Legoland Discovery Centre in Schaumburg, IL

Recently I took five children... ages 11, 9, 7, 5, and 17 months... to the new Legoland Discovery Centre in Schaumburg. I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed.

The first thing that struck me about Legoland was the prices. Adults pay $19 to get into Legoland, and children are $15. Children under two years old are free, so I didn't have to pay for my youngest child... but it was definitely an expensive outing!

When we first entered Legoland, we saw mostly things to be looked at. There was an impressive jungle scene made entirely of Legos, and a model of the city of Chicago that was also made from Legos! The older kids liked the giant Lego statues better than the miniature Chicago... and the 17-month-old could have cared less about that.

Next, we encountered the Dragon Ride, which was a one-minute ride through a tunnel of Lego scenes. The 7 and 9 year olds in my group were the ones who enjoyed this mlld ride the most. The 11-year-old was rather underwhelmed by it, and the two youngest children were afraid of it! I thought it was rather cool myself... sort of like a very short version fo Disney's "Small World' and "Peter Pan" rides.

The next thing we went to was the 4-D movie. Despite the fact that we had to wait in line for ten minutes to see it, it was probably everyone's favorite part! A 4-D movie is like a regular 3-D movie... you wear 3-D glasses, and the scenes on the screen seem to pop out at you... but at the same time, you're also experiencing things in real life. For instance, when a gust of wind blows in the movie, you actually feel wind on you. When characters get splashed by water, water actually splashes on you. This was exciting to all of the children. Even the 17-month-old, who doesn't usually sit still for movies, was amused!

Next, we went on the Factory Tour. This isn't an actual factory tour, but more of an animated display of how machines in a Lego factory work. All five kids in my group opted to leave this tour early, out of boredom.

Finally, we entered a large room that contained a climbing structure, a pit of large, soft Legos, many tables full of all different kinds of Lego blocks and toys, and several racing tracks. All five of the children loved this room! The three youngest kids... even the 17-month-old... spent most of their time on the climbing structure, crawling through the tubes and going down the slides. The two older kids enjoyed building vehicles out of Legos, and racing them down the tracks. It's a good thing we left this part for last, because the kids never wanted to leave this room!

The five children all agreed that they had an awesome time at Legoland. I, however, will probably not be bringing them back there, mainly because of the steep price! The 4-D movie and the play area were the best parts of Legoland, and probably would have made the entire trip worthwhile, if not for the price. I live in an area with many children's museums, regular museums with interactive exhibits and children's areas, and indoor amusement centers, that are at least as much fun as Legoland and cost considerably less. My overall impression? Legoland was cool, but not worth the big bucks.