Overall, I really enjoyed our experience but I have to be frank with my review. We purchased Gold passes at a discount before the park was even scheduled to open. I believe daily tickets now start at $70.00/kid and $80/adult for the day. The park is great, but I'm more forgiving because we have discounted tickets for the season. I've seen daily ticket discounts via Sam’s Club & Groupon-- definitely look for discounts. Every single employee we encountered was kind and helpful- thank you!
Now I'll take you through our experience over 2 days. We encountered long lines for rides and only were able to visit 6 during our 1st visit: Brick Factory Tour, Battle Blasters, Ninja-go the Ride, Dragon coaster, Dragon’s Apprentice & 4D theater. If someone had asked at the end of that day if our visit was worth the price, I would have said heck no! We did a little research, asked a few questions on a Facebook fan page, and tried again the next day. I’m so happy that we did.
I think the park is still operating at reduced capacity, and on Day 1 we encountered zero lines as we arrived (given the time, I’m sure.) Day 2, there were lines for bag check and entry which were a little daunting but we were inside by 10:30. Entered on Brick Street w/ The Big Shop (absolutely giant-sized Lego store) and Creativity Workshop building where kids can attend a class with a Lego instructor. (NOTE: they do not keep the builds at the end of the class, the class has no cost but there are sign-ups and class size limits.) The educators at the desk are very helpful. They offer 6 or 7 different classes and signups for new sessions happen in the morning and in the afternoon. We did two different builds-- (1) Pirates: follow step-by-step building instructions to make a pirate ship with a twist. There is a competition at the end. The educator was lovely & funny. Although it was a little young for my child (9), we had an excellent time building and testing. (2) Robotics: step by step construction of a robot that you can control by coding. Absolutely fantastic-- the teacher was engaging and kind. I highly recommend this experience for a kid with coding interests!
Build & Test w/ race car ramps & shake tables in the building next door, which is similar to Legoland Discovery Center but in a much larger space. We looked around but did not stay; would try the shake tables next time for sure.
Brick Factory Tour—walk through some awesome builds on the way to the ride. The technology in this ride is awesome! The cart twisted, turned, and bumped as the screens projected a digital ride that felt as though we headed through hallways & tunnels. Our pictures were made into mini-figures as part of it-- fun to see what we turned into. 3 carts loaded together and all remained together during the ride (mostly one room) side by side, spinning, changing locations. However, because of this, I feel we missed some areas as the carts did not all go to the same place; it could have been me-- all of it went so fast. Overall, highly recommend this experience!
Ninja- go Ride: very deceiving. Enter a building, through a hallway to find… a long line behind the building. With all rides, I’m sure the length of the line depends on the time of day. We finally made it through the outside line & into a room to find…. another long line. Small children were crying (I don’t blame them; I wanted to do the same. Inside the room the echo was terrible). The ride itself was awesome! Cart passes through rooms & scenes in which you digitally fight ninjas. Your hand motions blow up bricks and knock out enemies. In the end, each participant has a total to compare the amount of damage each inflicted. The 9-year old loved it! Overall it seemed like a substantial ride—not too quick that I was upset for spending all that time waiting in line (but did still feel a bit annoyed)-- super fun.
Outdoor theater—we happened to walk by as a show started. A little young for us but we enjoyed an ice cream break and stayed awhile—do not sit in the front if you don’t want to get wet. They soaked the crowd, which our kid loved & they did such a good job for the young ones. A good chance for shade. Shows happen on Saturdays and Sundays only.
Dragon roller coaster— Tied for our favorite ride. Begin inside the castle passing through awesome builds, some with motion. Outside there are twists, turns, drops, and high speeds. Perfect for a kid's first roller coaster experience. The ride takes pictures-- if you buy, save your receipt b/c photos from any other ride are $5 after you pay $15 for the first one. Dragon’s Apprentice is the mini- coaster: good for the little ones, but expect to wait because moving on and off takes a bit longer— all a normal part of bringing young ones in and our of the seats, and moms forgetting they have purses but it did add up to a longer than expected (like 30 minutes!) wait time in what looked like a very short line). The ride goes through twice & the hills are gentle. As a non-coaster person, it was easy for me!
