The Tale of the Grow Walk ….Hunh? DCL Magic and WDW Review

[jenseib]

I read each post with great interest. 1 week from right now we will be in Orlando for the big departure on Magic on Sunday. We are so excited because of your thread

 

Thank you so much for your time and the photos.

 

Glad I could help! You will have such a fun time!!!

[jenseib]

The drive to Legoland is not a short one. On top of that the scenery isn’t all that exciting either. Claire fell asleep in the backseat. I sure it was much needed sleep to get her through the day. She can be a bit cranky when she hasn’t had enough sleep.

As we got closer we stopped at a carryout and got some drinks and used the restroom. The area we stopped was kind of run down a bit.

Back on the road we headed towards our destination and finally saw signs for Legoland. For those that don’t know, Legoland used to be Cypress Gardens. I actually visited there when I was around 4. Of course I don’t remember much….but I do have some vague memories of it. I was excited to hear the Legoland has preserved an area of the gardens still and you can walk through them.

We made the right turns and finally got to the parking lot.

We had a little ways to walk to get to the entrance.

They do have a shuttle from Orlando, but it’s not really convenient to get to if staying on Disney property. You are better off renting a car for the day to save you some hassle and transfers.

Here we go!

[jenseib]

I had 2 free tickets to Legoland for Skip and I and we bought Claire’s ticket before our trip as well, so we headed right to the turnstyles.

Claire LOVES legos so we really enjoyed looking at all the creations.

[jenseib]

Claire was already eyeing the stores and we told her not till we leave!

Skip thinks he is so funny.

This could be Claire and I…..LOL!

[jenseib]

The Mansion is that way!

Now I have done a bit of reading in Cypress Gardens and it was Dick Pope and his wife who decided to open this park of Gardens and charge a 25 cent entrance fee back in 1936. In the 1970s, Cypress Gardens purchased Magnolia Mansion, the New Orleans style mansion, built on Lake Eloise by citrus magnate, John A. Snively. I seem to remember it from my youth….but I could be totally imagining it.

There were also waterski shows later added to the park…I do remember this from our visit. Legoland still has a waterski show here now.

[jenseib]

Time for a potty stop.

 

 

 

Claire getting a little cheeky…pun intended.

 

 

The plumber also talked…kind of sounded like a Mario Brother to me.

 

Back out to explore.

 

 

 

The factory was closed but I peeked through the windows.

 

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We headed towards the greenhouse.

 

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I believe these gardens were around the Mansion.

 

 

 

 

 

How cute are these?

 

 

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You don’t want rabbits to get to your vegetables.

 

 

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We put Claire to work.

 

 

 

 

Here is the Mansion.

 

 

I think this is the only picture I took. I can’t believe I didn’t take more of it.

 

 

[jenseib]

Since we are farmers, Skip loves to look at anything associated with farming.

 

 

This cracked me up….the wife if pregnant.

 

 

 

 

 

[jenseib]

Reminds us of home.

 

 

 

 

 

 

They had a little do it yourself play area, but there wasn’t much selection of legos to actually build with.

 

[jenseib]

It’s amazing the things they can make with legos.

 

 

After the greenhouse we were ready to do something and we saw that a show was going to start soon.

 

 

This was a 4-D type movie. They actually played 3 throughout the day at different times and I no longer even remember which we saw.

 

 

We had a seat in a practically empty theatre. Claire and I started to feel a drip of wet. We later realized that they had some sort of sprinklers for the 4-D effect and it was leaking exactly where we sat. The movie itself was good but the effects were poor and the screen shape was just awful….think Soarin’…and that screen is perfect compared to this one.

While in there we noticed that the families that were in there really had no manners and let their kids run wild; climbing over seats and talking loudly.

 

When it was over we tried to brush that experience off and hope it was just one bad time.

 

I took this picture because Claire loves Lego Friends.

 

 

We debated on eating but decided to wait for now.

 

 

[jenseib]

Love the mossy trees. I remember my first adult trip to FL with my best friend….we drove down and I remember seeing all the mossy trees and it was just an amazing thing. Not something I had expected at all. Now when I see them they bring back the good memories of that trip.

 

 

We headed over to Miniland next. This was one of the highlights of the whole day. You could spend hours here looking at all the details.

 

 

 

 

 

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Another beautiful tree in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

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New York City!

 

 

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As you can see I was going back and forth between the different displays. There was so much to see and it was amazing the amount of work put into these.

 

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As you can tell this is the Lego Movie area.

 

 

 

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The Obama’s were hanging out in front of the White House.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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There were some cute rides there, but many were kind of babyish.

 

 

We decided to head over to the Lost Kingdom Adventure ride.

 

 

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It had a bit of a line but it seemed to be moving fairly fast.

 

 

One thing we learned very quickly is that Legoland is very slow at loading and unloading rides. They need to go take a Disney class on this.

 

[jenseib]

Soon it was our turn.

 

 

If I remember right this game was similar to Buzz Lightyear. I know we had to shoot at things in here, but I don’t remember much else about it.

 

Surprisingly, Claire actually road with me. Whenever Skip is with us she always chooses to ride with him. Maybe I bribed her with something?

 

 

Or maybe she was tired of hearing him say Hunh?

 

We moved on looking for something else to do. We really had a hard time navigating around the park. It was so unfamiliar to us….and I think we missed at least 2 sections all together.

 

 

 

We ended up needing a drink and a snack. I was starving and Skip was pushing lunch back. If you know me…I need to eat in the day or I become a bit grumpy. We ended up buying a ridiculously expensive small bucket of popcorn that was supposed to have cheap refills. In the end we never found other places to refill it and never did. Also the drinks seemed very high priced as well.

 

 

Next we decided to ride Coastersaurus, which showed about a 20 minute wait, but the line didn’t seem too long at all.