A Visit to the New Legoland!

I'm a HUGE fan of Lego!

I used to bug my parents to buy me a box every time we were at a toy store. So you can imagine my excitement when we were invited to the media preview of the first Legoland in Asia located at Johor Bahru, Malaysia!

Our family at Legoland Malaysia!

Private preview for media members & their families

The organisers kindly chartered a bus for us and we arrived nice and early at the entrance of Legoland. And immediately, we were greeted with everything Lego from the Hollywood-like sign to the name badge of the staff!

Lego, Lego, Lego!

On entering the park after retrieving our tickets, we were greeted by Legoland's mascots.

Who else but Legoman & Bricky themselves!

Of course we had to take photos with them. And then it was off to explore the five lands that Legoland has to offer!

#1: Lego City
Lego City is where the transport system from land, sky and sea gather! There's an airport (which wasn't opened yet), a fire station and my personal favourite, the Driving School!

Driving school for older children age 6-13 years on the left & younger children age 3-6 years on the right

This school is way cool! Kids get to steer Lego cars around an obstacle course, which was made very easy for younger kids and slightly more challenging for older kids.

Sadly, as Girlee can't steer her own car yet, we had to make do with this model version used for photo-taking.

Love, love the Lego cars! =)

Fortunately, Girlee was tall enough for the Boat ride just across the road from the Driving School.

As you can see, both young & old can enjoy this attraction! =)

It's fun because you get to steer your own boat! I could see that my mum-in-law really enjoyed herself =)

Trying to steer the boat while taking pictures! Multi-tasking at its best!

The queue was super long though as only 1 adult is allowed per boat but definitely worth a shot. Next we proceeded to the Railway to board the Legoland Express.

Lego Fountain

Legoland Express

The queue was even longer here as there was only one train (I have no idea why!) in service. Thankfully we were early so we didn't have to wait too long for the train. Everyone thought it was pretty boring and slow but I thought it was quite a nice way to see the whole park without having to walk. Having said that, they should introduce another train to reduce queuing time though.

My mum-in-law wanted to beat the lunch crowd so it was off to Market Restaurant for lunch.

Love the decorations at the Market Restaurant! Feels like we're in Lego's bread factory =)

I bumped into some familiar faces here and it is always nice to meet people in a foreign land *laughs*.

#2: Land of Adventure
After lunch, we headed off to explore the Land of Adventure, which is the least Lego-like of all the lands.

Land of Adventure

Most of the major rides such as the boat splash above were not opened yet so we were pretty disappointed. But baby girl had the time of her life playing ball in one of the indoor playgrounds there (see below, top left).

Clockwise from top left:
Ball indoor playground @ Land of Adventure;
Playground for preschoolers at Imagination;
Shipyard outdoor playground at Lego City;
Forestman's Hideout outdoor playground at Lego Kingdom.

Come to think of it, the whole entire park is filled with playgrounds, 1 in almost every land, which specially caters to preschoolers and young children age 18 months to 10 years old. Your energetic child would never get bored here!

#3: Imagination
Although all the playgrounds looked like fun, but the one that appeals most to Girlee was at Imagination land.

Imagination

Playground specially built for preschoolers

The walls were brighter, the slides were shorter, everything was made for a smaller child. Hence, it's no wonder my girl fell so much in love with it, she forgo her usual afternoon nap to climb up and slide down again and again!

She also especially love riding this mini train too.

Choo choo!

Initially my mum-in-law was afraid she would cry since it's the first time that she is riding anything alone but I was adamant that she gave it a try. And what do you know, she loved it so much, she sat on it again and again! I'm so proud of her!

Till now, she still can't stop talking about riding on this train =)

As there weren't any ventilation inside this playground (it was sooo stuffy & hot!), we had to pry her away (which believe me, was really hard!) and cool down by watching a short film at the 4D theatre next door. I loved the 4D show! The effects were awesome =)

Left: Girlee in her 4D glasses; Right: Kid Power Towers

After our shows (yes shows, we watched 2 out of 3), we took a ride on the cool Lego-ish Kid Power Towers.

#4: Lego Kingdom
We then proceeded on to Lego Kingdom for some dragon-fighting and princess-saving action. The most outstanding attraction in this land was of course The Dragon, which you could see from a distance away!

The Dragon, the largest roller coaster in the park

As most of us were parents with kids, this ride didn't have a long queue. But as the hubby and I weren't too keen on sitting on roller coasters, we decided to ride the much smaller version of the dragon which was meant for kids but we thought was just as fun as well as this round-about known as Merlin's Challenge.

Merlin's Challenge

We like to call it cheap thrill, ifyaknowwhatImean *laughs*

There isn't very many rides for young kids though at this land. Even this seemingly kiddy horse ride had a height limit of 95-100cm.

Horse-back riding at the Royal Joust

Baby girl is 91cm so she missed by just a little. Nevertheless, they were nice enough to let her sit and take a picture just for the fun of it =)

#5: Lego Technic
We stopped for ice-cream before we headed on to Lego Technic. The rides here once again catered to the older children, ages 6 years and up (younger children might be able to take it if they're brave enough).

Aquazone Wave Racers & Lego Mindstorms (bottom right)

The hubby and brother-in-law didn't like both of these rides but I thought the Wave Racers was quite fun. There was one roller coaster ride, called Project X, that looked really interesting but it was again not opened yet.

As baby girl had nothing to do while waiting for us, she decided to entertain herself with the water fountains and soon many other children started to join her!

Water fountains never get old with children

It was such a hot day that I'm sure the water must have felt really good! So good in fact she was so reluntant to leave that I had to literally drag her away!

#6: Miniland
After cleaning Girlee up, I wanted to make one last stop at Miniland to look at the awesome structures made of Lego. They used to have exhibitions like these at a small scale at the malls in Singapore and I remember taking lots of pictures of them.

So obviously I wasn't going to miss checking it out, even if the rest of my family abandoned me to take refuge in the air-conditioned souvenir store! *sigh*

Kuala Lumpur in Lego!

I simply love the attention to detail! Everything is so precise and amazingly realistic! =)

Lego structures of famous places

Realistic display of Singapore's famous river sights

And the best part is that the display is also interactive! The boats & trains move, the lamp post lights up, the Merlion spits out water, the Singapore Flyer rotates and they even managed to replicate the Duck tours land/sea vehicle!

I thought it was sooo cool! =)

I would have stayed there for much longer had it not been for the scorching sun threatening to burn a hole into my skin =(

But as usual, I love any chance to buy souvenirs!

Bought Harry Porter & Batman keychains & Legoman soft toy for Girlee as souvenirs!

There was also Superman too! So cute right!

How could I resist the Lego figures?! They remind me of why I love Lego so much in the first place! =)

As we left I begun to reflect on our experience of the day.

The thing about Legoland is, when you first enter, it doesn't take your breath away like some theme parks do. But as you explore the place, you begin to discover hidden treasures which do intrigue you. Plus, you gotta remember that their target audience are their little guests, not you! So everything is done with them in mind, from the short Lego statues to the many playgrounds.

Ultimately, you've got to be a big fan of Lego (like I am!) to truly enjoy all that Legoland has to offer. That, and being (or bringing a kid who is) about 100cm tall *laughs*


P.S: Check out our visit again during Christmas and the new Legoland water park. Please also visit my Travel Page for my travel itineraries! =)

Disclosure: An invitation to this event & complimentary tickets were received from LEGOLAND® Malaysia for the purposes of this review. No monetary compensation was received; all opinions and text are my own.