LEGOLAND Discovery Center {Grapevine, TX} #Review

The kids and I were headed up to Dallas to visit my sister for a week.  We’d talked about what to do and it was going to be over 100* outside, so we were focused on indoor activities!  LEGOLAND made the list!  I knew the boys would be THRILLED, so I had waited to tell them until the last minute, but Hubs spilled the beans.  Everyday the boys would say, “Are we going to LEGOLAND today?!”

Legoland Discover Center (Grapevine, TX) is located in a mall.  When we arrived, there were about 4 people in front of us.  Once you check in, you are corralled into a little room where you wait to be moved into another space and wait for the Factory exhibit to start.

The factory exhibit is really cool!  You learn about how Legos are made and the kids get to “help” with the process.

After that, the kids are given a souvenir Lego and you are sent to Kingdom Quest where you will climb on the ride and use laser guns to save the Princess.  It’s a very short ride, but the kids LOVED it.  From what I saw, you would not be allowed to ride again if you wanted, but I didn’t ask for clarification as we were ready to move on.

After Kingdom Quest, you are on your own (armed with the map you got when you checked in).  We basically followed the traffic flow, so our next stop was Lego Studios 4D.  We saw a cute little movie about working together to reach your goals.  I had my camera in my lap, and I got SOAKED.  I was less than happy that I hadn’t put it away, but that’s my own fault.

Next up (what I was most excited for) was Miniland!

There were SO MANY cool things in Miniland.  We probably spent more time in this exhibit than any other.  It was amazing to look at the details and think about the time invested in creating these structures.

After that, we headed to the Lego City Play Zone & Fire Academy.  I got annoyed here – 1st: you have to be between 40 and 57 inches to play.  Colin is about 38 inches tall.  Also, you had to have socks to play.  (It’s Texas and a kazillion degrees.  EVERY kid in Legoland had flip flops on.)  You could buy socks for $1 in the Cafe, but if you knew your kid needed them, you could have packed them.  We bought the kids socks, and then came back to a LINE.  You see, there were THREE daycare groups at Legoland that day.  One group was in the Fire Academy, another group was waiting.  Needless to say, that was $2 wasted on socks.

The Lego City: Forrest Pursuit was really pretty cool, a little bumperless-car ride.  However, again, the ride was for kids 40-60 inches tall (and at least 4 years old).  They were very strict on the height limits.  Colin couldn’t ride, but James got to.

He seemed to really enjoy the ride.   And even though the kids weren’t supposed to bump into one another, some kid ran into the back of James’ car about three times.  There was not a long wait and the ride lasted a little less than ten minutes.

Grandma took Colin to Duplo Village, but he wasn’t very interested in it.  The Duplos were about 10 times the size of a regular Lego Duplo!  While they did that, I took James to the Earthquake Tables and the Lego Racers: Build and Test.  There are 4 places at the Earthquake Tables – so we didn’t actually get to play with them (since we were competing against day cares for space), but they looked FUN!  James attempted to make a race car to test, but there weren’t many tires in the little buckets of pieces.  It could just be that there were too many other kids and he couldn’t find what he needed to build.

Colin was getting hungry, so I took him to the Cafe.  (Grandma took James to try the Fire Academy again – he was able to play for a few minutes.)  They Cafe’s prices were better than I expected, but still high.  We bought a kids’ meal for $8.  (That included 1 sandwich (cheese and bread), 1 bag of chips, 1 drink (maybe 12 oz?), a cookie and a Lego Mystery Mini Figure.)  Considering the Mini Figure would have cost me $4, I felt like it ok.

Not long after Colin and I sat down, the rest of our group decided they were ready to go.  I was ready, too.  Those day cares WORE.ME.OUT!  We gathered up and headed to the LEGOLAND Shop.

They Legoland Shop was very organized with all like things together.  I was disappointed that they didn’t have more Ninjago Mini Figures.  Colin is in LOVE with the Ninjagos and he REALLY wanted a Red Ninja (Kai) from Legoland.  Also, I know the line is fairly new, but they didn’t have ANY of the Lego Friends line.  I was really loved the Lego Keychain wall!  It was very impressive.  Seriously, every kind of keychain you could ever want.  Hubs collects keychains, so the boys and I picked one – and it was HARD – for his collection.  Because Colin could only find one package with a Ninjago mini figure, he bought 4 Ninjago keychains.

We skipped Merlin’s Apprentice because there was a long line of day care kids.

Pros:

• The small details are AMAZING!
• I love the factory exhibit!  It’s neat to see how Legos are made!
• The excitement in my kids’ eyes when we got to Legoland!
• Everything was so interactive.  It was definitely a hands-on experience!
• James loved it!  Colin enjoyed what he could do.

Cons: 

• If you don’t want to hear about the factory stuff, you cannot bypass it.  It’s not long, but there was a guy that did NOT want to “sit through it” but he and his family were forced to.
• Kids 2 and under are free, but really it should be under 4.  If your child is under 4 years old and shorter than 40 inches tall, they can really only enjoy about 1/2 of the center.
• BRING SOCKS!!!  Kids can’t play in the Fire Academy without them.
• Day cares! LOL!  I wish there were a special time for day cares – that way they wouldn’t interfere with family fun.

Have you ever been to LEGOLAND?  Which one?  What’d you think of it?

**Full Disclosure:  I was provided 4 passes to Legoland Discovery Center to facilitate my review.  No other compensation was received.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.