Aug 04

Hampton Court Palace Castle And Magic Garden UK Covid Reopening August 2020. Full Tour. Is It Worth it?! Is it Safe? Same Price?!

What is Hampton Court Palace Castle grounds & gardens UK like now it has reopened with Covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and firsthand experience as a family. We will do a full tour of Hampton Court Palace Castle grounds and gardens in about 10 minutes.

We look at ticket prices pre and post covid, and surprisingly, there isn’t much difference (but they were always reasonable value to begin with).

Further information on the Holiday Homes / Airbnb / Short Term Lets can be found at http://www.macatsim.com/

Both flats, Broadstairs and Margate are about 75-90 minutes east of London UK. Margate has a LEGO themed Holiday Lets / Airbnb Short Term Stay awith a LEGO Wall. Broadstairs has an iconic red London bus bunk bed (at time of recording).

Time codes to the Video:

0:00 Introduction
0:36 Shortcut to Magic Garden Kids Playground & Tips
1:50 Palace Grounds, Café
2:13 Main Entrance and West Gatte
2:35 Henry VIII’s Apartments
3:00 Georgian Story
3:37 Fountain Court
3:53 William III’s Apartments
4:10 Clock Court
4:35 Base Court
4:52 Henry VIII’s Kitchens
5:15 Hampton Court Palace Weddings
5:35 East Front and Gardens
6:55 Privy Garden
7:30 Pond Gardens
8:22 Wilderness Garden
9:00 Hampton Court Palace. Is it worth it?

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here. What is Hampton Court Palace Castle UK like now it has reopened with covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and firsthand experience as a family. We will do a full tour of Hampton Court Palace Castle grounds and gardens in about 10 minutes.

This video is bought to you bay Macatsim Holiday Homes in Margate and Broadstairs. Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend escape, being just over an hour east of London, UK. Treat yourself to amazing sunsets, a LEGO wall or great food. Visit www.macatsim.com and mention this Youtube video, we’ll will look after you.

We spent the day at Hampton Court Palace Castle UK August 3rd, 2020 – 4 weeks after it reopened. So it has had some time to bed in the new corona virus safety guidelines and we’ll give you a sense of if Hampton Court Palace Castle is worth visiting. On the screen you can see the names of different attractions pop up as we go past them.

The Magic Garden Kids Playground

We arrived at 10am when the kids playground, called the Magic Garden opened. From the carpark if you hang a left, you can get in the side entrance so you don’t have to go all the way through the Palace grounds to get to it.

First thing in the morning, other people have had the same idea so they give you wrist bands and a 90 minute time slot. After our session was done, we came back later in the day and could get straight in. It wasn’t super busy and might be the best kept secret.

The playground itself is really well done and naturally the kids love it and happily spent hours here. It does have a water springing up from down low so worthwhile bringing a towel and change of clothes for the kids if the day is warm. Compared to peak season last year, this has a fraction the number of people, really pleasant and easy to get tables and chairs.

The vast majority of it was open although the shop was closed, and the drinking water fountains turned off. So you are going to need to bring your own food and drink if you get hungry.

So after our 90 minutes we ended up leaving. With hindsight we probably could have stayed if we wanted as no one was chasing you out. Notice in general throughout the video how few people there are wondering around. The Palace and grounds are considerable but again, compared with last years peak season, nowhere near the numbers of people walking around.

As with most places at the moment, you have to pre book tickets and we didn’t have any problems with that. We’d previously gotten an annual pass that also includes the Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Hillsbourgh Castle and Gardens. So if you go two attractions, it is cheaper than paying individually and really good value.

Main Entrance and West Gate

Here is the main pathway leading up to the West Gate Entrance. The main entrance, slightly to the left, is closed as in general they have a one way loop throughout Hampton Court Palace Castle and grounds. With your pre booked tickets, it was straight through, Leeds Castle could take some pointers from this.

There is hardly anyone here, it’s a nice day during summer school holidays, its really surprising!

Henry VIII’s Apartments

So we head on into Henry VIII’s apartments. Hampton Court Palace Castle is huge and sprawling. In a sec we’ll go into the Royal Chapel, which still functions, so there is no filming for it or King Henry VIII’s crown, that is also here on display.

These rooms all look out onto Fountain court, named so for obvious reasons. Later in the video we’ll be in the courtyard. We are now in the Georgian Story part of the Palace which dates from 1714 to 1737. This is the Public Dining room. So all this area relates to Geroge II and Quuen Caroline when they lived here 300 years ago.

This overlooks the Great Fountain Garden… any ideas as to why it was named that?!

Next into the State Bed and the Queens Gallery. Architect William Kent was employed to design new furnishings and decor including the Queen’s Staircase, in 1733.

And here is Fountain Court from the lower level. The architectural detailing is really quite impressive. The Fountain Court was designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the same guy who did St Paul’s Cathedral in the heart of London.

William III’s Apartments

From here we head on over to the area called William III’s apartments. We take the Queen’s Staircase up to the first floor and head into the Communication Gallery. These were for the time period of 1689 to 1702.

And down the King’s Staircase which obviously has to be grandeur than the Queen’s version, with every surface imaginable painted.

Clock Court

From here out to the Clock Court. On the upper left is the Clock, which as I numpty I made sure I filmed so you couldn’t see it properly. This astronomical clock was installed in 1540 and designed by Nicholas Crazter. This is a pre-Copernican and Pre-Galilean Astronomical clock that is still functioning today.

Next we head on back to the Base Court which is where you come in when you first come through the West Gate.

Base Court

Base Court contains elements of Wolsey’s original palace and Henry VIII’s embellishments, alongside further Baroque additions by Christopher Wren and later alterations. Base Court contained 44 lodgings reserved for guests, while the second court, Clock Court today contained the very best rooms.

Next we head on through the gift shop into Henry VIII’s Kitchens, it is really awkward now to find. Usually you’d enter these from the Main Entrance but with that closed, they are very easy to miss.

Back into the centre of Clock Court where you can see The Colonnade, those white columns. And continuing numptiness I manage to go under the astronomical clock we spoke about a little earlier.

Hampton Court Palace Weddings

As you’d expect, Hampton Court Place does weddings. This can be done in the Garden Room and takes about 180 guests. There is also the Little Banqueting House which is smaller and takes up to 50 guests. Naturally Hampton Court Palace allow the use of various staircases and grounds for backdrop to wedding photos etc.

Now we are heading through the Fountain Court to the East Front and Gardens. We’ll head up one of the tracks towards the North Canal, pass down to The Long Water, along the South Canal, back to the East Front entrance.

There are numerous birds near the North Canal and on the other side, you can see all the fences to the palace.

This looks up what is called The Long Water. Spinning around we see The Great Fountain.

Where is Hampton Court Palace Located?

Hampton Court Palace is located 12 miles south west of central London and upstream of central London on the Thames River.

When was Hampton Court Palace Built?

Building work started in 1515 for Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, a favourite of Henry VIII. In 1529 the Cardinal fell out of favour from the king so gave the Palace to Henry VIII to check his disgrace. Henry VIII enlarged Hampton Court Palace to be able to accommodate his sizeable retuinue of courtiers.

Who Currently owns Hampton Court Palace?

The Palace is currently owned by Queen Elizabeth II and the Crown.

King William III has a massive building and expansion program so the Palace could rival that of the Palace of Versailles. Work finished in 1694 with 2 main building styles showing – that of Tudor and Baroque.

The Privy Garden

We now head into the privy, or private, garden. This has existed on the south side of Hampton Court Palace since the reign of Henry VIII. Further down are elaborate fence and gate decoration that lead straight onto the river Thames. One can imagine that back in the day, it was used for travelling to and from central London.

The Privy Garden today is a restoration of William III’s baroque Privy Garden of 1702. The gardeners have restored the grounds using the original plant varieties and the hornbeam bower and statues were all part of the King’s original design.

This is now the pond gardens where originally fish ponds made for Henry VIII. In the 1690s, Mary II transformed the Tudor pond yards into sunken gardens to display her rare and exotic plant collection.

In the early 20th century, gardeners created the Dutch-style garden that we see today with its tiered paths, topiary hedges, statues and bedding.

The Privy Garden at Hampton Court is one of the most accurately reconstructed gardens because so much was recorded about the original in 1702.

William III died before the garden was completely finished, which meant all the gardeners and workmen were frightened of not being paid. They therefore submitted the fullest possible accounts of their work.

William III and Mary II created the Great Fountain Garden on the East Front. It contained 13 fountains and planted two radiating avenues of Yew trees in the fashionable form of a goose foot.

Wilderness Area

Heading into the wilderness area, originally it was a Tudor orchard filled with pear, apple and cherry trees. In the 1950s many of the elm trees succumbed to Dutch elm disease and were removed.

Carpark Extortion

Now heading out to the carpark which is charged at £1.60 an hour. Really do hate these rip off car parks. Creates a bottle neck for people leaving. Just include it in the price of admission and make everyone’s life simple. Never understand why attractions want peoples last memory to be a frustrating parking meter experience. The parking meter wouldn’t print the receipt so if ever get a ticket in the future, going to be a nightmare to deal with.

So is Hampton Court Palace still worth a day out?

Absolutely! Think at this point in time it could be the best kept secret. Most of it is open although the small art gallery with some serious old masters is closed – they really need to sort that out as it is such a shame. The maze is also closed. Obviously I’m not a fan of the carpark stupidity when it comes to the extortionate hourly rate. Very few people were wearing face masks.

We went on a day where they had 50% off eating out in August but the café staff had little clue how to implement this, so hopefully this gets better.

Not Sustainable

I was talking with staff and they have said ever since it has reopened it has been like this with low visitor numbers, weekends are the same with low numbers, and you could tell they were concerned. Like many places, take advantage while you can. This isn’t sustainable. Either attractions like this are going to have to seriously close, or prices are going to have to increase dramatically as the running costs either way are huge.

Signing Off

Would you go? If you’ve been, what did you think? Sound off in the comments below.

What are other castles like post lockdown, how do they compare? Recently we’ve done similar videos on Leeds Castle, Hever Castle and LEGOLAND Windsor UK as to what they are like post lockdown. Or check out our sponsors accommodation on the Kent Coast, just a bit over an hour East of London for a great weekend getaway or holiday.

That’s it from us here at Family Bricks, hit that thumbs up if you found something useful in this video and thanks for watching. Until next time when we talk about all things lifestyle.

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Aug 02

Leeds Castle UK Covid Reopening August 2020. Full Tour. Is It Worth it?! Is it Safe? Same Price?!

