Legoland Windsor – Brick or Treat, September 2024

Legoland. We come here every year at least once. The kids might be getting a little big for some of the rides now, but we all love Lego in this house, and we all love theme parks so why not? Plus, we’ve never been on their newest coaster – Minifigure Speedway – So we needed the credit.

It was a Saturday morning, and the weather was much improved from yesterday morning’s rainy fiasco, but it was also the first weekend of ‘Brick or Treat’ so it was probably going to be a busy one.

As guests of the Woodland Lodge, the kids were given VIM (Very Important Monster) passes to Monster Street for Brick or Treat, so they could enter an hour earlier than regular park guests, between 10 and 11am, so we thought we’d make that our first port of call.

Unlike the Hotel and Castle Hotel guests who enter from the back of the park, Woodland Lodge guests use the main entrance, so we scanned in and made our way down the hill towards where we thought monster street might be. We’d presumed it’d be near Dracula’s House Party, but we were wrong!

However, taking us down the main path meant passing Minifigure Speedway, and as there was no queue outside and the main gate was yet to open, we thought we could get this in quick before Brick or Treat, but we were told it wasn’t going to open straight away – technical issues -so we moved on.

We aimed for Monster House Party, where the staff member at the gate said he’d only just learned where Monster Street was too! Turns out its up at Pirate Shores, so we turned and headed that way and quickly found ourselves in Pirates Cove in the queue for Monster Street.

With our VIP passes checked we were ready to go. Brick or Treat is Legoland’s Halloween event, where they decorate the park with giant Lego pumpkin heads, cobwebs, ghost minifig characters and more. They also have Monster Street, which is a Trick or Treat area for the kids, with spooky themed stalls and shop facades made up for the occasion and staff in Halloween fancy dress giving a little banter, treats and sweets to the kids… and adults! We got bags too!

When it’s your turn (it moves in small family groups), you’re greeted by Zombie #1, who chats to you while taking you up to Zombie #2, and after a few poses and a chat ushers you along to Zombie Cheerleader for more of the same.

Rounding the corner, we entered Monster Street, where you’re greeted by a Witch with 2 stalls offering a trick – no treats yet – to the kids. Evan was less than impressed.

Moving on and you reach a circle of fake shop buildings, Halloween decorated tables, smoke machines, pumpkins and scarecrows. This Is where you’ll get the treats. We visited 3 actors who chatted with the adults and children with some Halloween banter and making monster noises. Evan REALLY didn’t enjoy this. But each one gave a small gift, so by the end the kids had a few bags of sweets, a pop badge and a Dreamzzz polybag. I had a bag of Haribo, Jo had a fudge.

It was a nice little fun walkthrough for a few small treats for the kids, but the queue outside did get quite long, so unless you see it with a short wait, don’t let it cut into your ride time, as it’s not worth the 40 minutes that some must’ve waited.

We were in the vicinity of the castle, so that was our next stop to ride The Dragon. It was still early so the queue was relatively short – about 30 minutes. It was also ‘Disco Dragon’ for Brick or Treat, so the Castle had its giant spider on the wall, Pumpkins and Ghosts outside, bunting across the courtyard and was renamed ‘Creepy Cobweb Castle’ for the event, The Dragon had some upbeat tunes and disco lighting through the indoor section. The ride itself is a family favourite coaster with a few good drops that Elliott loves.

Minifigure Speedway was showing as open, so we headed back that way. Stopping for a quick go on Wave Swinger and taking a look at the Monster show on the lake, before moving to Speedway only to find it was down again. Very disappointing. So, after a quick look around Miniland, a few minutes in The Brick and checking out DJ Vampyre’s show on the stage, we headed down to Mythica.

We love Mythica. The theme is great, the story behind it is also great and works well and it makes for endless possibilities for characters they could add. The ‘portal’ leading into the area makes if more immersive and the models you see there are amazing.

We headed straight for the star attraction ‘Flight of the Sky Lion’ – a flying theatre ride through the world of Mythica with Maximus – The Sky Lion – and our favourite character Bits and Bobs. The queue said 40mins, but it went quicker. A great fun ride slightly spoiled this time by someone refusing to put their phone away while on the ride. It’s still the best flying theatre we’ve been on.

