Europe 2015- Paultons Park (Part One)

Discovering new theme parks is always at the top of our vacation itinerary. On an overcast Monday in July, we took the kids to Paultons Park in Hampshire.

Why Paultons? It's the home of Peppa Pig World!!!!

For those not in the know, Peppa Pig is a British children's show, about a family of pigs, Peppa being the daughter pig. It's absolutely adorable and pretty much required morning television watching when we stay in English hotels. I was too overwhelmed by piggy cuteness, to notice the sexist message for which the show has been criticized. I didn't even realize it until we told people about going to Paultons Park and getting the anti-Peppa reaction. Next trip, I'll pay more attention when watching. Either way, the characters are super cute.

Paultons Park is one of the best, if not the very best, value attractions that we have experienced. Everything was less expensive than we anticipated. Paultons is a full-sized theme park, definitely on par with Legoland, but for a family of four, our entrance was only ninety-three pounds. Parking was free! Not only that, food and souvenirs were very reasonably priced. The prices shocked me and made the day so much sweeter.

Vending machines with water and fruit snacks was another difference. This isn't to say that the park is void of junk food, but that they balanced it with making healthy options readily available. This one was really great, because it's not even located next to an unhealthy option.

The front gate had a pretty pond with fish and flowers made out of colorful glass.

Just inside the entrance was The Floating Globe. Of course, we had to stop and find Sweden, England and The United States. It was hard to catch them, as the globe was revolving at a fast clip.

We wanted to get on some rides! Here are shots as we walked through the front of the park. The building facades were fun, they reminded me of Universal Studios.

I thought Peppa Pig World would be the best part of the park, but I really loved this wacky mad-scientist themed land. It was a new addition and the paint was vibrant. The kids could have rode the Cat-O-Pillar Coaster all day long.

The obligatory tea-cup ride.

After feeling sick from the obligatory tea-cup ride, I played photographer, as Dan took the kids on a spinning Viking ship ride and the Pirate ship; other theme park staples.

Ice cream= The Breakfast of Champions. I love English style Whippy ice cream.

The Victorian Carousel was surrounded by amazing topiary. My favorite was the lion and lion tamer.

There is much more to come! Stay tuned for part two of my Paulton Park trip report, including Peppa Pig World!

UK August-October 2013- Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel

As a special treat, we surprised the kids with a two night stay in a pirate themed room at the Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel. I think that us adults may have been more excited than the kids to see our themed room.

Just like the theme park, no detail is spared at the Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel.

The lobby is full of Lego characters and it has an enormous pool filled with Lego bricks waiting to be turned into unique creations.

On the second night of our trip, we spent some time playing in the Lego pool. Zoe showed pride in her country and created a Swedish flag. Dan made a Lego man to hold my blog business card. We put the creations on the display shelf for everyone to see and they were judged in a daily contest. We didn't win, but a lot of people saw my blog advertisement! We were given participant stickers for entering.

Our Pirate room was extremely cool.

At check-in, the kids were given a clue map that led them on a treasure hunt around our room that ended with a secret code that they used to unlock a treasure chest that was guarded by a monkey. Inside of the chest, they were rewarded with a treasure of Lego toys to keep.

In addition to the treasure chest toys, there was a giant tub filled with Lego bricks for the kids to play with in the room.

Our room had two bedrooms with a shared bathroom in the middle. My favorite design touch was the Lego butterfly and dragonfly on the ceiling. The room was spacious and comfortable. The kids really liked their bunk beds.

Overall, the room was brilliant, except for one problem. We decided to stay here, because four- year old Felix was in a pirate-phase, but he was frightened by the monkey on the treasure chest. He didn't say anything until we were leaving the hotel, but at night, with the monkey near the kid's bunk beds, he had been scared. If we stay at the resort in the future, we will pick a different themed room!

We ate in the hotel's Bricks Family Restaurant three times, twice for breakfast and once for dinner. Here's the low-down about Bricks. The food is served buffet style, including the drinks and the buffet area is fairly small, although the restaurant seats a large number of people. We had breakfast included in our stay and so did everyone else, so breakfast is a chaotic, crowded mess. Everyone is grumpy and in a rush, trying to eat fast before the park opens. In the future, we would probably just pay to eat elsewhere.

Dinner at Bricks is to be avoided at all costs. The food was nearly inedible. It was so bad, that I filled up on Spaghetti-O's from the kid's section of the buffet. Zoe, who loves ice cream, picked at her dessert as it melted. The food is just disgusting. Disgusting and incredibly overpriced. My adult dinner (Spaghetti-O's) was 18.95 ( pounds, which you can practically double to get the exchange rate). Gulp.

You shouldn't eat there, but in its defense, Bricks had two things going for it.

