LEGOLAND Resort Hotel — Hotel in Great Britain

UPDATE: Despite Lego reaching out on here and me replying to them directly, as requested, they have not responded at all or attempted to resolve this.

We stayed for 2 nights at the Legoland Castle hotel for my son’s birthday, over the half term holidays and have unfortunately had a number of problems.

To start with, we booked a Wizards room and received a Knights room - not a huge issue, other than we received no confirmation for 5 days and then, only after being on-hold for over an hour to the hotel booking line, before being further told that this was an error on their end and that nothing could be done about it.

The hotel and room were pleasant enough. A travel-lodge standard with uncomfortably hard mattresses and certain decor a little faded, but otherwise, the kids loved it. The staff in the restaurant were fantastic, they could not have been more polite and helpful and, other than black eggs one morning, the food was good.

The one major issue we hit when getting into the LEGOLAND park was with its Reserve and Ride system. As this was a special day and we had 3 kids, 11, 9 and 6, we decided to purchase premium ride tickets.

For context, Reserve and Ride Ultimate is a premium fast lane rides - at most theme parks, this means an hour wait can be reduced to 10 minutes. If you have a child with anxiety or autism this can be massively helpful and is provided free of charge to you and your group (we have used this before when attending Disney with a family member who is diagnosed with autism) - this however is open to abuse at Legoland as your entire group of 5-10 people can be added alongside 1 diagnosis, rather than 1 diagnosis to 1 carer, as it is elsewhere. Further to this, we found many of the rides were unmanned, so when joining from the Reserve and Ride line, anyone could have been in it due staff not being stationed where they would normally be to scan your QR code. This is made worse as the standard line merges, causing chaos. With the sheer number of people using this system it is categorically not worth purchasing it as we waited for 45-60mins in each fast-pass queue.

The following day, when we asked the customer care team about the experience we received, the Reserve and Ride manager was uncomfortably aggressive, stating that we managed to get on 6 rides (as he could see which rides we scanned into on his system) which he told us was more than enough and fully justifiable. It took a lot of explaining, (please note - as a paying customer, we paid £85 per person extra for this experience - a total of £425 on top of the standard 5 tickets purchased) and for him to argue every point, until he relented and provided us with 3 sets of 1-shot Reserve and Ride tickets (not the same as the Ultimate Reserve and Ride tickets that we had purchased the day before) as a gesture of good will.

When we returned to the hotel after our second day at the park, what was more concerning was that our room that was left unsecured after cleaning, with the door unlocked and a disposable cleaning glove left in the bathroom.

When I calmly reported certain issues nothing was done about it at all - it was specifically ignored. When I then asked to speak to a manager, the young gentleman was summoned who repeatedly stated that he understood how we felt, but that nothing could be done from an issue stemming from the day before as their computer systems do not allow it… we would have to wait for the complaint to be processed - very convenient for them. Conner then continued to repeat how nothing could be done, I then asked for him to wait with me until his superior could arrive to address some of the issues directly. Connor then started to get angry as he apparently had better things to do with his time. Eventually Christian turned up and Connor left without acknowledging me or handing over to Chris. Thankfully, Chris was much more supportive and attempted to rectify the situation by offering us £100 of LEGO bucks.

All in all, this did not leave us with a great overall experience. However our...

Room: Ninjago Theme

We recently stayed at the Legoland Hotel in the Ninjago-themed room, which was the main reason for our visit since my son had his heart set on it. While the initial check-in process was efficient—largely thanks to automated messages and easy-to-use kiosks for room key collection—there was a noticeable lack of human interaction, which felt odd in a family-friendly setting. It felt more like an effort to cut costs than to enhance the experience.

As for the room itself, the design was definitely impressive, with bright colors and fun decor that captured the spirit of Ninjago. However, given the premium pricing (about £900 for two nights with park access), we were underwhelmed by the size and overall quality. Temperature control was also an issue; the children’s area was too cool, the adult space overly warm, and the bathroom was cold, regardless of thermostat adjustments. It was disappointing for a premium room not to include basic amenities like bottled water, hot chocolate, or even enough cutlery for everyone.

Went down to the front desk, two members of staff too busy chatting where the guy was clearly trying to impress the young woman with how many celebrities he met. Not attentive, leaning against the wall. Standing on the customer side of the desk there’s a set of heating vents on the right, someone had this on full blast. I literally to move myself at least 6ft away from the desk to talk to them so the right of my face didn’t feel like it was going to melt off. If I was sceptical I would have thought it was deliberate to make sure no one is at the desk for any amount of time as the space was so inhospitable.

