How to Get Discounts Legoland California Hotel and Tickets

Let’s see how to get the best hotel + park tickets deal for Legoland California. I compare prices across the best booking sites using the same dates in order to compare apples to apples.

I chose April 26-28th as that is over the weekend, is not a holiday weekend, and not so far in the future that it wouldn’t show up on some searches.

The standardized search parameters for this comparison is therefore:

• 2 nights weekend stay (Fri + Sat night)
• Basic room (fits 5 people: 1 queen, twin bunks & pullout bunk)
• Basic theme (e.g. “adventure” or “pirate” not fully themed room)
• 2 days of Legoland tickets for 2 adults and 2 kids (Focusing on just Legoland, but will include multi-park tickets if that is cheaper)

Let’s see the results!

Hotel only comparison

Legoland California Official Website

The total for Fri-Sun (two nights) is $958.80. This is the most expensive option out of all of the platforms!

Groupon

The total is $897.08. However, it is for a “fully themed room” and the Legoland one above is not. But there is hardly any difference between fully themed and not fully themed – see the screenshots from hotels.com below (like, literally just more decoration at the headrest).

Having said that, we are not totally comparing apples to apples here, but there is no non fully themed option so this is what we will go with.

AAA member discounts

The total is $848. Not bad! And this is for a basic non fully themed room.

Hotels.com

The total is $758! This is the cheapest option. It shows Member Price – you can join hotels.com for free and become a Blue Tier member without any prior bookings.

See in this screenshot the difference between “themed” and “fully themed” is just under $100.

HOTEL PRICE WINNER: Hotels.com

Hotels.com is the clear price winner here. Cheaper than the official Legoland website by $200 – which is $100 per night!

Tickets only comparison

Legoland California official website

I’m not sure why the official website doesn’t currently show 2 day tickets, or buy 1 day get 1 day free, or kids go free. There may be seasonal promotions.

I guess that makes this comparison cleaner. With no special promotions, a 1 day, 1 park only ticket for an adult is $129 and child is $59 on Saturday and $49 on Sunday.

So for the weekend it would be:

• 2 Adults = $129 x 4 = $516
• 2 Kids = ($49 x 2)+($59 x 2) = $216
• Total = $526 + $216 = $742

Groupon

There are so many options on this listing that it took me a long time to click on each option and compare the prices. There were only 1 day options for the kids, which happened to be the same prices as Legoland’s official site. However, I was able to find the 2 day deals for the Adults.

Total with Groupon is:

• 2 Adults = $129 x 2 = $258
• 2 Kids = ($49 x 2)+($59 x 2) = $216
• Total = $526 + $216 = $474

Not shown below, but the child tickets for the Sunday are $49

AAA member discounts

It costs about $60-80 to be a AAA member, and if you are a T-Mobile customer, then you can have your first year AAA membership waived. You will already be a AAA member if you have any insurance with them.

Here, the tickets for kids and adults are the same price.

Total with AAA is 4 x $116.67 = $466.68

Expedia.com

The Expedia total is the same as on Groupon, so if I were to choose between the 2, I would choose the one with the higher cashback on Rakuten. Cashback percentages change all the time so check the latest!

• 2 Adults = $129 x 2 = $258
• 2 Kids = ($49 x 2)+($59 x 2) = $216
• Total = $526 + $216 = $474

Costco

Costco only sells adult tickets for age 2+, it seems. So this is a good option for adults. However, you have to use them by June 6th.

Total for Costco = $109.99 x 4 = $440

TICKET PRICE WINNER: Costco + Expedia/Groupon

Costco is cheapest at $440, with runner ups being Groupon and Expedia.

⚠️If you combine the adults prices from Costco ($110 x 2 = $220) and the kid prices from Groupon/Expedia ($59+$49) x 2 = $216 then the total is $436!

If the dates don’t work out for Costco when you book, and there are no price discrepancies on Groupon and Expedia, then the tie breaker will be which offers the most cashback on Rakuten at the time.

I also tend to trust the Expedia group platform a bit more than Groupon. Plus Expedia has a better loyalty program.

Hotel + Tickets package comparison

Legoland package deal

For the same dates, the hotel plus tickets (you cannot choose just Legoland + Sea life, the water park is included) the total is $1,189.60 for the cheapest theme room.

As you can see below, fully themed rooms are under $100 more expensive, but don’t look all that different. They are the same size.

Combined Hotels.com + Groupon/Expedia + Costco + Rakuten deal

The best hotel deal was from hotels.com at $758, and Costco/Expedia for tickets at $436 which gives us a total of $1,194. This is $4.4 more expensive than booking on Legoland’s website, HOWEVER if you factor in the 10%+ cashback from Rakuten, the total actually comes to: $1,092, which is a saving of $97.

This is because Hotels.com, Expedia, and Groupon are all on Rakuten, so you can expect to get at LEAST 3% cashback on hotels and tickets. Here’s how to do it:

Step 1 – Book hotel on Hotels.com to use the 10% cashback on Rakuten ($758 x 10% = $75 cashback)

Below screenshot shows hotels.com cashback on Rakuten is 10%. It isn’t always 10% but it is very often! Yesterday when I wrote this post it was at 3%, but today it’s at 10%!

Case in point, as of this time I wrote this post, the cashback is 3% on Hotels.com and Expedia, but 6% on groupon. The next day, cashback is 10% for Hotels.com and Expedia, and 8% on Groupon.

That’s NOT counting the 2% loyalty One Key cash that you can get on Hotels.com. I currently have $106 I can spend!

Step 2 – Book child tickets on Groupon to get 8% cashback on Rakuten ($216 x 8% = $17 cashback)

Final total = Hotels ($758 – $75 = 683) + Costco Adult Tickets ($210) + Groupon kids tickets ($216 – $17 = $199) = $1,092

Read my post about how to use Rakuten.

Final Verdict

The cost of the hotel and ticket package from Legoland’s website is as good as finding the best deals from other sites, however using Rakuten give you the edge. You can save 3-10% (cashback) by using Rakuten, which you cannot get if you book direct with Legoland.

However, if you want the specialty themed rooms, you will need to call Legoland to see if you can book with hotels.com then upgrade directly with them!

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is how you get discounted Legoland California tickets and hotels. Thanks for coming to my TED talk!