My 5 year old LEGO-maniac kid LOVED his day at LEGOLAND NY. We went with very low expectations based on prior reviews, and we ended up being pleasantly surprised.
We arrived at 9:30am. They opened the bag/stroller security check around 9:45. We then waited in line for park entrance. Several staff members gathered up front and did a little long with a dance featuring LEGO Statue of Liberty. It was cute and and great way to get ramped up for the day.
We went in and enjoyed MiniLand, which is phenomenal. The detail is just incredible. We went through the Pirate land, which didn't have any rides open, to make our way to LEGO City, which was my son's favorite. The Coast Guard Boat ride was open, as was the Driving School, but all other attractions and food were closed. The 4D movie was cute; we attended the 11am showing. The fire truck ride was not working and one of the playgrounds was closed.
In the Castle land, we went on the Dragon, with almost no wait (it was a little scary for my 5 year old) and decided to skip the climbing ride. In NINJAGO land, we went on the NINJAGO ride, which was cute (but a little scary for my 5 year old). We also went on the LEGO factory tour, which was ok, but it seemed like part of the ride where everyone was turned into a Minifigure was broken. We closed out the day with a ride on the Duplo train and the carousel.
It was rainy on and off and we went on a Monday, so crowds were sparse. With that said, there were a lot of rides closed--the Fire truck, the dragon's apprentice, the gravity trainer, the pirate ship, Merlin's flying machines, splash battle. If you only have 17 rides and 6 are broken, that's pretty disappointing.
We ate at the BBQ place. The food was pretty good and the portions were pretty big, but the options were disappointing. My only choices for an entree cost at least $20? Can't I get ONE kielbasa? Or ONE serving of pulled pork with one side? We got the 2-meat entree (with 2 sides) and then one side of mac and cheese and one side of fries and 2 bottles of water. It was $41.
We were very excited for the LEGO store because it was supposed to have "hard-to-find" LEGOs. The selection of LEGO City LEGOs was a bit disappointing; I think our local WalMart has more options. We did take advantage of the process where we bought a LEGO and then picked it up later on our way out.
We also bought LEGO minifigures to do trading, but none of the employees had figures we wanted to trade. My son got a kick out of trading his LEGOs at the market store on our way out, but there were only a handful of LEGOs to choose from.
We were disappointed that there were plenty of people in the indoor attractions not wearing masks. Since our wait times were short, it wasn't too big of a deal. But I wish they were enforcing universal masking in the movie attractions and in indoor lines.
Overall, the park is clean and the LEGOs are adorable. It's definitely aimed for younger kids, which makes the layout of the park down a steep hill a little perplexing. It was cloudy and rainy when we went, but you could see there were no trees or other places for shade. Seems like it would be brutal on a sunny day.
It's also a bummer to have to pay for parking. We used the app and it was $21 (with fees).