How To Buy LEGOLAND California Discount Tickets

Hello! My name is Camille, San Diego mom of three and LEGOLAND aficionado. This is where I keep my updated list of all the deals I know about for LEGOLAND California tickets and special offers.

I will break down what the difference between the tickets are (Sea Life Aquarium, LEGOLAND water park.. what?) and tell you why the best deal is to upgrade an annual pass if you’re planning on visiting more than once a year. 

Current Deals

Without further ado, here are the current deals (updated May 2025)

They currently have the LEGO Festival going on through early June and they just opened their new Driver’s School over by the water park entrance!

Kid Summer Play Pass: Unlimited admission for kids through Sept 19th. $129, so the same price of a single day ticket.

Save 40% on one day resort hopper tickets (ends May 29th)

Save 30% on a single day one park ticket (ends May 29th)

By the way, I do earn a commission from these links. It is no extra cost to you, so if you love this info please remember to buy through my link. Thank you so much! It helps me keep bringing you the best LEGOLAND content for free.

Here is what I will cover:

1. Current Deals
2. Which Annual Pass is the best deal
3. New Visitors to LEGOLAND
4. What To Know Before You Go
5. Tickets and Parking
6. Other Discounted Tickets / Deals throughout the year
7. Cool Stuff To Not Miss At LEGOLAND

Which Annual Pass is the best deal

This is an annual pass I won’t let expire. You need only go 1.5 times to make the annual pass worth it. A single-day ticket is $89 and an annual pass is $179!

Here’s the breakdown of the passes. By the way, you get a better deal buying these on the LEGOLAND website rather than at the ticket booth. The exception is if you are upgrading a single-day ticket. You can do that by visiting the Guest Services window by the main entrance on the day of your visit. 

My recommendation: Either the Gold Pass or the Platinum Pass. If you want to go on summer weekends and during Spring Break, get the Platinum. If you don’t care to go then (likely very crowded), get the Gold for all the kids and the Platinum for one person to pay for parking. BUT if you’re buying during this deal, might as well get them all Platinum and skip the headache. Note you are going to need a pass for everyone in your family ages 2 and up.

Silver Pass: $179/person. This pass offers admission to just LEGOLAND (not the water park). Many weekends are blocked out. This pass is not eligible for the buy 3 get one free pass. This pass would be perfect for someone with young kids who was planning to visit on uncrowded weekdays only and is not interested in the water park. 

Gold Pass: $229/person. This is included in the 3 for 1 deal. This is the pass that many people get! It includes LEGOLAND, the water park, and the SeaLife Aquarium (perfect for a rainy day!). It does NOT include parking. Parking is currently $30. Do the math and see if you are going enough times to make this pass worth it. Sometimes I will upgrade one person’s pass to get parking and leave the rest of us at the lower tier. I usually upgrade the oldest kids’ pass as that is who I am most likely to send along with friends/family. Watch the blackout dates for this pass. It’s blacked out for Spring Break, Winter Break, Fourth of July, and many summer weekends. 

Platinum Pass: $279/person. All the same perks as the Gold pass except parking is included. There are a lot less blackout dates on this pass as well. It’s only blacked out for Brick or Treat in September/October. In 2023 you could add on Brick or Treat for $10. Anyone who went to LEGOLAND on a Brick or Treat day could attend. They hand out candy and have some extra Halloween parties and decorations but otherwise, it’s just a normal ?(and more crowded) LEGOLand day. 

Elite Pass: $349. You don’t need this pass unless Grandma and Grandpa are paying. Then go for it! 

By the way each pass included exclusive discounts on items purchased in the park. That’s 10% off new LEGO so if you buy a lot, buy them here!

By the way, I do earn a commission from these links. It is no extra cost to you, so if you love this info please remember to buy through my link. Thank you so much! It helps me keep bringing you the best LEGOLAND content for free.

New Visitors to LEGOLAND

These next sections are for my LEGOLAND newbies. If you’ve never been before, it’s been a while, or you just want to learn all my tips and tricks, read on! 

LEGOLAND Park is the best amusement park in San Diego. Here is why Legoland is awesome: It’s less focused on the rides and more on the creative play stations and stuff built out of Legos. Yes, there ARE rides, but what other theme park will your kid happily spend most of the time in creative play? 

LEGOLAND California opened in 1999 (I went the year it opened at 8 years old!). It was the first LEGOLAND in the United States. It used to be just Miniland (the huge collection of LEGO models) and a few rides. It’s since expanded to include more rides, a movie theater, and now a water park and aquarium. The LEGOLAND team is constantly expanding, adding more lands, amazing LEGOLAND hotels, LEGO friends, interactive LEGO features, more rides, and more playgrounds.

LEGOLAND California Resort is located in Carlsbad, just north of San Diego and about an hour south of Orange County. It’s close to the ocean so it rarely gets too hot or cold. Some fun things around LEGOLAND include the sandy beaches (Carlsbad State Beach is the nearest beach, Moonlight State Beach is our favorite), The Flower Fields (open in the spring only), and The San Diego Zoo Safari Park to the west. It’s a great addition to any San Diego vacation. Here is everything I have written on Carlsbad!

What To Know Before You Go

The ideal age for LEGOLAND is 3-12. Though it’s great for both boys and girls, it’s magic with my little boys who love cars, building, and pressing buttons. Those outside this age range will still enjoy it.

