When we heard that Ninjago World had just opened at LEGOLAND Windsor we were really excited to visit, especially as Legoland is one of our favourite theme parks.
Ever since the girls watched the 4-D LEGO Ninjago movie at the Legoland Discovery Centre in Manchester earlier this year, they have been big Ninjago fans.
The World of Ninjago
As you enter Ninjago World through a giant Asian inspired archway you come across the Destiny’s Bounty pirate ship ride along with an interactive area in the courtyard called the Ninjago training camp.
This area was really well themed and offered the girls the perfect start to their ninja training including:
Zane’s Temple Build
At the base of the impressive Lego sculptures of the frozen monastery mountains and the Ninjago monastery, children can build their own creation at the temple base. The girls had great fun here as they created their own Lego master builds from the hundreds of bricks available.
Cole’s Rock Climb
Children have the chance to be like Cole and master the horizontal climbing wall, reaching targets and showing how good their hand-eye coordination is.
Kai’s Spinners
Here children can work on their ninja skill of fire like Kai, and the girls loved practicing their fire spins on the spinning poles.
These ninja training activities just added to the girl’s excitement before the main attraction.
Ninjago The Ride
The pre-ride experience was quite enjoyable as we waited for our turn on the Ninjago ride. Several large tv screens showed us how to practice our Ninja moves ready for when we got on-board our 4-seater vehicle.
The 3 ½ minute Ninjago ride is the first ride of its kind in the UK to use the 4-D effects of wind, smoke and heat, together with hand gesture technology. This means that we could literally throw virtual ice and lightning along with fireballs at skeleton warriors and other baddies by making ninja hand movements which was so much fun.
With our 3-D glasses on it was the girls who mastered the technique needed for high scores much quicker than my husband and I, as we zapped the Lego baddies on the giant video screens.
At the end of the ride, we had to use all our ninja skills that we had learnt to defeat a giant serpent called The Great Devourer who could only be defeated with all of us using our Spinjitzu moves.
Our Ninjago experience was amazing fun and brought out all our competitive sides as we tried to outscore each other. The 4-D ride was a great combination of a video game and a ride which was really unique. With all the movement required it felt like a mini upper body work out.
It was similar to Toy Story Mania in Walt Disney World but I personally thought it was much more difficult to master as there was no gun or device to aim with.
It’s best to make very small hand movements right over the top of the sensor located just above your lap. This is the mistake my husband made as the further away you are from the sensor the more difficult it is to score points.
At the end of your Ninja adventure we all compared our scores and looked at our on-ride photo before exiting via the Ninjago themed gift shop with so many tempting Lego Ninjago products.
As this is the flagship attraction for Legoland Windsor for 2017, queues especially during the summer holidays and weekends will be long.
I would recommend that you look at paying the extra for a Qbot as it literally does make a huge difference to your enjoyment of the park. Using this little hand-held device, we could make ride reservations in advance and cuts down on the wait time for each ride.
We had the Qbot Express (£35 per person) which meant that we could spend more time enjoying the rides rather than wasting time waiting in line. The way we could justify the cost of the Qbot was either to use our Tesco Clubcard points to convert them into tickets for Legoland (read our guide here) or use 2 for 1 vouchers.
The 2 for 1 vouchers can be found when purchasing Kelloggs cereal or promotional packs of Cadbury chocolates. This can save you approximately £50 -£59 if you buy one of the cheapest packs of chocolates and require two tickets, which nearly covers the extra outlay required for two Qbots.
After we checked out Ninjago World, we explored the rest of the park and had so much fun. Legoland is such a fantastic place for children and it’s why the girls rate it as their favourite theme park in the UK.
There was so much to keep both of them occupied including the thrill rides of the Dragon, Pirate Falls and Mia’s riding school to testing their driving skills at the Lego City Driving School.
One of my personal family favourites is the enchanting Fairy Tale Brook where my 6-year-old enjoyed recognising the different fairy tale characters whilst the Sky Rider offered a great bird’s eye view over Miniland.
Hidden away slightly in Legoland was a SEA Life Aquarium with plenty of fish and marine life on display. What makes the SEA Life aquarium even better at Legoland was that we took a ride on a Lego submarine in an immersive undersea adventure. As we explored the ruins of Atlantis we had great views of the marine life including sharks and rays.
We finished our day at Drench Towers (remember to pack swimsuits and towels) which is the largest water play structure in the UK and a wonderful place to cool off and have fun on a hot day. The girls love this area of the park and had great fun speeding down the water slides and dodging the water cascading down from the oversized tipping brick.
Overall
With the addition of the excellent new Ninjago World area, Legoland Windsor continues to get even better each year.
A Qbot is a worthwhile investment during busy periods, as reducing the wait times for attractions made our visit much more enjoyable and stress free.
Legoland Windsor is the perfect place for a fun family day out and for primary school children this is undoubtedly the best theme park in the UK and is highly recommended.
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