Legoland Malaysia which is located at Nusajaya, Johor Bahru, has been a hot topic since year ago. Many of my friends, especially those with kids, were looking forward to the first ever Legoland in Asia. Why was Nusajaya in Malaysia chosen as the location for Asia’s first Legoland? This is the question that I constantly heard about and myself was curious about the answer too. After having a chance to meet Mr. Siegfried Boerst, the General Manager of Legoland Malaysia, I was told that Nusajaya was identified as the ideal place in Asia because of its accessible location, the availability of land and the exciting potential offered by the wider Iskandar Malaysia development area. Honestly, I sincerely hope Iskandar project would work out perfectly, I love you Malaysia as a beautiful land, but not those human beings living in an isolated island selling fishes trying to fail every single project and destroy this beautiful land of Malaysia.

I was fortunate to receive an invitation to the Legoland Malaysia Media Preview day. It was on the 1st of September, 15 days before the opening day of Legoland. There was really no reason to reject the invitation especially when it was only about half an hour drive from Singapore to the Legoland Malaysia.

As it was a Legoland Malaysia Media Preview day, the park was filled up with the guests from the media around the world, and some families and friends that the guests brought along. And I brought Don, Julian, Su and Chloe!

Photo taken at the entrance of Legoland

We arrived at Legoland at about 10:30 a.m. and proceeded to the tickets counter to collect the free tickets. There were at least 20 ticket counters opened and the crowd wasn’t as bad.

Preview Day – queues to get ticket

In compare to the photo taken during official opening day on the 15th of September, you might want to consider if you really want to enter the park at 9:30 a.m. sharp. Look at the herds of people trying to enter the park!

Opening Day ~ queues to get tickets and to enter the park

Photo with mascot

Legoland Malaysia targeted towards families with children from ages of 2 to 12 years, the park offers a full day of adventure, education and fun. If you’re an adult, don’t expect the park to be as exciting as Universal Studios. The park is specifically designed for kids, even the adventure rides are tailor-made for the kids as young as 6 year old.

One of the Lego models

To be honest, I wasn’t really impressed or as excited as I was in Universal Studios. Mainly because most of the buildings are of low rise, you won’t be able to see gigantic buildings or statues like those that amaze you in Disneyland or Universal Studios. The buildings in Legoland resemble Lego bricks, simple and colourful. If you’re a big fan of Lego bricks, you will definitely be captivated with the 15,000 Lego models found throughout the park use approximately 50 million Lego bricks!

These are just the appetizer, there will be thousands more of gigantic Lego models later

Legoland Malaysia has 7 themed areas covering the same area as 50 full size football pitches.

Remember to grab a map at the entrance or download the map here

We visited the park following an anti-clockwise circuit. Our adventures started at The Beginning, the entrance area to the park and home to the largest Lego shop in Asia, The Big Shop. It stocks 2,000 different Lego and Legoland products, and has more Lego toy sets under one roof than anywhere else in the region.

The biggest Lego Shop in Asia

And guess what? I bought this Lego set :D

Assembled it within a day :D

We then moved on to the Lego City, a Lego world where children take control. The highlights here are the Driving School, Junior Driving School, Boating School, Rescue Academy, Lego Express and Lego City Airport. All these games are mostly designed for kids.

The Junior Driving School offers slower single pedal cars to give smaller children a taste of the Driving School Experience. Kids as young as 2 years old are qualified for driving in Junior Driving School.

The Driving School offers children a unique chance to drive on a true-to-life traffic circuit. They have to steer their cars past signs, traffic lights and other drivers to qualify for their very own license.

Legoland Express was our rescuer. With the scotching sun that almost turned me into medium rare, I couldn’t wait to hop on to Legoland Express. Visitors can tour the park comfortably in the train. The train carries 60 people at time over real level crossings.

Rescue Academy is one of my favourites. It’s a game for families, teams of families race each other to put out the fire in the Rescue Academy. It sounds kiddy but it was actually fun!