What is Leeds Castle grounds & gardens UK like now it has reopened with Covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and firsthand experience as a family. We will do a full tour of Leeds Castle grounds and gardens in about 10 minutes.

We look at ticket prices pre and post covid, and surprisingly, there isn’t much difference (but they were always reasonable value to begin with).

Further information on the Holiday Homes / Airbnb / Short Term Lets can be found at http://www.macatsim.com/

Both flats, Broadstairs and Margate are about 75-90 minutes east of London UK. Margate has a LEGO themed Holiday Lets / Airbnb Short Term Stay awith a LEGO Wall. Broadstairs has an iconic red London bus bunk bed (at time of recording).

Time codes to the Video:
0:00 Introduction
0:36 Pre Booked Tickets & Queueing – So Stupid
1:25 Favourite Castle?! One Way System Loop
1:45 Leeds Castle History
2:42 Leeds Castle Main Entrance Pathway
3:10 What is Open at Leeds Castle?
3:17 What is Closed at Leeds Castle?
3:32 The Knights Stronghold Adventure Playground
4:35 Birds of Prey Centre & Garden Maze & Grotto
5:45 Walking Loop back to Leeds Castle
6:20 Picturesque Views of Leeds Castle
7:40 The Barbican & Fortified Mill & Punting
9:12 Leeds Castle UK – Is it Worth it?
9:44 Sedway Tours
10:45 Summing up and concluding

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here. What is Leeds Castle UK like now it has reopened with covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and firsthand experience as a family. We will do a full tour of Leeds Castle grounds and gardens in about 10 minutes.

This video is bought to you bay Macatsim Holiday Homes in Margate and Broadstairs. Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend escape, being just over an hour east of London, UK. Treat yourself to amazing sunsets, a LEGO wall or great food. Visit www.macatsim.com and mention this Youtube video, we’ll will look after you.

Introduction

We spent the day at Leeds Castle UK August 2nd, 2020 – 4 weeks after it reopened. So it has had some time to bed in the new corona virus safety guidelines and we’ll give you a sense of if Leeds Castle is worth visiting. On the screen you can see the names of different attractions pop up as we go past them.

Pre Booked Tickets & Queueing – So Stupid

You have to have pre-booked tickets and show them to the carpark wardens to even get into the carpark.  

Then you have to join the socially distanced queue and pre-covid peak times it was never like this. This was about a 15 minute queue. You had your ticket scanned, then had to give them another reference number and annual number, and collect wrist bands. Its all a nonsense. This isn’t due to Corona, this is due to stupidity.

You’ve booked online, paid and have tickets with barcodes on your phone. Why does it have to be so complicated?

Favourite Castle?! One Way System Loop

That said, Leeds Castle is probably one of our favourite castles to visit and we have been here many times, even stayed overnight.

The Leeds Castle grounds in general have a one way loop, particularly at the entrance / exit. Some sections are closed off and the train tractor that normally runs isn’t running. So as you’ll see here as we go along, it can be a fair bit of walking, so those with mobility issues might struggle.

Leeds Castle History

Leeds castle is over 900 years old so has had many functions, owners and remodelling over the years. Its current appearance dates from 1823 in the Tudor style. Henry VIII transformed the castle in 1519 for his first wife  Catherine of Aragon. It has had many owners in the meantime.

The last owner was Lady Baillie as at the time of her death, Estate Duty was running at an eye watering 85%. So the castle went into the Leeds Castle Foundation but very quickly became apparent the cost of running the estate were significant. Thus in 1975 the gardens were open to the public and in 1976, the castle was open to the public.

The grounds are fantastic so can you take dogs to Leeds Castle? The only dogs that are permitted are assistance dogs for visually and hearing impaired.

Where is Leeds Castle located? Leeds Castle is 40miles souths east from the center of London.

Leeds Castle Main Entrance Pathway

Now we’ve had a healthy walk across the grounds and gotten our step count up for the day, were are coming up to the main path leading into the castle itself.

Later in the video we’ll come back and check out the castle from several sides, the moat, the Barbican and Fortified Mill. Having little kids, the only thing they care about is the playground… a playground is never too far to walk to for little kids. The adventure playground is on the side furthest from the main entrance, so off we continue.

You do kinda get to walk through Culpeper Garden so it would be borderline as to whether it is open or not.

What is currently open at Leeds Castle?

At time of filming, The Adventure Playgrounds, Bird of Prey Centre, Adventure Golf and Gardens were all open.

What is currently closed at Leeds Castle?

The Castle, Maze, Falconry Arena/Displays, Punting, Dog Collar Museum, Gatehouse Exhibition, Black Swan Ferry and Castle Train are all closed at the moment. Some are meant to be reopening in the coming weeks and months. Check Leeds castle website for the latest.

So there is a lot more closed than open.

The Knights Stronghold Adventure Playground

Into the Knights Stronghold that was refurbished a couple of years back and it done really well. The front elevation is done as a mock Leeds Castle, so that is a nice touch. This is for kids up to 14 years old and there is another area for kids under 6, equally as well done.

Right next to the playground is Adventure Golf which too is also only a year or so old. Shown here there isn’t many people here but come back in a couple of hours, there were groups on every hole. Back to the playground walk through.

The playground has 3 levels, multiple entrances and easily accessible by an adult. On a really warm day like today, the elevated sections had a really nice breeze passing through it and helped to keep things cool.

There is a secondary area to the rear of the playground that has a flying fox. The kids naturally loved this and had a couple of goes on it. Go number 1 and go number 2. So out of the rabbit warren of a castle playground and onto the next attraction for the kids.

A general picnic area and ice cream shop. We head on past the Adventure Golf we saw from the Castle Playground area. Up to the gate the leads onto the accommodation and glamping area.  

Birds of Prey Centre & Garden Maze & Grotto

This is all new, you have a Birds of Prey Centre. You’ve got your birds and your owls, all either in cages or sitting on the ground stumps there. Definitely worthwhile checking out. A number of birds here just hanging out, chillaxing … a couple more over here.

Just a quick time-lapse walk through of the Birds of Prey Centre.

So right next to the Birds of Prey Centre, you’ve got the garden maze, which is currently closed but you can sort of see normally, entrance over here, try to figure out how to get in, so you come up to the top there, and you actually drop down, go out and the exit is out the other side. Ashame its not open … good way to loose the kids.

From here go past the maze on the other side. They actually had fruit trees here like apple trees. Don’t recall these being here previously.

So this is it here the Maze and Grotto entrance. Normally when it is open you just go in and start your maze. And then you actually end up coming out. Once you go through and find the center bit, you go down it, under the ground and come out over here.

Walking Loop back to Leeds Castle

So now we’ve are going to start the loop back towards the Leeds Castle, which is on the upper area. So you’ll see that no one is walking towards the camera. It does feel a little more constricted than normal not being able to choose your own path.

About to head into the Culpeper garden which you can usually walk through. While there are 3 different routes, they feel more like passage ways than a chance to take your time and have a look around the garden.

Out into the Stable Courtyard which also has accommodation. The boys managed to find a white albino like peacock. We’ll head out of the Stable Courtyard and find some really picturesque views of Leeds Castle.

Picturesque Views of Leeds Castle

There is a moat going all the way around the castle and on a bright sunny day like today, create great water reflections.

And here you have Leeds Castle. You’ve got the main part of it there, and the maidens Tower there, and another section over here, which has a drawbridge back in the day, and the main military fort garason there. Beautiful day for it here.

And over the back there, you’ve got a 9 hole golf course, which then wraps around up here.

So we’ll take a walk back around to the front entrance of Leeds Castle itself. Coming up on the left are the birds that people feed, which come out of the lake on the other side of the path.

Its always amazing to look at these buildings that have stood for hundreds of year.

So the main part of the castle at the moment is obviously closed. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we will be staying in there and do a video on that.

The Barbican & Fortified Mill & Punting

We come over the other side here and the same sort of thing, the Barbican and the Fortified Mill out the front too., but that is also closed.

And usually in summer in the moat, you’d have punting where somebody would be taking you around in a little tiny boat just around the moating telling you the history, which is always great. Glorious day for it.

Now we are going to head around the side of the moat and have a look at Leeds Castle from a different angle.

Coming up on the left will be the Pavilion Lawn. It’s a great open space and last year they had a stage setup and we watched a performance of Alice in Wonderland. You’d bring your own chairs and picnic and that was great. But not this year.

Up this little embankment and what do we see?!

So here you have the other side of Leeds Castle. So that second part there. The main fortifications back in the day you had a draw bridge there. So the main manor, Maidens Tower, and then the main entrance so youd have the soldiers and that would be there, got the moat here, there other bits there.

So you know they could have access there and if they got overrun , the could then go back into the castle. But also too, that there, that funnels everyone into one killing zone, for back in the day.

Look at that, that really is quite something. Had a friend get married here a number of years ago and a wonderful space for it – even did a watercolor painting with a vintage car in front of the Leeds C astle.

So Leeds Castle, is it worth it?

At the moment if you buy a ticket, it normally gives you an annual pass. At the moment that has been extended to 15 months. So easy to come now, and again next spring and summer and really get value. Unlike some other castles, there isn’t an additional surcharge to get access to the castle. Family annual passes are reasonably priced at £80.

It bills itself as the loveliest castle and given some of the shots you’ve just seen, it’s a fair claim to make. We happily come at least once a year and is about 40 minute drive from where we live.

At the moment, numbers are really restricted. On a nice sunny day like today, that is quite welcome, and it didn’t feel like people were on top of you and still plenty of space to be socially distanced and enjoy. How long that is sustainable is a completely different question as ticket prices seemed comparable to last year but a fraction a number the people at the attraction.

Quite a number of the food shops felt closed or restricted so might be worth a thought to bring a picnic lunch like we did. There is a Tesco Superstore about 4 miles away that I think is a 24 hour one so can always grab some pre-prepared sandwiches on the way.

As with many UK attractions, get in early as crowds build throughout the day, but numbers are way down when compared with previous years.

There really weren’t a great number of people wearing faces masks. Certainly they were in the shops that were open. We did a visit to Hever Castle a week prior, (click around the video for that), and felt more people there were wearing face masks at Hever Castle, but that still wasn’t a huge number of people.

Summing up and Concluding

So is Leeds Castle still worth a day out? I’d have to say so, I would really like to see more of it open and hopefully it will be in the coming weeks and months.

What do you think? Would you go? If you’ve been, what did you think? Sound off in the comments below.

Maybe you fancy a stay at Leeds Castle accommodation, check out our video here. If you’d like to check out Hever Castle grounds in under 5 minutes for a comparison, check out this video.