Lego City 4D theater— similar to a Discovery Center movie-- you will get a bit wet! The show runs 15 minutes & plays every hour on the hour. There are trailers as you wait for the show, and mini-figures are projected onscreen as part of the audience. I believe they play the same movie all day every day, Officer in Pursuit now, but I’m wondering if they will change it up as they get rolling.
Driving school—did it on day 2 as lines were very long on day 1. Some folks bought the souvenir license, but this isn’t required to do the driving. ; )
Coast Guard Academy-- lines were very long first thing in the morning but time seemed to shorten after they added more boats. The 9-year old enjoyed driving both boats & cars.
Rogue Riders (fast-- pirate ships spinning within pools). Looked awesome, but only 1 set of 2 rides was operating so the line extended quite far away from the ride. We skipped it.
Battle Blasters-- favorite ride in the whole place! Board a pirate ship slowly winding around a track in a pool (doesn’t stop, so board & leave quickly). Shoot far-range water guns at the other ships, but also surrounding crowds!! There are also water guns on "shore" to shoot at those of us on the ship. The elderly, kids, parents--- holy cow, people really got into it! I never laughed so hard. Thanks, Lego, for this pure joy-- I could have stayed here all day. As you wind through the course, there are also targets that make noise when hit. Once you leave the ride there are air cannons next door—push the blue buttons to shoot water several feet into the air, and soak passersby.
We didn’t do Anchors Away but this is a giant pirate ship that swings back and forth, pretty high into the air, and also spins. Shiver Me Bricks is a pirate ship-themed playground for the youngers. We were able to reach it with our water guns on Battle Blasters!
Mini-Land-- We wandered through, taking our time. First Goshen then areas of NYC (Bronx-- Yankee Stadium, Zoo, Botanical Gardens, Queens, Manhattan, Freedom Tower, 9/11 Memorial, Coney Island) and then highlights of the East Coast (Washington, D.C., Philadelphia) to Midwest (Chicago, Mt. Rushmore—truly awesome—desert scenes, ski slopes. Las Vegas—Luxor pyramid was huge, ending in California—San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, Santa Monica Pier. The builds were beautiful. Many have moving features that can be controlled with buttons and sliders. These are still being built. Goshen mini-area contains a track w/ horses that will race from push buttons. In NYC break-dancers and music to control. Cars actually move in some of the streets, and cameras in Times Square so you can digitize yourself into brick-shaped ppl on building video screens. Many more of these features in the works. We later met an employee who won a building contest hosted by the resort; he will have a figure commissioned in his honor and chose where to place it-- firefighter in front of the town hall in Goshen. Can’t wait to see it when we go back! Worth spending time in Mini Land. The builds are well detailed.
Throughout the park, there are all kinds of brick statues to enjoy—animals (look or the duck family!), corn guy, hot dog guy, wizards, painters, dragons, so many more. I also loved Lego trees scattered along with the live ones. Nice touch
Paths are very wheelchair accessible, areas with stairs are only in some parts of the park. They really want you to stick to the paths, but it is time-consuming getting from one place to another. Although there are many signs and employees asking to stay off the grass, many cut through. On one hand, I enjoyed the paths, but also found it to be a negative when trying to get to another area of the park quickly. I hope they will add more stairs for those reasons, though the paths are very wide and once the plants grow in I could see them being quite beautiful. There are patio-style umbrellas next to some benches for shade and rest breaks.
I noticed that some people were able to cut to the beginning of some ride lines. Guest Services said the Reserve n Ride program is on pause and right now there are Accessibility passes (handicapped? Though honestly, line jumpers seemed able-bodied; I kept this observation to myself but noticed that others in line were very vocally noticing) which caused some bad feeling among people waiting in the long lines. I hope the park works something out about this; some line jumpers showed up multiple times during a wait. This is a double-edged sword— I’m happy the park is working on accessibility there appear to be some who are taking advantage.
Lastly, the park is very clean! Workers are always out and about in all areas. Hand sanitizer stations are everywhere.
All-in-all, this is a Lego experience more than an amusement park. Each Land has 3 or 4 rides at the most. Do not plan to run from ride to ride; the areas are spread out and paths meander. I don’t mean this to be a negative, but I had a different idea of what we purchased at the time we bought our passes. It seems that the park has taken up a large footprint and maybe will add more in the future? We truly enjoyed ourselves but also in part b/c we have passes allowing us several opportunities to experience all that the park has to offer. I like this place, and want to see it succeed-- hope they can work out some of the kinks.