travel

Let’s go to Legoland!

After 2.5 years, the husband makes a return as a guest blogger. The official reason is because he was my editorial rep on a visit to Legoland with the kids (the 2 big ones). The unofficial reason has more to do with me phoning it in and making him do work while I lie down for a nap. 

So despite the wife’s attempts to secure a covert last minute exit to Malaysia a week after giving birth, we all decided it made sense for her not to travel. Being the dutiful husband, I was thus assigned volunteered to bring the kids down to the media preview of Legoland on Saturday.

For those of you thinking of driving down, a quick word – DO IT.  It’s just a 15min drive from the Tuas checkpoint, and with hardly any traffic along the way we made it there in slightly over an hour. Of course if you’re the sort that gets panicky with with road names like Jalan Persimuang Berhenti Muas 1/125, you might wanna plot the address into your GPS or something but either way getting there is pretty much a breeze.

When we arrived we were quickly ushered into a world where everything was literally put together, Lego brick by brick.

Now I don’t know your thoughts on Lego as a toy but wading through a darkened room littered with Lego bricks is akin to an ancient Chinese torture for belligerent parents. It was really nice to see them all properly set in their place in the form of Lego architecture and OH WOW THAT’S THE MERLION.

Apparently, over 50 million Lego bricks have been used to build the models, and it shows – the attention to detail is simply remarkable. More than once I had to stop the kids from attempting to yank the miniature figurines from the various recreated cities; heck, even I wanted to steal the Taj Majal below but settled for a picture instead.

On to the rides and attractions, and there were plenty. Legoland Malaysia boasts over 40 attractions and many of them suitable for the younger ones. With Kirsten, height limit was always going to be an issue but I’m happy to report that she made it for quite a few. Usually when I bring the kids out I do the  “Are you having fun?” check but I think it was quite evident from her whooping (“WOAH THAT WAS GREAT, DADDY! YIPPEE!”) and frantic waving after every single ride.

Oh, and a big shout out to the very encouraging instructors at the Junior Driving school who egged Kirsten on after a shaky start. She got so good at it after five rides she was waving at me as she drove past with one hand on the steering wheel.

Being the adrenaline junkie that he was, Truett was clamoring for roller-coasters after the umpteenth horse-ride (seen above) which he complained was ‘very, very very slow.’ The boy has seemingly, and rather unfortunately, picked up my penchant for exaggerating stuff. Anyhow,  we manage to find one at Lego Kingdoms and six loops later he was beaming with a satisfied grin and an Edwardian hairstyle to boot.

I have to make a special mention for the Lego Build & Test Centre. This is like a builder’s workshop of sorts; you’re handed a set of wheels at the entrance and there are working tables and benches with a variety of Lego bricks strewn all around. Pick a spot and you can just go on to build your own vehicles. There’re even tracks provided with automated launch mechanisms so you can race your prototype against others.

After the brief respite from the blazing heat in the airconditioned Build & Test Centre, we ventured out again and decided to take up the noble task of firefighting.

The station marshalers spiced things up a little by pitting us against three other families in a bit of a competition. There’s a sequence to it; first you’ve got to pump this hydraulic thingee in the vehicle to drive the fire engine towards the house. Once there you dash out of the fire engine, grab a hose, put out the ‘fire’ with sprayed water from aforementioned hose, head back into the fire engine, and pump hydraulic thingamajig to return fire engine to base. First one back to base wins bragging rights.

We did emerge fourth which I suppose wasn’t too bad, with two tots in tow. There were only four lanes, though.

Towards the end of the day we started to wrap up by slowing things down a little. We caught a couple of 4D shows – ‘Spellbinder’ is pretty good – and took our taking our time just exploring the sights and sounds. In between the various zones were carnival booths like this, and the kids had a great time doing a bit of fishing on a extra large version of a toy every child of the 80s should be familiar with.

We spent close to eight hours at the park and while doing a bit of research writing this post I realized we’d only covered about half the park or so! Some of the rides weren’t quite ready at the point of completion and the rest, we missed out just because of the sheer size of the park. Does that warrant a trip back up any time soon? Hell yeah, but the next time I’ll be bringing my sunglasses along and slapping on generous dollops of sunscreen- the kids and I are 50 shades darker from the expedition.

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10 Comments

  • Reply Susan September 3, 2012 at 3:14 pm

    Great job there Kelvin for giving your wife her well deserved rest. Love it when parents do the tag-team act together. I would love to visit Legoland when it opens and heard there’s a Hello Kitty land opening too. JB is so making $$ from us.
    Susan´s last post ..Motivational Monday – Getting back my baking groove

    • Reply Kelvin September 4, 2012 at 7:04 pm

      Thanks Susan! I’m so not bringing Kirsten to Hello Kitty land though. That is, unless she asks very nicely. Then we’ll see. Haha!

  • Reply Geraldine September 3, 2012 at 3:40 pm

    Seems like the kids and you had a great blast! Any adult will love the extra large version fish pond too :)
    Geraldine´s last post ..What Silly First Time Mums Do

    • Reply Kelvin September 4, 2012 at 7:05 pm

      Ya that was my favourite toy as a kid. Although now when I see it in stores I can’t stand the annoying music it usually comes with, LOL.

  • Reply Madeline September 4, 2012 at 9:04 am

    Wow nice write up! Perhaps u shd guest blog more often so Daphne can take more naps haha. Great meeting you guys at the park :)
    Madeline´s last post ..A Visit to the New Legoland!

    • Reply Kelvin September 4, 2012 at 7:17 pm

      Hey Madeline, good to have bumped into you and little Jaelle too. :) Guess we were all taking shelter from the crazy sun. It was good fun though huh!

  • Reply janeeeee September 4, 2012 at 11:03 pm

    Daddy writes very well! He should be a guest writer more often so mummy can take more naps, hahaa! Legoland sounds fun and super hot …

    • Reply Kelvin September 6, 2012 at 11:59 am

      Thanks Janeeeeee, you’re very kind. If I knew this would turn out to be such an ego-boost I would have volunteered to guest-blog every other week. Haha!

  • Reply 2012. August. Day #27 – Bricks | Jayne | A Photo Diary September 5, 2012 at 10:14 am

    […] media reviews by other bloggers here, here, here, and here.  Pin ItLike this:Like2 bloggers like this. This entry was posted in […]

  • Reply Shaun May 28, 2023 at 12:32 am

    I remember so many cool Lego sets from the 80s
    Shaun´s last post ..10 Best LEGO Sets Of The 1980s

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