Wiggins World!!!: LEGOLAND FLORIDA!!

Well, as I mentioned at the end of my previous post, Asher woke up last Wednesday (the 24th) with a high fever. This was odd, as he had been on meds for 24 hours, and we expected all his symptoms to dissipate! The fever continued to be very high throughout the day, and he added a runny nose to his symptom list. I was in touch with the nurse at the pediatrician’s office. They really don’t like to bring them in unless it’s very necesary, so she said to give him another day. On Thursday the temp was a bit lower (102.5 or so for the high), and then on Thursday night he woke up in a complete sweat, which I had heard was a good thing- sweat that fever out! He said “I don’t like to be wet Mommy!!” Bless his heart.
Friday morning started out as a low grade fever, then spiked at about 9am. I took him in to the dr and they said he most likely caught a virus on top of the strep (my theory is he caught it at the dr office on Monday and it kicked in Wednesday.)
So we stared at each other and wondered what to do. At this point his temp was about 100.5 and he was bouncing off the walls asking if we were going to LEGOLAND. He was definitely improved. And we’d be out a lot of money if we cancelled the fancy Legoland hotel. So we went with the understanding we’d come right home if he got worse,, and we’d Lysol before leaving so we didn’t share too many of our germs. The kids were excited!! Thankfully they all napped on the way down (and at the same time it was a miracle hahaha).
We arrived at Legoland just in time to activate our passes. One less thing to do in the morning before entering the park for the day. Then it was time to check into the hotel. WOW! What a cool hotel. The themeing is unbelievable. Everywhere you turn there are Legos. Lego pit in the lobby, behind the check in desk was an entire wall of minifigures (official term for Legomen). We had booked a Pirate room, and man was it exciting. Even the carpet and walls on the way to the room had pirates on it! Right when you walk into the room there was a set of bunk beds, complete with a TV and a sign that said “Adults keep out!” There was a treasure box and clues to get into the treasure box, and Asher wanted to do this before we even unloaded the van! Inside the box were 3 little sets of Legos, Lego magazines, juice boxes and special coins. Water bottles, juice boxes, coffee and tea are complimentary, and we were told to just call if we wanted more! There was a set of Duplo Legos for the kids to play with in the room, though Mommy couldn’t handle the germ factor so they stayed on the shelf.
Next to the kid area is the bathroom, and on the other side of that is a king size bed. We thought that could work in case one of them got up early in the morning- they’d have a place to come while the others slept a bit longer. Wishful thinking lol
After getting all settled in we went to a nearby Olive Garden for a yummy dinner, then headed back to the room. The kids declined the PJ Party and character greeting in favor of building Legos in the room. Then we attempted to put all three kids in the kid area for bed. This was somewhat of a disaster and something we had never tried before. Hope thought it was a party (we put her pack n play next to the bunks), and Hope and Hannah were awake past 10pm. Asher went to sleep pretty quickly, up on the top bunk.
In the morning we got up and went to the included breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant. The food was pretty good, and we beat the crowd woohoo! We then headed to the park, which was all of 200 feet from the entrance of the hotel. It was soooooo super convenient, especially since Asher still had a bit of a fever.
This is my opinion of Legoland (I think Jayme shares this opinion). Legoland is a SUPER fun park if you are Lego obsessed, as Asher is. The rides are very simple, and our kids loved them. Think tracks with various vehicles on them. There are also 4 roller coasters, our oldest ones can go on 3 of them at this point, but chose not to. There are two “shoot the target” type rides, and we went on one of them and they loved it. There’s a double decker carousel that Hope loved, and there’s a ski show with Lego pirates that they really enjoyed as well. Legoland is built on the property that used to be Cypress Gardens! We went there often as kids, so that’s a really fun fact! They have preserved part of the gardens, though we didn’t end up having time to go through them. The ski show had some similar elements in it as it did in the Cypress Gardens era, including the water skiers making a pyramid at the end as they ski around the lake. It was pretty neat.
There are also many opportunities to sit and build around the park. There's a whole building dedicated to this, and our kids (and Daddy) had fun building and racing their cars they had made. There are Lego tables at almost every ride that are for kids to build at while their parents wait in line.
Legoland can get a bit confusing about who can go on which ride. Hope was too short for a good amount of the rides, but the big kids didn't want to go on all of those rides. She was able to go on everything in the DUPLO area (themed with the bigger Lego blocks), and she is just 34 inches which let her on a few more things than if she were 33 inches (and most of the ride operators did a good measuring job).
We had EXCELLENT weather, it only got warm the afternoon of the first day, and even then there was a breeze.
There were special Halloween events as well, like Brick or Treat (get it, Lego pieces are called bricks...) and also a huge web set up that kids could make a Lego spider than then they’d attach it to the web. There were singing, light up pumpkins and various other special events like fireworks, though we didn’t make it that far.
Legoland is actually closed during some days of the week, depending on the time of year. They also have a water park that we hope to explore if we go back (we ended up buying Florida resident passes, as that was cheaper than a two day ticket. It is very expensive to just buy a regular one day ticket!)
Overall it was a really great park, and one we could enjoy several more times before we outgrow it. It is not Disney, (people like to compare the two parks) but they do offer rider switch for rides Hope can't go on, and our customer service was mostly good (except for when Jayme and Hannah had to wait about 12 minutes for a ride to start due to people being allowed to chose and change their seats and who was going to ride the ride, which was totally ridiculous). The hotel is really neat, though very expensive. It was worth it for a birthday trip, but maybe not for return trips.
OK! Enough blabbing, check out the next post for actual pics of rides and all the fun. :)

Sweet picture Asher made me, and pics of being sick on Wednesday. Bless him!