LEGOLAND Discovery Center Arizona - The Cactus Chronicles

We took a drive to Tempe today to check out the new LEGOLAND Discovery Center Arizona, which just opened to the public this past Friday! I previously wrote about our experience at the LEGO KidsFest in Phoenix and our first visit to LEGOLAND California. There are a limited number of Discovery Centers in the United States, so I was glad to see that there would be one opening in the Phoenix area. And after spending a good portion of the day there, I can say that the whole family loved it.

Because it’s opening weekend, I thought it would be better to purchase the tickets online. Not only that, but I liked that I was able to reserve a specific time when I purchased the tickets. Our friends and their sons also joined us, and that added to the fun. Because there were several different areas, it was perfect for our children’s ages (3-4 years old). I do recommend visiting earlier in the day – we signed up for the 10 a.m. slot and when we arrived, it wasn’t crowded. But by the time we left at around 12:30 p.m., there was definitely more of a crowd.

We’re here! You can’t miss the building and the LEGO fountain out front 🙂

The picture below was taken in the food court area 🙂

The Discovery Center has two rides – Kingdom Quest Laser Ride and Merlin’s Apprentice Ride. I think my son liked Merlin’s Apprentice Ride more, mostly because when you pedal, the ride goes higher and higher. I personally liked the Laser Ride more, lol, because it was more interactive.

I didn’t take an actual picture of the Kingdom Quest Laser Ride because it’s very dark, but I did get a few pictures outside of the ride.

And here’s my son and husband enjoying Merlin’s Apprentice Ride 🙂

We also really enjoyed the LEGO 4D Cinema. We were able to watch a short movie – Legends of Chima. You could feel rain drops during certain scenes and even the wind. My son was enthralled by the short film.

We were also able to explore MINILAND which was modeled after Phoenix and the state of Arizona as a whole. I loved seeing the cowboys and cactus shown below.

Pretty amazing, huh?

Another area is the LEGO DUPLO Farm where kids can build with larger legos and go down a slide. The younger crowd gravitated towards this area.

Probably my son’s favorite area was LEGO Racers. You can help your child build a race car and race it against other cars.

Another area he really liked was LEGO City: Play Zone. The only thing I didn’t like about this area was that there were older kids in there and one kid in particular kept trying to tackle my son. And his parent(s) didn’t seem to be keeping an eye on him.