Legoland Hotel Malaysia - Best Hotel for Kids according to Sofia

After buying a Legoland Annual Pass when Legoland Malaysia newly opened in 2012, and finding time to visit it 4 times that year (despite moving back to the Philippines) which you can read about here, I never thought that I would willingly go back to Legoland Malaysia again (unless someone else offered to pay for our trip), but I guess I under-estimated myself. All it took was discounted rates (or Strategic Partner Rates) offered to Unilever employees for the newly opened Legoland Hotel - and I was all in (again!).

I first tried to book our accommodations for our recent trip in March as early as last year so I could avail of the discounted rates offered, but I was informed that they were not sure if the initial rates provided were the same rates for this year. Good thing, out of the blue, I decided to email them if they had new rates for this year - towards the end of January and they told me that the rates were the same for the hotel, but the strategic partner rates for the Theme Park and Water Park has increased slightly, and all I needed to do to secure the reservation was submit new forms. Hooray! 

We've only seen Legoland Hotel from the back, walking from the Theme Park
entrance to the Water Park entrance so Sofia was really excited to stay here.

Sofia with the larger than life Lego Figures guarding the hotel.

Since it's the back entrance (which I didn't realize before), it doesn't look
impressive at all. Hahaha.

This is what the front of the hotel looks like, but people normally don't
pass here unless they're arriving by taxi, since the back is closer to the parks.

If you entered through the parks like us, then your first point of contact would be the DISCO elevators.

ELEVATORS - WIN

There are different themes, but one thing the lifts all have in common
is the disco ambiance with the lights and the music. Feel free to dance!

Since it's a Lego hotel, there was a Lego bellman when
we exited the lift, but he wasn't much help with the luggage.

The Legoland Hotel comes with it's own Lego Skyline.

CHECK-IN CHECK-OUT POLICY - FAIL

One big opportunity for improvement is the late check-in hours and early check-out hours this hotel requires. I don't understand why check-in is only at 4:00pm and you need to check-out by 11:00am. That leaves you barely any time to enjoy the hotel at all, especially if you go to the Theme Parks on a single day ticket that does not allow you to leave an re-enter. It would have been more reasonable for them to at least adhere hotel industry standard of a 2:00pm check-in time and noon check-out.

We arrived on a Friday afternoon, and the hotel didn't even look full,
but we were informed that our room would not be ready until 4:00pm.
The small Lego details were really cool though.

Behind the reception, if you look closely, is a minifig wall.

This is how empty the hotel was. Though the Lego filled posts were a nice
touch, and free fruit is always good.

I absolutely loved the magnifying wheels of the bike that moves back and forth.

Kids can keep themselves entertained in the lobby with the big Lego Castle and Pirate Ship.

ENTERTAINMENT FOR KIDS - SUPER WIN

The Legoland Hotel also has daily activities for kids, but it sorts of defeat the
purpose if you can't join the contests because you have no assigned room yet.

Part of the lobby has a nice glass ceiling so you can
see the hotel.

There's also a Lego Shop.

and a soft brick play area that leads to Bricks, the main hotel restaurant.

Different Buffet Meals are offered at Bricks, and during dinner there is
always an activity for the kids.

The hotel has a Luggage Room that really comes in handy
given their tight check in and check out schedules.

Since we couldn't freshen up in our room yet, we just left our luggage, used the rest rooms to change into our Water Park clothes, then went for a quick lunch.

LOCATION - WIN

Legoland is conveniently located beside the Mall of Medini so there are
a lot of eating options.

My To Eat List always includes Taiwanese Chicken Chops and Oyster
Misua (with no oysters) from Shilin.

We normally eat at BK or Pancake House but this trip Tim and Sof
decided they wanted KFC with Hainanese Rice and Crepes.

Then off to Legoland Water Park we went... 

When I was planning our itinerary, I decided to get us tickets to the
Water Park on the first day, so we could bathe afterwards in the comfort
of Legoland hotel.

I actually had to convince Sofia to leave the water park, otherwise we would be there until closing, so I told her that we could explore the swimming pool at the hotel since she was already wet anyway.

SWIMMING POOL - FAIL

After claiming the keys to our room, we went directly to the swimming
pool on the fifth floor.

Let me just say for the record, it was the most hideous pool I've ever seen... especially for a family resort. It was small, crowded, and for a Legoland hotel, it had nothing special whatsoever about it. Even the table (there was only 1) and chairs were very basic. I was at least expecting some reclining sun lounge chairs. It was a total disappointment.

Good thing my daughter is a total water baby,
so she didn't mind moving from the Water Park to the pool.

I gave her 15 minutes to swim with Ninong Tim, but
if you ask me, any time spent here is wasted vacation time.

After drying up by the pool, we finally went to check out our room.

The Legoland Hotel has 3 different kinds of themed rooms,
you need to specify which one you want when you book.