Alternatively here are some other videos you might be interested in. That’s it from us here at Family Bricks, hit that thumbs up if you found something useful in this video and thanks for watching. Until next time when we talk about all things lifestyle.

#uk #kent #leedslife #leedspride #leedsphotographer #leedsarchitecture #leedsdock #aroundleeds #leedseyeview #leedsfestival #leedsfood #wheninleeds #leedscitycentre #leedscity #leedsinsummer #beautifulleeds #leedsleedsleeds #leedsart #leedsarena #leeds #visitleeds #leedsstreet #leedsthroughalens #leedstrinity #leedsviews #castle #independentleeds #iloveleeds #lookupleeds #ig

Jul 28

Hever Castle Full Tour UK Covid Reopening July 2020. Is It Worth it?! Is it Safe?

What is Hever Castle grounds & gardens UK like now it has reopened with Covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and firsthand experience as a family. We will do a full tour of Hever Castle grounds and gardens in under 5 minutes.

We look at ticket prices pre and post covid, and surprisingly, there isn’t much difference.

Time codes to the Video:
0:00 Introduction
1:20 Hever Castle Itself & Forecourt
1:55 Adventure Playground & Tower Maze
2:33 Tudor Gardens 2:52 Water Maze
3:17 General Garden and Lawn Areas
4:08 Hever Castle vs Leeds Castle
4:35 Hever Castle. Is It Worth It?!
5:04 Summing Up & Closing

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here. What is Hever Castle UK like now it has reopened with covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and firsthand experience as a family. We will do a full tour of Hever Castle grounds and gardens in under 5 minutes.

This video is bought to you bay Macatsim Holiday Homes in Margate and Broadstairs. Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend escape, being just over an hour east of London, UK. Treat yourself to amazing sunsets, a LEGO wall or great food. Visit www.macatsim.com and mention this Youtube video, we’ll will look after you.

We spent the day at Hever Castle UK July 26th, 2020 – 3 weeks after it reopened. So it has had some time to bed in the new corona virus safety guidelines and we’ll give you a sense of if Hever Castle is worth visiting. On the screen you can see the names of different attractions pop up as we go past them.

Is Hever Castle National Trust or English Heritage?

Hever Castle and Gardens is privately owned and are not a member of the National Trust or English Heritage.

So who owns Hever Castle?

Hever castle was purchased by Broadland Properties Limited in 1983, which is run by the Guthrie family, so it is privately owned.

Here is the Hever Castle itself. The castles dates back to the 1300s and was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, who was the second wife of Henry VIII. Much of what you see today is the result of William Waldorf Astor, who purchased the castle in 1903, extended it and refurbished it to its current state.

How far is Hever Castle from London?

Hever Castle is about 30 miles due south from the center of London. So it has been convenient located for its owners to carry about business close to London.

At the moment only 43 people can go into the castle at a time, after a 45-60 minute queue. So it is said once you are in, it feels like you have the place to yourself.

But our kids were only interested in making a B line to the playground. The playground is now done in half hour blocks. So you wait til your session, then go in. At the end, everyone is asked to leave the playground for the next group and presumably a quick wipe down / sanitization occurs.

The Tower Maze is really well done over 3 levels with plenty of spaces for the kids to explore and run about. It’s a solid construction with hiding spaces and secret tunnels, and overall, its  very impressive.

That was the end of our session and the queue for the next session to get in.

Back over to the castle.

What about Hever Castle Hotel?

You can stay in the castle in either Astor, Anne Boleyn or Edwardian Wing. Alternatively there is the Medley Court holiday cottage of the Astor wing.

The Tudor garden is beside the castle, along with the Yew Maze, but this wasn’t opened.

You really did notice that numbers to the castle gardens had been restricted as it is peak season, but not like previous years where there are people are everywhere.

Now just going to head around one side of the lake to the water maze. Today the queue was about 45 minutes and kids will need a change of clothes as they are almost guaranteed to get wet.

Now heading back past the archery on the right and the minimum age has been raised from 2.5 to 7 years old due to covid.

Now we’ll take a more general walk around some of the garden and lawn areas.

Is Hever Castle dog friendly?

Dogs are allowed on the 125 acres of grounds but not allowed inside cafes, restaurants, Castle or Adventure Playground (guide dogs accepted)

Hever Castle and Garden Weddings

Hever castle, like many other castles, does weddings and has 3 types. Inside the castle in a grand affair, or a country house style in the Astor Wing or lakeside location of the Italian Garden.

As with everywhere, when you go into shops and enclosed spaces, you have to wear masks. Otherwise the vast majority of people are wondering around without masks. There is obviously plenty of space to be away from people.

When is Hever Castle Open?

Hever castle is not open year round and usually runs from March to November

Hever Castle vs Leeds Castle

Leeds Castle is another castle in the area. Personally we prefer Leeds castle as think there is more to see and do, Leeds castle is more grand and interesting, grounds feel more extensive and the tickets are not as expensive.

You can also hire rowboats and go out onto the lake that we have done previously and is a  fun to do.

The other change is exiting and getting in, it has become a 1 way system out through the Italian Gardens, and in through the Rose Garden and Blue Corner.

So overall Hever Castle, is it worth it?

Always good to check out castles at least once and it is quite picturesque. Crowd numbers in general feel down due to covid restrictions. Queue times for most things seem long as usual, which for little kids, is on that threshold of not being practical. Our kids spent most of the time running around the grounds so maybe a playground would have been just as good, without the expensive price tag attached.

Worth a visit, after you’ve been to Leeds Castle.

Summing Up

So there you have it, a full Hever Castle grounds and garden tour in under 5 minutes with covid 19 restrictions in place. If you enjoyed this video and got something out of it, please hit the thumbs up button as really does help the channel out in producing these videos.

What do you think? Are you going for a visit or have been recently? Sound off in the comments below.

Here is a video about Leeds Castle you might be interested in, or a video about LEGOLAND Windsor UK and is it worth visiting with new covid measures in place. Alternatively here are some other videos you might be interested in. That’s it from us here at Family Bricks and thanks for watching. Until next time when we talk about all thing’s  lifestyle.

Jul 16

LEGOLAND Windsor UK Covid Reopening July 2020. Is It Worth it?! Is it Safe? Still the Same Price?!

What is LEGOLAND Windsor UK like with Covid-19 guidelines in place now that the theme park has recently reopened? Is it worth going? We look to answer these questions following our recent family visit in July 2020. To do so, we will look at what has changed, what is new, what is closed and what the queue times are like.

We will have a look at ticket prices pre and post covid, and surprisingly, there isn’t much difference. What about if you have an annual Merlin pass, what sort of value is there and should we be thinking of renewing them (or not)?

Time codes to the Video:
0:00 Introduction – LEGOLAND Windsor UK
0:36 What has Changed?
5:00 What is New?
5:45 What was Closed?
7:45 What are Queue Times Like?
8:40 Is it Worth it?!
9:05 Ticket Prices very Similar to Pre-Covid?!
10:25 Is the Value there in Visiting?
11:05 Thoughts on Annual Merlin Passes
11:55 What do you think? Would you go?!
12:10 Summing up and closing

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here. What is LEGOLAND Windsor UK like now it has reopened with covid 19 measures in place? Is it worth going, what has changed, what is the experience like etc.? We will cover this in the video and give our thoughts and first hand experience as a family.

This video is bought to you bay Macatsim Holiday Homes in Margate and Broadstairs. Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend escape, being just over an hour east of London, UK. Treat yourself to amazing sunsets, a LEGO wall or great food. Visit www.macatsim.com and mention this Youtube video, we’ll will look after you.

We spent the day at LEGOLAND Windsor UK July 15th, 2020 – a week and a half after it reopened. So it has had some time to bed in the new corona virus safety guidelines. Technically some fee-paying schools have finished, other government schools had kids being homeschooled who may have ended up at LEGOLAND. It wasn’t quite yet full-blown school summer holidays but getting close.  

I think first up start running through what has changed.

So What has changed?

LEGOLAND park hours have been reduced with rides from 10am to 4pm, with the park closing at 5pm. This is down from 10am to 6pm for rides. So the day is 25% shorter.

In the car park when you first arrive, seems that everyone leaves a car space in between cars. No official signs nor car marshals but that just seemed to be the practice.

As you enter, there are now painted markings and stamps everywhere on the ground. You’ll have to join the socially distanced queue and some people have to cycle back as they just try to join a queue like normal without realizing it. There is always some muppet who will just be trying to deliberately queue jump as well .

On the way in, there are temperature checks. I hope this is only a temporary thing.

You also basically can’t buy tickets at the gate. They all have to be pre-purchased before hand. Not that it is a bad thing as I’ve shown before on our video “How to Save Money at LEGOLAND”, purchasing online the day before will be half the price (click video link here)

This covid-19 reopening of LEGOLAND Windsor UK has been branded as having park numbers significantly down. You do notice that the park isn’t crazy busy and numbers are down, but not to the point of being a ghost town – there are still a fair number of people about.

The park is now largely cashless and you need to be using cards everywhere … apart from boats in mini-land that are still coin operated.

There are space markings between people and arrows to keep left all over the place. People kinda keep to it and does feel like nice attempt, but more symbolic than anything else. You are at a theme park aimed at 2-12 year olds, anyone with kids will know you try your best but they are young kids.

Unsurprisingly, there is hand sanitizer everywhere and a lot of rides have it at the exit, which can slow the exiting process down.

Rides are getting sanitized every 30 minutes. This was always the thing that was going to be interesting in how they implement. I thought, for some reason, it would be done after each family unit used something (the logistics of which would have been a nightmare). Nope. Rides are generally given a spray every 30 minutes. Other staff members walk around with spray backpacks hitting fences and other common objects that get touched.

Qbot, which has been rebranded as “Reserve & Ride” isn’t open (the rebranding makes sense as what the heck was a Qbot anyhow?!). Having said that, we did see a number of people using the fasttrack system with barcode passes. So maybe they are still operating through the VIP system, or some sort of disabled system I don’t know.

The Duplo playground is signed to be 1 family per structure, that just didn’t happen. Kids are running everywhere and just having a good time. I don’t see how that could ever be realistically implemented and feels like it is there so they can say they had a sign up.

On the other hand, the pirates playground was pretty much the same as before. 1 or 2 of the slides may have been closed but nothing major.

Character meet and greets are now done behind a velvet rope. This Frankenstein came out and kids queued up in front of the velvet rope for a happy snap. For those youngsters who like to get up close and personal for a hug, this isn’t happening.