We teamed up as fire-fighters, chose one of the trucks shown in the photo above, powered the truck by pumping levers up and down (IT WAS FUN! Where else can you pump the levers??) until we reached the house that was on fire. We then put off the fire using the water pump installed right in front of the houses.

Next, we moved on to Land of Adventure. Unfortunately I have nothing much to blog about it as most of the attractions were not opened during the Media Preview Day. I was very disappointed. Anyway, I will put up some photos that I took from Land of Adventure.

Dino Island ~ Roller coaster that makes sure you don’t stay dry.

One of many Lego models

These two are my favourites, love camel’s eyelashes

Didn’t get to do much in the Land of Adventure, so we moved on to Imagination, the themed area that we spent the most time at. There are so many gigantic animal models at DUPLO Playtown. It killed off my films quick here.

Dinosaur loves Lego too – located in Duplo Playtown

Giraffe laid his head on the pedestal

Honestly, this is the only playground that is designed for the kids that are below 4 years old.

My friends’ daughter who is 3 year old wasn’t tall enough for any rides. It was actually quite sad to see her disappointment showing on her face when she got rejected from one ride to another, time and again.

The Kid’s Power Tower to test the visitors’ strength by pulling their two-seat car up a nine metre rope.

500 people at a time can get right inside the action with a fascinating 4D movie adventure at Lego Studios, where wind, smoke and water take 3D into the next dimension.

Observation tower, again, not fully opened during Media Preview Day, can lift 1,000 visitors each hour to a viewing position 41m above the ground for an aerial view of the park.

Another attraction where my friend’s daughter was completely captivated, Build and Test Centre. There are thousands of Lego bricks for experimenting, testing, and building. Inventors can construct and race cars, and test their buildings on the earthquake table in the Build and Test Centre.

The royal castle in the Lego Kingdom. The only attraction that really attracted me was The Dragon roller coaster. Again, it’s designed for kids, so don’t ever compare it with the Battlestar Galactica in the Universal Studios.

The Dragon roller coaster

Lego Technic is home to high speed rides for the brave kids (not adults). The highlight is taking a test drive on Project X, a wild (description for kids) roller coaster with a steep switchback track. While we were queuing for the ride, the parents who were in front of us were quite worried about the ride. They were around 40 to 50 years old, apparently didn’t quite like exhilarating ride. Their kids were quite young and were so curious about the ride and insisted to go, leaving no choice to the parents. Parents gonna tag along to protect the kids. The great parents.

Aquazone Wave Racers offers a thrilling wave surf. There are 4 water guns for spectators to fire at the twelve wave racers whizzing around their circular tracks.

The Lego Mindstorms workshop encourages budding robot designers to build the future out of Lego bricks.

Finally, my favourite attraction, the Lego Miniland! If I really want to visit Legoland again, Miniland will be the only reason for me to do so. Asia’s most famous countries, cities and landmarks are recreated on a scale of 1:20, using more than 30 million Lego bricks! The Miniland at Legoland Malaysia is the largest ever built for a new park, and the project took more than three years to complete. All of the models are animated, so visitors can bring Lego figures, trains and aeroplanes to life at the touch of a button.

Miniland’s 17 highly detailed cluster pay tribute in Lego bricks to 12 different cities and countries across Asia, including Kuala Lumpur, Johor Bahru and Singapore. Visitors from Brunei, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam will also find their iconic national landmarks in miniature. The Petronas Twin Towers, Taj Mahal and Angkor Wat are among the highlights.

Angkor Wat being my favourite

I took more than hundred of photos. So please enjoy yourself with the slideshow. Full set of photos can be found in my facebook here.

Miniland was designed and built by a team of more than 100 people from around the world. Facts of building the miniature:

1. A team of Legoland designers photographed buildings, roads and streets across Asia to help familiarize themselves with the landmarks they would be recreating.

2. There were two years of 3D design and production before a training studio was established in Malaysia and the models were built.

3. Many were constructed locally at the Legoland Model Ship in Nusa Cermelang in Johor Bahru.

4. Others were built in the USA, Denmark, England, Germany and the Czech Republic before being carefully transported in cargo containers to Legoland Malaysia for installation.

