LEGOLAND New York Resort: Theme Park Review

Last month, my wife and I took my three-year-old son to the newly-opened LEGOLAND New York Theme Park and Resort in Goshen, New York.  We made a full trip of it by spending two days at the theme park and the night in-between at the LEGOLAND hotel (an experience which I reviewed here).  

So, what did we think of the theme park?  Read on to hear all my thoughts.

Let's start with what the LEGOLAND park is (and what it is not).  LEGOLAND basically bills itself as a theme park for children ages 2 - 12.  Realistically, there isn't a lot that a two-year-old can do at the park and I'd also say that I'd assume most 12-year-olds would be bored at the park (unless, of course, they simply love LEGO and don't care about the quality/quantity of rides available).

LEGOLAND New York is split up into seven different regions.  The park is built on the side of a rather large hill so the way one gets around the park is either to walk in a clockwise or counter-clockwise circle through each of the seven regions.  

The regions:

Brick Street:  This is the entrance area to the park.  It's home to the "The BIG Shop" which is, you guessed it, a huge LEGO store.  The only ride here is a carousal which was both extremely slow to get on and an extremely short ride.  It's cute but definitely skip trying to do this at the start of the day (by the time we left on both days, the line for the carousal was much, much shorter and more reasonable).

Bricktopia:  If you turn left out of Brick Street, you immediately enter Bricktopia.  Frankly, these two regions kind of blend together if you ask me but LEGOLAND refers to them individually.  Bricktopia is home to a few different rides as well as the Bricktopia Bazaar (where you can find a pick-a-brick wall though prices are higher than typical LEGO brand stores).  Bricktopia is also home to the LEGO Factory Adventure Ride - a ride that is unique to LEGOLAND New York (but unfortunately, a ride that is cooler in concept than in execution).  For smaller kids (like my son), the DUPLO Express was a fun ride - and one that is tucked away a bit so the line never seemed to be too bad.  I think my son rode this particular ride the most times between our two days at the park.

Ninjago World:  I don't know much about Ninjago myself and my son isn't into Ninjago either (at least not yet) so this world was the least interesting to us.  It should be noted though that there are some interesting food options here - not surprisingly with an Asian flare to them.  

Castle:  

The Castle land is home to the only big ride in the entire park - the Dragon roller coaster.  Unfortunately for me, my son was too short to ride the Dragon so I didn't get to go on the ride.  From what I gather though, it's a fun (but no particularly scary or stomach-turning) introduction to "real" roller coasters.  The Castle area is also home to the Dragon's Apprentice which is basically a tiny roller coaster for little kids.  My son loved this ride - it was his favorite ride in the entire park!  

LEGO City:  

The City section of the park is home to a number of rides including a pair of tracks with drivable cars (one for older kids and one for younger kids).  My son loved this area as well.  I would recommend skipping the Fire Academy ride if you are riding it with only your young child - it's an arm workout and it's extremely quick - so quick, in fact, that my son never quite understood what we were supposed to be doing (you have to "pump" the truck to move it, then jump out to spray water on a fake fire, then jump back in the truck and "pump" it back to the starting area).  

Pirates:  There are only a few water related attractions in the entire park.  One ride is the Coast Guard Academy in the LEGO City land and the rest are in the Pirates portion of the park.  I believe this is the area that would be most attractive to older kids - my son was only interested in doing one ride (the swinging/turning pirate ship ride).

Miniland:  Last but not least is Miniland.  Basically a long, winding path with tons of different LEGO models to look at (and, in some cases, interact with via buttons and dials along that side of the path).  There are LEGO replicas of famous landmarks and cities (places like Mt. Rushmore and cities such as Las Vegas or New York City) as well as a model of Goshen, New York which was cool.  As an adult, I could have spent a lot more time here looking at all of the details!!

And that's the basics of the park.  Most of the "things to know before you go" about LEGOLAND New York seemed to indicate that you should actually explore the park by starting with Miniland and going counter-clockwise through the rest of the park.  That's what we did on the first day and it worked out alright.  However, I think a better move is to figure out what ride or attraction you most want to do and then make a beeline for that first.  We did that on the second day and that worked out better!  Of course, it probably will result in more walking but we found that one trip through Miniland was enough - our second day consisted of us walking all the way down to the Pirates area and then turning around and walking back up (going back through LEGO City, Castle, etc.).  

Overall:

Positives:  One of the best things about the park is that it truly is an ode to all things LEGO related.  There are LEGO Easter eggs all over the place.  Pretty much every ride looks like it is made of LEGO.  There are random LEGO models scattered about the park.  There are even the occasional LEGO "tree" or flower that you can find.  The theming is quite strong in each of the individual "lands" as well - and each land has a nice mix of rides, attractions, and food (along with restrooms - important when you have a toddler who is just barely potty trained)!  There are lots of cool entertainment options for kids too including "building classes."  We signed my son up for one of the building classes and I think that was one of his top highlights of the entire trip!  

Negatives:  We went to the park in the middle of August and it was hot.  The park is brand new so while they did plant a number of trees, none of them are large enough currently to provide any shade.  There are water bottle filling stations scattered throughout the park but if you want to buy a drink (such as a soda) then expect to fork out something like $18 for a fountain soda with refillable cup.  All of the food is fairly pricy at the park but at least pretty much everything we ate tasted good.  As for the rides, my son enjoyed them all but there aren't actually that many...and the lines were awful.  Not just how long it took to get through the line but the vast majority of the lines were simply winding queues with nothing interesting to look at.  Clearly, whoever designed that part of the park never had a toddler of their own!  

In the end, my son had an absolute blast at the park (he's already asked to go back multiple times in the month since we went).  Despite the heat, my wife and I enjoyed ourselves too (especially me since I have an obvious fondness for LEGO as it is).  My recommendation would definitely be to take your child when he or she is three or four years old and then maybe on more time once your child is tall enough to ride on all of the "big" rides.  LEGOLAND New York has a ton of space to grow and I have no doubt that they will slowly add in more rides and attractions over the years - probably in about ten or fifteen years time this will be an amazing park (complete with tall enough trees to provide some much needed shade).  

For my family, visiting LEGOLAND is probably akin to visiting a place like Disney World.  It's very expensive but you do get a wonderfully themed amusement park.  Kids almost have to have a ball there (how could you not)?!  And the best part for me personally is that Goshen, New York is only about a four hour drive from my house (it's about a one hour drive for folks who live in New York City).  That's certainly easier (and cheaper) than flying down to either Florida or California to visit Disney.  Plus, I'd much rather buy LEGO souvenirs as opposed to Mickey Mouse ears or something lame like that.