Legoland Discovery Center Westchester NY

Growing up my family traveled a great deal and I always loved exploring new places and doing new things.  This is something I have tried to continue with my children.  My husband and I are always looking for day trip locations to take the kids or to find places for a quick overnight getaway.

Recently, my family and I had the opportunity to check out the LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Westchester, NY.  Truthfully I had no idea there was a LEGOLAND Discovery Center in NY, but since my kids are big LEGO fans I jumped at the chance to check it out…and wow, we were NOT disappointed!

This places is seriously fun for LEGO lovers of all ages!  It features 2 theme park quality rides, 11 play zones, a 4D Cinema and so much more!

 

When you enter LEGOLAND Discovery Center, the first thing you do is get a brief explanation and demonstration of how LEGO’s are made. This is a lot of fun and it is very interactive with kids being able to push and pull levers and “help” make LEGO’s.

Then you move on to the first of two rides–Kingdom Quest!  In this fun ride you and your kids get to compete against each other to get the highest score–and you score when you zap skeletons and trolls hiding around the corner!  Don’t worry, its all fun–not scary at all! Even my 3 year old loved zapping her laser!

Once the ride is complete you move on to what is probably my favorite part of LEGOLAND Discovery Center– MINILAND!  In this exhibit you get the see the NYC skyline in LEGO miniature. The attention to detail is amazing and my family just moved from building to building checking out all the little details –and every 15 minutes night falls and there are fireworks above the Statue of Liberty so make sure to spend some time in there.  It was definitely my favorite part of the entire exhibit!

After leaving MINILAND you head into the main part of the facility and into even more fun!  With a giant, soft play structure–LEGO Construction–in the center of the room your kids could spend hours just climbing and sliding and building.  But you are going to want to pull them away since there is much more to see!

Make sure to head over to the life sized LEGO Friends house, my girls LOVED it there, and the DUPLO Village is great for younger kids, since there is large soft blocks and a fun slide–this was great for my 3 year old.  It was the perfect size for her, it was fun and I knew she was safe in there.

My son really enjoyed the Lego Racers, which is the part where you get to build a race car out of Lego’s and then race it against other kids’ creations. It is great fun and a great lesson in building and physics as well.

There is also another ride in this section called Merlin’s Apprentice and a 4D Theater!  The 4D Theater is so much fun!  It is a great time for the entire family, and my 3 year old liked getting slightly wet (don’t worry it is just a spray, nothing to worry about.)

Finally, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you about the Master Builder Academy.  This part was really fun for all of my kids. Classes are held at certain times of the day and they are led by an instructor.  In our class we built a space shuttle and we learned all sorts of interesting tidbits about the names of the LEGO bricks and more.  At the end of the class you can chose whether or not you want to purchase your LEGO creation so it makes a great keepsake if you do chose to buy it–and it is very reasonable, our creation only cost $5.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center also has a rotating display section and the new section actually just opened. It allows your children to help finish the LEGO City Builder display!  Help finish the roofs of buildings, make roads and let your imagination take over on this massive LEGO table –your kids will LOVE it!

LEGOLAND Discovery Center is open daily at 10 am and I recommend that you get there right at opening to beat the crowds.  There is a well stocked cafe for dining choices, with many options including healthy fare and of course, there is an awesome store so you can purchase LEGO’s to take  home. Here is a tip: It you want to buy a souvenir of your visit but don’t want to spend much then make sure to make your own MINIFIGURE in the store. You get to chose which pieces to put together so you can fully customize your own MINIFIGURE and the price is really reasonable.

LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Westchester, NY is a great day trip destination for residents of NEPA as it was an easy, 2 hour drive away. I did however, make a weekend out of it and I stayed at the Hampton Inn, Yonkers and enjoyed a tour of a local historical attraction and ate at Havana Central at Ridge Hill–my first time eating Cuban food!  I will follow up with another post about my lodging, my visit to Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site and Havana Central  so make sure to check back.

Want to check out the LEGOLAND Discovery Center for yourself? One lucky NEPA MOM reader will win a 4 pack of tickets!
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Disclosure: This visit was part of a Blogger Media Tour that my family was asked to participate in. Tickets, lodging and meals were provided but as always my opinion is 100% my own.