Legoland New York
After months of trying to plan a visit, we finally had the opportunity to visit Legoland NY and I am so happy I purchased season passes. I am a huge proponent of season passes for theme parks/amusement parks. In fact, I will not visit one without a season pass. Day passes for a family of 4 add up fast, and I would rather purchase a season pass so we can enjoy a more leisurely pace in the park, free parking and discounts. I will often plan our travel to include other parks within the same parent company to maximize our savings. We live in Northern NJ, so not only is Legoland NY a reasonable day trip, their Elite Pass includes over 30 Merlin Entertainment attractions. Within an hour or two drive we also have Legoland Discovery Centers at American Dream and Philadelphia, Madam Tussauds Wax Museum in NYC, and SEA LIFE Aquarium at American Dream. We have plans to use our pass in Florida this spring, as well.
We purchased the passes during their Black Friday sale, so the Christmas Bricktacular Celebration was already in full swing once we visited. This meant that there were fun extras in the park like holiday decorations, special shows, meet and greets with Lego Santa, a Christmas tree lighting, and a present scavenger hunt in Miniland. This also meant that about half of the park is closed for the season. There is still plenty to do, but it’s important to note if you are not a passholder and had expectations of experiencing the entire park. Here is a link to their park map. The bottom half of the park (Lego Castle, Lego City and Lego Pirates) were closed for the season.
As soon as we entered the park, there was the mosaic station where you can fill in a Lego tile according to their specifications and add it to the wall to complete the holiday themed mosaic. My kids lost interest pretty quickly, but I could have stayed there all day. As we continued down Brick Street, we were greeted by the carousel and the holiday entertainment stage, which housed the Christmas tree that was to be lit during a live show later that evening. Besides being Lego themed, this was the first fully accessible carousel I have ridden. The carousel is built into the ground to be flush with the pavement, eliminating the step up that is typical with most carousels. The animals/vehicles all had fun Lego themes and this is a high occupancy ride, so we never experienced a wait.
There were several more flat rides throughout Bricktopia and Ninjago World, including the Duplo Train geared toward the youngest Lego fans. My 2 year old loved it! The two headliners open that day were the Factory Adventure Ride and the Ninjago Ride. As a side note: I am a huge Disney fan. They have always led the way with ride technology, with other parks trailing far behind. That gap is closing, quickly. For those who are familiar with WDW, the Factory Adventure Ride is very similar to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in EPCOT. A trackless ride vehicle moves through the attraction with a combination of sets and screens to amplify the physical movement you are experiencing. This triggered my motion sickness, as does Ratatouille, but it’s still a great ride. Ninjago was the standout for the rides currently open at Legoland. For me, it was a better version of Toy Story Midway Mania, but my family let me know it incorporated additional technology currently used for the Spiderman ride at California Adventure. Your ride vehicle sits four across and a motion detector tracks your ninja moves as you accrue points at each station. Oddly enough, although very similar to the Factory Ride, this one does not trigger my motion sickness. It does, however, trigger my competitive spirit and I rode multiple times, determined to improve my score (and beat my family members).
On our first visit, we skipped Build & Test simply because we ran out of time, but we spent hours there on our second trip. There are several stations where you can build cars to race on two different tracks, another area to build Duplo creations and two more areas for Lego builds. My kids could have stayed there all day. I have yet to visit our local Discovery Centers, but I understand this is a bigger version of what they offer there.
Lego Santa meets next-door to Build & Test, in the Creative Workshop. The first time we visited, the lines were insane despite otherwise light crowds. We opted to skip it, as neither of our kids are very into character meets. Throughout the day there were other Lego characters walking the park with little to no wait to meet and take a picture. I don’t know if this is typical during the regular season or if it was special for the Holiday Bricktacular.
The one downside we noted while there was the availability of food. There was one main restaurant open during both visits and it was mobbed. I have no patience for lines and crowds, so we exited as quickly as we entered and opted for some snacks from our backpack to hold us over until park closing. Since the park hours are relatively short this time of year, that was not an issue, but had my kids been hungrier, we would have found ourselves waiting. I would assume once the entire park opens for the season, food availability will be better, but we will continue to pack heavy on the snacks until we get a better idea of what is available to us.
Overall, both trips were a success and we are excited to be passholders. I will have follow up posts once the park opens for the spring/summer, as well as posts once we are able to experience more of the venues included in our pass. If you have Lego fans in your home, this park is the perfect day trip. As a result of our trips, our 5 year old has become Lego obsessed and we are looking forward to experiencing the Legoland Sleepover Series in a few short weeks.