Food can be different – Pizza and Pasta gone from buffet to set menu – to be fair, for about the same price felt was about the same amount of food (just no salad however). Place is sparse so don’t know how they will continue to make money. The place was refurb just before lockdown so has a fresh feel to it. Other food outlets, if they are open, generally have socially distanced queuing.

The Pirate Ship only had people seated every other seated row. It makes sense but means the ride takes 50% fewer people.

For the spider ride, everyone had to wear masks. It was one of the few rides that was compulsory.

In general throughout the park, it felt like only a quarter of people would be wearing masks. Pretty much all staff had masks with some having full face shields.

The carpark exit has finally seen some commonsense prevail. Previously it would bottle neck you into a single lane to make sure you paid the carparking fee – which was always infuriating and would take up to an hour just to get out of the car park and pay.

Here it was 2 lanes out with no car parking fee. I think that is wise as leaving and then having to pay for the carpark given all the restrictions and things not being open, probably wouldn’t go down too well and be a bit like a slap in the face. On the other hand, the car park would have made them a small fortune and now that golden goose is gone.

What is New?

Lets have a look at what we’ve noticed is new in the park.

The Duplo Dino Coaster is a younger kids aged rollercoaster. It is a gentle ride that basically goes around the track twice per ride. The general area has been refreshed, along with the Duplo playground next to it.

Some old and tired lego models near the pirates area has been swapped out for minifigure versions.

The exterior to Altantis submarine ride has also been refreshed. It may have been rebranded as Deep Sea Adventure…or might be confusing it with LEGOLAND Dubai.

In Miniland you can notice a number parts of models have been refreshed. Didn’t really see any new models that had been added. Maybe some train carriages and engines are new but they would be replaced aged ones.

What Was Closed?

Now we’ll take a look at what was closed as it felt like a significant chunk of the park. All of these felt like they were outright closed, not necessarily closed for the day which happens from time to time:

  • Monster Party Haunted House
  • Squid Surfers – admittedly this whole area is being revamped with an additional LEGO Movie like complex being built. But still, it is another ride / area that isn’t available.
  • Atlantis Submarine / Deep Sea Adventure
  • Laser Raiders
  • Playstation Game Center that is next to Laser Raiders
  • LEGO Reef Display
  • Minifigures & More – The Ultimate Brick Store
  • Heartlake City Shows that usually ran half a dozen times a day are now gone. So if you want to watch a show while having something to eat, its  not going to happen.
  • Miniland LEGO Ninjago stage and shows
  • Duplo Valley Theater stage
  • Model Making Center with LEGO models
  • Star Wars Display. This was actually removed at the beginning of the year due to a licensing issue with Disney. Believe they don’t want any Star Wars outside of Disney parks due to Galaxy’s edge. So believe Florida, California and Toyko LEGOLANDs all had there Star Wars Exhibits permanently taken away this year. It was a good display, and something else to look at, particularly if it was raining. Now just a closed space.
  • Most LEGO retail stores in the park are closed. Big LEGO store and Ninjago one seemed to be the only ones opened.
    • Big LEGO store was also annoying as they have retired sets on display as for sale but when ask, they are allegedly “out of stock”. If they are not for sale, just remove the things and don’t have them looking like they are for sale wasting everyone’s time.
  • Duplo water park is closed – to be fair generally only open on hot days but given the streams on the way down the hill are closed, I don’t see this reopening.
  • Hill top café was also closed.

So there are a number of attractions there that were previously in our Top 10 Things to do at LEGOLAND Windsor Video, which a year on from when they video was made, are now closed or gone. Links around the video for this Top 10 video https://youtu.be/ONozu1K2qcM

Queue Times

So on the whole, what were queue times like? For the first hour they were really good, which is pretty standard for LEGOLAND Windsor. Throughout the day, these times would climb. On most of the main rides, it felt like times were 30-45 minutes. It felt like queuing was bearable. And slightly faster than pre covid, but not massively different.

Reduced hours

Viking Splash in particular had reduced hours. It didn’t open til 12 and then closed at 4pm. So you only had a 4 hour window. We saw long queues and then 5 or 6 rafts go around completely empty – didn’t make any sense.

The LEGO City Firefighters was also frustrating. There would be lengthy queues but only 1 side open, thereby reducing ride capacity by 50%. When you have some many things closed and heavily restricted, this seemed like an easy win to have both sections open.

Is it worth it?

Given what has changed, whats new, what’s closed and the general experience, is the park worth it at the moment post lockdown? We’d have to say no. We have Merlin passes that run out in a few months, pre covid we were minded to renew them, post covid, if things continue like this, just minded to let them lapse as don’t see the value there. If there is a significant price reduction or some other great value add to the Merlin Pass, we may reconsider.

For casual visits, prices have dipped a little bit when compared with last year but with shorter hours, a significant portion of the park not open, shows not happening, in real terms, it is probably significantly more expensive. General hours are now 25% less time, prices only down around 12% for a heck of a lot less theme park.

While queue times are down as a straw pole experience today was, still looking 30-45 minute wait times for major rides when the day gets going, seemed to be average. Most we saw was a 55 minute wait time. Peak wait times pre covid seemed to be 60-90 minutes. So wait downs are down but still lengthy times to be in queues

How accurate queue times are post covid might be a little misleading. Rides were frequently “at capacity” and effectively closed so you couldn’t even queue – taking more rides out of circulation and depressing real wait times.

We previously did a video on “How to save money at LEGOLAND Windsor UK”. Most of that still applies if you are looking to save money (although VIP points may have changed slightly). Link around the video.

Q-bot / Reserve & Ride

At this stage the old Q-bot system, or what they are calling now the “Reserve & Ride” system hasn’t opened, but website indicates it will soon. So it might be worth checking out that Q-bot video where we give a full breakdown of how it worked, as it isn’t necessarily straight forward. However, if only half the park open / functioning properly, you’d have to question if there is any value in it.

We get that there is a dramatic reduction in crowds so would be putting pressure on ticket prices. If you look at the value, you aren’t paying a great deal less but getting a lot less for your money. The value just is not there.

If it is your first time going to the park or only been once or twice in the past, you could be very disappointed.

Covid 19 Anxiety and High Risk Groups

If you are in a high risk covid group or have anxiety around the whole situation, this probably isn’t going to be for you

The kids enjoyed themselves today but this may have been possibly more because they randomly meet friends from school, so got to go on rides with them and the queues didn’t feel as painful if they had their friends to chat with. Having the annual Merlin passes, we’d been a number of times before and been on everything so didn’t feel like we were missing out on anything.

We will probably go back maybe another time or two during summer while we run our passes down. If you’d only just bought Merlin passes, you couldn’t be forgiven for thinking they aren’t great value at the moment.

It becomes a catch-22 situation. They open the door with reduced crowd numbers so fewer rides are open but then charge around the same, because you need the revenue to cover the numbers of people who aren’t there. As a park operator you are in a good position to have momentum moving forward for whenever covid restrictions lift but having it open must be losing money, and an awkward experience as a guest.

LEGOLAND has always been one of the more expensive day out attractions in the UK, so it has always felt on the expensive side pre covid-19. Close half the park and attractions at similar pricing levels and longish wait times, that is a hard sell.

What do you think?

What do you think? Would you go? Have you been recently, was it value for you? What did you think of the day out? Will you be going any time again soon? Have we managed to sway you one way or the other?

If you’d like to take a virtual tour of the whole park in under 3 minutes, be sure to check out our “Do Not Go to LEGOLAND before seeing this video”. https://youtu.be/_k_ouEuvUxE

Or If you’d like to find out more about the Holiday House with a LEGO wall and theme, be sure to check out this video here.

Alternatively here are some other videos you might be interested in. That’s it from us here at Family Bricks, hit that thumbs up if you found something useful in this video. Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and lifestyle.

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Jul 09

LEGO Pick A Brick (PAB) Wall: Bluewater: COVID 19 Changes & Restrictions 8 July 2020 Store

In this video we talk about the Pick a Brick Wall (PaB Wall) reopening at the LEGO Store Bluewater, UK. It may not be as straight forward as it seems with new Covid 19 changes and restrictions. See what these are in the video.

This as the LEGO found in the Bluewater LEGO store 8 July 2020.

Transcript from the Show

The Pick a Brick wall at the LEGO Bluewater Retail store is back … although with some changes and we’ll go through these.

This video is bought to you bay Macatsim Holiday Homes in Margate and Broadstairs. Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend escape, being just over an hour east of London, UK. Treat yourself to amazing sunsets, a LEGO wall or great food. Visit www.macatsim.com and mention this Youtube video, we’ll will look after you.

The LEGO Pick a Brick, PaB, wall is now back after being empty when Bluewater LEGO store first reopened a number of weeks back. Naturally there are some changes.

1st – Staff and Items Available

First up, only staff can deal with the wall so the area is cordoned off. The selection of bricks that you have available is on these 2 large 48 x48 baseplates. Any item with a little 1×1 blue cheese slope indicates that item is in low stock.

2nd – 3 Cup Restriction

Secondly, you can only get 3 cups. This admittedly is frustrating but apparently is due to basically lockdown occurred just as the next quarterly order would be made. Thus they haven’t been replenished with stock.

So if you think you can go in and catch up on 3 months worth of not having a PaB wall, it probably isn’t going to happen. Some other stores may or may not have these restrictions depending upon their stock and backrooms, so is probably going to be a real lottery.

3rd – Cup Discount

Thirdly, you can’t bring your own cups in from home for obvious Covid 19 reasons. Once you buy cups now the pick a brick wall is open, your receipt is marked. Thus when you come in next time and buy more PaB cups, if you have your receipt, you will be given the cup price discount (like before), even though you have new cups, as if you had old cups (as obviously you can’t bring ones in from home). At least that was my understanding after it was explained to me in an awkward way, and even explaining it back is a little bit of a struggle.

4th – Pay in Advance

Fourth, you had to pay in advance at the til, then go around to the PaB where the staff member would serve you. So you may have to get all your items first, go to the til and pay altogether (so you can get any gift with purchase items), then go and get your cup filled up – a little backwards from the way we normally do it.

I went there at a reasonably dead time (about half hour before they closed) so they seemed relatively happy to fill up the large cups in halves and thirds, of different items. How far you can go in getting a little of this, and a little of that, a tad of this, and a tiny little of this etc I don’t know (I usually get items in large quantities anyhow), might depend upon how busy the stores is and if there is a queue outside, and if the staff feel you are taking the mickey.

I was lucky enough after getting my 3 cups today, getting a little bit of an additional top up (as obviously you can’t optimize your stack as you can’t handle the bricks). So this was greatly appreciated.

