After saying farewell to Thorpe Park and driving into the chaos of Slough centre to find a Tesco with a petrol station, we finally made our way to Legoland Windsor Resort, where we were lucky enough to be staying in one of the new Woodland Lodges, and we were pretty excited about it.
We love Legoland Windsor and have stayed at the Legoland Hotel several times in the Pirates and Knights rooms. They’re always nice, fun for the kids with the treasure hunt and gift in the safe, collecting and trading pop badges and all the fun minifigures and builds around the hotel. And from what we’d seen from the Woodland Village, we were expecting bigger and better.
We found our way around the resort to the far car park across from the village, unloaded the car and headed into the Clubhouse to pick up our keys. We’d already checked in online, so it was an easy stop at the key collection point, scan our QR code, choose how many keys we needed and get them encoded. We were given room 1044, near the back left of the village which gave us chance to see many of the minifig mascots, brick-built animals, fancy lodges and play areas along the way.
Our Woodland Lodge
We had booked a Standard Lodge. There are larger, Premium Lodges available with 2 floors and the single room Woodland Barrels, but standard was fine for our needs. Entering our ‘estate’, we were greeted by the little ranger minifig and his brick badger companions pointing the way, into a semi-circle of twin A-frame type lodges, with white picket fences and the classic Lego window shutters, like they’d all been part of a giant Lego set. Each had outdoor tables and chairs and there was a small play area at the centre of the green.
The rooms looked amazing. Very fresh and clean (as you’d expect, they are new after all). They are similar to the standard hotel rooms in layout and facilities, but so much neater and tidier. The main room had a double bed with 2 side tables, a dressing table area with 2 separate hanging rails either side for clothes, large drawers (one containing a collapsible cot bed), minifridge, safe, 2 large desk fans and most importantly a heater! We were damp and cold so that went on straight away and heated the room up in quick fashion. The room also had a large flatscreen TV with standard terrestrial channels and a dedicated Lego channel showing Lego movies on a loop.
The lodge walls are brightly coloured in yellow, green and blue with a giant Lego woodland scene over the bed and a life-sized, brick-built owl in the corner.
The bathroom was clean and tidy, with green and white tiled walls, equipped with a toilet, sink and shower cubicle with another woodland scene as its backdrop. Like showering out in nature.
Children’s Room
Hidden behind a curtain was the kids room, and they loved it. It’s just a standard box room with the usual bunk beds with a pull-out bed underneath as you’d find in other Merlin hotels, but the lighting really made it feel more special. It was late and dark when we arrived so when I drew back the curtain I was greeted with a twinkling lightshow on the ceiling.
The look on the kids faces was enough to know this was a winner. As I said, they were just standard bunk beds with a small TV showing the same looped Lego movies and a unit with a combination locked cupboard, a tub of Lego pieces and some fixed baseplates to build with.
The kids quickly unpacked themselves and began on their treasure hunt to claim their prizes. If you’ve never stayed at a Legoland hotel with kids before, they leave a puzzle sheet for the kids to work out the combination to the cupboard lock. Inside is usually a lanyard, small Lego polybag and a pop badge. One of each, per child. FYI, if it’s a birthday, let them know in advance as they’ll also put a card, birthday badge and balloon in the room before you arrive!
At the lodge though, the kids found a Woodland Lodge flag, Animal Crossing Polybag, a pop badge, plus a ‘Junior Legoland Ranger’ handbook and a VIP (Very Important Monster) pass for early access to the Brick or Treat event.
The Clubhouse
It had been a long day, and we needed some food, and I required a refreshing adult beverage, so we headed over to the Clubhouse Restaurant. It looks lovely in there. Really well thought out. Everything outside and inside is brilliant. The giant Lego tree on the roof, the characters in the windows – fantastic. Inside the restaurant, the ceiling is a canopy of Lego leaves with each column like a tree trunk, like you’re sitting in a Lego forest. There were brick build bugs and animals all around, like snails, squirrels, butterflies and mice. There’s a Lego firepit play area for the kids, surrounded by stools shaped like Lego logs and Lego lanterns hanging on the wall. The firepit was filled with blocks to build with and there was a Duplo play area for the littler ones. The attention to detail is superb.
