Legoland Malaysia

Asia's first LEGOLAND is gearing up for its official opening on 15 Sep 2012. The View from Mama's Desk takes a sneak peek at this park that has more than 40 rides, shows and attractions, specially built for kids as young as 2 years old.

How It All Started

Check out Lego's history with this short animated film that was produced for their 80th anniversary. An inspirational film that shows how hard work and perseverance paid off for the Christiansen family. The Legoland we know today is one of the fruits of their labour.

I received an invite to the media preview of Legoland Malaysia on 1 Sept, two weeks before their grand opening on 15 Sept 2012. Nathan has been asking to go ever since we chanced upon their road show at Raffles City several months back. So last Saturday, all of us woke up bright and early and made our way to Malaysia.

Getting To Legoland Malaysia

All in all, the trip from our home to Legoland took about 30 minutes via Tuas Link. Immigration clearance was smooth, and the route to Legoland was well marked by road signs. Take Nusajaya exit 312. GPS: 1º 26’ 14" N 103º 37’ 2" E. It is recommended that you have breakfast before reaching the park. Parking is a plenty, but do take note of the row number in which you parked. There are signs erected at the beginning of each row, and by the time you leave the park at the end of they day, there are so many cars, and all the rows look the same, locating your car will be a challenge if you do not remember where you parked.

 

Ticketing

Buy your tickets online to save time queueing. The last thing you want to do is to stand in line with excited kids who can't wait to get in the park.

The Park

The park is divided into themed sections. Some of the attractions have height and age restrictions. Do check that you fulfill the requirements before you even start queueing. The restrictions are in place for your safety. Noah at 1 1/2 years of age does not meet the height requirements of these rides with height restrictions (usually minimum 90 or 100cm). If you have young kids, it might be a good idea to check out these requirements beforehand. As long as you know your child's height, you'll be able to see the sign boards a distance away with the height requirement clearly marked in red. Steer your kids away if you know they are too short to ride. It'll be much easier than having to deal with a disappointed kid who gets turned away at the queue. The nice thing is that the kiddy rides tend to have shorter queues, and the park attendants are happy to let your kids take additional rounds on these rides if they so desire.

Lego City

Our first stop was Lego City, where we got to see the Driving School, Airport, Fire Station, Boating School, Shipyard and Train Station.
















Junior Driving School - Nathan got to ride these cars at the Junior Driving School for kids 3 to 5 years old. There is another Driving School for kids 6 to 13 years. Any older, I'm sorry but you are too old for the Lego Driving School. :P

Noah was too short and had to be content with sitting on the stationary version.

Remote Control Boat - There was no height/age restriction for these remote control boats, but Nathan and Noah were both asked to wear life jackets. Noah was fussing as he didn't want to put on the life jacket, but after some coaxing, he did, and we enjoyed the short cruise down Lego river. :)

The Shipyard - A playground where kids get to climb all the way to the bridge and take in the view from a higher point. There was no one else at the playground when we were there, so my boys had the whole playground to themselves. :)

Lego Rescue Academy - Help to put out the fire using these Lego fire engines. My kids were too young to ride. Nathan was disappointed, but we promised to bring him back when he was older.

Legoland Express - This train takes you around LEGOLAND and gives you a good overview of what the park offers. Do not be put off by the long queues. Trains depart at 5 minute intervals, and each train load takes a sizable group.

Lego City Airport - This looks really fun but was closed the day we were there. :( Note that height restrictions apply.

Land of Adventure

Most of the rides here had height / age restrictions... so we didn't get to try them out. We'll be back when the kids are a little older. We tell Nathan that he needs to drink more milk and grow taller before we come back again.

Imagination

Build & Test - Here we got to build Lego cars and pit them against other Lego cars in a specially designed race ramp. Nathan really enjoyed himself here building his very own car, and getting it to race over and over and over again. The car that daddy and Noah built won all the races!

Subjecting the cars to an earthquake test

The winning car is on the right

I saw a lady building her very own Lego house on stilts and asked to take a picture of it. Nice, isn't it? You'll also get to put your Lego building on a platform that stimulates and earthquake and see if your build is able to withstand the tremors.

This is a nice air conditioned place to 'hide' when you get tired of sweating out in the sun. We spent a good 40 minutes just building, racing and rebuilding our cars.

Observation Tower - This is much like the Tiger Sky Tower in Sentosa. It takes visitors to a position 41m above ground where they can take in an aerial view of the park. I imagine the view to be breath taking. Didn't get to ride as they were running at long time intervals the day we were there and was limited for media personnel only. I didn't want the husband/kids to wait for me in the heat.

