ALL RIGHT ON THE KNIGHT
What’s it like to stay at Legoland’s newest hotel? The excitement is building as we check it out..
WANNABE knights and wizards of all ages have an exciting treat in store at the Castle Hotel, the newly opened addition to Legoland Windsor Resort.
It has 61 fantastical family bedrooms (with separate sleeping areas), in knight and wizard themes, set to fire children’s imaginations.
I took Ollie, soon to be four years old, for a very special sleepover the night before it opened, and we were in good company. Celebs we spotted included Steps’ Claire Richards and her family, McFly’s Tom Fletcher and wife Giovanna and their two kids, Buddy and Buzz, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor and her brood.
Everything was awesome, of course, but these were our particular highlights: 1. THERE BE LEGO DRAGONS One of the biggest buzzes about spending a night in the Castle Hotel is spotting some of its 657 Lego models, which took more than 2.1million individual bricks to build. Besides the kick-ass girl knight who greets you at the castle door and the awesome wizard with an owl on his shoulder in the lobby, our favourites were the dragons.
The bright red one perched right next to the double bed in the knight-themed rooms is unmissable. It weighs 17 kilos and took 60 hours to build – kudos to the master builder. 2. THE ATTENTION TO DETAIL IS PHENOMENAL Those with sharp eyes will be rewarded. Whether it’s the eight Lego mice perching on the olde worlde chandeliers in the Tournament Tavern, the kids’ loo seats tucked within the adults’ ones or the little knight slightly embarrassed at being caught in his pants, who you’ll only see when you close the bathroom door, no magical stone has been left unturned in the quest for surprising guests. 3. THERE’S A KNIGHT’S QUEST IN YOUR ROOM WITH PRIZES We didn’t get to bed before 10pm, because around bath time, we spotted THE QUEST.
I thought the in-room safe was pretty low-tech until I realised the brown box with a barrel lock being guarded by, yep, another Lego dragon was part of a game.
Turns out it concealed a prize. All we had to do to open it was crack the number code by hunting clues hidden in the room. The grown-ups were more excited than Ollie! 4. THE STEAK AT THE TOURNAMENT TAVERN IS MOUTH-WATERINGLY GOOD Choose from fillet, sirloin or rump – or for those who are good at sharing, chateaubriand – and they’re all done to juicy perfection (prices from £10.95).
The kids’ menu is tasty too: Ollie had a melon salad with raspberry coulis for starter, and roasted chicken with corn on