Legoland is the epitome of corporate America. This place was so soulless and sterile that it hurt. Speaking of hurt... The rides are all designed for small children, yet adults are required to accompany them. Almost none of the rides are able to accommodate an adult over 6 feet tall without significant pain and or bruising injury. Fortunately, the rides are shorter in duration than any other park, which is good for me, but bad for my kid. The lines are still obnoxious. Naturally, you can pay an exorbitant rate to 'cut' the line.
- I never figured out what the target age group here is. The rides are amusing to 5 year olds, but the legos themselves are suitable for older children. Kids older than 9 will likely hate the place, as will adults.
- The park would fit on about 5 acres, but they sprawled it out to make it seem bigger, which means there are long walkways that wander all about, but unlike real theme parks there is no landscaping or natural barrier, so you can do nothing but stare at the horizon as you take a forced march across the 'desert'. Also, they were just paved routes with large curbs. If your child trips and falls, they are getting hurt. It's not like other parks where they'd land on grass or in a shrub.
- There is no shade. They have very few umbrellas, trees, or any other features that give you reprieve from the sun. The lines aren't covered well, either.
- Food is insanely, insanely expensive. $15 for a crap chicken sandwich with fries? $14 for a can of beer? We weren't there on a particularly busy day, yet there is basically nowhere to sit and eat your meal, either. Tables in the cafeteria were hoarded, probably due to the lack of shade outdoors.
- They do provide a lot of legos to play with. That's cool, I guess, if you like playing with legos in the sun. Also, I'm not paying $80/person to stand there and watch my kid spread disease via lego bricks, he can play with them at home in the shade.
- If you love gift shops and paying full MSRP for legos, they've got you covered! There is no missed opportunity for them to reach into your wallet here.
- Speaking of reaching into your wallet... Parking is $27! You heard me, $27. This is the single most expensive parking spot in NY outside of NYC! Anywhere else would provide Valet for that price, or even a covered garage. Nope, not Legoland, they just paved a section of once beautiful farm land and jack your wallet. Here's the best part: They don't even tell you about this until AFTER you've parked and wandered into the park. They do have a million signs around reminding you to pay for parking before you leave, though. How about you put up a sign on the way in saying it will cost to park, or that they don't take cash, or even maybe a sign that says how much it costs!
In summary, like others have said, you get to pay Disneyworld prices for a Walmart experience. (At least Walmart doesn't charge for parking!). They make it abundantly clear that they are just here for your money. They have no intention of providing anything but the absolute minimum entertainment needed to get that money, nothing else, and I mean nothing. Every other theme park has a soul, a flow, a life of its own. This place feels like it was computer generated in a boardroom.
There are so many nice little amusement parks in these hills that there is no reason to ever return.