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A few months ago, my wife and I asked our daughter where she would like to go for her sixth birthday. Last year, she chose Universal Studios Hollywood and this year, she chose Legoland California.
We live in Los Angeles so making the trip down to Carlsbad is just 90 minutes. We could do a day trip but it’s way better to spend the night so you can enter and exit the park if you like. We’ve been fortunate to visit Legoland many times and stay at a variety of hotels nearby. Here are some of our reviews:
–Our First Family Trip To Legoland and The Castle Hotel
–Hotel Review: 13 Reasons to Stay at the Westin Carlsbad Resort and Spa
–Hotel review: The Cassara Carlsbad, a Tapestry Collection by Hilton hotel
–Hotel Review: Park Hyatt Aviara Resort, Golf Club & Spa in Carlsbad, California
–12 Reasons to Stay at the Omni La Costa Resort Carlsbad
On this trip, we arranged a stay at the Castle Hotel. We’d stayed there four years ago but our kids barely remembered it, especially our youngest. There are two official Legoland hotels on property and we stayed at the newest one, the Legoland Castle Hotel, which opened in 2018.
Parking
We arrived on a Thursday in mid-August at around 1:30pm. If you make advance reservations, make sure you have your QR code to scan at the parking lot since there’s no attendant. I didn’t have one so when I pushed the call button, the operator said they can’t open the gate even though they had my reservation. I had to pay $35 for the day pass and get it refunded when I checked out.
Check-in
Rooms aren’t guaranteed until 4pm but the valet/bellman will hold your luggage for you if you arrive early like we did. The hotel will text you when your room is ready (ours was ready 20 minutes after checking in). The hotel uses self-service check-in kiosks but they have representatives standing by to help.
The hotel is really unique, which you will realize as soon as you step in the door. The lobby has a mini kids slide and all kinds of castle decorations.
The same theme is found throughout the hotel, including the hallways. 
The Rooms
The rooms are large and ours had a king size bed on one end …
… and the “Ultimate Kid’s Quarters,” on the other, which is a separate kids’ area partitioned by a blackout curtain with bunk beds. There are actually three beds on the bunk bed as one is a trundle that slides out from under the bottom bunk so it sleeps three comfortably.
Between the rooms is a good size bathroom with a thick bathroom door for privacy, which is always a plus. The toilet seat has two sections. The top one is for little kids so they don’t fall through. It was a nice touch.
Another nice touch for kids is there’s a little peephole at the front door so they can see out in the hallway without having to be lifted up.
Each room comes with two complimentary bottles of water and two Honest Juice packs.
There’s also a mini fridge, which is always great to have in a hotel room since we can keep milk on hand for the kids. One thing that is annoying is the night lights in both rooms.
The rooms also have a bucket of LEGOs and a wall to play with them on, which is great since you’re less likely to step on them that way.
There are no phones in the room but the staff are very responsive on text. The rooms come with a Google Nest, which we have at home and are used to, so it was nice to be able to ask questions like, “Hey Google, what’s the weather tomorrow?”
The rooms are so big that when I was on FaceTime with my sister, she asked, “Are you in a suite?” I showed her around and she thought it was the coolest room ever, with all the colorful wallpaper, carpets and Lego pieces.
She really loved the cool nightlight above the bed with the stained glass window.
Dining
The hotel is so popular with families and because most rates include breakfast, you need to make reservations in advance through Open Table. However, they say you only get a five-minute grace period.
For dinner, we ordered food from Uber Eats but we did eat at the hotel’s breakfast buffet, which had plenty of variety.
They have two types of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, biscuits, pancakes, French Toast sticks, yogurt, fruit cups, orange juice, milk and cereal.
NOTE: The hotel charges $25 for a one-hour late checkout or $65 for two hours. Checkout is at 11am.
What’s nice about staying here is that it might be the only hotel in the world that has quiet halls at night. But once the sun comes up, you can hear the pitter patter of footsteps of the little kids in rooms above you.
Legoland
Another benefit? Hotel guests get exclusive access to Legoland from 9:15am to 10am for these attractions: DUPLO Little Dino Trail, Explorer River Quest, Coastersaurus, NINJAGO The Ride and Coast Cruise.
If you have little ones, I highly recommend spending at least one night at the Castle Hotel. Next time, we will try the hotel next door.
