LEGOLAND Discovery Center Dallas/Fort Worth

When my sister came to visit with her family at Christmastime I was excited for obvious reasons.  A less obvious one was that we could visit the LEGOLAND Discovery Center at the Grapevine Mills Mall.  We’re HUGE Lego lovers in our family, one look at our immense collection ranging from piece meal bricks that are about 40 years old from my husband’s childhood to the Architect series boxes and Star Wars Lego boxes on the closet shelves and it’s kind of evident.  That being said, I assume for security reasons, you have to have actual kids with you (not big people that just act like kids) to visit the LEGOLAND Discovery Center during most of the open hours.  (They do have an adult night one Monday evening a month for those that just refuse to grow up).

You begin your brick building adventure at LEGOLAND Discovery Center at the LEGO® Factory: which gives guests a behind-the-scenes look at how the infamous toy is made.

I think my nephew’s were most excited about the Kingdom Quest laser ride.  I’d love to show you more pictures…but I was politely asked to put my camera away as apparently there were signs that I did not see saying ‘no photography’ …ooops!  The sign pretty much shows the gist of the ride though, and I’m proud to say I smoked my sister’s butt at it .

From there you enter into the ultimate indoor playground for kids who are the biggest fans of LEGO!  There is a 4D cinema which rotates a number of different shows (so be sure to catch them all!).

You can try your hand at building the fastest car in LEGO Racers: Build & Test.  Even my brother-in-law got in on the action for this one.

There’s a Miniland based on the Dallas/Fort Worth area including all the prominent local attractions.

My personal favorite; Southfork Ranch, as watching Dallas is my ‘guilty pleasure.’

By this point you may need to stop for some refreshment in the Café.

Then make your way over to Merlin’s Apprentice Ride and hop in a car and pedal yourself around the room!

And then there is the LEGO City: Forest Ranger Pursuit.  We had a little difficulty getting the boys to take their turns with this one!  They just kept wanting to go around and around the track without getting off and waiting back in line.

Also there is a section entitled “Princess Palace” that is full of pink bricks. With two little boys, and a teenage girl that would choose a pirate (or a Storm Trooper) over a princess any day, this is as far as we checked it out.

So we headed over here instead:

As I understand it a new Star Wars Miniland is going to be introduced at LEGOLAND Discovery Center Dallas/Fort Worth this month based on Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.  It sounds like it is going to be quite neat.  If nothing else the newest information of that gives me a kick in the pants to get personal posts up sooner rather than later as this is now going to be outdated (come on it only took me 4 months!), until the new exhibit opens this is a little of what the Star Wars Miniland had:

If you’re in the area and have some young LEGO fans in your family, it’s certainly worth checking out.  You can find more information at http://www.legolanddiscoverycenter.com/dallasfw.

You know the FTC requires me to disclose to you when I get complimentary things by way of review so you don’t think I’m just telling you stuff to please the company or brand that wants to get the word out about their product, as if I wouldn’t be honest otherwise.  Just so you know, no one paid for or sponsored this post.  Well unless you want to count my sister who generously paid for mine and my daughter’s entrance tickets to Legoland.  On the other hand, I fed them, let them sleep and shower at my house during that time so I’m not sure whether I in fact needed to disclose that.  I also included cute pictures of her kids in this post.  <– honest, she didn’t tell me to say that for buying my ticket either .