After exiting Flight of the Sky Lion, we did the Mythica walkthrough which is also great to see some amazing Mythica builds along with interactive areas, misters, and the dragon scene at the end. Mythica also hosts a small children’s play area, the ‘Fire and Ice Freefall’ drop towers and the spinning water ride ‘Hydra’s Challenge’. We didn’t get to do these this time, and Hydra’s Challenge always seems to have a massive queue.

Back over to Minifigure Speedway, which was up and down all morning. It was open when we got there on a 30-minute queue, so we jumped in. No sooner had we stopped walking that it broke down again. Mechanics were on the way, but it wasn’t looking promising. There were people complaining at the one staff member present – Matt – who handled the issues well. We were told it could be a while before it came back online, but we stuck it out for a bit. It did re-start, but only on one track. Orange was fine. The Blue track was done for the day.

So, Minifigure Speedway is a pair of duelling boomerang style coasters, made by Zierer, consisting of the Legends (blue) track and Al-Stars (orange) track, now only operating with the orange track, so we only get half a credit (or 1 out of 2 if you’re classing them as 2 different tracks. Who are the coaster police to ask these things?). It’s a fun ride, quite nippy in places and the fun head-chopper moment through the billboard looks great. Plus, you get to do the whole thing backwards.

It was a shame about the blue side and how unreliable the coaster seems. It also feels a bit cheap. Didn’t feel like a brand-new coaster and the queue and station building are a bit sparse, like it’s been uprooted from an old park and brought to Legoland. It’s also already been vandalised with some idiots ripping off the stickers in the queue line. This is why we can’t have nice things!

After a fleeting visit to the Ninjago area, where the ride itself was on a 50-minute wait and it hurts my arms anyway, so I wasn’t disappointed to not go on, we took ourselves back up to Pirates Cove for a quick ride on Spinning Spiders – a teacups ride, then onto Jo’s favourite ride – Merlin’s Apprentice.

We love Merlin’s Apprentice, it’s such a fast, but painful, ride. Seems to go on forever while you’re jammed into the side of the rigid plastic train. Great fun though and I’m pretty sure that the voice of Merlin on the ride is Grandmaster Glitch from Go Jetters. Anyone confirm???

We’d had our lunch on the move, filled up our water bottles at the refill point by Farmer Joes Chicken and enjoyed a 2-lap special on the Duplo Train with Elliott. We checked back in with Minifigure Speedway, hoping we could ride blue, but it was still down. Time for a more detailed look at Miniland, which we don’t usually do.

We’ve seen it enough times that we can usually afford to give it a miss, but it was a busy day so it’s nice to chill out and have a look around. There are some great models in here: Scenes of London with Buckingham Palace and the London Eye, The Eiffel Tower, The Golden Gate Bridge, Cities, Castles, Rockets. Some of the builds were looking a bit old and tired, so maybe time for a refresh and some new builds?

There was a family actually standing in some of the Miniland scenes and messing with the builds. Not just the kids, but the parents too. There are fences for a reason! Again people, a bit of respect and decorum!

We were all tired and hadn’t had much luck with queues today. Evan could also barely stand as his ankles were hurting and we still had Adventure Golf to do later and a full day of walking at the Harry Potter Tour the day after, so we wandered back up the hill to the Big Shop to see if there was anything worth buying before heading home.

Nothing special in the shop that you can’t get anywhere else for main Lego. Along with the general Lego sets, they do have a few park exclusive sets available and a selection of Legoland Windsor merch, plushes, souvenirs and such. One thing that did stand out was a Halloween bundle, for £38 (I think) consisting of a Halloween barn set, 3 Halloween minifigures and some sweets in a tub with a value of over £40. We settled on the new Legoland park Splash Battle set for £25 and was happy to find you can now get Lego Insiders points at Legoland.

This definitely wasn’t our best day at Legoland Windsor, but we still got some rides done and had fun. Fingers crossed they sort out Minifigure Speedway.

Anyway, anyone for golf??