Bluewater LEGO store also had another mixture of random pieces left over probably from Christmas and a possible Star Wars in store build.

Might seem a little frustrating but at least it is a start. Hopefully they can reorder some more bricks for the Pick a Brick wall soon and the 3 cup minimum can be lifted. Just feels weird that the store won’t sell you product you’d more than happily buy. Baby steps though.  

Thanks very much for watching and if you got some value out of this video, please hit that thumbs up button. It doesn’t take much but means a great deal to us.

If you’d like to find out more about the Holiday House with a LEGO wall and theme, be sure to check out this video here. Alternatively here are some other videos you might be interested in. That’s it from us here at Family Bricks, until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and lifestyle.

Jul 08

VLOG 4 Broadstairs Lockdown Eases: Are Holidays Worth it? Airbnb Short Term Stay Macatsim Margate

Welcome to VLOG 4, in Broadstairs as lockdown eases. Restaurants, Pubs and tourist attractions can reopen. What does this look like in a post Covid 19 world? Is it worthwhile thinking about a holiday / staycation?

In this video we look at sunrise from Broadstairs – amazing!! We look at the activities that kids can get up to at the beach – Sand Angels, flying gliders and kites, making sandcastles, moats and mansions.

From here off to a restaurant that has reopened for lunch. This is followed by some icecream in the park. A quick round of minigolf with some down time in holiday let flat (iPads and Dots Bracelets don’t go astray). Back out for some dinner in another opened restaurant.

After this over to the Macatsim Margate flat Airbnb for some pickup filming… and horses on the beach. We review the Friday night London Bridge Bricks stream along with the 2nd Family Bricks Livestream with a July 4th Independence day / easing of UK Lockdown celebration.

Follow this up with the regularly vegetable garden update.

Further information on the Holiday Homes / Airbnb / Short Term Lets can be found at http://www.macatsim.com/

Both flats, Broadstairs and Margate are about 75-90 minutes east of London UK. Margate has a LEGO themed Holiday Lets / Airbnb Short Term Stay awith a LEGO Wall. Broadstairs has an iconic red London bus bunk bed (at time of recording).

Time codes to the Video:
0:00 Introduction
0:13 Sunrise at Broadstairs Macatsim Ocean Outlook
0:46 Rockpool and crabbing
1:32 Sand Angel
1:51 Gliders on the beach during a windy day
2:08 Kite on the beach during a windy day
2:21 Sandcastles and Sand Mansions on the beach
3:04 Restaurants Opening for Lunch
3:35 Time for Icecream and into the Park
4:02 Mini Golf, Crazy Golf, Putt Putt Golf
4:59 Dots Braclets, YouTube Market Research and Dinner
5:43 Margate LEGO Themed Flat and Horses on the Beach
6:09 Post London Bridge Bricks Stream and gag cartoons
9:22 Post Family Bricks Livestream #2 – 4th July / Lockdown Easing
10:18 Veggie Garden Update
11:17 Holiday Homes website www.macatsim.com & Wrapping up VLOG #4

Transcript from the Show

This Week, The Week That Was Tuesdays

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here and welcome to VLOG number 4. Down here at Broadstairs and been a beautiful day with the kids and everything like that. Now that lockdown is easing and things are starting to open up getting ready for holiday makers.

Sunrise at Broadstairs Macatsim Ocean Outlook

Up early to catch a glorious sunrise from the Broadstairs flat window.

So the flat is just up there and then you come straight down here and literally right on Viking Bay. On this is what Viking Bay looks like first thing in the morning, which is the main beach at Broadstairs.

Morning tractor has been out and smoothed out all the sand, which is something I’ve never seen in Australia and I don’t quite understand.

Rockpool and crabbing

Head on over to the rockpool and see what is happening over there andy maybe try to catch a crab or something like that. In go the net with a bit of bait and away we go.

Oh my gosh, it is still trying to get out. Do you see the jungus crab daddy?

Here is the crab the boys managed to catch. It is a decent size but missing two legs, and releasing it back to the wild.

Done!

Sand Angel

Lets give this sand angel thing a try. We at least got the arms pumping, the legs seem to be lagging a bit. Why just stand straight up when we can roll around and make sure we get sand in every nook and cranny. And making sure we have our bo-staff ready to go at every opportunity,

Gliders on the beach during a windy day

We also have these gliders which are great for windy days.

WOOOOOOOH!!

Simple victories give us such great excitement.

Kite on the beach during a windy day

Kites are another great fit for windy day, keeps them active and running all over the place, and as every parent dreams off, just tiring them out so the go to sleep really easily when they get home.

Sandcastles and Sand Mansions on the beach

Out creating our gigantic sand mansion with its own personal moat to try to keep the waves from washing it away. Sand really is so versatile. The water came and got it?! Yeah but I caught it. Fun time.

A small piece of wood to act as a boat.

Well I’ve been digging a well and jumping in it like this. Yikes! There is also water in here

Probably can see it. Right now I’m building a mini-mineshaft inside of the well.

Restaurants Opening for Lunch

Then off for some lunch with restaurants that are now starting ot reopen. And I’m sure the seagulls have missed all their free lunches too. The day before this, this whole area was dead, so it is good to see life and community returning. Prezzo is another really good restaurant so good to see its doors open as well.

Time for Icecream and into the Park

Now when it has been a nice great day at the beach like this, there is only one thing you need to do and that is go and get some ice-cream. You are completely spoilt for choice but this is one we ended up at. You can see the internal seating area is closed due to c-19 but other ones have theirs open.

A wide selection of formats, ice creams and sorbets. Another happy customer with a bubble gum flavour.

A quick stop to the nearby park and let the devouring begin. Kids have no trouble getting through ice-cream cones. Ah such simple pleasures.

We have our flat just there, and literally 1 block away here, you can just see, is the mini golf.

Mini Golf, Crazy Golf, Putt Putt Golf

And then off to some putt putt golf, or mini golf or crazy golf of whatever you want to call it. It is 13 holes of wacky fun and the ones who usually do the best are the ones that have never played golf or touched a putter before.

Yeeeeeah!! My turn next. Of course the token windmill obstacle that every mini golf has.

Kids are having fun, making up their own rules and playing however they want to. You need to use a fair bit of force. There I’m done. We should get her down the golf course.

Think we are going to need a bigger boat.

Dots Braclets, YouTube Market Research and Dinner

And a session with some Dots bracelets always produces some interesting results. And what one did you choose? A cat one. And he managed to snuffle his borthers bracelet as well when he wasn’t looking.

So the boys are doing their YouTube market research, which involves lots and lots of YouTube watching.

Then off to another really good restaurant (Posillipo) for an evening meal. It’s a great Italian place and even our critic kids think it is finger licking good.

Margate LEGO Themed Flat and Horses on the Beach

We were shooting some additional b-roll footage for our Margate holiday home that is available for rent. See this video for an initial overview of the property and surrounding area. Then something random while filming. Horses on the beach, why not?! That is one of the many things you might find in the view.

Post London Bridge Bricks Stream and gag cartoons

Just finished up the Friday night livestream with London Bridge Bricks and this is what it looks like. I literally, 5 minutes before the stream walked in the door and setup everything. So down here in Margate again, nice and dark and everything so generally just come through and have one of the really useful boxes full of all the wires and cables and everything so it all just explodes out and did another drawing night.

Going through and yeah, think there are some really successful ones which came out. Think one of my favourites was this Monkey Kid one. I was trying to think of a gag as we were sort of talking about it but nothing came to mind so just went ok I’ll draw that out naturally.

Then tested out a couple of the LEGO Pictionary ideas being having. Going to be part of the 72 hour stream next week, so have a 2 hour slot and think I’m Sunday 12 July 2020 at lunch time (Central time USA / 17:00 UK time).

So the idea is I’ll be drawing pictures and people guess what they are and get points for the fastest and set numbers. So something like this is the bookshop and you know, coming up and knowing what exact number it is. And then another one like this, can you guess what that is?! Bucket wheel excavator and what the set number is.

Yeah bit of a random conversation. Just flip through them, talking about the Mario LEGO, 4 gifts with purchase. Talking about the crocodile or gator train. I know everybody hoas their own aesthetic and things like that but I just can’t see past it being a poop with wheels, or as somebody else said, a croissant.

So these are just a selection of some of the other sketches we did and at one stage there you had Hive looking very longingly at Monkey Kid set, and its sorted of like yeah, he is really into it. Then also talking about where to store boxes and things and one of the guys apparently has a crawl space under the house so put them in there, might get a bit too excessive.

And then talking about LEGO now doing wall framed art sort of thing and one of them is like the Mariyln Monroe Andy Warhol sort of take on it. And the way that they have done it is as a money making machine. So you’ve got to get like 4 sets and each set is £120, so they have really figured out with it how to basically be selling the customer almost the same thing 4 times over.

Then SaraStarBricks and Si were going on about ice creams and things like that. And Solo was a little worse for wear today with a cut on the nose and at one stage he was building and he got something in his eye and trying to keep on building and trooping and pushing through it.

Somebody had a subscriber count of 666, so seemed like a natural one to do.

And very much talking about before you do the stream you are in panic mode getting everything all sorted, at least I find I am, and trying to get everything done and as soon as the stream starts just trying to put on that very polished face. Its all chaos off camera.

Post Family Bricks Livestream #2 – 4th July / Lockdown Easing

So just finished up my second livestream which was a 4th of July Independence Day, easing of lockdown special and I just thought I’d kick the opening up of the video with a quickly little story and pictures. So if you go to the actual link that I will put in, in and around this, it will have the quick little story of this. Basically about the British and the Americans and just going through with some of the pictures and fighting and all the different sorts of things that would happen and have that there.

So it seemed to be a nice little thing that was received well so might sort of be a little thing I might do sometimes. You have talk show hosts and they do their opening Monologue. This might be my version of that. The opening picture sketch or something. I don’t know. Be interested to know if you do manage to check out the other video what you thought of it, it if works, or just a horrible idea.  

Veggie Garden Update

So a veggie garden update this week. Got some cauliflower here, harvest that in a sec. Might be a day or so over as it has opened up a bit. This one here, never did anything, always been looking bad. Looks like we might have another one over here which might be ready in a day or so. And another one just growing down in here, so we will leave that for a little bit, and the other ones never really took shape.

And here we go, managed to get a head of cauliflower, so give that a try and see what that is like. And then we have had some blueberries come through and during the week, one of the boys picked a whole bunch which were ripe and took them into his teacher. So we spent all that time going through and growing them and then his teacher ended up with it, which was just funny.

