Our Lego obsession continues unabated! Click to read Part One (Where to buy Lego in Hong Kong), Part Two (Legoland Malaysia Theme Park review) and Part Three (Lego robotics class at Safari Kid)… Told you it was an obsession.

Master T-T and I, along with his best bud H and H’s mum, Miss J (not THIS Miss J, obvs., though I’m sure she would werk a Lego head like nobody on this planet could), hopped on a plane a couple of weeks back for Legoland Redux: The Return Of The Block. Now, like all good sequels, this one had to be bigger and better than the original in order to captivate our intended audience, and so we decided to make a weekend of it, staying at the Legoland Hotel and taking in both the water park and theme park over two separate days.

Ambitious? Yes. Relaxing? Not really. Fun? MOST DEFINITELY! Here’s how it all went down in Lego Town…

We arrived pretty late on a Friday night flight and so chose to stay at Crowne Plaza’s Changi Airport Hotel. This meant we could get everyone bundled into bed then ready for an early start in the morning with minimal fuss, and so, although the hotel itself is nothing very exciting, I’d recommend it if you’re transiting late through Singapore en route to Legoland.
Following a very decent buffet breakfast a the hotel, our carriage was awaiting to whisk us over the border to Johor. Sadly the cross-border traffic had other ideas, and so it was more of a crawl than a whisk, however after only one emergency toilet break (mums) and a medium-sized fistful of melted chocolate easter eggs (boys), we arrived at the hotel, ready to run riot (all).

The Legoland experience begins from the moment you arrive – friendly staff greeted the boys, who were already bouncing up and down with excitement, and, entering the lobby, we were face-to-face with a HUGE pirate ship and a knight’s castle, both surrounded by massive Lego pits for kids to play in while parents get the check-in formalities out of the way.

I’m not exaggerating when I say that EVERYTHING here is Lego-themed; from the carpet to the minifigure-lined reception walls, you won’t find a single surface unadorned, making it easily the most fun hotel reception I’ve ever been in.

As our room wasn’t yet ready, we dropped off our bags and went in search of some lunch at the Bricks Family Restaurant, a semi-buffet that allows you to visit the salad and dessert bar while you order your main from a menu. Naturally there are the usual kid-friendly burger-and-chips-type options here too. To be honest, I can’t really recommend the food – it was pretty much as you’d expect for a high-volume theme park restaurant, however we weren’t there for the fine dining and so, refuelling stop complete, we went to pick up our room key and explore our digs for the evening.

We hopped in the lift (complete with funky disco tunes and glitterball) and hopped out again at one of the Pirate-themed floors to search for our ship’s quarters, a Premium Pirate room. You can also choose from Kingdom or Adventure themes, but we all quite fancied the idea of swashbuckling the night away. The rooms are very cool, with lots of thoughtful little detailing that makes the stay really special.

First up was the master bedroom, which comes with a King bed. This was swagged with red-and-white sailing and featured walls lined with candelabras, books, a skull-and-crossbones and other pirate treasures, all made from… you guessed it! The kids had their own room with a bunk bed that also came with a pull-out trundle, making it easy to fit up to five in one room. They were sharing with the ship’s parrot, a cheeky rat and an imposing monkey, perched atop a safe in the corner of the room. This room was next door to the bathroom, which featured a lazy gecko and a rather alarming black tarantula lurking in a corner. There are lots of really lovely little touches throughout, not least the treasure hunt that had been set up for the kids. A sheet of paper led us around the room deciphering clues to crack the code that would let us in to the monkey’s safe. I think the mums may have been more into this than the kids, who had by this time discovered the large box of blocks in the wardrobe for guests to enjoy during their stay and were building a vast tower, however they were perfectly happy to claim the spoils of our hard work (a small minifigure pack and a Lego ruler) in between dashing around shouting and climbing up the bunk like a ship’s rigging.

Suitably revved up, it was time to sunscreen up and hit the water park. We’d purposefully scheduled this in for the first afternoon in order to allow maximum burning off of energy (and therefore sleep), and also because I’d say it’s about half a day’s-worth of activities in size, making in a perfect choice for check-in day as you’ll need to save most of your time for the theme park.

The weather was so-so, but Malaysia’s hot climate meant that nobody was too bothered (we were there to get wet anyway!), and so, after navigating the more complicated than necessary locker system (bring change in MYR and be prepared to ask for help), we went exploring.

First was the lazy river, where you (theoretically) drift languidly around in a large rubber ring, while colourful foam blocks bob along next to you. Of course, two hyped-up four year old boys aren’t really interested in lazy anything, so, after fighting them off as they attempted to drown us, the mums opted to quit while we were still alive and hit the slides.There’s quite a range, and some have height restrictions, so do check before making any rash promises or face the howling disappointment of a child who wants to “zoom faster than BATMAN” but is turned away. Fortunately, we found a super-cool giant rubber ring slide that fit all four of us and travelled at speed enough to make the mums scream louder than the boys, so spent a good deal of the afternoon hurtling down that. Next was the wave pool, which gave the kids a chance to show off their swimming skills and the mums a chance to show off their “sitting in the shallow end, relaxing” skills, before the boys spotted the build-your-own boat stand, complete with rapids to race their newly-minted vessels, and refused to budge until closing time.

Towelled off and dressed, we opted to chance our arm with dinner in the small mall adjacent to the park, and were pleasantly surprised with a very decent Thai meal at Absolute Thai, followed by a few takeout beers for the mums from the mall’s convenience store.

The next day, we were up bright and early for breakfast – again a buffet – at Bricks, before hitting the theme park for the day. My earlier blog post has all the details of what to do and where to go, but this time we lingered far longer at the Lego Star Wars miniland, taking in the scale models and the very funny short film at the beginning (don’t skip this in the rush to see the models as it really is very entertaining!).

The exhibits have plenty of enticing green buttons that set off fun interactive features like lights, explosions and dry ice, so it’s a good place for small people with grabby hands to have free rein for a while and, as before, the aircon was VERY welcome on a hot and humid day. Master T-T was a little sad that Daddy hadn’t made it over on this trip as the pair of them are such enormous Star Wars geeks, but consoled himself by choosing a new set from the Force Awakens range to build together when he got back home. If you’ve got a Star Wars fan at home, Legoland have a load of themed events taking place throughout May, with more information available on the website.

Our second visit was every bit as fun as our first and I would absolutely recommend staying overnight at the Legoland Hotel if you have the chance as there’s just too much to cram into one day. We had a fabulous time and were all sad to leave, but it’s just a very good excuse to come back for yet another visit.

Hotel rooms vary in price according to type and there are packages available here.

Water park costs: Adults (aged 12 and over), MYR 122; kids (aged 3 to 11), MYR 101; seniors (aged 60 and over) MYR 101.

Theme park costs: Adults MYR 180; kids and seniors MYR 145.

Two-day combo tickets: these include admission to both water and theme parks and are available from the hotel for MYR 225 for adults and MYR 180 for kids and seniors, giving you a pretty decent saving on the full-priced single entry tickets.

Water park opening hours: Sunday to Thursday, 10am – 6pm; Friday and Saturday 10am – 9pm

Theme park opening hours: Sunday to Thursday, 10am – 6pm; Friday and Saturday 10am – 7pm

Legoland Malaysia, 7, Jalan Legoland, Bandar Medini, 79250 Nusajaya, Johor, Malaysia; +60 7 597 8888

www.legoland.my

Please note that we were offered a discounted media rate on our hotel stay (but have previously visited Legoland resort paying full price and will gladly do so again!)