Breakfast Experience

Over the years, breakfast at Legoland Resort used to be one of the highlights of our stay. Unfortunately, this time it was a low point. The breakfast options for dietary restrictions were very limited. Being unable to eat gluten and dairy, I found myself stuck with a poor selection: rubbery mushrooms, two overly tough fried eggs, a small pot of beans, and a couple of tomatoes. That was it. Gone were the gluten-free sausages, cereals, and dairy-free options they used to offer.

The coffee situation was disappointing too—you get basic coffee for free, but anything else costs extra. Even the staff seemed disengaged and more interested in chatting with each other than in assisting guests. I waited for over five minutes trying to get someone’s attention for gluten-free sausages, only to give up. Honestly, if there were an option to skip breakfast to lower the cost of the stay, I would take it in a heartbeat.

It was also sad to see that no Lego characters came by to entertain the kids during breakfast, which was always a fun tradition.

Entertainment

One of our past favorite features, the game console area and stage, was no longer accessible. Instead, the hotel now has a new playroom near the front, which is more suited for younger children under eight. Older kids don’t have much to do here, which felt like a big step back for a family resort. They do sell coffee and snacks in the play area, but at a steep price—£4.50 for a small piece of gluten-free brownie, which you could get for much less elsewhere.

Overall Recommendation

While the Legoland Park itself remains a fun experience with friendly staff, the hotel stay felt overpriced and lacking in value. The declining breakfast quality, limited entertainment options, and poor room amenities made it hard to justify the cost. At this point, I’d recommend skipping the hotel and just doing day trips to the park. With the savings, you could even plan a future trip to somewhere like Disneyland, where you’ll get better accommodations and service...

We started off well after a two hour car journey we arrived at 10:05 to be parked in the farthest dusty dirt road car park. Having entered the park we were then set upon by sales people trying sell you digi passes etc. Finding a toilet we then set off around the park in the opposite direction to where everyone was going. After a very boring two minute train ride taking us down the hill in the opposite direction we wanted to go in we came back up. Having downloaded the app we were on a hunt for two words supposedly in mini land where we could only get one word and not one member of staff had any idea where we supposed to go to get the other word. After a few other very boring rides we got to the driving school this has top marks. Then an hour long queue for a very wasteful coastguard boat ride that was not way worth the whole minute it took us in the boat to get round. Then the haunted mansion was ok a bit of a build up to not a lot really been done before I’m afraid. Having had just a hot dog at this point to eat and buying a refillable bottle for £7.99 we went to the Atlantis subs and a lot of confusion for some people on the queue bot pass queue and very little shade and not water fountains to be seen and no toilets either. Then we got to a really busy heart shape lake no shops have air conditioning but at least there was toilets again no water fountains of any kind. There was no where to fill up the refillable drink either as there were a lot of the smaller venders shut. Plenty of other places to spend your money at the games stalls. Next went to the Mia’s riding adventure. It stated the queue time for this was 45 mins more like over an hour. Half way through queuing the ride seem to stop for no reason for about 15 mins. The it occurred to us that all the rides were very understaffed and must of been a staff tea brake while we were queuing. Chatting to others in the queue some had arrived at 11am and had only been in two rides to this point which was 3pm and some time after 11 am the park was at full capacity and had stopped letting anymore people into the park. Then on the map I spotted the the other word for the app was at the pirate shores as we had asked a few members of staff going round and they had no clue. Getting the other word we didn’t get to go on anything in this area or ninjago world or knights kingdom at land of the vikings we waited over another hour for the very dry Viking river splash still no toilets again or water fountains and no where to fill the refillable drink. Then the Lego Star Wars was all we had time for. We finally ate again at hill top cafe the food was not the best my granddaughter had a jacket potato with cheese and beans when it arrived it has salad which we specifically asked not to put on the plate. The beans were one dried up blob and the cheese didn’t even melt and was sprinkled on top we then had to buy her some over priced sandwiches as there was nothing else for her to eat. The main entrance was again very hot shops very busy and understaffed. Finally got our badge which seemed rather underwhelming for all the hard work we put into it. Then leaving the park was a nightmare. We were stuck in the car park for over an hour trying to leave which added an extra hour on to our two hour journey home. We were all very tied dehydrated and just wanted to leave. Would I go again no even though there was the other half of the park we never got to see or go on. Was a waste of a day could of been better spent at another theme park that are staffed and have toilets and water fountains and having brought a refillable £7.99 bottle that was not refillable. My advice...