Legoland Florida review- is it worth it with preschoolers?

Thinking about taking a trip to Legoland Florida with your preschool aged children? Here’s everything you need to know to decide if it’s worth it!

Our five year old son is obsessed with Legos, so for his preschool graduation present, we took him and his 3 year old sister to Legoland Florida!

To set the stage, they have never been to a theme park before in their lives, so this was their first experience.

We thought it would be a good option because we’d heard the rides weren’t too big, we could drive there from South Carolina, and they would be familiar with the Lego theme in general.

We spent three days at Legoland Florida and got the full experience and I can tell you without a doubt that it is a great place to go with preschool kids. Let’s take a look at some of what you can expect!

Is Legoland Florida worth it with preschool-aged kids?

Honestly, not only is Legoland great for preschools, I don’t think you want to get all that much older in general. This isn’t really a park for teenagers and bigger kids. I’d say about 10 years old is probably the max that would get the full enjoyment out of this park.

I would also say that this is not a great place to go if you have a toddler. Most of the rides require a minimum height of 40″ to ride with an adult and many required 44″.

We went one day with friends of ours who had a 3 year old who wasn’t 40″ tall and a baby, and this required one of the parents to sit out with both those kids during most of the rides. (also note – a lot of the rides let kids 40-48″ on – with an adult. It has to be a 1:1 ratio. If you have more kids than adults – they will not let 1 adult take 2 small kids!)

So if you have kids that all fit into the minimum height, then keep on reading and get ready for a fun trip.

Make sure you read our full review of the Legoland Florida Hotel to complete your trip!

Legoland Florida rides

The rides at Legoland Florida are a great mix of not too big and not too small. They are for the most part right in the sweet spot of something that most elementary aged kids would be able to do and enjoy.

There are a couple of very small roller coaster type rides, but they don’t go upside down or even that fast. They are a good introduction to roller coasters for sure.

Most of the rides, however, are more slow moving and taking you on some sort of visual journey.

For instance, there’s the Coast Guard boats that take you through a slow river, a safari ride that takes you slowly through a jungle of giant Lego animals, an interactive fire truck pumping ride, a water boat ride that squirts you with water throughout Bricksburg, and a giant interactive Lego Movie ride that shakes you in your stationary seat while you fly through a giant movie dome without moving.

I’m telling you, these rides are perfect for young kids. If they want to get adventurous, there are rides that lift you way up in the air and drop you really fast, and there’s the 3D Ninjago ride that zips you around while you have to fight evil skeletons and snakes. Like I said, there’s a bit of everything.

The rides mostly have a good job of having covered waiting areas for while you’re in line, so you don’t have to roast in the sun the whole time.

But when we went at the end of May, there was barely a line to be found. And we went three days in a row, so it wasn’t a one day thing – this place just really wasn’t that crowded!

If you’re able to time out your experience, I definitely recommend going off-peak season, because it’s greatly going to increase the enjoyability of your experience.

Legoland Florida shows and non-ride attractions

There’s more to Legoland than the rides, of course. One thing we did each day at the very end of the day was catch a 4D movie in their theater. This was a great way to cool off in the air conditioning at the end of the day and enjoy a 12 minute show.

In the middle of the park is a giant full-tented area of large-scale Lego builds of cities around the USA. There’s Las Vegas, NYC, Washington DC, San Francisco and so much more.

These models are really cool to look at and think about what went into building them. I will say though that it’s clear these have been up for a long time and they are starting to show their wear.

Toward the back of the park, there’s a pirate boat ride that takes about 20 minutes through the lake and you can also watch the water sports show in the same place where they have waterskiers performing tricks.

Another non-ride attraction is the Lego Ferrari building. There’s a life-size Lego Ferrari in the lobby and then you can build your own race cars and launch them down tracks and ramps and compete with your friends.

Toward the back is also a video game where they can scan your car and you race it on a large screen. Very cool!

Legoland Florida dining

There were definitely lots of dining options inside Legoland, but we didn’t really take advantage of the meals they offer. Everything is very expensive and I didn’t expect the food to be worth it.

However, we did get some apple fries, ice cream and snacks like that throughout our time there.

The only time we ate an official meal was when we went to the waterpark (more on that in a minute) and we got tacos and chicken fingers. The two tacos were almost $20 and were very average, so that’s what you can expect.

Our biggest tip with dining at Legoland is to bring your own food. We packed sandwiches, snacks and juice boxes and took them with us in our backpack and sat down in a shaded area for lunch in the park.

This was much easier for on the go dining and much more affordable. We ate restaurant food at dinner and breakfast, so I was glad for a break from the french fries for lunch, anyways.

Legoland Florida souvenir shops

There’s quite a few souvenir shops inside Legoland to help you remember your trip. The main one is The Big Shop right inside the entrance where they have lots and lots of Lego sets and merchandise.

Here, you can find some “Legoland exclusive” sets that are renditions of the park and different rides (there’s even a full park set for $99).

Our son loved picking out the Ninjago ride set to take home!

Legoland Florida Waterpark

One other huge part of Legoland Florida is their waterpark. It’s located literally at the very very back of the park and is an additional cost, but if you’re going to be there for more than one day, I think it’s a must-do one day.

Our passes we got when we booked the Legoland Hotel got us passes to the park and waterpark, so we spent one whole day at the waterpark.

It was way bigger than I expected, but also seemed even more crowded than the park itself.

Inside the Legoland waterpark, there is a Duplo small kids section, really long lazy river, massive wave pool, humongous climbing play structure with slides and pool, and give giant drop slides.

The lazy river is great, with single and double tubes and some floating Lego bricks. The wave pool is huge and does big waves for about 10 minutes on, 10 minutes off.

The two sets of waterslides are really cool, one being for tubes and one being just bodies. Kids over 44″ could do the tube slide with an adult, but not the single person non-tube slides. These were great, but they usually had a pretty substantial line.

And let’s just take a second to talk about “The Joker Soaker.” This is their interactive play area, with climbing, slides, sprayers and a massive bucket that dumps hundreds of gallons of water every couple minutes.

This thing is crazy and your preschoolers are going to love it.

Should I take preschoolers to Legoland?

So I hope you gathered from this post that yes, I think you should definitely take preschools to Legoland. If your kids love Lego, this is a great way to get them immersed in the experience. Also, if you’re considering going to bigger parks some day, like Disney World, this is a great way to test the waters and see how your kids hold up.

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