Did you know?

At nearly 10 metres high, the Petronas Twin Towers are the tallest Miniland models ever made. They contain more than 500,000 Lego bricks.

The moment of truth: So what do I really think about Legoland Malaysia

1. The weather that day melted away a lot of the enthusiasm. None of us were excited. This was the first time I didn’t feel any excitement in the theme park.

2. There were little shades in the park. Even though a lot of trees were planted, they were not grown and some of them were dying. Without the plants, the park just lack of vitality.

3. If I have a kid, I will wait for my kid to be at least 4 years old to fully appreciate the activities in the park.

4. The prices of the food are reasonable. The average adult meal in one of the three restaurants will cost between RM10.50 and RM23. I’m more willing to pay for food here than in the Universal of Studios Singapore. The drinks are overpriced though.

5. If you’re a Lego enthusiast, you seriously must visit the The Lego Shop. It might have the widest variety of Lego sets that you can ever find in Asia. BUT, my friend actually bought the same Lego set as I bought with cheaper price in Singapore. This is after the 10% discount I got from Legoland -_-”

Legoland Malaysia in numbers

• Asia’s 1st LEGOLAND park.
• Over 40 rides, shows and attractions.
• 3 restaurants, 4 food stands and 11 food carts.
• 1,000 employees when fully operational.
• Asia’s largest Lego shop selling 2,000 different products.
• Parking spaces for more than 3,500 cars.
• 15,000 Lego models throughout the park.

How to get there?

From Singapore via Tuas Second Link within 10 minutes drive time - Proceed until you see the Nusajaya EXIT 312 -> you will see Legoland Malaysia signage.

From Johor Bahru / CIQ / Singapore via the Coastal Highway - From Danga Bay, proceed straight via the Coastal highway -> Legoland Malaysia will be seen before reaching Kota Iskandar.

From the North-South Highway / Senai Airport – Take Tuas / Nusajaya / Pontian / Tanjung Pelepas EXIT 253 -> Proceed to Nusajaya EXIT 312 -> Legoland Malaysia signage will lead you to the destination.

Public Transports

Coach and shuttle services commence from Singapore to Legoland

• Direct coach from Singapore Flyer to Nusajaya with regular services.
  
• Direct shuttle service operating from Tuas 2nd Link starts on opening day.
  
• More than 3,500 parking bays available next to the Park.
  
• For large group visits and tour operators over 100 bus bays are available.

LEGOLAND® Malaysia will be accessible via a new direct coach service from the heart of Singapore. Alongside, a shuttle service will operate from Jurong East and Boon Layto the Tuas 2ndLink. After the immigration checkpoint, a direct shuttle will ferry visitors to LEGOLAND and Johor Premium Outlets (JPO). Dedicated coaches will leave from the Singapore Flyer every 30 minutes during peak times, and arrive at LEGOLAND® in less than an hour. The service will be operated by WTS Travel (www.wtstravel.com.sg) and the new direct route is priced at SG$20 per person. The first coach will leave at 08.30am each morning, with five services in each direction on weekdays and increased frequency of up to eight on weekends, school holidays and public holidays.

Causeway Link will be operating the additional shuttle service connecting Singapore and LEGOLAND®. There will be a total of 6 trips from the Tuas 2ndLink to LEGOLAND on a daily basis. The service will start at Jurong East and Boon Lay in Singapore. From the Woodlands checkpoint, visitors can expect 15 trips and buses will travel the following routes: from JBS entral -Larkin Sentral -LEGOLAND® – Gelang Patah.For those keen on self-drive, the Park has over 3,500 parking bays on site. It will provide visitors with access to both the Park and Mall of Medini. To further help navigation, the route to LEGOLAND is also well sign posted. The Park’s location is just 15 minutes from the Tuas 2nd Link and 30 minutes from the Woodlands crossing.

Visit http://www.legoland.com.my/Plan/Bus-Services/ for details.

Thanks for reading and enjoy your trip to the Legoland Malaysia!