Pears are starting to take up more pear like shape, feels like they have taken awhile to grow though. Plums feel like they have been at that shape for quite a while. So wondering if they have stalled out or something has gone wrong with the plant.

Holiday Homes website www.macatsim.com & Wrapping up VLOG #4

If you want to find out more about our holiday home rentals in Broadstairs or Margate, check out our website at www.macatsim.com Great for a week’s holiday or a weekend escape being just over an hour east of London, UK. Here you can check out our Broadstairs flat. Alternatively, here are some other videos you might be interested in. Be sure to hit that thumbs up button if you enjoyed this video. Thanks for watching and that is all from us here at Family Bricks. Until next time when we talk LEGO and Lifestyle.

Jul 02

Margate Seaview Sunset Holiday Home LEGO Themed. Margate Beach UK Airbnb for a Staycation Macatsim

In this video we look at the Macatsim Seaview Sunset Holiday Home located on Margate Beach, UK It is a LEGO themed short term let/Airbnb with the highlight being a large LEGO wall. It is great for a Staycation being around 75 minutes east of London, UK.

We also show attractions that are only minutes walking distance. These include Margate’s The Sands Main Beach, Turner Contemporary Art Gallery / Museum, great restaurants and bars, along with being situated right in Margate Old Town and High Street.

The flat has 2 bedrooms and sleeps 6 people. To BOOK NOW, please visit www.macatsim.com Booking direct will give the best price and mention that you say promo code “MM1” here on mattelder.com

Time codes for the Video
0:00 Introduction to Macatsim Seaview Sunset, Margate UK
0:27 2 Bedrooms, Sleeps 6 people
0:35 75 Minutes East of London, UK
0:45 LEGO Themed LEGO Wall that kids Love
0:55 Margate Old Town on Your Doorstep
1:04 Next to Great Restaurants
1:15 2 Minutes to Turner Comtemporary Museum and Art Gallery
1:21 Brilliant The Sands Beach on Your Doorstep
1:32 Overview of Location and Local attractions
1:39 Amazing Sunsets from the Couch of the Holiday Home Airbnb
1:44 Book Now: Macatsim.com with Discount Code: “YM1”

Transcript / Description From the Video

Introduction to Macatsim Seaview Sunset, Margate UK. This is the amazing view from the lounge. Sun, rain or snow, you can always be in the lounge and enjoy the view.

Welcome to Margate by macatsim.com … made up on the LEGO wall.

Seaview Sunset, Margate UK.

Lounge Room reflection in the mirror

Clock to keep track of the time.

View from the lounge room again … always magical!

Has a large master bedroom with a TV.

A full kitchen for cooking any time you don’t feel like going out for an amazing restaurant.

Bathroom has a family sized bathtub ideal for cleaning off after some fun at the beach in the sun and sand.

This Margate Airbnb is a 2 bedroom flat that will sleep 6 people, right on Margate beach.

Flat has a Playstation with a selection of LEGO games.

This Margate short term let is located about 75 minutes east of London UK.

Ideal for a Margate Staycation with huge bay windows giving an almost 180 degree over The Sands Main Beach.

A LEGO cushion but the star of the show in this LEGO themed accommodation is the LEGO Wall, kids love it!

Margate Old Town is on your doorstep with shops, art galleries and everything in between.

This Margate Airbhb has a huge range of great restaurants such as Angela’s fish restaurant and Buoy and Oyster.

Peters Fish Factory has great takeaway fish and chips!

The Turner Contemporay Art Gallery is a 2 minute walk from the holiday house!

The Brilliant Sands Beach is on your doorstep and out your front window. It has a tidal pool, kids amusements and patrolled by lifeguards.

Here is a shot of the local attractions and as you can see, Macatsim Seaview Sunset is located in the heart of it all.

So kick back and enjoy the Amazing Sunsets from the couch on Margate Beach in this well appointed, LEGO themed Airbnb Holiday House.

Book now directly at www.Macatsim.com! Mention discount code MM1, or you saw this video on mattelder.com

#margatebeach #holidaylet #seaviews #macatsim #shortbreak #Englishchannel #margate #Broadstairs #vacationrental #vacationrentals #airbnbhost #airbnbsuperhost #superhost #airbnboftheday #vacationlife #holidayrental #holidayhome #holidayhouse #accommodation #selfcatering #weekendgetaway #staycation #familygetaway #makingmemories #broadstairsbeach #airbnb #vikingbay #bookdirect #lego #legowall

Jul 01

VLOG 3 Another Week in the Life of a Holiday Let Airbnb Short Term Stay Owner Margate Broadstairs Macatsim

Welcome to VLOG 3, another week in the life of a furnished holiday let rental. In this video we’ll look behind the scenes of a LEGO Youtuber and what the kids get up to. We take a look at the LEGO wall and the bricks that get supplied with it. See some of the kids LEGO creations on the LEGO wall.

We take a look at the things the kids get up to on Margate’s Sands Beach – digging holes, playing with the sand, throwing the sand, jumping over waves and exploring the area.

It was a busy week doing some maintenance on our LEGO themed Holiday Lets / Airbnb Short Term Stay accommodation in Margate and Broadstairs (about 75-90 minutes east of London UK ). Sun is starting to come out, summer is on the way and lockdown looks to be easing.

From their a quick trip over to Broadstairs and check out Viking Bay beach and its rock pool. More fun in the sand.

We look at the art that went into the promotional efforts for the first Family Bricks Livestream – mostly SigFig drawings of our guests Kevin Hinkle, Nathan Dias, Sarastarbricks, Caz Mockett and LamborghiniWaffleSauce. We’ll take a minute to reflect upon the first stream … and the outtakes from the poor effort to promote the second one (might get it right eventually).

A quick veggie garden update and how to deal with getting a haircut during lockdown.

The holiday homes Macatsim Seaview Sunset Holiday Let in Margate, and Macatsim Ocean Outlook in Broadstairs, can be booked at: www.macatsim.com

Time codes to the Video:

0:00 Introduction
0:30 LEGO Wall, Building, LEGO Sorting
1:25 Kids on the beach playing, digging, building drawing, jumping over waves & throwing sand
2:53 Rock Pool and Exploring … sort of
3:15 Random Vesper Convention
3:23 Broadstairs Viking Bay Overview … and seagulls
4:10 Tidal Rock Pool, Island claiming, sandcastle building and kite flying
4:44 Bloopers and Not Going to Plan
5:15 Livestream LEGO SigFig Promotion Art
7:35 Inaugural Family Bricks Livestream debrief and thoughts
9:09 Finding a Ginormous Rock
9:32 Fathers Day LEGO Chocolate Aftermath
9:58 Veggie Garden Update
10:23 A Lockdown Haircut…
10:58 Summing up VLOG #3

Transcript from the Show

This Week, The Week That Was Tuesdays

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here and welcome to the third VLOG of This Week, The Week that was. Down at our holiday homes in Margate and Broadstairs, that people can rent an hour plus east of London, England.

Sunsets here are amazing!

Here is another gorgeous one from the lounge of our LEGO themed holiday let in Margate.

Love coming here, getting away from the city and relaxing. Any time of year, doesn’t matter as you can always watch the water for hours, rain, hail or shine.

LEGO Wall, Building, LEGO Sorting

This is hello to say hello to everyone. That’s a flag. That’s UK.

Building a fingerprint. If you put your finger in there.

Oh very cool.

And I also built this where some of your soft toys or dragons can sit. Come on Toothless, let’s go.

So the thing with having a lego wall is that you need to have lots of pieces. So I’ve just been through and sorted out all the pieces as well. It probably won’t stay like that for very long but gives a bit of an idea of the selection that people have, that they can go through and build their little creations on the LEGO wall.

And then all back into their place, ready for some LEGO action.  

Kids on the beach playing, digging, building drawing, jumping over waves & throwing sand

Kids just enjoy being kids, digging and creating in the sand

[singing]

Where’s your red?

Red. I let it go. I will show you where it is.

Or just down at the beach finding chalky rocks to draw with.

I finally found a red rock.

This one, this one was better wasn’t it?! Look I drawed it

You did

Can I have the white one now mummy?

You’re a little street artist.

Or continue to build their castle dam.

Welcome to Margate, England by Family Bricks.

Or simple fun like jumping over waves.

As always with the kids, all you need is a bit of sand and some sea shells and you are good.

Hours of fun just relaxing in the water.

Or throwing sand at each other.

Rock Pool and Exploring … sort of

Mummy, the rock pool is out.

Plenty of places to explore or climb all over.

Random Vesper Convention

There is always something random happening in Margate like this Vesper

convention.

Broadstairs Viking Bay Overview … and seagulls

5 miles along from Margate is Broadstairs. Here you get great sunrises and beaches with white cliffs. And more throwing sand on the beach.

What comes around, goes around.

Bright and colourful with all the beach huts. This is the main beach at Broadstairs called Viking Bay and goes around to the main pier. A well protected beach, with small waves great for little kids. And a tidal rock pool where kids can go looking for crabs and fish.

And back to the sand throwing.

What would a beach be without territorial seagulls looking to snag a chip?

Tidal Rock Pool, Island claiming, sandcastle building and kite flying

People wondering around and investigating the tidal rock pool.

Or heading out exploring and claiming their own little island. And dancing at their victory.

On windy days, great for flying a kite… providing it doesn’t get away like this one.

What would a day at the beach be without some sandcastle building … or making modifications to something already existing?

Bloopers and Not Going to Plan

Not everything goes to plan.

What’s that sunshine?!

You’ll have to speak up, can’t quite hear you.

That’s it, try from somewhere else.

Any time now.

This ain’t rocket science.

My goodness do you need a hair cut?!

Gotcha thinking about it now.

Oh, I give up.

Livestream LEGO SigFig Promotion Art

Just finished up the promotional art for our first livestream. So here is me doing my best Good Morning Vietnam impersonation there. So headphones for the stream things. Then gone through and done all the guests and drip feeding out on Instagram.

Sarastarbricks, love the shapes and the colours and thought it worked well.

And then Lamborghini Waffle Sauce, fellow London AFOLs who loves his little waffles. I thought that was very cool being able to put the tiles in there. Unfortunately I didn’t have any reference for the legs and that so maybe do that another time and finish it up.

And Nathan Dias – LEGO Masters UK, very first series. So that was cool to get that one done.

And Caz Mockett, done an interview with her before and amazing LEGO builder, has some models in the LEGO House at the moment and that has just been extended. Hopefully we can get to Billund and see them. We were meant to go in May but that was cancelled.

And then Kevin Hinkle who, another illustrator who does great work and also use to work for LEGO for awhile so bit tricky doing his one. Cause all his SigFigs have LEGO logos on them and I think he has moved past that now. So took awhile but when hit on the idea of putting his own graphic from his own website and his branding on, thought that worked really well.

