Do you remember growing up and seeing commercials for Walt Disney World? All your favorite characters were there, the rides looked like so much fun, it simply looked like the most magical place to visit (maybe that’s just me and my nostalgic ’90’s kid glasses, but that’s what I remember).
Well, going to Legoland and staying in the Legoland Resort happens to be our children’s version of going to Walt Disney World. Our kids are OBSESSED with all things Legos – the movies, the TV shows, the stories, the characters, and of course: the bricks.
In other words, planning a trip to visit Legoland was a trip we booked and then anxiously counted down the days to. It was easily the highlight of our year and something our kids STILL talk about. And, I’d be willing to bet, if your kids are as obsessed with Legos as ours are, it’s a trip they might be begging to take as well.
OVERVIEW
There are Legoland Resorts and Parks located all over the world from Florida to California, Denmark to Dubai.
Additionally, outside of the Theme Parks, there are 23 Legoland Discovery Centers scattered all over the world (and yes, the Theme Parks are a completely different experience than the Discovery Centers – we’ve been to both, would it be helpful if I made a video explaining the differences? If so, let me know in the comments below!)
The Legoland Resort in New York is less than 6 hours from our house outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is one of the newer resorts in the chain. It was actually slated to open the summer of 2020, but due to the circumstances which you can probably take a wild guess at, its opening got delayed and it officially opened to the public in the spring of 2021.
Because Legoland Resort and Theme Park are located in Goshen, New York (about 90 minutes north of New York City), this specific property operates on a seasonal basis. Unlike it’s Florida and California partners, Legoland in New York has limited operating hours in November, December, and January (mostly just open long weekends). And then for most of January, all of February and March – both the Resort and Theme Park are completely closed, with things beginning to open back up with a limited calendar in April and May.
The Legoland Resort is located right next to the Legoland Theme Park – you can simply walk out of the front doors of the resort and in less than 5 minutes, you’ll be at Legoland’s front gates, making a stay at the Legoland Resort very easy and very convenient.
This is a full and in-depth review of our stay at the Legoland Resort in New York – located at: 1 Legoland Boulevard, in Goshen, NY. I’m not only going to share an honest overview of our stay, but share some of the things we learned from staying there, including a few things we’d do differently if we were to stay there again, so be sure to stick around until the end of this video.
We stayed at Legoland in New York for three days and two nights in September of 2025 and this was our experience.
THE ROOMS
What sets the Legoland Resort apart from your average hotel are the themed rooms.
Each floor is themed to a different set of characters or story-lines:
There are Kingdom themed rooms, Pirate themed rooms, Lego Friends themed rooms, and Ninjago themed rooms.
The “Kingdom” themed floor tends to be the least expensive floor to stay on, while the Lego Friends and Ninjago floors tend to be a bit more expensive. (Trust me, I’m going to dive into the COST of staying at the Legoland Resort in a little bit – it’s definitely a hefty topic to discuss, so stick with me.)
Overall, we found the rooms to be extremely QUIET. Despite the hotel being full of CHILDREN, our room was so quiet and peaceful, and this really surprised us! We’ve definitely stayed in our fair share of hotels and resorts where you can hear people stomping around upstairs, running up and down the halls, the doors slamming shut, and people talking – that was absolutely not the case here. I mean, every once in a while you’d hear the muffled sound of someone walking down the hall and talking, but otherwise, it was silent and we REALLY appreciated that!
We stayed in a Ninjago room (because our kids are obsessed with Ninjago) and it was AMAZING. Literally, the room blew our socks off – walking in, I had to physically pick my jaw up off the floor because I was so blown away. We have NEVER stayed in a room so intricately themed! It looked just like the pictures you see online, but somehow, even BETTER. The best I can compare it to is Great Wolf Lodge, but even that is just “lightly” themed compared to these rooms.
There were a lot of, what I called: “tiny touches” in our room that we really appreciated – things that aren’t “standard” in normal hotel rooms, but are very helpful to have and show that the resort truly knows their target audience.
For example: there were Lego character stickers on the toilet paper rolls.
There was a step-stool in the bathroom for kids to stand on to use the sink or brush their teeth.
There were complimentary bottles of water and juice in our room daily – which was such a nice touch! Additionally, whenever housekeeping would be out in the hall working on cleaning the vacant rooms, they were so friendly & offered us more drinks as we were walking by.
