legoland discovery center

as promised, here is our review of legoland discovery center.  my boys are HUGE lego fans right now and i cannot walk through my house without stepping on at least one (or more!) lego.  so you can imagine their surprise and delight when i told them after our trip to the zoo, that the fun was not over.  we were headed to legoland!

and now for a tip on admission.  if you go online and print your tickets before your trip, you will save a few bucks and guarantee that you can get in (it gets crowded and there is a capacity limit i'm sure).  the boys, however, receive a lego magazine in the mail (it's free!) and whenever it comes, there is always a coupon for a free child's admission.  that said, it was actually cheaper for us to use those and purchase our adult tickets there (because you can't use the coupons online) than it was for us to print them off online.  so that's the scoop on ticketing.  and we went before most kids were out of school to eliminate the chance of it being too crowded to get in.

so it was actually not crowded at all and we breezed right through.  first you are lead by a tour guide through a part that demonstrates how legos are made.  it was interesting but the boys could have cared less, they were so excited to see what else the place had to offer.

next up was a laser ride.  we boarded a ride that led us through different lego scenes and we had laser guns to shoot the bad guys.  there was a digital reader that kept track of how many we shot to see who shot the most.  this was fun but only lasted a few minutes.

next up was a cute and short 3D movie featuring bob the builder and his friends.  they were building a roller coaster (out of legos, of course!) and this was fun because it was interactive.  when the movie simulated you riding the roller coaster, a huge fan would blow in your face, as if you were really on the ride.  at one point bob spills his water bottle and water sprinkles on you.  at the end of the movie, it begins to snow and soap bubbles sprinkle down from the ceiling.  it was cute but my boys think they are way to big and cool for bob the builder! :)

they were trying to look like gangstas in their 3D glasses

we then moved into a room that had used thousands of legos to recreate particular places in the dfw metroplex.  this was really amazing to see but not so much interactive.  i've included lots of pictures here so you can see at what i marveled!

dfw airport

great wolf lodge and grapevine vintage railroad

the gaylord

southfork ranch

the ballpark in arlington

cowboys stadium

reunion tower and downtown dallas

state fair of texas

then there was a huge play area for kids to climb around on, think mcdonald's on steroids.  the only place where the kids could play with real legos was an area where you could build race cars and then race them down the ramps.  there was also an area with duplos to appeal to the younger audience and a pink princess castle to appeal to girls.

our last attraction was a ride that went around in circles and as you pedaled, you climbed higher and higher.

this is noodle and john

and last was the gift store, that you HAD to go in, in order to exit legoland.  very clever you marketing people!  i already dropped $38 plus tax to get in, and that was with 2 free child's tickets, and now i had to make my way through a store packed with overpriced legos!  not a fan!  we managed to get out of there unscathed.

so here's my two cents about this place.  it was fun and my boys certainly had a good time.  is it overpriced?  yes.  but i am a cheapskate!  was there a lot to do?  not really.  should you buy a season pass?  i sure would not!

i say it's a fun thing to do once a year, and hopefully they'll change things up a bit each year to keep it interesting.  otherwise, i was a little disappointed.  when you hear the commercials about this place, they tout it being full of thousands and thousands of legos with the idea that you get to play with them all.  not so.  it took thousands and thousands of legos to build all those neat little buildings that are on display that you're not allowed to touch.

so a little disappointing but we still had a fun time!