So will be interesting to see if this becomes a SigFig or something like that, that would be kinda cool.

I underestimated how much time it would take to get through all these and get them done. So I think this will be the only time that I do it. Maybe something special for the first one.

See how it all goes, pretty apprehensive about it. Never done one of these LEGO livestreams before and just feel like being a duck. Like being on the top and sort of nice and calm. But underneath just legs are kicking like crazy just trying to figure out how all this is going to work and how its going to go.

Also cool now that I got for the first one all in this little sketch book.  So can hang onto them. Always like hanging onto sketches that have some significance and think these ones will, so see how it all goes.

Inaugural Family Bricks Livestream debrief and thoughts

Ok, just finished up the first ever livestream for the Family Bricks YouTube channel . I think it went pretty well. I had a great lot of people on, keeping the catch going. Just talking about all the different topics and things like that.

I didn’t actually try to build anything as I was just trying to keep the conversation going and keeping things ticking over, which feel exhausted. Some people just make that look so effortless  and I don’t know, probably just not my natural flow. So still great none the less.

In the mean time one of the kids naturally saw one of the LEGO sets I was going to try to build and before you knew it, they’d gone through and built it, I think quite happy and pleased with that. Although now I’m looking at it and thinking ‘I wish I knew how to build that’, so might pull it apart and do it myself.

So that’s the first stream done and learned a lot through doing the process and everything like that. So have a think about the next one and trying to come up with a bit of a format and a topic and things , which the way I like to do it. Which might better suit the groove or what I might want to be doing. So maybe want to push it more into an art bent or something like that.

Hopefully you can get it right this time. This Saturday the 4th of July 2020, going to be doing our second Family Bricks YouTube livestream. Going to be an Independence day special being 4th of July and also the easing of lockdown. 8:30pm in the UK and 3:30pm in the US . So join us on the Family Bricks YouTube channel and hope to see you there.

Finding a Ginormous Rock

Mummy, mummy, I found a ginormous rock. Oh wow, lets see. Its over here, come down over here.

And if that isn’t enough LEGO for you we’ve also got some books like Batman’s Guide to Being Cool. And you can get more of a LEGO fix with that.

And some Jigsaw puzzles as well.

Fathers Day LEGO Chocolate Aftermath

We had a hot day or two here so father’s Day LEGO chocolate kinda a bit gooey now… hmmm … yummy.

A cheap bit of plastic and a hose go along way. [screaming] Oh wet [laughter]

Veggie Garden Update

Quick veggie garden update. Here are some of the broad beans we’ve taken out of the plants. Some good size ones there. And we got a head of lettuce. Not very big. I think that was mainly because we left them there for a bit too long and all the slugs and snails got in them and really ate most of them. All ended up being eaten. So lesson for next time.

A Lockdown Haircut…

Now about that haircut…  look on the floor. I’ve got an idea. This is how much hair I’ve done so far. The things we have to do…

Look on the floor. Look how much daddy’s hair. Oh grim!  How did this turn out?!

This is a Family Bricks video. Be sure to hit that like button, share or if you want to be super awesome,  subscribe! Click the bell and select “All”, to be notified of new videos as they are uploaded.

Summing up VLOG #3

That’s it for VLOG number 3. If you’ve enjoyed this, hit that thumbs up, takes a fraction of a second to do. Be sure to join us for the 2nd Family Bricks live stream on Saturday 4th July 8:30pm UK time, 3:30pm USA eastern and 5:30am Australian time. Here are some other videos you might be interested in. Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and lifestyle.

Jun 23

VLOG 2 A Week in the Life of a Holiday Let Airbnb Short Term Stay Owner Margate Broadstairs Macatsim

Welcome to VLOG 2, a week in the life of a furnished holiday let rental. In this video we’ll look behind the scenes of a LEGO Youtuber and what the kids get up to. It was a busy week doing some maintenance on our LEGO themed Holiday Lets / Airbnb Short Term Stay accommodation in Margate and Broadstairs (about 75-90 minutes east of London UK ). Sun is starting to come out, summer is on the way and lockdown looks to be easing.

We mention about our first Family Bricks Live stream which will have Kevin Hinkle, Nathan Dias, Sarastarbricks, Caz Mockett and LamborghiniWaffleSauce. We have a tour through both Macatsim Seaview Sunset Holiday Let in Margate, and Macatsim Ocean Outlook in Broadstairs (further details and booking information can be found www.macatsim.com )

We crossed the 300 YouTube subscriber mark and comment on the reaction to the last video about the possible future of the LEGO store. Have a flick through some live illustration cartoons from London Bridge Bricks livestream.

Then onto time with the kids with another Harry Potter film, Father’s Day, a treasure hunt, bubble making and roasting some marshmallows. Quick veggie / vegetable garden update and end of with the sunset from Macatsim Seaview Sunset rental.

Time codes to the Video:
0:00 Introduction
0:24 Where is Margate & Broadstairs?
1:02 Margate Main Beach / Macatsim Seaview Sunset Short Term Holiday Let Vacation Rental Airbnb
2:01 Family Bricks First Live Stream
2:37 LEGO Themed Holiday Let Tour
4:04 Margate Tourism and Corona Virus
4:30 Broadstairs Viking Bay
5:09 Inside Macatsim Ocean Outlook Sunset Short Term Holiday Let Vacation Rental Airbnb
6:50 300 Subscriber Milestone
7:25 LEGO Store Video Feedback & Comments
8:24 London Bridge Bricks Livestream … and cartoons
11:14 Harry Potter
12:07 Father’s Day Haul
12:37 Pirate Treasure Hunt
12:54 Creating / Blowing Large Bubbles
14:14 Roasting Marshmallows over the fire
14:32 Vegetable Garden update
15:17 Sunset from Margate Macatsim Seaview Sunset & Government easing tourism restrictions

Transcript from the Show

This Week, The Week That Was Tuesdays

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks here and welcome to the second VLOG of This Week, The Week that was. Bit of a change here, down at Margate and right in the heart and it is actually high tide now so down here checking on a couple of holiday lets we have in the area. And oh, the sun is coming out, it is a nice day down here.

Where is Margate / Broadstairs?

So you have the center of London there, that is the M25 which runs there. You literally go down the A2 onto the M2 and then break off onto the A299 and you’ve got Margate there and Broadstairs there. So from Margate and Broadstairs to the M25 junction 2 is about 60 minutes to drive, or you can get some of the trains that go down in about 80-85 minutes.
So get little spot for a weekend getaway or a week as you can be out of London and down their in an hour, hour and a half at the beach. So you don’t waste a whole bunch of time travelling but able to get down and sand in between your toes, kick back and relax.

Train station is just over there, its like a 10 minute walk and you’ve got Dreamland there and lots of shops and everything. Lots of places to eat. And we actually have a holiday let just up there. So its great, any time of year you can just sit up there and watch the view. And down over there you’ve got the Turner Contemporary Museum, light house, couple little micropubs and things over there. And then you’ve got the main old town just behind all these buildings here and the high street over there so it’s a great little spot.

Just down here doing a little bit of maintenance as you can imagine recently, basically the business has been pretty much crushed as nobody has been going on holidays. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks that might change which will be great cause in the last couple of years, Margate in particular has really got a lot of nice great restaurants , bars, pubs and things, and the area really needed it.

These days it lives off a lot of the tourism.

Family Bricks First Livestream Details

And then also this week going to have the first livestream. Actually going to be streaming from down here, something a little bit special, so its going to have a really nice backdrop. Going to have a few guests on for that. Guests hoping to have on will be Kevin Hinkle, Caz Mockett, Lamborghini Waffle Sauce, Sarastarbricks, and Nathan Dias. Some great people in the LEGO community.

Will be Friday night 8pm-11pm UK time. That is GMT+1 which will probably be about 3pm in America EST . So we will go inside and check out the flat then got to Broadstairs and check that one out as well.

Inside Macatsim Seaview Sunset Tour

Inside the flat you have 180 degree view out over most things. It is high tide at the moment. When it is low tide, the water goes out past the breakers and this is the lounge room. Its great as in winter or any time of year , just sit here and look at that view. TV there if you wanted to, Playstation with LEGO games and quickly come through, full kitchen there with everything you need. This is a 2 bedroom, and we have the bathroom, full bathtub and a toilet over there.

You come into the 2 bedrooms at the back. Good size master, another TV up there and in here the second bedroom and a LEGO wall. And you can see that is something that the last guest has made. Down in here, you have the LEGO draws with all sorts of different bits and pieces. People really enjoy that, some LEGO lights and another TV. You can put the playstation in here and have the kids in here.

Corona Virus Changes

A lot of the businesses have switched over to doing takeway offerings, putting up signs for social distancing and barricades to help flows through shops and out the front. Beach gear and nik-nak shops are opening up. Lifesavers are down on the beach and being active on patrols. Just trying to adjust and  be ready for when tourism gets the green light. More outdoor spaces that can handle social distancing.

Your cafes, restaurants, fish and chips and takeaways, pubs and all those sorts of things.

Broadstairs Orientation

And here we are in Broadstairs at the main beach, Viking Bay, main lot of shops there, great little ice cream shop there, Morelli’s, and we have our flat just there. So great little spot to watch everything. Looks like a gorgeous day down here. And everything in the town is really close. You’ve got most of the main shops, pubs and everything just there, and then about 10 minutes walk that way is Broadstairs Train station.

Inside Macastim Ocean Outlook Tour

And here we are, this is the view from the couch, first storey, everything close and accessible. So this is the view from the master bedroom. So the master bedroom a really good size there. Has its own en-suite, nice shower, toilet and all that sort of stuff. Go through, it is a 3 bedroom. Go into bedroom 3.

Kids room, double bunk London Red bus bed, which everyone loves. Kids love climbing on that and playing, sleeping all over it. View from there, and then if we go into the 2nd bedroom, again another really good size. So superking that can be split into 2 separate singles. Main bathroom, full size tub that is great for families, having a wash after the beach.

Here is your kitchen, diner, lounge. It sleeps 8 so great for grandparents, parents and kids. Or 2 sisters and their families, and the kids and the cousins. Again the view from the couch so sit there and enjoy that. Playstation, video games, movies all down in there as well. 48, think 42 inch screen and then a full kitchen here as well.

Main beach in Broadstairs which is Viking Bay which is literally across the road from the flat. And you can see they are getting all the rides and trampolines set up for tourist season.