Each of the regular rooms regardless of theme (and yes, there are a limited number of larger suites also available), but the regular rooms are situated basically the same: as soon as you walk in, there is a small room with the kids’ area. This room has a set of bunk beds (plus a trundle bed that you could pull out from underneath the bottom bunk – meaning three kids could sleep in this room). They had their own TV (pre-programmed with the Lego movies and TV shows) and a bin of Lego bricks with a building area.
Moving on into the room, you have the bathroom and then the main bedroom, which is set up similar to a traditional hotel room. We found the beds to be comfortable and there were a lot of pillows (something we really appreciate after staying at Universal Studios Surfside Inn and Suites earlier in the summer, which had surprisingly few pillows on the beds.)
Notably: there was no AC/heat unit on the wall under the window (as traditional hotel rooms have) – this meant there was more room in the room (and it definitely felt roomier without that giant box under the window). There was a thermostat on the wall that controlled the temperature and we found our room to be very evenly regulated (instead of one end being freezing and the other end being hot like a lot of hotel rooms end up being).
In other words: these rooms are NICE. They are large, comfortable, and easy to relax in. Unlike traditional hotel rooms that are small and make you feel like you’re being stuffed in a small box – these rooms felt like their own interactive experience.
With that being said, it was so easy to come back to this room and just CHILL. The kids had their own space, they had Legos to build with, and their own TV to watch. And since they’re in a completely separate space, we (as parents) could really, truly RELAX. While the kids were playing and having fun in their own area (and feeling absolutely fulfilled and like they weren’t missing out on anything), we as parents could nap and relax in our own area! We’ve never stayed anywhere quite like it and we loved the whole experience.
Speaking of “interactive” experiences – the rooms also come equipped with a treasure hunt for the kids! There was a card that they found next to the Legos in their room that gave the instructions for completing the hunt – the end result of which is a code that opens the treasure chest in the corner by the door. This was SUCH a fun activity for our kids to complete and at the end, they each got their own new set of 3n1 Legos! Talk about an incredible treasure to find!
THE POOL AREA/RESORT
The resort operates with a fully automated check-in process. In other words: you check yourself in on the kiosks inside the door (similar to the process of checking in at Kalahari). We found the process to be quick and easy. If you do have questions during check-in though or run into any issues, there is always an employee close by to help.
As you enter the main lobby area, you are greeted by a HUGE pirate ship playground area. Around the base of the ship, there are thousands of Lego bricks for the kids to play and build with – and boy, did our kids go to town with those. There was ample seating all around the play area for parents to sit at – our kids absolutely loved being able to play in this area. There were always other kids there and our kids immediately made friends and were running around, having a blast every time we went down to the lobby.
The elevators double as built-in dance parties! As soon as you get in, a disco ball starts spinning, different colored lights go off, and the music playing invites you to dance – it’s SO much fun!
Of course, it’s mostly just fun if you have the elevator to yourself – if you enter the elevator with another family, it can get a bit awkward (but, let’s be honest: you’ll never see those people again, so I suggest embracing the awkward and simply having fun!)
You might think that this dance party element to the elevators would slow them down, but we found the elevators to be very quick and efficient. There were stairs nearby if you didn’t want to wait for the elevators, but who wants to take the stairs when you can take the elevator and have a fun dance party?
Speaking of dance parties – every night, in the lobby around that pirate ship, they have a nightly pajama dance party at 8pm. The first night we went down, they simply played music and instructions over the speakers, but the second night, an employee came out and led the party (which was obviously a much more fun experience – maybe they were simply short-staffed that first night?). I think every single family who was staying in the resort came down to this pajama party – it was packed both nights!
The party was so fun and lasted about 20 minutes long – full of general party music and interactive songs. Oh, and the party was completely different both nights we were there – meaning they played different music each night, making the experience unique each evening.
Branching out from the main lobby – the resort has a souvenir shop (yes, it’s full of Legos). They have everything you’d expect, from frequently forgotten items, to Legoland merch, to lots and lots of Lego sets.