The staff were saints. They were quick, efficient and ran the mad-house with a smile. During our dinner, I was alone with Zoe, as Dan had to take Felix to the emergency room. I didn't have any cash and they will not accept tips on credit cards. Our server was awesome and completely understanding that I would have to come back with her tip the next day. They even kept the restaurant open a little late for us, as this emergency had us arriving to eat as they were closing. If they had not stayed open, we wouldn't have had another option for dinner. I was very grateful. Excellent, above and beyond customer service. This customer service extends to the entire hotel, as the staff was exceedingly friendly and helpful.

Also, like the rest of the hotel and theme park, Bricks has a cute and creative Lego design, characters sprinkled throughout the restaurant. Don't eat there, but go take a peek at it!

A stay at the Legoland Windsor Resort Hotel is a special experience and well-worth the extra expense. As a bonus, you can go on all of the water rides, get soaked and go back to your hotel room to change into dry clothes! The kids have already asked if we are going back this summer, which we may need to our vacation plans.

England March 2013- LEGOLAND Windsor Part One

As a theme park fanatic, I was thrilled when Dan's parents treated us to a day at Legoland Windsor on our March trip. Next to visiting Historical landmarks, there is nothing that I love more than visiting a theme park. Although we live in Southern California, I've never visited Legoland in Carlsbad.

We went to Legoland on the opening day of their 2013 Season. It was cold, rainy and mercifully quiet. We didn't wait more than ten minutes for any attraction and most we were able to walk right on.

As one might expect, Legoland Windsor is located within view of Windsor Castle. I found this to be a bit of a marvel. Windsor Castle is such an iconic structure and it was hard to believe that it was so close to a theme park. I soaked in its view every time it came into sight.

Here is a picture of the castle that I took while driving through the town of Windsor.

The first sign that Legoland was near.

Is it still quicker if everyone opts to take the alternate route?

The long driveway up to Legoland was dotted with Lego creations welcoming us to the park.

We finally made to the park entrance and proceeded with our tickets that had been pre-purchased tickets. A huge THANK YOU to Dan's parents!

Quiet at the turnstiles for opening day 2013.

Naturally, as a complete theme park geek, I had to take pictures of the park map and digital wait time sign. I spent many, many years at Universal Studios Hollywood updating the digital wait time signs.

Legoland Windsor Digital Wait Time Directory (somewhere in an office, someone is updating this sign)

The park doesn't look like much when you first enter it, because the entrance is at the top of a hill and much like Universal Studios Hollywood, the rides are tucked away on different levels of the hill. The park is actually enormous. We visited on a slow day and although we did a lot, including multiple rides on favorites, we still couldn't manage to see the entire park. There is so much to do.

Here is the view of Windsor Castle from the top level of Legoland.

We headed straight down to the lower levels and as a consequence ran out of time before we could do the things at the top, such as this cool looking building.

Dan loves to take Panoramas and took this one from the top of the park. Looking out over the park, we still had no clue that Legoland was so huge. It was deceptive!

I love Disney, but visiting Legoland made me realize that Legoland is a vastly superior theme park experience for little kids. Our group included Dan's parents and Dan's two kids, ages three and five. The kids absolutely loved the park. I've visited Disneyland with various toddlers (kids of my friends) and there are many attractions, even in Fantasyland, that are just too scary. Practically all of the rides at Legoland are toddler friendly and even the most scary, like The Dragon coaster, are mild in comparison to Disney's offerings. This is an ideal first park for children.

One of the kid friendly touches were tunnel slides located next to the stairs on the hillside. It's much more fun to slide than it is to walk!

Also located on the hillside, just off the walk way.

Our first stop was Miniland. Miniland was my favorite part of the park. The land houses an amazing collection of famous landmarks recreated out of Lego. It became a running joke that now we don't need to travel anywhere, because we saw it at Miniland.

Although Miniland was mostly filled with recreations of European landmarks, one of the first things that we encountered was America's Mount Rushmore. Dan and I have been wanting to make a trip to South Dakota to see the real thing, but now that we have seen the Lego version, maybe we can skip it?

Dan and I at Lego Mount Rushmore. Been there, done that.

Dan took another one of his panorama shots. Like the rest of Legoland, Miniland is much larger than it appears.

This place is so big that it needs it own mayor!

Dan took a panorama of London.

On this, my first trip to England, it was too cloudy to see London when we flew into Heathrow. No worries, I still managed to take in all of the sights!

Next trip, I hope to visit the real Stonehenge.

I also want to visit the Minack Theatre. I had never heard of it prior to seeing the Lego version, but it looks like an utterly amazing place to experience live theater.

Sporting Events in Lego

Castles in Lego

Miniland had so many places in Europe in miniature, that it almost felt like going on a whirlwind tour of the World Showcase in EPCOT... except of just of Europe and Mount Rushmore.