Family Bricks 300 Subscribers Milestone

And the channel hit a milestone during the week. Hitting the 300 subscribes with is absolutely fantastic and jumping up and down, or yoyoing between 299 and 300 subscribers for a little bit so good now we are over that and past that. Thanks to everybody who watches and who comments. I try to respond to every comment that everybody leaves there. Really do appreciate all the support and maybe being a little analytical speed a little bit too much time watching the analytics but have noticed the people who subscribed are watching more and more of the content which is great. So thank you very much and really appreciate it.

LEGO Stores Video Controversy

I recently released a video about the LEGO stores reopening and my thoughts on it (see link around the video). It seems to have struck a chord with people and very polarizing, as you can see from the comments in that video. Everything from “how dare you be negative?!”, right through to “totally agree and having the same experience”.

My concern is you have LEGO shops in premium retail space that have been closed for 3 months, you’ve removed the key experience from it discouraging top customers from coming into the store. Online from other retailers, LEGO has always been cheaper and the experience was the differentiating factor.

There are ways to bring that experience back in a curtailed fashion and suggest these in the video. LEGO is a numbers company and won’t continue to bleed retail money and would be financially responsible to consolidate and/or close stores, which we don’t want to see, when a key tweak might make a huge difference to the bottom line.

I don’t know if people sound off after watching the first 30 seconds of the video, or just keep thinking LEGO will keep losing money in retail space to maintain a presence (which I just don’t see as viable). Think it is good to have a conversation around this so interested in people’s comments.

London Bridge Bricks LiveStream and Cartooning

Live streaming with London Bridge Bricks and this is what it looked like from the other side of the camera. Got all the markers and things setup so can grab colours and do whatever I need with that lot.

OK just had the stream with London Bridge Bricks tonight and initially was going to draw some 2×4 bricks for some artwork for my own promotional stuff but just started drawing and doing some gags and things like that so, just had some fun with that. These drawings , I think there are about 30 , and was just basically whatever the conversation was just doing 30 second little gags and things.

So talking about something at some stage, I couldn’t remember what it was now. LEGO Batman or something like that. A crazy Joker  and looking at that in terms of adults playing with LEGO like a Boba Fett Slave 1 and swooshing around, pew, pew, pew. So the Joker looking at it and going “and they think I’m crazy”. The top couple are probably some of my favourites, I wont’ go through them all.

Probably end up on Instagram or something. One of the guys does a lot of work in a van, which might need a bit of a wash. Then Mario, to be able to afford all the LEGO mario you are going to need some wheelburrows of cash.

Then got talking about one of the guys , and doesn’t really drive or anything like that so combining it with another joke that there is recently a LEGO Ducati model, which is all good apart from the seat is underdone. So just riffing off that.

Baby Yoda and Gremlins Gizmo Similar Designs

Then Yoda talking about a Christmas special that people try to block out of their minds. Don’t know if you’ve ever noticed with Gizmo from Grelims, his design is very very close to baby Yoda. Its sort of almost like the big eyes, big ears, round head, nose shape and that. And on they go. So many of them. So think it was received well. People in the comments seemed to be having a good little chuckle and laugh. And think the guys on the stream are quite cool and they are able to make fun of themselves and have a good laugh. Didn’t really plan it and it organically happened.

It reminded me of a variety show in Australia years ago called Hey Hey Its Saturday and they use to have a cartoonist on that who’d just be doing gags as they are going off live. So just felt like I was channeling that a little bit and it was fun and maybe do it again some time.

By the end of it as you are constantly drawing and trying to come up with ideas and things like that , do feel exhausted by the end of it. Hopefully if anybody was in the chat during the livestream and saw it, love to know the feedback on it and if it is all good, might try to do it again at some stage in the future.

Harry Potter

Harry Potter.

[dramatic music playing]

Oh, going to need two at a time for this one. Looks all dirty

Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh …. Oh. Man down. Man down.

Don’t pick them. This looks ready. They should have been picked 2 days ago.

Fathers Day LEGO Haul

So Father’s Day in the UK and this is my haul from it so anyone would think I might like LEGO. These are chocolate moulded bricks and pieces from someone who I believe is just starting to do these sorts of things. Some great cards from the boys and everything. Stormtroopers from the little troopers and some cards. And a t-shirt, which I think might be the first LEGO T-shrit I’ve got. Sad to admit that. Hope everyone had a great Father’s Day.

Pirate Treasure hunt.

What the?! We found the treasure.

Bubble Making

What have you got there? Don’t know what it is. Think it is some sort of bubble maker.

There we go. Oh

Oh my. Its going

No, no… oh my

Just a bit more.

Oh

Look, no no… its getting away

I did it. I had it

Ok, just give it a sec

Oh wow…. Mine …has… bubbles.

Time to make a really big bubble. That’s mine. That’s mine.

Ones going to pop in the atmosphere. Yep it did.

It doesn’t look like it. Do you want a hand?

I like them, I like them.

I like marshmallows.

Garden Update

Just a bit of a garden update. As you can see there, cauliflower is coming through a little bit, that one there and that one I don’t think is doing anything yet. And then there is in there a purple one. Over here some of the broadbeans are really starting to come in. A huge bean there. And on this one here, some coming off there. And the lettuce might be over done. And some more beans and the lettuce is getting eaten.

Blueberries in the last week have really started to ripen up. Its always interesting as you get some of them ripening at very different speeds to the others.

Sunset From Margate Flat. www.macatsim.com

Finishing Up And Government Easing Lockdown Restrictions.

That’s it for VLOG number 2. Just had government confirmation holiday lets / vacation rentals/ short term lets can open in under 2 weeks time on July 4th which is great news. Be sure to join us for the first Family Bricks live stream on Friday June 26 8pm UK time, 3/5pm USA eastern and 5am Australian time. Here are some other videos you might be interested in. Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and lifestyle.

Jun 18

LEGO Stores, Can They Survive? Bluewater Reopening. The experience isn’t great. PaB Pick a Brick Wall

In this video with LEGO stores reopening after corona virus, we look at some of the changes and their impacts on LEGO Branded Retail stores. What is the new experience like, can stores survive or are they going to have to close?!

Transcript from the Show

G’day Everyone, Matt Elder of Family Bricks and in this video we are going to talk about the whether LEGO branded retail stores can survive in a corona virus world. Our local Bluewater LEGO store reopened this week and I was in there today, it really was not the experience I was hoping for. The LEGO branded stores are all about experiences in an online shopping world and this wasn’t good.

For AFOLs’ (Adult Fans Of LEGO), generally the gateway drug is the Pick a Brick wall, affectionately known as a PaB wall. There are bins of loose LEGO pieces and you can fill up a cup and get charged per cup, regardless of weight or how many pieces are in there. This usually works out about 1/3 the price of buying parts online or other sources.

Naturally we get that you can’t have loose pieces that every man and his dog is handling, but it is now completely gone. For similar reasons, Build a Minifigure and any other interactive building and touch screens are gone – in there place, empty store space. People like to feel the LEGO minifigure blind bags to guess which mystery figure is in it, naturally that is gone too.

Shop Queues

In addition to this, they can only have 12 people in the shop at a time so there was a queue outside. I was there on a quiet morning and had to queue, goodness knows how they will cope on a Saturday or other busy time. That is really going to limit any impulse buying and kids wanting to pop in for just a quick look and end up walking out with a bag of goodies. I hate queues at the best of times.

All staff are naturally kitted out in personal protective equipment (PPE) gear but feels like you are going to a dentist. I totally understand they have to protect themselves and maybe just not quite use to this yet when shopping.  

With regards to pick a brick walls, other stores around the world have been trialing staff picking quarter cups of LEGO but that isn’t happening here and doesn’t seem to be on the horizon. I think this really needs to be done.

Without Pick a Brick for many AFOLs, there is no real reason to go into a store. From this flow all the other impulse purchases which now won’t happen, or trying to hit a certain spend to get the FREE Gift With Purchase (GWP). LEGO is generally cheaper online from other retailers, and better value when combined with cashback schemes (such as Quidco and Topcashback).

VIP Scheme

These are far more cost effective than the new VIP scheme which has introduced more friction and frustration into the transaction, with points becoming almost impossible to redeem – unless you want to just surrender them back to LEGO under their gambling sweepstakes nonsense – that’s a rant for another time.

Seems with the blind bags they have some pre felt ones by staff but appears you are limited 5 at a time.

New 18+ Layout… where?!

I was also curious to see the new layout as LEGO PR have been all about the new black boxes to appeal to adults and I thought they were meant to be in their own section. They are just dotted around the store in their usual theme categories.

I walked out of the store with nothing and a sense that I don’t want to go back any time soon. It just isn’t a good shopping experience trying to keep the social distancing, queuing and a sense you don’t even want to pick up a box to look at it or the back side. You can’t really chat about LEGO with staff from 2 meters away. It’s the opposite feeling of having a pleasant experience, a good chat with knowledgeable staff and a sense to come back some time soon, and do it all again.

Speaking with other AFOLs, there is much the same feeling, with Pick a Brick as the anchor incentive to go into a store now gone, there is no real reason to go into the store. I really do hope they are able to implement some sort of PaB cup filling system – something has got to be better than nothing, particularly when we’ve gone months without being able to get new pieces from a LEGO store – so there is going to be pent up demand.

Staff Considerations

I feel bad for the staff as they are good people but with only 12 customers in the store at a time, they won’t be needing many staff. Only time would tell but would imagine turnover in the store is going to be down as at peak times, you have 4 or 5 staff working the tils in this store. Now you can’t even get 3 times that many customers in the store at once. If the store isn’t getting the turnover, I just can’t see how they can remain open.

Bluewater Shopping Center Procedures

As for Bluewater shopping center itself, some of the carparks are closed, in particular the upper level near the LEGO store. There is security everywhere and feels like being in the wake of a terrorist attack with that many around. It may or may not be a matter of just adjusting to a new shopping norm.

Inside, there is a ‘keep left’ type system with lots of staff in pink high vis style vests to direct you around. There is hand sanitizer around the place. The use of lifts is discouraged in favour of escalators. Apparently, LEGO Bluewater has been opened for the last 4 days, despite the shopping center and Google websites showing it as closed.

Hopeful

We really do hope they can get some form of PaB back up again. If not, you’d have to think with less new pieces entering the system, that will put upward pressure on prices increasing on secondary markets like Bricklink as supply remains relatively the same.

So what do you think? Are the lack interactive elements of a LEGO branded store deal breakers for you or you aren’t really phased. Let us know in the comments below?

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That’s all from us here at Family Bricks. Thanks very much for watching. Until next time when we talk about all things LEGO and Lifestyle.

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