There was a secondary room that had another “pit” of Legos (let’s say the Pirate Ship area was a bit too loud and rambunctious for your little ones, this seemed to be a quieter area to simply sit and build Legos.) The Duplo art on the wall made me think that the Legos in this area would be Duplos (and thus more suited for younger children, but nope – this area is stocked with the same traditional 2×3 Lego bricks that the Pirate Ship area is.
There is a small arcade off of the main lobby, as well as a few rooms that they host classes and events in (depending on the day, they were advertising which classes would be held and you could sign up in the lobby – yes, for an additional fee, these classes are not included in your stay).
Lastly, there was a scavenger hunt set up in and around the main lobby area – you grabbed a paper and pencil from the scavenger hunt station and then had to look around for the clues and answer questions in order to solve the puzzle. Unlike the treasure hunt in your room, this hunt’s reward is simply having solved the puzzle – there are no extra Lego prizes here. It’s simply a way to pass the time and test your Lego knowledge.
Moving outside – the resort has a large pool area. The pool is advertised as “heated”, but you could have fooled me. The water was COLD (cold enough that while I did get fully into the pool once, I wasn’t really interested in getting in again and our son spent more time outside of the pool than in it.) Maybe it’s just because it was the first weekend of September and the end of the season when we were there? But man, I really wish the pool had been warmer and more enjoyable to swim in!
The pool boasts these really fun, extra-large Lego bricks that float around. The kids would stockpile them up, build these rafts out of them, and then play with them in the pool.
There were several lifeguards on duty actively keeping an eye on the pool and those swimming in it. The pool was shallow on one end but did get to be about 5 feet deep on the deep end, so it’s always nice to have lifeguards as an extra set of eyes whenever there are tons of kids swimming around!
Towels and lifejackets are provided by the resort for the pool area and there were bathrooms right there next to the pool.
The pool had VERY strange hours. It was open for a short time, but then would close down in the middle of the day. Yes, they literally “kicked us out” of the pool during that down-time. Then, the pool opened back up in the evening, but it wasn’t open late. The pool’s hours were advertised inside the hotel (at the door you’d use to leave the building and enter the pool area), but they were confusing and a lot of people didn’t seem to comprehend the staggered hours. We saw many families walking out and trying to enter the pool during their “down-time” and there seemed to be a lot of confusion as to why the pool wasn’t open.
I’m not sure if these staggered hours are normal or just something we experienced as it was the end of the season? We were at the Legoland Resort during Labor Day weekend, which we assumed would be a busier time, so overall, we just found it to be strange.
Outside of the pool area was a seating area with tables and chairs, as well as fire pits. It was advertised that you could roast s’mores there at night which seemed like such a fun activity (we roasted s’mores when we stayed at the Dollywood Resort and it was so much fun!) – but then we realized that you had to purchase the s’more kits inside of the gift shop (and spoiler alert, they weren’t really cheap), so we elected to skip that activity.
THE FOOD
Speaking of s’mores and food – let’s talk through the food options on property:
Bricks Family Restaurant is the main dining location at the Legoland Resort – this is where the complimentary breakfast is served. (Yes! Breakfast at the Legoland Resort is “complimentary”! More on that in a moment.)
Outside of breakfast, the restaurant is also open for lunch and dinner.
To be brutally honest: the food is not that great and the prices are HIGH. We’ve stayed at a lot of resorts and we expect prices to be high at a resort restaurant, but typically resort restaurants offer a higher quality food to match their higher prices. Unfortunately, that’s not the case at the Legoland Resort. Think Applebees-quality food at best (you could just tell, everything is either microwaved or fried). The menu is limited (which further proves my microwave or fried theory). Everything is served on plastic plates that are made to look like glass, further cheapening the whole experience. (I understand that they’re catering to families with small children – so why not bring the kids’ meals on plastic plates, but bring the adult meals on glass?)
The kids’ meals were a whopping $16 a piece. This price is just INSANE, but they do have families over a barrel – unless you’re willing to get in your car and leave the property, you’re kind of stuck.
In the end, to further put things into perspective: we ended up paying as much for our dinner at Bricks as we paid at the beach earlier in the summer for a dinner that included lobster and steak. Yeah, yikes.
Back to breakfast – it is complimentary and like I said: served inside of Bricks. Breakfast is “family style” – you fill out a card with the options you’d like to order. Things like scrambled eggs, tater tots, sausage, and bacon are included in the complimentary breakfast options, but you can also order additional items (like pancakes and French toast sticks) for an up-charge. Additionally: fresh fruit, toast, cereal, coffee, milk, and juice are also included and are self-serve.
