Legoland - Pitstops for Kids

Kansas City with kids: LEGOLAND Discovery Center and Sea Life

September 14, 2015 By Amy Hagstrom

Ready to explore Kansas City with kids? Kansas City, Missouri’s Crown Center is a year-round draw for families, in part because of two high-profile attractions: LEGOLAND and Sea Life.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center:

A visit to LEGOLAND Discovery Center-Kansas City begins with a short demonstration of how the iconic bricks are made. Afterward, guests can opt to ride the Kingdom Quest laser ride, an instant hit for the video gamers in your family. Caution: this is a now-or-never proposition. You won’t be able to come back to it later, which can be tough on kids who need time to warm up to a new environment.

The day of our visit, our Star Wars-loving crew was over the moon to find a room dedicated to Episode IV (A New Hope). The detail is everything you would expect of LEGO. On one side of the Death Star, kids can try their hand at blasting TIE fighters.

Next door, we lost the ten-year-old to a large Ewok Village construction set. He didn’t resurface until we pried him away for a 4D movie. In the meantime, the younger kids found the play place and Earthquake Tables, where we tried to build earthquake-proof structures out of LEGO. (Although any child will tell you it’s far more fun to try to make them fall down!)

Kids can also build and test race cars, and there’s an area devoted to LEGO Friends as well as Merlin’s Apprentice, a carnival-style ride. Height restrictions apply, but the employee running the ride was very accommodating to families with small children.

LEGOLAND is a high-stimulus attraction, and my three-year-old was a little overwhelmed. But he found his niche in a sandbox-style pit filled with Junior LEGO cars—one of several sprinkled through the facility for free play.

We arrived early on a school day; even so, the building reached critical mass well before noon. It can be chaotic, so it’s a good idea to have a low adult-child ratio in your party. Plan to spend a minimum of three hours. Outside food and drink are not allowed, and re-entry is not permitted; however, there is a cafe inside. Admission is limited and often sells out, so I recommend booking online ahead of time. Online tickets start at $15.30* for both adults and kids (2 and under are free).

Sea Life:

If you need a breather after the high-power intensity of LEGOLAND, Sea Life is just the ticket. From the moment the doors open, the low lighting and ethereal music transports visitors to another world.

The displays are beautifully designed and lit, and the aquarium is set up to guide the flow of traffic along a set pathway through the facility, which makes it easy to keep track of kids. Each child receives a passbook with activities and room for stamps to mark their progress through the aquarium.

Sea Life’s marquee attraction is the pair of walk-through tunnels in the shark and ray tank, but the kids will also love the “bubble” indentations in the center of several of the tanks., where they can get right in the middle of the marine action. A touch pool holds starfish and crabs, and a raised deck lets you look down on stingrays from above.

There are also several play areas; when we visited, one of them was devoted to the Octonauts. Our only problem in this area was that the competing video animatronics made it hard to hear the game instructions.

Admission:

Sea Life-Kansas City advance tickets start at $15 for adults and $11 for kids 3-12*. You can see the whole aquarium in around an hour and a half, but you won’t exhaust the possibilities for learning and enjoyment in that length of time. If you can, give yourself time to read the displays, which are on video monitors rather than static boards, and attend some of the educational talks that are spread throughout the day.

Better yet, take advantage of the combination tickets that offer admission to both Sea Life and LEGOLAND, which share a building, a ticket counter, and gift shop. Start your day by exploring the lower-stimulus Sea Life, then switch over to LEGOLAND and return to the aquarium if your pack has time and energy.

Hours:

Sea Life-Kansas City and LEGOLAND open daily* at 10 and close at 5 p.m. Sunday through Thursdayand 6p.m. Friday and Saturday. However, Sea Life remains open to guests already inside for two more hours.

*Note: Hours and ticket prices fluctuate by season and holiday, so check the website for the most up to date info.

Directions:

Crown Center is located in the heart of Kansas City at 2450 Grand Blvd. Full directions to Crown Center.

Our family visited Sea Life and LEGOLAND as guests of Visit KC in exchange for an honest review.

Legoland California’s Star Wars miniland and water park

August 22, 2011 By Amy Hagstrom

While we were in Southern California last week, I had the opportunity to stop by one of our favorite theme parks for the younger set: Legoland California.

