Family Travel Countdown

Each of us picked a destination that the family could not object to.  Isabella’s pick was Legoland.  When we looked at the map, we noticed there was one across the border from Singapore in Johor, Malaysia.  There was a hotel, theme park and water park all under the Lego brand.  What better way to start the New Year than two days hunkered down with all things Lego.  We also realized that going to Denmark (to the original Legoland) would blow our budget in a couple of days. So off to Johor we went!

First, you need to understand that our children love Lego!  Isabella received a Lego set for Christmas, which was too big and was sent back home.  She sneaks Lego Minifigures into her purse when we go out for dinner. She wakes up in the morning to watch Lego clips on TV.  I even had to get an account with an Australian TV station so she could watch the Holiday Brickmas special on television. Yep, this kid was excited!   Paige and I were more apprehensive. What would we do? How “babyish” would the park be?  Turns out we were wrong. From an age standpoint, we probably picked the absolute best time for our children to visit.  A five-year-old and an 8-year-old.  We don’t know how much fun Isabella would have had a year from now.  As for Julie, 6 months ago, she would have missed the all-important 110cm height cutoff.  Being 111cm made it enjoyable for everyone, as both children could go on ALL the rides.

Anyways, first, we had to get to Malaysia.  The border crossing felt similar to the Buffalo-Toronto crossing.  We hired a private car to drive us from our Singapore hotel to Legoland.  At the border, the driver just rolled down the back windows; we waved at immigration, got our stamps and added Malaysia to our list.  Being dropped off at the hotel was exciting as huge mini-figures graced the entrance. In the lobby (and throughout the hotel), there are vats of Legos to play with while the parents do the boring check-in.  We set our baggage aside and rushed directly to the theme park which involved taking an elevator and walking 100 metres.

It was a bloody hot day (every day is north of 30 degrees now) and fortunately the park was so close to the hotel.  Before discussing the rides, I first need to say how lucky we are with everything.  We didn’t know the park closes one day a week for cleaning, so it worked out perfectly.  We would go to the theme park on Wed and the water park on Thurs (they were closed on opposite days).  Secondly, because it is the offseason, we had no lineups for any of the rides.  It was great walking through huge queue lines for rides like Ninjago to get to the front and board the next car.  Anyways, the theme park was enjoyed by the children with them getting their driver’s licences, crashing boats and riding the roller coasters.  But in true lego fashion, we spent the most time building Lego cars that you could race down ramps.  Julie worked for 15 minutes on hers, sent it down the track and it exploded to pieces.  So did her heart! And we had to spend 30 minutes building her a better one. The parents supported this air-conditioned exercise, but the kids actually didn’t want to leave even after an hour.  We had to remind them there were rides outside and eventually got them out.  For the record, none of our contraptions ever did make it down the ramp with the jump.  

  As for Legoland waterpark, the biggest advantage was that our youngest could go on ALL the slides (unlike our Bali Waterbom day).  That meant a parent could relax and read a book while the other waited at the bottom of the slides (you can guess who read the book).  The kids would sprint up together and race each other down.  Due to the lack of people, they could do about 6 slides an hour which (contrasted against the 1 per hour we average at Splashworks back home). And you could actually get a raft on the lazy river (also never happens at home as the kids just float on you). 

So the waterpark and the theme park checked the boxes and made Isabella happy with her pick but the Legoland hotel was the icing on the cake.  Yes, the hotel had piles of legos for kids to play with, but they appreciated some of the smaller touches more.  The treasure hunt in the room is a definite winner (the end result is them cracking a safe to get a small lego set).  There is also the character meet and greet in the lobby (we only saw the chef) and finally there’s the disco ball and music in the elevators.  We would sing and dance whenever we rode an empty elevator..

As the song went:  Everything is awesome!

Next is a more “normal” travel week with our stay in Kuala Lumpur.

Where we stayed:

• Legoland Hotel:  Lego, Lego, Lego, Lego, LEGO

By the numbers:

• Family scores on Ninjago:  2000, 3000, 22750, 75300 (Julie won and levelled up to Ninja level)
• Number of times Isabella entered the wrong combination in the treasure hunt safe:   6 – she isn’t the best at taking her time
• River Races won by Dad at the waterpark:  4 – the kids were too light and I was too good
• Crashes at boat driving School by Paige and Isabella – 2 (Julie and I passed them twice)
• Servings of rice at the hotel breakfast:  3 – it was green (Pandan flavour)

Ciao for now,

Mike