Are you planning a trip across the border to to Legoland in Johor Bahru? Legoland is one of the easiest trips you can take from Singapore, especially as a family with young kids. If so, I’m sure you’ve looked at the Legoland Resort and wondered if it’s worth the price tag.
In this post, we will be talking about our stay in Legoland Resort, specifically in the Kingdom room. After years of thinking about it, my family and I finally made our way over to visit Legoland Malaysia and see for ourselves what the fuss is all about.
If you’re interest to read about the theme park itself, you can read my travel guide for visiting Legoland Malaysia Theme Parks here.
- About Legoland Malaysia Resort
- Our stay at Legoland Malaysia Resort
- In Conclusion
About Legoland Malaysia Resort
Legoland Malaysia Resort is located just 20 minutes ride from the country border between Singapore and Malaysia. There are three attractions to see in Legoland – Legoland Theme Park, Legoland Water Park, and Sea Life Aquarium – making it the perfect weekend getaway from nearby places, including Singapore.
Legoland Malaysia first opened in 2013, with the hotel soon followed in November 2013. So it has been over a decade since they both started operating – is it still worth staying in? I’ll answer that question in this post.
Where to book a room at Legoland Malaysia Resort
Legoland Malaysia Resort can be booked through Booking.com. It can also be booked through the official website of Legoland Malaysia. I recommend checking both sites and see which one has the best price.
Booking through Booking.com offers more flexibility as you can cancel it up to 3 days before the trip, while the official website can be canceled 7 days before the trip. Please double check before booking!
Themed Rooms at Legoland Malaysia Resort
Lego enthusiastic would have known that the rooms in Legoland Resorts are not just regular rooms, they are themed rooms, and that’s the main selling point. In Legoland Malaysia, there are four themes:
- Kingdom – Castles, guards, queens, kings and magic!
- Adventure – I thought this one is not so obvious, but the theme is Egypt adventures, so expect mummies and hieroglyphic decorations.
- Pirate – Expect loads of skulls and ship-related decoration, with red, white and black being the majority of the colors.
- Lego Friends – These rooms are fully Lego-themed, with colorful blocks and primary colors around the room.
- Ninjago – I think this is self-explanatory, expect decorations based on the wildly popular Ninjago franchise. With its popularity among kids (especially boys), Ninjago theme room comes at a an extra cost compared to the other rooms.
What is the difference between Theme vs Premium Theme Rooms?
If you’re wondering what’s the difference between “Theme” vs “Premium Theme” room, the answer is – there are more magical decorations in the premium rooms! For example, even the doors of the Premium Theme rooms are decorated to fit the theme, instead of just regular doors.
I think the bathroom of the regular theme room is just a plain bathroom, while the premium theme room is more decorated and feels more festive.
Lastly, Premium Theme rooms faces the theme park and thus have a better view, while the regular Theme rooms just faces the parking lot.
We did pay for the Premium Kingdom room since the prices were not that expensive at the time of our visit. My five year-old did enjoy pointing out the rides from our window.
Other than that, both rooms have the same layout and can fit up to 5 people.
Other types of rooms
Aside from Themed and Premium rooms, there are Deluxe and Suite rooms as well. Deluxe has an extra set of bunk beds and can fit up to 8 people. Only the Pirate theme has deluxe rooms.
Suite comes in Kingdom and Ninjago theme. The Kingdom Suite can fit up to 8 people and has an extra living room. Ninjago Suite can only fit 5 people, but has a separate children play area.
Checking into Legoland Malaysia Resort
Check in at the resort is quite late, from 4PM onwards. We arrived at noon on a weekday and was informed that our room is not ready yet, which was fine by us since we plan to go to the water park right away.
Upon check in, I had to pay MYR 20 tourist tax which can be paid with cash. I also had to provide a credit card as guarantee for room incidentals, which is pretty standard procedure I’d say.
We then dropped off our luggages at the luggage room, while the kids played at the lobby for another 30 minutes or so. Why at the lobby? Because the lobby looks like THIS:
As soon as you enter the Legoland Hotel lobby, you’ll see a play area filled with Lego blocks. Yes, this area is always filled with kids because… tell me, who can resist playing with endless amount of Legos?
The pirate ship side is designed for younger kids and contains only large foam blocks of legos that isn’t a choking hazard. The castle side contains REAL Lego blocks for bigger kids and adults.
Of course, those are not the only Lego-related things in the lobby. There are tons of other details and decorations that makes the hotel festive!
When we came back to the hotel at 6PM, we were promptly checked in and given our room keys – which were, of course, Lego-themed.
Review of Kingdom Premium Room
When we were still in the planning stage of our trip, I asked my son which room he wanted to stay in. I went to the resort website and showed him all the room photos.
My son is a Ninjago fan. Having just thrown a Ninjago-themed birthday party just a few months before, I expected that he would pick the Ninjago room. But this boy does not stop surprising me – he actually chose the Kingdom room! And I’m kind of glad because: 1) It’s significantly cheaper than the Ninjago room 2) I actually preferred the room aesthetics more 😀
And here is how the Kingdom room looked like!
