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We started the new year with a LEGOLAND vacation! I'm a native San Diegan, born and raised, but have moved away after I got married. Coming back to San Diego to visit LEGOLAND California is especially nostalgic to me as I used to work in marketing and LEGOLAND used to invite me to visit them for free every year, before I even had kids!

I don't get free tickets anymore, but as a mom, I still try to find deals online to save money. We took advantage of the veteran discounts for the hotel stay and attraction tickets since my husband is a veteran. If you're a military family, make sure you check those rates first. Sometimes LEGOLAND does offer deals on their main LEGOLAND website that is for everyone and not just military families like $39 kids tickets or free kids tickets with adult ticket purchase, so take the extra time to shop around and compare to find the best deals.

 (This is not me in the picture, by the way. I was taking a picture of the LEGO tree from a distance, and this lady and her kid just happened to be in it.)

As a Christmas present and to celebrate the new year, taking our sons to LEGOLAND and staying at the LEGOLAND California Hotel was a surprise! They had an amazing time and to me, this was our favorite trip compared to the 2 other LEGOLAND past family visits that we've had.

LEGOLAND California Hotel VS. LEGOLAND Castle Hotel

A few years ago, we stayed at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel, which is also located within the resort and just yards away from LEGOLAND California Hotel. Therefore, we have stayed at both the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel and LEGOLAND California Hotel. See a couple of pictures of the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel that I took. It's quite different from the LEGOLAND California Hotel because LEGOLAND Castle Hotel looks just like a castle, while LEGOLAND California Hotel focuses more on the pirate and mermaid theme. The exterior architecture of the LEGOLAND California Hotel showcases more on the large LEGO bricks that we all know very well! I actually prefer staying here at LEGOLAND California Hotel than the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel!

In front of the main entrance of the LEGOLAND California Hotel is a dragon that actually blows steam periodically! It was so fun to see! Because our room was located in the front end of the hotel, we could actually hear it blow steam whenever it did! Below is the picture of the view from our window.

One of the best things that made staying at one of LEGOLAND's hotels more worth it was we got to go the LEGOLAND attraction park 45 minutes before it was open to the rest of the visitors! Furthermore, the breakfast buffet was included with our stay and it was a pretty good buffet too! It had eggs, sausages, bacon, a line of pastries, oatmeal, yogurt, biscuits and gravy, pancakes or French toast (depending on the day), chilaquiles, all you can drink coffee and soft drinks and more! Unlike staying at a Disneyland Hotel, staying at a LEGOLAND hotel offers complimentary breakfast with no extra cost! It's just part of the room stay. Even though breakfast was free at the Bricks Family Restaurant inside of LEGOLAND California Hotel, you should still make a reservation for the time that you'd like to dine with your family. I want to note that the restaurant looks really different from the picture that they had on their website.

Bunk Beds in LEGOLAND California Hotel Room

My kids' favorite part about our hotel room was that they had bunk beds with their own TV in their own section of the room! The hotel also supplied some legos in the room for the kids to build as well. You can view a video of their bunk beds in the top video that I've embedded towards the top of this blog entry. I took a video, instead of a photo.

I really enjoyed the parents' bed too with a pirate theme and a view. I especially liked how clean our bathroom was. The decorations with pirate/mermaid-themed legos were wonderful! I want to  highlight that the bathroom does not have a lock so although we could slide the door closed, we weren't able to lock it for privacy.

Check In Process

A few years ago, when we stayed at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel during the pandemic, the check in process was very annoying and stressful! The check-in time was 4PM, but we had to wait around until 6PM to be able to get into our rooms because they were still cleaning and sanitizing them!

It's 2025 now and the check in process for LEGOLAND California Hotel was much easier! The check-in time was 4PM as well, but they kindly informed us via email that our room was ready around 2:30PM! Not only that, when we arrived in the lobby, we could do self check-in using kiosks which made the process so easy! There was a personnel who did come around to check to see if we had any questions and gave both of my sons a lanyard as a gift. I thought that was very nice! Right after checking in, we started a scavenger hunt to find the code for the treasure box in our room. Inside the box were two sets of legos and a magazine. I didn't take a picture of this, but I love how LEGOLAND went the extra mile with customer service and making sure the kids had a great memory to bring back home. If you would like to see a picture of the treasure box to unlock, I did take a picture of it at the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel when we stayed there 3 years ago. See the treasure box from LEGOLAND Castle Hotel during our past stay.

2 Day at LEGOLAND and SEA LIFE

Our tickets were a 2 Day Ticket for LEGOLAND AND SEA LIFE. We spent the first day going to only a few of the rides because by the time we had arrived at the resort, it was already 1PM and the lines for some of the rides were really long. In between having fun at the LEGOLAND attraction park, we check-in and relaxed for a bit before coming back there to ride more rides until they closed at 7PM. (Every season, the hours are different so check their website before you plan your vacation.)

On the 2nd day, we took advantage of the early park entry as a hotel guest there and my kids got to ride on more rides that they didn't get to ride on the day before at the LEGOLAND park. We also visited the SEA LIFE Aquarium on the 2nd Day as well. The SEA LIFE Aquarium is small, but the kids still had fun getting stamps and touching the sea anemone. See my video of our 2nd Day at LEGOLAND/SEA LIFE below.

I've been to SEA LIFE Aquarium about 6 times between 2010 - 2025 and it didn't seem to have changed very much within these 15 years. Our ticket included a visit to SEA LIFE, so that is why we visited again.

My kids are 10 and 8 years old now, so it won't be very long until my kids will start to prefer other vacation activities. I'm grateful that my kids really enjoyed our LEGOLAND Vacation this time and I hope to be able to come back one more time with them, before they'll think that they're too old for it.

(My older son and I built legos together at LEGOLAND and placed them on their wall self at the LEGO WORLD area.)

Reading Suggestions:

• I've blogged about LEGOLAND California 3 different times. See all of my 3 LEGOLAND blog entries.
• Read my review for just the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel.
• Read my review of LEGOLAND California Theme Park, without staying at their hotel.

LEGO Sets for Building

• Mermaid Legos


• Pirate Legos


• Castle Legos