Duplo Playtown - A shaded play area with kids' sized Lego vehicles, slides, trains etc. Good for the younger kids.

Duplo Express - A mini version of Legoland Express.

Lego Studios - 4D movies. In addition to 3D images, experience additional effects like wind and water. Three shows running daily - A Clutch Powers, Spellbreaker and Racers. We caught Racers and I am glad that both the boys sat throughout and enjoyed the show, less the bit when water sprayed... Noah fussed (as expected).

Miniland

Miniland is made up of more than 30 million LEGO® bricks. Famous Asian countries and cities are recreated on a scale of 1:20. In the Singapore cluster, we spot The Singapore Flyer and the Fullerton Hotel. It bears a stunning resemblance to the city and even lights up at night!

Lego Kingdom

The Dragon - Judging from the long queues, this is one of the more popular rides. Nathan really wanted to go on this roller coaster ride, but he was 5cm too short.

Royal Joust - A mechanical horse ride for the little ones. Nathan went twice... He liked it but there was one part which he said was a bit scary. Adults are not allowed on this ride. Sorry big kids. :(

Lego Technic

Everything in Lego Technic is big fast and action packed. Most of the rides here had height/age restrictions and at least two of them involved getting wet. So we didn't get to try any of the rides here. Maybe next time.

Speciality Shops

The retail highlight at LEGOLAND® is the Big Shop. It covers an area of 1,000 square metres and has the largest selection of LEGO® toys in Asia. It is stocked with rare items as well as merchandise sourced exclusively by the LEGO Group from Europe. Boasting over 500 LEGO sets and carrying more than 1,500 licensed LEGO products it is a retail heaven for any LEGO fan.

Buy only items that you do not see in retail shops in Singapore. When I compared prices, I found that the creator sets and city sets that are also sold in Singapore are more expensive from the Big Shop. Things to buy would be the collector sets which you do not find in Singapore. I bought the Volkswagon Camper Van. The detail is impressive not just on the exterior, but even the interior.  I am hoping to find time to build this real soon. I am a closet Lego fan and this is the first Lego set that I am buying for myself. I feel like a kid again. :)

Another speciality store that I was keen on checking out was The Brick Shop. This is the only shop of its kind in Asia where LEGO® fans can buy single LEGO bricks. There are 275 different LEGO elements to choose from to help fans build their own unique designs. The Brick Shop also features a Build-a-Minifigure section where shoppers can create their very own LEGO figures. Sadly, it was not opened on media preview day.

Baby Care Room

There is one baby care room that is situated at the Imagination section of the park, near the Duplo Playtown. It was still not ready on media preview day but supposedly boasts a baby-changing area with diapers, rocking chairs for nursing mothers and highchairs, as well as a refrigerator and microwave for preparing a baby's meals.

The other toilets throughout the park are equipped with pull down changing tables, so you need not trek all the way here for diaper changes.










Food
There are 7 restaurants / snack bars scattered throughout the park. We had lunch at Market Restaurant which served stuff like chicken rice, roast chicken, nuggets and pasta. Several items on the menu was not available though. Also, not a single high chair was in sight.

Noah wasn't keen on eating anything we ordered. Thankfully, I had packed some snacks from home, so he had those to fill his tummy.

All in all, we spent about 8 hours at the park, from opening time at 10am till 6pm. It is the first theme park visit for both the boys, and evidently, they enjoyed themselves. Thank you Legoland!

Things to Bring

1) Sun block - there isn't much shade in the park, and it gets really hot by mid day. reapply during lunch. that said, not a good idea to visit when it rains.

2) Stroller - if you have young kids, bring a stroller. the park is stroller friendly and you can leave your diaper bag, bottles of water, snacks etc in the stroller.

3) Dark drape (if you are bringing a stroller) - bring a baby blanket or dark muslin wrap to drape on your stroller sun shade so your little ones get less direct sunlight on them. I found the stroller sun shade inadequate. Good for mid day naps.

4) Bottles of drinking water - at least one bottle for every member of the family. rehydrate. you'll be sweating buckets.

5) Change of clothes - the kids get pretty sweaty by mid day, so you might want to change their tops around lunch time. some of the rides involve water, so the adults can get wet too. 

6) Lunch / Snacks - there are restaurants in the park, but I think they'll get pretty crowded when it  officially opens. you might want to pack sandwiches, bananas, biscuits etc.

7) Good comfortable walking shoes

8) Camera