LEGOLAND New York opened this year and we were of the first to stay in the new LEGOLAND hotel this past week. The kids are really into Legos so we figured we couldn’t go wrong. Glenn had heard us talking about it and kept asking to go to Lego Land every day even though he had no idea what was in Lego Land. I was nervous because the merry-go-round and train at the zoo were such a disaster, but the whole trip went very well. I really appreciate a place that caters to little kids and their parents.
The hotel is really cool. It took us less than 90 minutes door to door to get there. Kids were angels in the car. Before we even got our room, the kids were having a blast in the playground area playing in the lego pits. The hotel itself is really cool looking, very colorful, tons of details.
We got notice that our room was ready via email and not text which I thought was a little odd, but not a big deal. Our room was ready two hours early. We had a kingdom room, again, loving the details. My favorite was the bar of soap shaped like a lego. The kids had their own separate sleeping area with bunk beds and there was also a third pull out bed underneath that I ended up sleeping in of course. The kids started on their scavenger hunt right away and found their prizes about 5 minutes later. There are also legos in the room and they have their own TV on which they can watch Lego movies.
We went back down to the lobby so the kids could play in the castle some more and then we had dinner at the restaurant. The food was surprisingly good. Bryan, Glenn and I shared a pizza and Owen had the kids Mac ‘n cheese. I just didn’t like that it was family style so you had to share. Otherwise, I would have gotten dessert. It was just way too much food. Glenn didn’t care much for the lego person walking around, though he warmed up to her throughout the trip
Day 2 started off pretty early. It’s hard to get kids to sleep in on vacation. We were the second family at the breakfast buffet at the same restaurant. Breakfast is included with the stay and it’s a really good buffet. They had fresh fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, waffles, eggs, breakfast pizza, bagels, sausage and quite a few other items. Of course Owen couldn’t find anything he liked. Glenn had a bagel. Bryan and I gorged ourselves.
The boys played on the playground some more and we left the hotel at 9:30 for the park. It turned out to be the perfect time because they were just starting to let folks through bag check. The park opened at 9:45 and we were in a couple minutes later. Everyone was on line to get into the left side of the park which I don’t understand because Miniland was open. We did the merry-go-round first and then headed to the right. All the mini figures (which weren’t that mini) were very cool. I’m glad we did that first because the two days we were there were probably the two hottest days of the year and that area gets really, really hot in the afternoon with zero shade.
That brought us down by the pirate stuff. Bryan and Owen did one ride while Glenn and I played on the playground. The playground areas are all really nice, but they have a lot of tight areas and places to hide. If I were any bigger, I would have had a lot of trouble keeping track of Glenn. Then all of us went on the boat ride where you can spray water at other boats and people. There were very few people in that area of the park to spray, but I did get one kid. Both of the boys were a bit too short to use the spray mechanism.
Owen did the pirate ship thing and the driving thing, we did another playground. There wasn’t a whole lot more Glenn could do. The mini driving was closed until his nap time. Owen did the big dragon coaster, that seemed to be his favorite. It was pretty cool. Very similar to the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Disney. Glenn was too small for even the mini coaster, poor kid. We had ice cream (really expensive dixi cup type things because that’s all they had) and Glenn went for his nap.
Originally I was going to take Owen swimming during his nap, but the pool was closed. It was closed at opening and through our whole trip. I don’t know if it’s open now. The only thing about that that bothered me was they didn’t mention it was going to be closed. I knew though because of social media, so we were prepared. Owen was more than happy to stay in the park instead.
Owen and I did the Ninjago ride and the Lego Factory ride which were my favorites. A lot of that probably had to with the air conditioning. The Ninjago ride is just like Toy Story Midway Mania with a different kind of shooting mechanism that’s easier, but it’s also not as cute. The Lego Factory ride was really cute, but very busy. I’m glad I did it three times, but it’s easy to miss stuff. We didn’t wait more than 10 minutes for any of these rides. It was mini figure Wednesday, so Owen also got a free mini figure.
Owen tried the build and test area, but got frustrated trying to build a car and he didn’t want help, so we left and browsed the gift shop for a while. Then we went back to the hotel and met up with Bryan and Glenn in the arcade. They played for a while and we went back to the park for dinner. We made the mistake of not eating at the bbq place (which is not a sit down restaurant btw, they don’t have any). We walked all the way back over by the dragon coaster to eat. We did the train on the way there because Glenn saw it, so we had to.
While we were eating, we saw lightning, so we packed up the food and headed back as quickly as we could, of course stopping at the Lego Factory ride on the way back. Glenn was terrified, but loved it anyway. By the time we were out of there, it looked like the storm had passed us over, so we walked back to the hotel. Bryan went to see what food they had at the bar because we wanted ice cream or something (they didn’t have any). While he was down there, the fire alarm went off. They made us wait in the parking lot while the fire department made sure nothing was actually on fire.
While we were waiting, it started to thunderstorm, so we sat in the car until it was OK to go back inside. It didn’t take too long. Then I had to give the kids baths and give myself a shower and get ready for bed fast.
Day 3 started pretty similarly to Day 2. Owen decided the muffins at the buffet were good though, so already off to a better start. We did the merry-go-round first again, but headed left into the park first this time. Owen and Bryan did the tea cup ride and we did the little train again. When we got to the Lego Factory ride, I think it had just opened and had no wait at all, the same thing with the Ninjago ride. Owen wanted to do the dragon coaster and the pirate ship again.
We also stopped at the baby center. This is one thing LEGOLAND definitely does better than any other theme park I’ve been to. It was really nice, very clean. Also, the family bathrooms everywhere are great. And they all have changing tables! The ones in Disney don’t (or at least didn’t as of a couple years ago.)
By the time we left there it was hot! We thought about stopping to get lunch, but Glenn was tired and started melting down, so we walked back through Miniland in the sweltering heat. Aaaaand Glenn fell asleep. So we stopped at the bbq place for lunch. Owen didn’t like the Mac ‘n cheese, he ended up eating French fries. Bryan had chicken fingers and I had the Caesar salad which wasn’t bad.
On the way back to the hotel, Glenn woke up, so we stopped inside to use the bathroom and let the kids play in the playground for a while before we drove home.
Overall, it was a great trip. The kids had so much fun and were in a good mood most of the time. I can’t believe how much walking Owen did without complaining. I had nearly 20,000 steps the first day. I was also pleasantly surprised that Glenn enjoyed the rides so much considering how scared he is of everything. I think watching videos ahead of time helped a lot. I’m glad no one got sick too.
The next day, I took the kids to a splash park to fight those post vacation blues and to make up for not being able to go swimming. That was a win as well.