Where children are vvips
Five things you should definitely try out when you visit Legoland Malaysia
When I found out I was going to Legoland Malaysia, I was ecstatic. Growing up, I had always been fond of Lego. There was just something about putting little bricks together to build objects from the imagination. From dream houses to cities, from ships to spaceships, you can build almost anything with Lego. Best of all, it’s all play.
And that is at the very core of the Lego DNA, which carpenter Ole
Kirk Christiansen developed in his workshop in Billund, Denmark. Lego comes from the Danish phrase leg
godt, which means “play well.” This idea of play is the foundation every Legoland in the world is built on, from the first theme park in Billund that grew from Ole’s own collection of minilands (i.e. cities made from Lego) to the only Legoland in Asia located in Malaysia, which opened in 2012.
Now, Legoland Malaysia has grown to include not just the theme park but two other attractions, Legoland Sea Life and Legoland Water Park, and a hotel made of Lego—okay, not really, but it kind of does look like it’s made from Lego bricks, complete with notso-mini minifigures scattered inside the hotel’s premises.
If you’re planning to visit Legoland Malaysia, you should plan to stay for at least two full days so you can spend one day at the theme park, half a day at Sea Life, and an afternoon at the Water Park. Here are five things you should not miss.
1. Treasure hunting inside your room at the Legoland Hotel.
Every room at Legoland Malaysia Hotel is a family room. The most basic rooms can fit four people, with a king-sized bed for grownups and a semi-private sleeping area with a double-decker bed for kids. And, as an added treat to kids, there’s a combination-locked vault that they can open to get hidden treasures. To get the combination, all kids need to do is to solve five riddles (Hint: All the answers are inside the room). Word of advice from a professional Lego treasure hunter: Make sure you do this first thing when you get inside your room. All of the 263 rooms at Legoland Hotel Malaysia are designed following one of four themes: Lego Pirate, Lego Kingdom, Lego Adventure, and Lego Ninjago.
2. Have a dance party inside the elevator!
Okay, maybe don’t jump inside the elevator but don’t stop yourself from dancing to “Everything is Awesome,” from the original soundtrack of The Lego Movie, which plays inside the hotel’s elevators every time you hop in—even at night!—with a matching disco ball, too. There’s just never a dull moment for Legoland guests.
3. Look for the Philippines at the Miniland of the Legoland Theme Park.
Apart from trying every ride at the theme park—don’t miss the VR roller coaster!—you should probably spend time admiring the wonderfully constructed cities at Legoland Malaysia’s Miniland, which is the largest Miniland in all of the Legoland parks all over the world. There you will find iconic monuments from 17 different cities, including Malaysia’s own Petronas Tower, the Forbidden City in Beijing, the Taj Mahal in India, Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, just to name a few. There is also a city from the Philippines made entirely in Lego! The Miniland is the heart of every Legoland park.
4. Get wet from Legoland Water Park’s giant bucket.
From playing riding your own raft built from soft Lego bricks around the lazy river or trying out any of the 20 other unique water-based rides, there’s really a lot to do at the Legoland Water Park. But there’s one experience you should definitely not miss out on. At the top of the playground of the Joker Soaker, there’s a giant bucket that gets filled to the brim with water, which it pours on guests every five minutes. It’s a fun way to get soaked!
5. Look for the giant Napoleon fish inside Legoland Sea Life.
With over 13,000 sea creatures from 120 species kept in more than 25 display tanks in 11 habitat zones, there’s a lot of life to see at Sea Life—from starfishes that you can touch and little shrimps that can give your hand a bit of cleaning, to the sharks and eels and rays simply amazing to watch. But if you really want to see something equally strange and stunning, look for the giant, blue Napoleon fish (humphead wrasse) in the Ocean Tank.
Bonus. Don’t forget to drop by the Star Wars Miniland.
If, like me, you are a fan of both Lego and Star Wars, a Lego Star Wars miniland is a double geeky treat. It’s the only attraction of its kind in Asia, featuring seven scenes in stunning detail from six Star Wars film plus one from the Clone Wars TV series. All of these, of course, are made from Lego. It took nearly 8,000 man hours and more than 1.5 million bricks to construct the 1,122 models in this miniland—from the battle of Theed to the battle of Hoth and even the cantina at Tatooine.
Legoland Malaysia is located at Johor, a Malaysian city that’s roughly two hours away by land from Singapore. So if you are planning a visit, you can fly to Singapore and then travel by bus to Johor. You can also fly to Kuala Lumpur and then catch another flight to Johor from there.
Lego comes from the Danish phrase leg godt, which means ‘play well.’ This idea of play is the foundation every Legoland in the world is built on.