Your hotel key will only allow you access to your floor, as well as to the common floors, ie Ground, and 5th for the pool.

Once you exit the lift, the hallways are already in theme.
Unfortunately, if you get an outdoor room like we did, they scrimped on the
ambiance and most of the doors are no longer decorated.

I'm not sure if Premium Rooms mean you get the works on your door,
and a Basic Room means that you don't.

It's a good thing that once you get inside the door, you're definitely transported into your own Pirate lair.

PIRATE ROOMS - SUPER WIN

Each room in Legoland is big enough for the whole family (max 5 pax)
so there's a Master's bedroom at the end, and bunk beds for the kids.

The first thing you see when you enter is the bathroom, and it has a kid
sized sink and an adult sized one, not to mention all the Lego details.

The kids area has a bunk bed, TV, and a lot of things for the kids to
entertain themselves.

The Master's Bedroom also has Pirate Details, gold tooth included.

View of the Mall of Medini from the Master's Bedroom.

Then for privacy, you can lock your parents out, or vice versa.

Each room comes with a treasure map with clues on how you can break
the code to the safe guarded by the monkey. If you manage to open it,
you can keep the toys! I was quite surprised to find quite a lot of goodies.
There was a Darth Maul key chain, Princess Leia magnet, and a Chima toy
worth MYR50 combined! We love freebies!

I love the little things, like the toiletries, and since there was no mini bar,
every thing in the room was free.

The lobby is so much more chaotic at night. It seems this is where all the
kids hang out after dinner. Every day, there's a Lego Building contest,
so I think they use the Lego from here to make the creations they enter. 

There are also a lot of kids playing in the other side.
Grabe, little girl on top, ang kalat mo ha!

Sof and Ninong started dancing to Lady Gaga...

...before you knew it, so many kids were dancing with them.

Sof was having so much fun, I left her with Tim
downstairs while we started getting ready for bed.

Sofia played for a bit downstairs, then she went up to the room and
played some more. Aerial view from the top bunk.

We agreed that I would sleep on top, Sofia in the bottom bunk,
then Ninong Tim would take the pull out bed, but Sofia changed her mind,
so I ended up on a third of the top bunk sharing it with Sofia and Rainbow.

Sofia's Diary entry after she and Rainbow bear moved in on my space.

One thing I noticed though is that the curtains don't fully
block out the sun, but if you're not staying in the Master's
bedroom, it really won't bother you.

Breakfast at Bricks Restaurant is included in the room rate for up to 5 people, again supposedly for 2 adults and 3 children. Breakfast is served until 10:30am only so we planned to go down around 10:00am so we would have enough time for breakfast.

Breakfast is quite a chaotic affair.

I love the Lego touches.

Funny to see the Lego used plates cart beside the real one.

There's a huge food assortment, extending even outside in the balcony.

But if you arrive at 10:00am like we did, expect to see a lot of the trays
looking like this. They do refill, but it takes time.

There is a self service drinks counter, but when I attempted to get myself
a coffee and Sofia a Milo, it's either the machines did not work, or they were
just serving us dishwater. Just stick to water and you should be fine.

While breakfast is supposed to be until 10:30am, around 10:15am they go around telling people that it's already the last call for the buffet. Since we weren't really settled yet, this drove us into a hoarding frenzy to make sure we had enough food even after they stopped serving!

BREAKFAST - just OK

My favorite part of the buffet was the Chicken Curry which I ate with
Fried egg and Roti. Yummy. Reminds me of Sri Lanka!
I want to eat an Egg Hopper with Lamb Curry again. 

Timmy arrived late, so we grabbed everything we thought he might want
before the closed the buffet, then he arrived in time to grab more food.

These two are just too sleepy, so they both had scrambled eggs and croissant.

My second favorite thing they served was croissants with feta and honey.

It was close to 11:00am when we finished breakfast,
so Sofia just had enough time to play a bit, then we went
up to pick up our bags.

Thanks to the Express Check Out Lego thing,
Sofia checked out for us by dropping the keys.

The lobby is so much more chaotic on a Saturday.
In fact, this time, there were actual lines in the reception.

We even met Mr. Pirate before leaving.

Who has a better Pirate Face?

Since I don't really function at all without coffee, Sofia and her 2 Ninong Tims went ahead to the theme park while Ady and I grabbed some coffee.

Hooray for Old Town White Coffee in Mall of Medini

Ady and I were happy enough drinking Iced Coffee
instead of walking around Legoland.

Despite some things I think the Legoland Hotel can do better, it was still really good value (especially with the Strategic Partner Rate - I think we ended up paying just around SG$165). Any Lego lover, or any child for that matter will surely enjoy staying in Legoland Hotel. If given the chance, I'd probably be willing to take Sofia again, if only to check out the other themed rooms. just saying.

Legoland Hotel Malaysia

http://www.legoland.com.my/en/Hotel/Home/