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Bummer. I was hoping for a similar deal as in 2019. They stripped most benefits (free parking, no blackout dates, visit to any Merlin attractions and etc..) from gold.
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Bought the Elite pass for Legoland CA today. A couple notes for people thinking about this:
- There are three pass levels on sale for Black Friday; Gold ($158), Platinum ($175) and Elite ($195). You basically don't want Gold unless you live in Carlsbad, your kids don't go to school, and you have somebody to drop you off and pick you up -- blackout dates for spring break, every summer weekend, and all the holidays. And no free parking. Platinum is where things start to make sense -- blackout dates only around Halloween's 'Brick-Or-Treat' events, and parking is included. Elite removes all blackout dates, adds access to '30+ Merlin attractions' (which appear to be the other Legoland parks and the Legoland discovery centers) and bumps the in-park discount to 25% on food from 20% for the Platinum pass.
- In 2019 the Gold pass was $99 for Black Friday; and it lived until about March 2021, due to COVID extensions. The equivalent pass today is the Elite pass -- $299 normally; $194 with this deal. So that's basically a 200% price increase... but...
- Today, the other options aren't as good as 2019. You can get a Black Friday single day ticket ($70; must be used between Jan & March 2023), wait for one of their frequent 'kids go free' deals (generally $120 for adult + kid), or wait for a Costco option. Costco's best recent deal is $105 for a three day pass that must be used within ~30 days. But none of those includes parking ($25/day) or food discounts (25%), and there's no guarantee that Costco offers the same deal again.
- The pass is good until the first day of the month following your purchase, *not* for exactly one year as mentioned on their site. The pass does activate it the day you buy it, so keep that in mind if your trip isn't planned for a while. In 2019, they give you something like 90 days to activate it -- you bought it on Black Friday but then could show up at the pass office up to 90 days later to pickup your pass and start your one year clock. Not anymore.
- On the good news front, activation is instant -- we purchased and were walking through the gates 90 mins later, with no problems. After purchase you can download the pass to the Legoland app by entering your order number and email address. Guest services can print out a physical pass for you as well, BUT that deactivates your digital pass, so unless you really hate phones, the digital option seems to be the best. You can also add your passes to your Apple Wallet.
- Reservations to visit the park are technically required, but I spoke to a manager today and he told me they don't check unless it gets really busy. They're free and easy to do online, so probably worth it to be on the safe side, but if you're just driving by and want to pop in for an hour, you'll probably be fine if you don't have one.
Overall I think this is still worth it if you can go several times during the year, but it's definitely less good of a deal than it was three years ago.
Last edited by dordal November 24, 2022 at 09:17 PM.
Better than last year's deals which there were none. I was able to renew last year for $20 off, this year a better deal. Not 2019 level good deal though. Looks like the Costco play pass is no longer being offered.
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- There are three pass levels on sale for Black Friday; Gold ($158), Platinum ($175) and Elite ($195). You basically don't want Gold unless you live in Carlsbad, your kids don't go to school, and you have somebody to drop you off and pick you up -- blackout dates for spring break, every summer weekend, and all the holidays. And no free parking. Platinum is where things start to make sense -- blackout dates only around Halloween's 'Brick-Or-Treat' events, and parking is included. Elite removes all blackout dates, adds access to '30+ Merlin attractions' (which appear to be the other Legoland parks and the Legoland discovery centers) and bumps the in-park discount to 25% on food from 20% for the Platinum pass.
- In 2019 the Gold pass was $99 for Black Friday; and it lived until about March 2021, due to COVID extensions. The equivalent pass today is the Elite pass -- $299 normally; $194 with this deal. So that's basically a 200% price increase... but...
- Today, the other options aren't as good as 2019. You can get a Black Friday single day ticket ($70; must be used between Jan & March 2023), wait for one of their frequent 'kids go free' deals (generally $120 for adult + kid), or wait for a Costco option. Costco's best recent deal is $105 for a three day pass that must be used within ~30 days. But none of those includes parking ($25/day) or food discounts (25%), and there's no guarantee that Costco offers the same deal again.
- The pass is good until the first day of the month following your purchase, *not* for exactly one year as mentioned on their site. The pass does activate it the day you buy it, so keep that in mind if your trip isn't planned for a while. In 2019, they give you something like 90 days to activate it -- you bought it on Black Friday but then could show up at the pass office up to 90 days later to pickup your pass and start your one year clock. Not anymore.
- On the good news front, activation is instant -- we purchased and were walking through the gates 90 mins later, with no problems. After purchase you can download the pass to the Legoland app by entering your order number and email address. Guest services can print out a physical pass for you as well, BUT that deactivates your digital pass, so unless you really hate phones, the digital option seems to be the best. You can also add your passes to your Apple Wallet.
- Reservations to visit the park are technically required, but I spoke to a manager today and he told me they don't check unless it gets really busy. They're free and easy to do online, so probably worth it to be on the safe side, but if you're just driving by and want to pop in for an hour, you'll probably be fine if you don't have one.
Overall I think this is still worth it if you can go several times during the year, but it's definitely less good of a deal than it was three years ago.