CARLSBAD, CALIF. — Some people say you can't really put a price on fun. But I'm guessing a lot of those people are billionaires and mortgage defaulters.
It seems to me that being a parent, especially at the moment, is all about putting a price on fun. And being the parent of a 4-year-old, I am learning, means facing up to an epic collision of price and fun: the amusement park. What it offers, what it costs, what weaponry and waiting it will entail. In my household, we've just confronted this dragon for the first time, at a place that actually has a talking red dragon.
No, not Disneyland. We thought we'd aim for less commotion, smaller crowds. But we did like the idea of an overnight stay, and we'd heard that the people at Legoland had been up to a few things lately, including the opening of a Sheraton next door.
So we dodged Disneyland and its sibling California Adventure (each of which charge $59 to $69 for admission), we sidestepped Universal Studios Hollywood ($57 to $67) and SeaWorld ($55 to $65), and we headed to Carlsbad for Legoland. With our 10% auto club discount, admission cost $44.96 for the little person and $53.96 each for the larger ones (prices have since increased $2).
First we caught a break: That Sheraton, which opened in February, is roomy, with helpful staffers, a big, kid-friendly pool area, a sliver view of the Pacific (best from the third-floor rooms) and its own Legoland entrance. Things were slow when we arrived -- just before noon on a Friday -- so the hotel let us check in early, stash our stuff, then march down the path, hand over the greenbacks and grab ahold of five full hours of interlocking rectangular plastic fun.
Grace Li Qi, our 4-year-old, went all clingy as we neared the gates. But the first thing you see, entering from the Sheraton, is a playground of slides and ropes. So if the lines are too long or the rides are too scary, or not scary enough, you have that fallback.
Approaching the core of the place, you hit Miniland, where most of the models are. Minimal motion, minimal lights, minimal noises -- this looked like a scaled-down slice of heaven to me. Grace took it in quietly (but bragged about it to her dentist later). We browsed past faux San Francisco, artificial Los Angeles (insert redundancy joke here), pseudo New Orleans, facsimile Manhattan and fake Las Vegas Strip, all constructed of Lego pieces. Las Vegas was added last year, giving visitors a chance to compare a fake Manhattan skyline with a double-fake Manhattan skyline.
