* Due to a busy life with the children it will always take me a little while to write and then publish the blogs, they will eventually come though.*
Our first use of our merlin passes was a trip to legoland. We had all booked a week off and it just happened to coincide with the opening of the parks, they all opened on the Friday before our holiday.
We decided to start off light and went to legoland as the rides are a little tamer and having not been to a theme park in three years we didn’t want to put the kids off before we even started, especially Riley who can shut down with too much sensory input/stimulation.
The beginning of the day was a complete disaster and we weren’t sure we were going to make it. We began getting up extra early to make sure we missed the rush hour traffic, to find we had a flat tire, ok no problem, a quick go with the compressor and we are all good. Oh and yes I do need water in the window bottle I have for a month, what do you mean the bonnet won’t close!
We spent the next half an hour trying to oil, wiggle and beat the bonnet into closing to no avail.
Right OK all is fine the local garage opens at 8am and it is 7.50am at this point so we will just drive round to the garage and get them to have a quick look. So we arrive at the garage to find it opens at 8.30! Humph! Luckily a nice mechanic saw us trying to beat the car into submission and came over to help, he tried to bless him, he really did but he couldn’t fix it and established he would need to strip it down to fix it and it would not be a quick fix.
We had two choices, give up and choose another day, which would throw off the rest of the week or bundle everything and everyone into Richard’s car and leave late. To give an idea of this we would be going from a ford galaxy 7 seater to a civic, with wheelchairs and 5 people, it was already 8.30 at the point of having to make this decision but we aren’t a family for giving up so we piled into Richard’s car and off we went.
We actually made really good timing in the end and we were that late leaving we missed all the rush hour traffic anyway pulling up to legoland at 10.45.
Our first stop was to guest services where I had to provide a code for the RAP, Ride access pass. I had applied for this online before we came. It was quick and painless provided you have the correct ‘evidence’ (I showed my blue badge) and they sent me my code via email in a few hours and this was over a weekend, although it can take up to ten working days.
Guest services were great, the Rap is for up to 4 guests and we have 5 in our party. Although they will not change this the children are ‘entitled’ (I hate that phrase) to a pass as well. We are still waiting for their blue badges to be delivered so I showed all Riley’s consultant letters and they provided him a day pass (we did the same at chessington a few days later), and other than me crashing their computer, it was really quick and easy to do. They printed my RAP card off and sorted Riley’s day pass really quickly and they were friendly and respectful.
Spoiler alert it was so quiet today we only needed to use the RAP twice, everything else had minimal waits and we try to get the children to have small waits to increase their tolerances when they can.
We were soon out and off on our lego adventures.
We started with taking a few photos and then onto our first rides. We went on the Ninjago ride, none of us really got this, we just all kind of waved our hands wildly hoping for the best. It could do with better instructions/ practise level as we felt dumped in the deep end.
We came off and the kids wanted to go on Destiny bounty (spinning boat), Lela and Rich sat this one out as neither do spinning rides. The kids had a quick climb on the climbing wall and we moved on.
Next up was laser Laiders which we all enjoyed and the kids went on Scarab bouncers as we came off.
We wandered over towards the new area, Mythica, at this point before both children exploded, however every ride in this area was down so we decided the universe was telling us it was lunch time.
We headed to the City Walk pizza and pasta restaurant, which was just outside of Mythica. We weren’t expecting much from here but ease and refuelling but we were pleasantly surprised. The pizza was a little undercooked, where they were trying to get them out fast enough but not to the point of being unpleasant. The staff were friendly, the food was hot and plentiful and the salad bar was full and fresh. Overall for the price, even before our annual pass discount, we thought it was worth it. We left full and satisfied.
Coming out of lunch we tried again in Mythica and was much more successful, The kids and Rich went on Fire and ice free fall (The only drop ride Lela and I do is the Tower of Terror because it is inside), Riley especially loved this. We then had a ride on Flight of the lion, this is a real cross between Soarin’ and Flights of passage, even down to the smells and had us all really missing Disney.
We then, whilst reminiscing about Disney, headed to get the kids their drivers licences. They are both old enough for the big cars now and other than having to queue with them it was nice to just let them get on with it.
We all then went on a family favourite, Deep sea adventure. The only complaints we have on this ride is first the subs are way too hot and secondly it is over too fast. If you had been queuing for an hour+ I personally feel you could be disappointed, so i’m glad this was a walk on. However they do have stingrays so this makes up for most potential failings.
We then happened to stumble into the new Haunted house monster party, cute ride, the kids liked it, including figuring out how it all worked. We then used our first RAP of the day, this was because it prevented us having to use the stairs in the queuing system, Coast guard HQ. Riley was old enough to drive this year, we all enjoyed this.
We realised at this point the park would be closing shortly so we needed to see if we could squeeze in anything else. The children chose Mythica and we all decided we would like to go on the Flight of the lion again. As we headed into Mythica the children rode fire and ice freefall (with Rich) whilst I quickly booked our second RAP of the day for Flight of the lion, which gave us a 12 minute countdown to make it to the ride before it closed. Luckily the drop ride is a quick one and we made it into the queue with 6 minutes to spare.
Even riding it for a second time didn’t take away from the magic and we all really enjoyed it. It was definitely the best ride choice to end our day on.
We then started the long walk out of the park (since at this point we were at the furthest point away). We took a little time to look around miniland but we are always aware that at the end of the day staff want to go home as well. When we made it to the top of the park the kids, Lela and Rich went to the gift shop for a look around and I went to the tickets office to get our annual passes printed as DHL lost our passes in delivery. Again super friendly, helpful staff even at the end of the day when I’m sure they wanted nothing more than to go home.
Within ten minutes and another computer crash, I had all of our passes and our starter packs (lanyards, etc) and came away feeling really positive for our year with Merlin.
I collected everyone from the shop and we made our way out. We piled everyone, wheelchairs and all, into the car and off we went. We scanned our annual pass on the way out, as parking is included on gold passes and we were waving goodbye to legoland for today.
After a nearly disastrous start to the day we somehow managed to pull it back and have a really good day. The children given the start to the day really held it together. I think sometimes they reflect off us and as the adults held it together and just adjusted and moved on they felt they could rather than being absorbed by anxiety.
The joys of autism cat naps!
We arrived home late, had a living room picnic and crashed in bed.
My car went in for repair the next day and thankfully only needed a really hard hit from the mechanic to dislodge something (rather than needing to be completely stripped down or replaced) and it’s now working again.
