LEGOLAND New York Resort

We enjoyed the visit very much with a 10 year old and 7 year old. They liked all of the attractions. We're Lego fans. The lines were relatively short. The interactive features and decorations while in line were great. Favorite rides were The Dragon coaster and the pirate ships with water cannons.

The hotel is lovely and made to engage kids. They loved our castle room.

What could be better:
1 - very limited food and long wait with online ordering required. Since there are no working fountains, getting water was expensive and available in limited places. Refill stations would be nice.
2 - limited benches around ride areas for waiting adults to sit
3 - limited shade
4 - apps required for dining did not show a menu in advance of ordering. Other features were limited and didn't show well on either Apple or Android phone

Bought the fast passes (4 year old)- we had so much fun today! There are some things to work out but they seem like they are doing their best in those areas. The photo people weren’t out today and I paid for the photo pass and I don’t care because a staff member explained it so nicely to me. All of the staff were very kind and helpful. We will be back next year. If you are wondering about taking a 2 year old or smaller 3 year old- it might not be worth the money. Seems like a sweet spot for kids 4-10.

Edit- I did take a star off for 3 things that could really improve that I’m unsure is being worked on: 1) don’t charge for parking 2) better customer service beforehand. Before I got the email saying they could switch my tickets I did worry if they would get back to me before the automated systems in 7-10 days when they could switch it to any day. Having the doubt was stressful and having someone to call could have helped with that. 3) with the amount of money you need to pay, the lines are too long. With the difficult way you need to buy tickets, I thought that was a strategy so you don’t let too many people in- it was incredibly busy for a Tuesday. It would be great to add rides to the open space that is all around the park.

Visited Legoland on Monday August 1st. I was pleased that it wasn't overpopulated at the beginning of the day when they opened, the lines did get a tad bit long early afternoon but still we waited less than 25 minutes to get on any ride. This has the potential to be a five-star experience once the water park is finished this year. There was a lot of walking between different areas, which I can only assume leaves room for additional rides or experiences. One thing that was frustrating, two out of three of the "restaurants" we're closed and our only option was the restaurant at the castle which had a menu of five items, two being fried chicken, and three being burgers or a hot dog. I normally don't eat these items, I did see the day normally have taco restaurant and a restaurant that serves Asian, either of those would have been preferred. If even one of the other restaurants would have been open I think that would have set a better tone. I understand everyone is short-staffed so it might not have been avoidable. We did not purchase the picture package when we purchased our tickets, so I can't rate that experience, we did view the pictures and they were funny. The additional games were fairly priced as was Lego merchandise. I did pay $23 for face painting, just a basic shark that my son wanted. The girl who did it did not do the best job and it did not really look like the picture. My son loved it and that's all that mattered!!

1. Yes, bring swimwear and towels because there are two rides on which you can get wet (even though the main water play area hasn't opened yet).
2. The entire park is cashless. If you're bringing kids who aren't yours and their parents sent cash with them, stop at guest services (at the entrance to the park), where they can take the cash and put it onto a visa card. (This was an issue for our party, and I had to pay for stuff twice with my card and have the kid pay me back in cash -- super annoying for budgeting).
3. Food in the park was quite a bit more expensive than I thought. Our visit was early July 2022. At the time, a little cup of ice cream was 5.99, and a cone of ice cream was 7.99. A cheese pizza was 10.99; pepperoni was 12.99 (or was it 13.99). Those were the cheaper options for lunch. There are lots of stuff that was much more pricey.
4. I was impressed with the amount of shade throughout the park. As someone who burns very, very easily and quickly, it was nice that a lot of areas for standing in line were shaded. (But still bring a hat and sunscreen!)