**This Post was written in 2019. As such, the content and exhibits in the review below may be outdated. Legoland Boston is currently closed until Spring 2023.
Summertime is a great time for road trips and we have a fun one for you! Boston is one of my favorite places – it was my first home. So whenever I have an excuse to venture out there, I take it. Recently we took a fun weekend adventure to Boston to check out Legoland Discovery Center!
I’ll be completely honest with you. Until I planned this trip, I had no idea there was a Legoland in Boston. I knew about the one in New York. And there’s one down in Florida. But this one in Boston came as a complete surprise to me. Technically it’s located in Somerville, in the Assembly Square neighborhood. We had to break out our map for this one!
We ended up making a weekend of this, and booked a hotel across the Mystic River at the Marriott. Because of this, we made it easy on ourselves and took the T (Orange Line) to Assembly station. This was for two reasons: (1) we avoided trying to park in Boston and (2) this child was in love with the fact that he got to ride the subway! Taking the train was a great option for us. If you go by subway, the walk from Assembly station to Legoland is super quick (less than five minutes). However, if you do end up driving into Legoland, there is a parking garage right next door and they offer free parking for the first three hours.
Legoland Discovery Center has quite the curb appeal! You definitely can’t miss it when you are walking down the sidewalk trying to find the place!
The entrance is just behind the giraffe.
When you walk in, you’ll want to steer towards the left for your check-in. First things first, if you are planning a visit to Legoland, you are going to want to buy your tickets online. The biggest reason why: it’s cheaper. A lot cheaper.
Admission to Legoland starts at $29.95 per person when you buy your tickets in person. Online tickets will save you about $10 (so $19.95 per person). This price is for there base ticket which will get you in at a specific date and time, and allow you access to all the great things inside. They offer additional packages that include flexible entry and take-home collectibles.
The other reason to book online: it reserves your spot. To prevent overcrowding, Legoland only lets in so many people at a time. So buying your tickets online gives you a guaranteed time/date to visit. You can spend a little extra on the tickets to get flexible entry, but if you know when you are visiting, it makes sense to save money and pick your time slot. You also cannot leave Legoland and come back. Once you’re in, you’re in. So you’ll benefit from picking a time that works best for you, and then you can stay as long as you want.
We ended up buying the basic ticket and picking our time slot. I had our tickets printed so it was easy to check in.
Once you check in, you’ll be directed to a small room with an elevator. As you can see, there are a lot of directions and arrows to guide the way!
Upstairs, you’ll be in another small room. In this room, you’ll want to choose your row (by color) and watch a fun video about Legoland while you wait.
From here, you’ll go into a circular room that will explain the Lego making process through interactive video about the Lego Factory. This was a cute, and short, video thankfully. Since my child was ready to get on with the show. For those with kids that actually are interested, they will enjoy making their own Lego character and playing the game.
When the video ends, the door will open and you’ll head into the main attraction. First things first, you’ll spot the first ride: Kingdom Quest.
On this ride, you’ll be sent off on a mission to save the princess. The ride has four seats (I rode behind my son and niece) and each person has a shooter where they try to beat the bad guys. If you’ve ever been to Disney, this is just like the Toy Story mania ride. You’ll have fun trying to earn points while shooting your laser at the targets. It’s a very slow moving but interactive ride – it’s great for ages 4 and up.
During the ride, they do capture a photo. So when you get off the ride, they’ll have those on screen and you have the option to buy the picture. I won’t even share how horrendous ours came out. Needless to say, we passed on that offer!
After our first ride, we headed to the next room: Miniland. Inside this room you’ll find an entire replica of Boston and all of it’s historical moments and iconic sights, in miniature Lego form. It’s pretty amazing!
The detail involved in all of these replicas were incredible. And to do this at such a small scale is super impressive! As someone who grew up in the Boston area, I was definitely moved by some of the things they included. It was really amazing to look at. My son actually enjoyed this room the most. We spent a lot of time going back and forth into Miniland. He especially loved the interactive buttons.
His all-time favorite: The Cheers scene. My Boston heart swelled as he danced along to “where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came”…
I personally loved the replicas of Fenway and Gillette!
After we spent a long time in Miniland, we headed to the main area.
Brace yourself for Lego overload!
Immediately to our left was DUPLO Farm .
DUPLO Farm is designed for the little visitors, ages 2 to 5. While my son was within the age range, he moved on from this area quickly. In fact, he was in and out of there with his cousin before I even left Miniland.
It’s definitely a cute area for the little kids with a farm house, a slide, and chunky DUPLO toys they can play with.
Next door, you’ll want to visit Olivia’s House at Lego Friends. There is a tree house, lots of little rooms, plenty of small Legos to build with, and more. They have plenty of seats too for mom and dad to relax while the kids play pretend.
