Le Gru in Grugliasco, Italy. I can’t find a great deal out about it so I’m imagining a long string of LEGO bricks circling round a shopping centre, long but not particularly impressive.

I was intrigued, so I phoned the Guinness world record people to ask about LEGO based records and how we would go about breaking one. According to the somewhat dismissive phone wrangler I was put through to, they don’t like LEGO specific records and instead refer to LEGO as “Interlocking plastic bricks” to avoid “branding issues”. This means all speed building records are out, I have neither the space nor the supply of LEGO to attempt a tallest tower and I lack the army of children it seems to require to build most of the biggest/tallest/longest “interlocking plastic brick constructions”.

Any idea as to what LEGO records we can break here at the Play and Stay® office? We’re happy to go for non-LEGO records if they are relevant to us, theme park based suggestions would be equally welcome. Suggestions in the comment box please chaps.