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[DianaGail]

We took the twins and the baby to visit KC last weekend.  If you are interested in a Sea Life, Lego Land, hotel package, Both the Westin Crown Center and Sheraton Crown Center offer packages starting at 149.00.  Totally worth it considering you can walk everywhere from Crown Center.  Be aware that the Sheraton is undergoing an $18M renovation right now, so the lobby is torn apart, but the rest of the hotel is not being worked on at this time.  The reason we chose the Sheraton is because it offered free parking with the package, while the Westin did not.  Anyway...

This was the first time at Lego Land for any of us.  I would imagine that most lego lands are much larger than this one.  The first thing you need to do is buy your tickets online.  If you don't, you are at the mercy of the lines that form and we have heard the wait can literally be hours.  The same thing goes for Sea Life, which we did not go to. If you get the hotel package, you can go to the attractions you paid for any time, without making reservations.  It sounds stupid, but considering the entire thing is indoors, there are fire codes they have to consider.  The only rude employee we came across was the guy admitting people into the building.  There was no signage, so we assumed we should go on in.  He certainly let us know that we were incorrect on that matter.  Also, you may not enter without a child, unless it is an adults only night.   

We were on our way up to lego land within 15 minutes of arriving.  Not bad considering I had to change our tickets in for "official" ones.  The lego "structures" are awesome!  The first thing you come across when you get off the elevator is the "factory tour".  It demonstrates how legos are made and is interactive which kept the kids attention...for a little while. Each child walks away with a souvineer lego. 

Then a short wait in line to go to the "Save the Princess" ride as my daughter called it.  You ride in a vehicle around a short track and shoot things, reminiscent of the Shootout.  Beware it is not quiet in there.  Cate never took her hands off her ears and Caleb flat out refused to ride it. 

Next you have your choice.  There is a small amusement type ride, lego city (or something like that), and then the big lego area.  Lego city was AWESOME!  They have done all of the major KC areas in legos.  You will see downtown KC, Union station, Sprint Center, Arrowhead and Kauffman Stadiums.  Around the corner I stepped into my favorite movie...the Wizard of Oz.  They have done everything from a house that spins and drops to Emerald City to the Witch's castle.  The sound effects are great and there are also munchkins!

There is a small play area for small toddlers, and lots of lego "pits" for the kids to play in.  There is an area to build cars and race them.  Cate loved the girls lego area, complete with lego cupcakes and princess castles.  There is a really cool area where you can build a lego building and make the board you build it on shake, just to see how well you actually build.  Caleb's favorite part was the play area.  There are slides, bricks to play in and jump on, etc.  There is an employee guarding the closed gate at all times and they will not let a child out without the child identifying a parent that is there to get them. 

There is also a 4D movie.  It was so cute!  You will get a bit damp, but it is a ton of fun with kids.  Cate loved it.  Again...Caleb refused to go.  He built cars instead. 

You can also watch the master builders and take a master builder class.  Apparently they are going to be building R2D2 soon...a full size replica.  Lego Land is located on the 2nd floor and Sea Life is located on the 1st floor.  One of the master builders said that they are already working on expansion plans for Lego Land to include the 3rd floor. 

The only improvement I would suggest is for them to have something like Chuck E. Cheese.  Each person gets a matching stamp or wrist band and you cannot leave or pick up your child from the play area without matching your child. 

Overall, we loved Lego Land and will likely visit again next year!

[Swoosh]

If you're more of a visual person, here are my photo trip reports for LDC and Sea Life KC

http://www.midwestinfoguide.com/migcrew/2012/legokc/

http://www.midwestinfoguide.com/migcrew/2012/sealifekc/

For the record, LDC KC is the 2nd largest in the US. It is much bigger than DFW's and Atlanta's.  The one in Chicago is bigger though.