We love Legoland for their whimsical, primarily-colored theme, their young kid-friendly rides, and ample activities for the toddler and preschool set, but most exciting on this most recent visit was the showcasing of their new Star Wars Miniland! Yes, we’re a family of Star Wars-loving geeks, but even if you’re not, you’ll be floored by the attention to detail present in this multi-section display. I could have stood and looked for hours!

Of course, Star Wars in miniature is not the only new draw to Legoland California. The Legoland Waterpark features a 45-foot tower featuring slides and cascading, dumping water, two sandy beaches, and my favorite: the ‘build-a-raft’ river where kids create their own floatation devices. One word of warning: if you’re planning to enter the park later in the day, beware that the water park does fill to capacity. When it does so, water park passes may not be purchased at the main gate until enough guests have exited the area. It’s best to go early, or purchase a regular ticket that can be upgraded should the water park open up.

One thing I love about Legoland is that while it has certainly grown, deals can still be had. Did you know kids eat free from 5 to 7 pm? Or that the park offers free admission in its last hour before closing? Be sure not to buy more ticket than you need: if you’re not planning to visit the aquarium or water park, you don’t have to pay for it!

Plus! Did you know Legoland Florida is slated to open in October of 2011?! Autumn is a great time for families to visit Central Florida: the crowds have thinned, the weather has cooled, and room rates throughout the region have lowered. This park will certainly be on our list the next time we’re in the state!

San Diego on Dwellable

Legoland California

March 21, 2011 By Amy Hagstrom

Dino Land's Coastersaurus

As lifelong Disney fans, we didn’t see it coming, but Legoland California has become my family’s favorite theme park. Located just north of San Diego in Carlsbad, CA, this answer to any Lego-lover’s dream is perfect for the 2-12 age set. Plus, it has a Kidscore rating of 96. (Learn more about Kidscore.) And due to recent expansion, it’s now three parks in one: Legoland, Sea Life Aquarium, and water park! We love the interactive nature of the exhibits (kids and parents can built and test Lego race cars, pedal their own Lego roller coaster compartment, and play in a Lego town), the manageable size of the park, and all those primary colors!

As with any theme park, families will want to get to Legoland before rope-drop to beat the crowds in summer, but during the off-season, you may have the place relatively to yourself! Shops line the market area just past the entrance in The Beginning, and if you can entice your kids past it with promises to return (they remain open an entire hour past closing to give families plenty of shopping time), you’ll arrive in the popular Land of Adventure or Castle Hill area before the masses.

Get a 'driver's license' in Fun Town!

If you have younger kids, you may want to head left after The Beginning instead, hitting Dino Island and Fun Town before lines get too long. Skip the Duplo Village in the morning; this fun attraction is a line-free playground and is perfect for the afternoon when kids are tired of waiting their turn for rides.

Check the park schedule when you arrive; the shows are worth your time, and there are always events and activities going on in the Imagination Zone (where kids can get hands-on with Lego creations). We love how Legoland has built-in features that force families to slow down: you’ll get a nice breather while your kids are building and testing Legos, playing in the awesome castle climbing structure at Castle Hill, or splashing in the water park.

Because there are so many time-consuming activities at Legoland, families should plan to visit more than one day. Luckily, ticket prices are built around this concept, and are affordable for multiple days. Check for online and local offers: Legoland does an amazing job working with the Carlsbad community (at the time of this posting, they were running a ‘five days for the price of one’ deal). If you’re visiting at a busy time of year and are able to splurge, Legoland’s Premium Play Passes with front-of-the-line access are worth the expense! For more great Legoland touring and planning tips, I recommend Michele Bigley’s Unauthorized Guide to Legoland!

Car testing in Imagination Zone

Sea Life Aquarium: Families have the option of buying only Legoland tickets, or ‘park hopper tickets’ which will include the aquarium and water park. If you only have one to two days, you may want to skip the aquarium, which only takes half a day but would significantly cut into your theme park time. If you’re planning to visit Legoland only a few days, but will be in the greater San Diego area longer, I advice adding the aquarium to your tickets and saving it for a rainy or foggy morning later in your vacation.

Water park: For better or for worse, Legoland’s water park is now nearly a theme park of its own. You’ll want to devote at least half a day to it, and remember that if you tour it on the same day as the rest of the park, you’ll want to store a change of clothes in a backpack. And don’t forget towels…we ended up buying a set on-site…a fun but costly way to spend souvenir money!

