We left Mohegan Sun and drove to Goshen, New York, the home of LEGOLand. We had been scoping out LEGOLand while it was under construction, waiting for it to open, because we knew that this would be a big hit with our LEGO aficionado.
We arrived at opening time and waited briefly to get in. There are some LEGO sculptures and statues to admire, pose with, and climb on right outside the gates, so waiting isn’t so bad.
Once inside, we headed straight for the carousel – it’s the first ride you see. The DUPLO animals you ride on are cute, but I think at almost 7 years old, the kid was a little big for it.
As we strolled through the park we posed with LEGO statues everywhere and tested out the musical water fountain. (You jump on different pads that activate the sounds of musical instruments built out of LEGO.)
Then we ended up at a store – we knew this would be hard to avoid. With our LEGOLand tickets, we also got a set of three minifigures, so little man spent some time putting those together. He also did some browsing to see what he might want to purchase before leaving the park.
Next, we went on the LEGO Factory ride. It’s kind of the “It’s a Small World” of LEGOLand. You walk inside and the line loops around and around through the LEGO Factory with all kinds of cute LEGO props and accessories to check out. When you get on the ride, you spin around a little, it takes your picture, and makes everyone in your car look like a minifig.
We walked through Ninjago land and Jacob climbed into a crazy wooden play structure/maze that angled all over the place. He disappeared in there for a while, but eventually made it out.
Then we went on the roller coaster. Kids have to be 48″ to ride (by themselves, I think?) and Jacob made it! But we all rode together. We got the front row! It was definitely a fun roller coaster, and the best ride in the park.
Jacob and I went on a ride where you had to pull your seat hand-over-hand up a tower, reach the top, and let go of the rope to drop down. We managed to climb up and drop three or four times. (I wasn’t sure if I’d have the muscle to do that one!)
After that, we walked in the direction Mini Land (a section of LEGOLand that is nothing but miniature replicas of famous landmarks) and came across an enormous play area with a giant LEGO City ship in the middle. Jacob ran around for ages climbing and sliding and then all of a sudden ran over to us, screaming. He had found one of his classmates from back home!!!! How fun is that?
The two boys ran around for a little bit longer and then we all went to get in line for the flying bicycle ride. It worked out that there were enough people that Jacob and his buddy could ride together (without an adult) so they thought that was pretty cool.
It was starting to get a little late so we figured we should head for home soon. We decided to find dinner on the road and spend some time looking around the big LEGO store. Jacob spent his own money to buy two LEGO sets.
There was a lot of LEGOLand that we didn’t see, and there was a water ride that wasn’t open yet. The park is spread out and there’s quite a lot of distance between rides and attractions. I think if we had started our Spring Break trip with LEGOLand, we all would have had a little more energy to explore more, but towards the late afternoon, we were all getting pretty tired.
The best ride at LEGOLand was by far the roller coaster, but other than that, I think what Jacob liked the most was the giant play area. He loved running around, climbing, and completing the tool “scavenger hunt” inside.. So basically, we went to LEGOLand and spent most of our time at a playground. Oh well! Like we always say, if he was happy, it was worth it!
Check out our LEGOLand NY video on Instagram for highlights!
Go with the Goodwins 