Just be careful where you walk– Legos are everywhere! Thank goodness for shoes! Doesn’t this make your feet scared?
We breezed through these two areas quickly, because he was very interested in the Lego Racers area. They have several places to sit and build race cars. Once you’ve made a car, you can send it zipping down a few different tracks to see how fast it goes!
He was very into this – as you can tell!
There were so many more building opportunities including this chance to make your own Lego Movie using Legos and a tablet to create an interactive Lego experience.
The second Legoland ride is located just next to the Racers area. This ride is called Merlin’s Apprentice. Each car has only two seats – so I sat this one out while he rode along with his cousin. This ride was kind of like those airplane rides you see at parks, where you fly up high by pulling on a lever. Just instead of a lever, you pedal. The ride goes around several times and it’s a lot of fun!
Behind Merlin’s Apprentice was the Lego Star Wars exhibit. The room was very dark so my pictures don’t do the area justice. But they recreated many iconic Star Wars scenes with Legos. It’s kind of like Miniland, but just with Star Wars.
They also have a separate ride back in this area for an additional cost. It’s a virtual reality game. We skipped this one since he’s not really into virtual reality yet!
On the other side of Legoland’s main room, you’ll find a huge Play Zone. This kids only (shoe-free) area is a great place to release some pent up energy! There are lots of things to climb, explore and tumble through. I took this opportunity to sit down on one of the benches while the cousins played (teenage cousins are the best)!
While they explored this area for quite some time, I took a break but also did a little exploring of my own. Just behind the Play Zone, you’ll find the entrance to the 4D Lego Cinema. The movies are included with your admission. We skipped this activity but movies play throughout the day, so you can catch a showing at any time. A line did build before each movie so you’ll want to hop in line to get a seat.
I also checked out the Coffee Shop. They have a selection of pre-made foods including salads and sandwiches, Lego lunchboxes for the kids, snacks, drinks and even Starbucks.
Behind the Play Zone, they have a party room. So if you have ever dreamed of having a Lego party, this is the place to do it! You can learn all about their birthday packages online.
And in case you aren’t lego-ed out enough, you’ll also get a kick out of the Lego decorations found in the bathrooms too. The bathrooms are located just behind the Coffee Shop.
After the cousins had their fill of the Play Zone, we decided to take a peek inside the Master Building Academy. I didn’t really know what to expect in this room, or if they would be doing any special workshops. On their website they mentioned workshops where you can discover tips and tricks with Legos. I honestly didn’t think my child would sit through a workshop but we took a stroll inside just to see what was going on.
So they actually didn’t have a workshop going on. But instead they had a kind-of “do at your own pace” activity that anyone could pick up and work on. It ended up being the best part of our whole visit.
Basically, they had bowls of teeny tiny Legos. The single bricks.
And they had these little grids, with different colors on one side and a number on the back.
Your job was to fill in the boards with the single bricks. Once we showed this boy how to do it, we couldn’t stop him. He was having a ball. I think we did about 30 bricks between the three of us.
When you were done with your board, you headed to the big picture at the front of room and put your little board in the matching numerical spot.
It was a BIG board. And while we filled in quite a bit with our group, there was still so much to go. I still wonder how long it took them to finish that collage. It was a great way to finish our visit. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that I had to bring my niece home, I think we would have all stayed there longer to work on that thing.
After about two hours at Legoland, we headed out. When you leave the attraction floor, make sure you check for any stowaway Legos!
You’ll head down in an elevator to exit, and of course, it brings you right to the gift shop. Be warned! Legos, Legos everywhere!
Although these were rather memorizing.
Fortunately I was able to talk him out of the store without making a big purchase when I reminded him that we had to catch the train one more time to go back to the car. I can never go wrong with trains…
We had a really fun afternoon at Legoland Discovery Center in Boston! This is a great day trip from Connecticut, and you can even wrap it up with a trip to the Boston Children’s Museum or the Boston Aquarium. Just make sure you plan ahead when visiting Legoland to guarantee a great time!
This about sums it up…
598 Assembly Row – Somerville, Massachusetts
Hours:
Open Daily
Sundays – Thursday: 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Last entry is at 5 p.m.)
Friday- Saturday: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. (Last entry is at 6 p.m.)
Tickets start at $29.95 when purchased in person.
Features:
- Two amusement park rides and lots of Lego building opportunities
- Indoor Play/Climbing area
- 4D Movie Theater
- Stroller accessible
- Geared towards school- aged children (ages 3 to 10) but toddlers and pre-teens will have fun too
- Parking is available in a nearby garage. First three hours are free.
- Bathroom located in main attraction area
- Food available for purchase in coffee shop
- Gift Shop on first floor.
A few additional tips:
- Plan for 2-3 hours to visit Legoland. You can not leave and reenter.
- Pre-purchase your tickets online for guaranteed entry and for best prices.