The best time to visit theme parks is NOT during school breaks (summer, winter break, spring break etc) and on a weekday if possible. LEGOLAND especially has grown faster than it has the capacity for. The lines can get long at peak times, but on a random Tuesday in February, there is no wait! Check the site isitpacked.com for best estimator on days to go. 

You can do everything in the main part of LEGOLAND in a day on a non-crowded day. Two days will be great if you add the waterpark and aquarium. There’s also a ton to do at the hotels so keep that in mind.

Let’s get this out of the way. LEGOLAND is not Disneyland. They are close geographically and somewhat close in daily price (and parking cost), but they are not the same. Don’t go in expecting Disneyland or you’ll be disappointed.

This is not to say anyone has been rude to us or we have had a bad experience, but expect to be helped by teens who live in the area not customer-service trained Disney people who will bend over backward to make your day magical. 

The crowd management is not quite as tight. On crowded days you will see considerable waits for some rides. Unlike Disneyland, some days are not crowded. Nothing is better than LEGOLAND on a weekday in November as you breeze through every line! Disney’s last uncrowded day was probably sometime in 2019. Now every day there is shoulder-to-shoulder theme park hell.

With that being said, our family now prefers LEGOLAND over Disneyland Resort. There are more playgrounds and places for kids to play. LEGOLAND is actually FOR kids. Disneyland seems to have devolved into some adults-without-kids money pit where they sell $250 lightsabers. Now that will send me to the Dark Side. If you would like to read more of my tips on Disney (yes we have passes to both) you can read those here.

Tickets and Parking

The first decision to make when visiting LEGOLAND is how many days you will be there. You have to buy theme park tickets for the date you want to go, so if the water park is open that day, it will present that as an option. See ticket calendar here.

If you’re just there one day, just buy the LEGOLand ticket. No need for hopper tickets. For more days, the water park and SeaLife aquarium to see sea creatures make great add-ons. The SeaLife Aquarium is massive. And the water park is perfect for little kids!

There’s a nice big parking lot at LEGOLAND theme park. It costs $35 to park and parking is free with Platinum and Elite passes. There is EV parking in front of the LEGOLAND Hotel and to the side at the Castle Hotel. The Castle Hotel EV parking rarely works, so we always do the LEGOLAND hotel if possible. The parking lot is very close to the park entrance, no trams or stroller folding is needed.

LEGOLAND California Discount Tickets

Don’t pay full price for LEGOLAND tickets. There are so many ways around it! Here are my favorites that happen throughout the year. I will keep this list updated as I see tickets go on sale. 

By the way, the best deal for tickets will always be online on the LEGOLAND website, not at the front desk. Click here to buy tickets!

Military Discount: Here is all the info on military discounts for LEGOLAND: https://www.legoland.com/california/deals/military-offers/

Costco: They sell LEGOLAND tickets at Costco. The passes include the water park and aquarium. They aren’t there all the time but you can count on them during Christmas and summer. 

Kids Go Free With Paid Adult: They hand these passes out like candy. At any given time we have 5-10 stuffed in our drawers. You can get them at the LEGO store, on the backs of LEGOs, and at McDonald’s sometimes.

Black Friday Deals: The Black Friday deals are different each year but most recently they’ve had BOGO annual passes and a significant amount off single-day tickets. 

San Diego GO Pass: The San Diego GO Pass is a pass that covers the zoo, LEGOLAND, SeaWorld, and a host of other museums in San Diego. These are a great deal if you are on vacation and planning to do a lot in a short amount of time. The only downside is they must be used on consecutive days. So if you have young kids that poop out quickly, you may screw yourself over. If you want to do two things from their list, the San Diego GO Pass is worth the cost. 

Free Admission: During October it’s Kids Go Free Month in San Diego. Enjoy admission to tons of San Diego attractions for free for your kids with a paying adult!

Hotels: There are two amazing LEGOLAND-themed hotels with themed rooms. The first is the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel and the other is the regular hotel. Both have fun things to do so if you find yourself there on a day when the parks close early, go check it out!

The lobbies are open to all not just hotel guests. We love the slide in the lobby of the Castle Hotel and the disco elevator in the LEGOLAND Hotel. Both have building stations and hands-on experiences. Check out their vacation packages online to see more details on those. 

Cool Stuff To Not Miss At LEGOLAND

They recently added a LEGO Movie World based on the hit movie! You can ride Unikitty’s Disco Drop Ride, Emmet’s Flying Adventure ride (you get to fly a triple decker couch), meet LEGO movie characters, and enjoy the Everything is Ramen restaurant. Our favorite hands-on theme park experience is the Ferrari Build and Test area over by the boat ride. 

The little kids will love the Fun Town driving school where they can drive their own cars, and the smaller roller coaster Coastasaurus. The play areas are also amazing and they are all over the park!

They recently added a LEGO Ninjago playground that is very popular. Sometimes they will also have ninja shows in that area. We also love The Dragon Coaster on Castle Hill! It doesn’t go too fast, making it perfect for a first roller coaster exposure for kids. Make sure to check wait times in the mobile app before heading over there. In all this is the perfect place for kids and we love taking our family here!

Allow me to introduce myself…

My name is Camille! I am a San Diego stay-at-home mom who is never ever at home. I share a lot of fun things to do around San Diego including parks, restaurants, LEGOLAND, the zoo etc.

My goal with my Instagram account and blog is to make any mom feel prepared for any outing with her kids so that she doesn’t have to stay home unless she wants to. Getting out with my kids was key for me in overcoming postpartum depression so I try to pay it forward by sharing what we do to help other moms in a similar situation. Read more about my story here.

Thanks so much for reading!

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