A word on accommodations: Good package deals can be had during certain seasons at Legoland’s ‘Bed and Brick’ preferred hotels, which includes the on-site Sheraton Carlsbad. However, if you’re looking to get away from the theme park hustle and bustle, our family recommends staying in nearby Del Mar. The Del Mar Motel on the Beach offers a fun and funky seaside experience!

Carlsbad on Dwellable

Travel Tip: Legoland’s Premium Play Pass

September 17, 2010 By Amy Hagstrom

Toby enjoys a Legoland horse ride minus the wait!

If you plan to visit the increasingly popular Legoland California in Carlsbad, CA during their peak summer and holiday periods, you might consider upgrading your admission tickets to Premium Play Passes.

Not widely advertised, this upgrade allows every passholder front of the line access for every ride, all day long and preferred seating for every show. The cavat: you pay dearly for this convenience, and with a limited number of passes available per day, they go fast.

The nitty-gritty: PPPs are $150 per adult and $130 per child (almost double regular admission). They include 1 day admission to Legoland and the CA Sea Life Aquarium and front-of-line privileges. (I do not believe they include water park admission.) Each day, only 100 PPPs are sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. To snag a set on a crowded day, plan to arrive at the park at least 45 minutes before opening. (When we experienced Legoland with PPPs, 55 of the 100 had been sold by the time we arrived 1 hour before park opening.)

Where you get them: Pay for regular admission at the main booth to enter the park, then head to Guest Services, where you can upgrade your tickets to PPPs. (You can access Guest Services even before park opening.) PPPs aren’t sold at the admission booths. In fact, when we visited, they weren’t advertised on their pricing board in any way. Even at Guest Services, you need to ask for Premium Play Passes specifically.

The way it works: At Guest Services, each member of your party who upgraded to a PPP will be issued a wristband (when we went, it was yellow). These must be worn all day! At each ride or attraction, go to the exit (similar to how you’d access rides with a disability pass). Show the attendant your wrist bands (they’ll probably spot them immediately) and follow instructions for boarding the ride (in our experience, within 30 seconds to 2 minutes). All day long, you’ll never enter a regular line.

Our experience: To be honest, when we decided to try the PPP, I was unsure about how I’d feel about boarding rides in front of people who had waited in line. Sure, it’d be awesome, but would I feel like a jerk? The answer: yes and no. At times during the day (at especially crowded rides with long waits), I did feel a bit uncomfortable (it was weird for our kids, too!). However, the way Legoland has designed the PPP, you never directly ‘cut’ in front of waiting people, for which I was grateful. Because you enter at the exit, most regular guests never know you’re there (or what you’re doing). And the park employees are very good at getting PPP holder on rides quickly (that’s what you paid for, after all) and smoothly. We never encountered an employee who didn’t understand the system, and there was never any ride where the PPP didn’t apply, no matter how long or short the wait time.

And for us, the value of the PPP was measured way beyond the lack of wait time. If you’re the type of theme park guest who gets anxious about getting to the ‘big’ rides early in the day, staying on a schedule so that you avoid major crowds, or try to plan your break and meal times around crowd levels (that’s me!), the PPP will give you a peace of mind that slows your whole day down. Instead of worrying about what ride lines were filling up, we could spend time meandering the Mini-Land exhibits and posing next to lego-fied Darth Vader (all my preschooler wanted to do!). I didn’t rush my kids, took lots of breaks in the middle of the day, and generally felt stress-free…which I’m pretty sure is how a day at Legoland is supposed to feel!

The moral of the story (at least from a travel perspective!): The PPP is a perfect example of a little research going a long way. At Pit Stops for Kids, we always advocate pre-planning, and since the PPP isn’t well advertised, it’s definitely something you can only take advantage of if you know what you’re looking for. Any time you opt for something the general public is not readily made aware of, you’re going to find a crowd-reducing measure. We ended up having a memorable day of fun with our kids because we knew what was available.

Worth the price?: Definitely, if you’re visiting during peak season. The PPP buys not only convenience, but time, a commodity in short supply while theme park touring. If you plan to visit while California schools are in session (and avoid Spring Break weeks, winter breaks, and three-day weekends), the PPP will not be worth the price. But if you go on a weekend in August (which is when we found ourselves there), I’d recommend it, especially considering how large Legoland is becoming.

For more Legoland tips, Pit Stops for Kids recommends the Unauthorized LegoLand Guidebook by Bridget Smith.

We upgraded our park admission to Premium Play Passes at our own expense. Legoland CA did not pay or compensate us for this review in any way.