The lift lobby and hallway
Each floor is dedicated to a certain theme, the magic of Legoland starts from the moment you get on the elevator. There is a disco ball in each one of them!
Even the lift lobby and hallways are decorated according to the theme of the floor.
Room Entrance
As soon as you enter the room, you can see the bathroom to the left, and an entry shelves with some amenities: a safe, hot water kettle, some coffee and beverages, and clothes rack.
Bathroom
The bathroom is nothing much to shout about, but it does have everything we need.
I really appreciate that it came with a built in filter, helping us cut down on the amount of plastic we use. Tap water is not potable in Malaysia, so we can’t just refill our bottles with tap water.
I also appreciate the little decor details, which are of course made of Legos.
The kids room (bunk beds)
Right after the entrance is the bunk beds. This bunk bed can fit up to 3 people – there is another mattress underneath the lower bunk.
As a nice touch, there is a light next to the lower bunk so it’s never too dark in there.
On the other side of the bunk bed is a tall mirror and a locked safe. I’ll get to that in a sec.
The main bedroom
From the kids room, you walk into the main bedroom. It is separated by a door, but we always kept it open.
While the all the themed rooms are quite overwhelming in general with bright colors and details, I appreciate how cozy and calm the Kingdom room feels. This is partially why I liked this room the most.
On the opposite side of the bed, there is a TV and a mini fridge.
In-room toys and activities
And the magic continues… inside each room, there is a locked safe treasure chest. In order to open this treasure chest, you need to find the clue sheet and complete a riddle, which will tell you the combination code. My son had a lot of fun with this, but it was not easy to complete! We had to guess the code in the end to get into the treasure chest.
And inside the treasure chest? More legos of course! We got one Lego City polybag and one 3-in-1 Duplo polybag. Perfect for us since we have a toddler and a 5-year old.
The room also came with a box of Duplos by default, which I thought was such a nice touch.
Food options at Legoland Malaysia Resort
While I really enjoyed my stay at the resort, to put it bluntly, food is not their main strength. That said, they have plenty of food option within the hotel and in the park, and those are a convenient choices if you don’t want to leave the premise.
At the time of our visit, the main Bricks Family restaurant were being renovated so there are only two options in the hotel:
1. Coffee @ Bricks
While Bricks was being renovated, the cafe turned into one of the restaurants. I do appreciate the fun decor in this place:
However the food is extremely average. They are still edible, but quite pricey (around Singapore restaurant prices!) and nothing to shout about.
They also have a dinner buffet at night, but I didn’t try it.
2. Di Mattoni
For dinner on our first day, we tried the Italian restaurant called Di Mattoni. While the food is slightly better here than at Bricks, I wouldn’t rate the restaurant very highly as well. Everything is just… edible.
3. Food choices outside of Legoland Resort
For the rest of our stay, we ended up eating at either the theme park or at Mall of Medini. Mall of Medini is only 2-minute walk from the hotel, and they have a few fast food options. Which is… also not much better than what the hotel was offering, but at least it was priced well. Our favorite place here is S.Wine (located inside the grocery store) and Nanyang Coffee.
I heard if you want decent food, you have to be willing to travel 10 mins by car to Eco Botanic area.
In Conclusion: What I think about Legoland Malaysia Resort
Staying at the resort is definitely all about the magic and themed rooms. This part was done so well, even I was impressed as an adult. For that alone, it’s already worth the price for me.
But of course, for us adults, the convenient location is really the main selling point. It’s practically at the doorstep of all three attractions. It takes about five minutes to go from your hotel room to the park – you just have to take the elevator to LG2 and walk out the back door, voila – and you’re there!
Adding to the convenience, there is Mall of Medini just next to the hotel, within 2 minutes walk down the street from the entrance of the hotel. The mall isn’t the most luxurious one, but what makes this mall truly great is an awesome grocery store there called Ben’s Independent Grocer (BIG). “It’s like Cold Storage on steroids”, as my husband puts it. Within the mall, there are also stalls that sell water park essentials like swimsuits, towel, and waterproof phone covers. So if you forget to bring something from home – don’t worry, I’m sure you can get it at Mall of Medini.
Another thing I appreciated is the fact that the hotel itself is basically built for families in mind, which makes taking kids on holiday super easy.
Lastly, remember how I mentioned the hotel has been operating for over a decade? Well, it’s quite well maintained. Everything in the park is still in good condition, and although you can tell things aren’t new anymore, it didn’t bother me too much.
So if you ask me, yes, it’s worth staying at the Legoland hotel, at least once in your life. Especially if you have kids between 4 to 12 years old.
That said, I was really turned off by the food options. I really wish they would improve on the food quality. If they do, this place would be so perfect!
And that’s my experience staying at the Legoland official hotel. As usual, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment below.
Until next time 🧱
Note: I paid for my own stay at Legoland Malaysia Resort. As always, all thoughts and opinions are honest and remain my own.