During breakfast, we were given a very awkward speech by our server about tipping. The first day, we went with the fully free options and she didn’t even end up bringing our food out, so literally all she did was take our filled-out card & submit our order to the kitchen. It wasn’t just a: “Hey, tips are always appreciated, so if you’d like to leave a tip, you can do so in this way,” talk, but it was a long, awkward speech that left us feeling like she was standing there with her hand out saying: “Money please.” Listen, we don’t mind tipping, but don’t make it awkward!
Outside of Bricks, there were several other food options:
Skyline Bar & Cafe had the same menu as Bricks (minus the pasta options). You could place an order via a QR code on your table and they’d bring the food out to you. In other words, if you were thinking you might find some cheaper options here rather than sitting down inside of Bricks: nope. Skyline Bar & Cafe is technically a facade – it and Bricks are the same restaurant.
The bar does sit right next to the Pirate Ship play area, so if you didn’t want to drag your kids away from playing but wanted to get some food – this was the easy way to do that. And of course, the bar has alcohol – so if you’re sitting down at the Pirate Ship area and your kids are having a blast – parents can get themselves a grown-up drink to enjoy while their kids are running around.
There was a small food bar out at the pool called The Sandbar and just like the pool, it had strange operating hours. You’d think this location would mimic the pool’s hours, but nope! Sometimes it was open while we were out at the pool, and sometimes it wasn’t.
If you happen to catch it when it’s open though, they simply had snack items and drinks – food you’d expect to find around a pool.
Last but not least – there was pizza that you could order to be delivered to a table around the bar, at the pool, or to your room. We utilized the pool-side option during our second evening at the resort so that the kids could continue swimming (plus, we knew another dinner at Bricks was just not an option for our wallets). The pizza came out hot and fresh and tasted good, but it did leave my stomach feeling a little bit queasy (similar to how I feel after eating Dominos – it just doesn’t sit right with me. I never feel like that after eating any other pizza from any other restaurant – just pizza from Dominos and the Legoland Resort.)
LEGOLAND PARK
Staying at the Legoland Resort is the most convenient and easy option if you are planning to spend time at the Legoland Theme Park. They literally sit right next to each other! (This isn’t always the case with on-property resorts, sometimes they’re only connected via shuttle, but Legoland Park is just a short walk from the Legoland Resort.)
The park did have very short hours while we were there (and as I’ve mentioned, we visited over Labor Day weekend, so we assumed holiday hours would be longer as the park was definitely busy!) This just left us feeling like we had to be very strategic with our time in the park and glad that we had two-day tickets, because there was definitely PLENTY to do and enjoy.
There was a sticker in our bathroom advertising that we could opt to skip a daily housekeeping clean-up of our room and instead receive a skip-the-line pass for up to 6 people to be used in the park. We absolutely took advantage of this and used it to ride the Lego Factory Adventure ride. This saved us a 60+ minute wait and put us right onto the ride with zero wait at all. Skipping housekeeping and gaining this little perk was WELL worth it!
We had a wonderful time both days that we spent in the theme park. Our kids are the perfect ages and the perfect audience for the property, so we all had a blast.
CONS
There is a major con to staying at the Legoland Resort (you can probably already guess what it is), but I’m going to address a few other downsides first before I address the elephant in the room:
We found only one water fountain in the entire hotel – it’s off of the main lobby near the restrooms and there were no water bottle filling stations anywhere. We’ve become so accustomed to bringing our own water bottles on trips and filling them, that this left us a little boggled (there were tons of water bottle filling stations within the Legoland Park – just none to be found in the hotel). Thankfully, we had stopped at Walmart on our way in and bought a gallon jug of water simply to have on hand and I’m really glad we did!
Speaking of the Walmart down the road, along with that gallon of water, we also bought lunch to bring along with us and eat on the day we checked in (we got Lunchables for the kids and salads for us, plus drinks). I’m really glad we did this because it saved us a sack full of money from having to eat lunch at the resort.
If we were doing it all over again, I would have purchased even more food at that Walmart to stock our mini fridge with so we could have saved even more money. (And to be honest: hoagies from Walmart were probably on par with the quality of the food from Bricks, okay maybe that’s stretching it a bit, but probably not really that much.)