There is a small stage area at the back where, while we were eating, 2 members of the Legoland Woodland Village team entertained the kids with some animal themed songs and their own signature tune, against a screen backdrop showing a forest scene with animals playing.
The restaurant has 2 seating areas – one as a bar area and one for table service dining. We hadn’t booked, but there was plenty of space available.
Clubhouse Restaurant Food & Drink
The menu had a good selection. If memory serves, the Legoland Hotel restaurant, Bricks, only has fixed course menus. If you want something smaller than 2 courses, then you have to eat at the bar. Here, it was different. It was a standard menu with starters, mains, pizzas, burgers, sides, desserts and drinks. They even had some ‘Brick or Treat’ themed options.
We shared a Pepperoni Pizza and side of fries. I had an IPA – which was nice, kids had milk and water and Jo had a Halloween cocktail, complete with floating eyeballs!
The meal and drinks came to £47 which didn’t seem extortionate for theme park restaurant food. The pizza was nice, the chips were ok. Service was good.
Back to the Room
The room was cozy and quiet – no noise from the neighbours (we might not have had any) but the floor was echoey with each footstep, so id imagine if you had noisy neighbours the floor sound would travel. Beds were comfy and toasty warm, and we all slept well.
Breakfast in the Clubhouse
Breakfast was included with our stay and was taken in the Clubhouse. We’d booked our slot on the website (which was a bit of a faff to find) for 8am. There were a few options available including a full English breakfast, pancakes, vegetarian and kids versions of both, plus cereals, pastries, bread/toast, teas, coffees and juices to help yourself to. Premium drinks (fancy coffees, hot chocolates) were chargeable. Again, when we’ve stayed at Legoland Hotel, the breakfast was always cooked breakfast or cereals and a drink, brought to you. No helping yourself to a couple of coffees of a morning, so this was a much better setup, and the food was much better here too!
After breakfast, we packed up and loaded the car as we were staying elsewhere that night and checkout was 11am. Then we went to explore the village. The whole area is brilliant. It looks stunning. There are several little estates, each with a different mascot minifig signpost with the lodge numbers on and animal displays, plus and unsupervised play area. The largest play area was beside the Clubhouse.
There was even a Lego nature trail to follow (in the handbook) so you can find all of the animals around the village. There’s a pond at the back, which looks a bit unfinished, and some signs for a new nature area which will be added soon, so there’ll be even more areas to explore and enjoy.
The last area we came to was the Woodland Barrels. We couldn’t see in any, but they do look fun. Not sure I’d want to stay in one without a toilet. Getting our kids to go to the loo in plenty of time is hard enough without having to get dressed, put on shoes and walk outside. The shower/toilet block is very close to the Barrels though.
And then we were off into Legoland Windsor for ‘Brick or Treat’, followed by a round of Adventure Golf, which is also included in your stay
What does it cost to sat at the Woodland Village?
It’s Legoland, so it’s not cheap. Rooms always seem to hover at the £500 mark when we look at peak times and weekends, but they do usually have offers on for package deals with 1 or 2 days in the park or similar. On this occasion, it worked out cheaper for us to book them separately. That, plus we needed our park day after our hotel stay, and we’d have had to call to see if we could change them around, so booking separate was also easier. I get access to Perkbox though work, which gives some discount on Merlin parks and hotels. So, the lodge for 4 cost us £298 for one night, including breakfast, one round of Adventure Golf and parking. Our park tickets, we’d used a Cadburys 2 for 1 offer, making them £133
We loved the Legoland Woodland Village and can’t wait to stay here again!
Find more details at the Legoland Website
