LegoLand Atlanta

photo courtesy of http://www.simon.com/mall/phipps-plaza/stores/legoland-discovery-center-atlanta

Do you have a little someone (or maybe a big someone) who loves Legos?  Ever since we watched The Lego Movie, my six, soon to be seven, year old has developed a passion for building creations like the Master Builders, and of course my three, soon to be four, year old has followed suit.  Our little stash of Legos has grown exponentially and I'm really impressed with some of the interesting things A comes up with.  For Christmas all he wanted was Lego kits, which Santa did deliver, but Santa also knows that Legos are expensive and a $100 Lego kit would not get its money's worth out of it at our house just yet.  So in addition to Santa's two smaller Lego kits, hubby and I decided to take the boys to Legoland Atlanta as one of our Christmas presents to the boys.

So you want to know what I think?  Well, it wasn't terrible.  Not by any means; it was fun.  But...it wasn't super fantastic either.

Here are some of my thoughts about our experience that might help you decide if and when you want to visit this brick building fun-land:

Location:
LegoLand Atlanta is located in a mall on the northeast side of Atlanta.  It was very easy for us to get to from the 285 Loop.  And there is free parking!  Just follow the signs in the parking garage, and one elevator ride takes you right to the spot.  I was really happy about that because I thought we would have to pay to park and maybe even have to walk a ways (it was really cold the day we went, so it was nice just to hop out of the car and right into the elevator!)

Timing:
You know, I homeschool my oldest son (the six, almost seven year old Master Builder) and my youngest son goes to half day preschool two days a week, so we get to travel and see attractions when everyone else is in school.  Of course, we also have school on Saturday, so its not all fun and games.  We went to LegoLand Atlanta on a Wednesday in January.  We got there about 12:30 and stayed until 4pm, and there was almost no one there.  At first there was only a handful of mommies and toddlers, but as the afternoon went on there were a few more families that came after school.  For the most part, though, we had the run of the place.  We saw a 4D movie all by ourselves, and actually got to pick the one we wanted.  We rode the two rides by ourselves too.  My oldest got to have one on one attention from the Master Builder Academy instructor because there was no one else in there.  

Santa brought Legos!

Master Builders!

Expectations: 
Going in, I knew this was an indoor attraction, and I knew not to expect a "Disney" experience.  The grandparents had taken the boys to LegoLand Orlando when the hubs and I went to Ireland, and they couldn't say enough good things about it.  I knew this LegoLand was not going to be a theme park, BUT I was expecting it to be a little bigger than what it was.  I would hate to be there when it was really busy.  The rides were a little baby-ish.  And although there were lots of Legos available, there was not a lot of space for building.
The area that occupied most of our time was the Build and Test Races.  In the middle of the room there was a place where you could build race cars and test them on three ramps.  Cars and Legos together?  For us it doesn't get much better than that!  The boys spent at least two of the four hours we were there at the test track.  This was the only place that had directions on how to build something, other than the Master Builders Academy.  A major plus of this station was the science aspect of it.  The boys had to experiment with different designs and then test the physics of the tracks.  
The website says that LegoLand Atlanta is for children 5-12, but I can't see this place holding much attention for a 10, 11, or 12 year old.  If A didn't like just building and testing his race cars over and over again, I'm not sure he would have liked it so much either and he's seven (almost seven).  

All of the boys were deep in Lego building thought trying to build the fastest race car.

Value:
Let's get down to brass tax.  When I went online in December, the website said online tickets were $13.50 compared to $20 on site.  When I went to buy the online tickets in January the price had gone up to $15 per person.  Still better than $20 at the door.  We also live in Chattanooga, so we had gas expense and dinner out.  So based on what we got for our money, this is not worth another trip for us.  I'm glad we did it once because it made a good 'experience' Christmas gift for the boys, but its not cost affective for us.  

Legos are super fun and there are a lot of Lego activities out there.  In Chattanooga, there is an after school Lego program called Bricks 4 Kidz (http://www.bricks4kidz.com/tennessee-chattanooga-ooltewah/), and we just discovered NetBricks through Groupon.  NetBricks is a spin off Netflix only with Legos.  So you order a Lego kit, they send it to you, you put it together, then send it back.  (https://netbricks.biz/)  I'll let you know how that goes.  And I still plan to go back to Legoland Orlando with the boys sometime soon!

What has been your favorite Lego experience?

Happy roving,
Kyleen