On the other hand, we could have just left the resort to go out to dinner elsewhere. We strongly considered it, looking at all the local restaurants in the area – but trust me, when you’re at a resort, it’s HARD to leave! You’re there, you’re settled, the kids are playing and having a blast – picking up to leave is challenging (it would have saved us a good chunk of change though.)
Speaking of leaving the resort, especially if you’re leaving right around the time the park is closing – the theme park is set up so that you pay for your parking as you’re leaving (which is completely opposite every other theme park we’ve ever been to, including Disney World). This means that as the park is closing, the line of cars waiting to pay their parking fee and leave gets QUITE long. They have a lot of lanes, but when we were looking out the window to consider leaving for dinner, the line of cars definitely was a deterrent.
Okay, all this talk about expensive restaurants and money leads us to the MAJOR con of the Legoland Resort – which is the price tag. This is THE most expensive trip we have ever taken (yes, more expensive than us going to Epic Universe and staying on Universal Property earlier in 2025). Sure, they run “deals” and you can bundle your park tickets with your hotel stay, but it still leaves you seeing dollar signs (and that’s before you even step foot on property).
If your kids love Legos (like ours do), it makes sense that this is a place they will want to visit – they will probably BEG you to visit like our kids did! But WHEW! It is definitely a trip you need to save up and budget for.
Additionally, on top of it all: we were hit with a very unexpected parking fee of $35 a day. This fee was not stated anywhere along the booking process and we simply assumed that parking was included in the room fee (it’s sure high enough). The Resort provides you with a code to scan as you are leaving, so we simply assumed that parking was part of the resort fees and room price. But after we got home, we saw on our credit card statement that we’d been charged an additional fee and after digging into it – it was a parking fee. YIKES – this definitely left us with a bad taste in our mouth, which is unfortunate, because we truly did enjoy our time.
PROS
Seriously – we did have a wonderful time at the Legoland Resort, and our KIDS had the BEST time. As expensive as the trip was, they don’t see the dollar signs or read the price tags, so they were completely oblivious. While Mom and Dad might have left dinner a bit frazzled after being handed the bill or had a mini heart attack upon seeing the surprise parking fees on top of the other hotel charges show up on our credit card – our kids simply had the BEST time (and that’s all that matters.)
We arrived at the Legoland Resort early because we wanted to get as much out of our time as we possibly could. We lucked out by being able to actually check into our room as soon as we arrived (around 12pm). Even if we couldn’t have checked in right away though, you can still arrive on check-in day early and enjoy the pool and play in the Pirate Ship area while waiting for your room to be ready.
The ability to simply walk out of the resort and in less than five minutes be at the front gate of Legoland was WONDERFUL and so easy. It made being at the park for rope drop (and the opening show) so quick, painless, and convenient. No worries about parking your car and no hassles. Additionally, if you found that you needed to leave the park and go back to the resort for any reason – it was so easy to do that!
Both days that we went to Legoland, the main bulk of the crowd didn’t seem to show up until one to two hours into the day, so being at the park first thing meant that we were able to tackle the “big” main rides (The Lego Factory Adventure Ride, Ninjago The Ride, Coast Guard Academy, and the Driving School) while the lines were short (which is always our goal!)
CONCLUSION
So, here’s the big question:
Would we go back to the Legoland Resort?
I’m honestly not sure.
While we loved the room and the theming and the amenities, we can’t help but think in the back of our minds: we could go to so many other places for the same (or even less) cash.
For our current season of life (our kids are 10 and 7 and SUPER OBSESSED with Legos), it was a great trip for us. I’m so thankful we had the opportunity to go for the extended weekend that we did. It was a magical experience for our kids and I love the memories we created while we were there. If we move forward in time, even just a few years, our kids are (sadly) going to quickly grow out of Legoland and the attractions it offers. The park is very obviously geared toward kids ages 12 and under.
So, here’s the bottom line:
If your kids are young and into Legos and have an interest in Legoland – I’d say GO. Save your money leading up to your trip, be wise in how you spend while you’re there, but go. Have fun and enjoy. Because all too quickly, your sweet little ones will grow out of a desire to visit Legoland and you might miss your opportunity. So go and have the best time.
