Did you know there’s a LEGOLAND Discovery Center right here in Somerville? Even better, once a month on a Wednesday LEGOLAND hosts a themed Adult Night, where adults can visit from 7PM to 9PM without any kids, play with LEGOs, go on the rides in the Discovery Center, and enjoy some food and drinks!
This past Wednesday, LEGOLAND hosted a Star Wars themed Adult Night! When I heard about it I knew I had to visit with my boyfriend because he loves both Star Wars and LEGOs, and we’ve watched some of the Star Wars movies together while building a LEGO Star Wars set!
The LEGOLAND Discovery Center in Somerville is about a five minute walk from Assembly Station on the Orange Line, so it’s really easy to get to. Even the walk to the center itself was really peaceful! We got to the Discovery Center right at 7 because we weren’t about to risk missing out on any of the fun. Right when we got there we got to walk through a mini version of Boston made entirely of LEGOs! And the best part? Boston was taken over by Star Wars characters for the night! It was so cool seeing this little representation of Boston made entirely of LEGOs. Walking through the different scenes, you really get a chance to appreciate the amount of care and work that must’ve went in to creating this. There are also interactive elements in this exhibit, from getting to move boats around with a wheel to pressing buttons to make it look like cannons are blasting from one of the ships! It was also a lot of fun spotting the Star Wars characters within the miniscape!
Next we walked around a LEGO Star Wars Miniland exhibit representing Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones. There was so much to see in this smaller space. From ships from Star Wars hung from the ceiling to LEGO representations of scenes from the movie to a holographic fight scene between Yoda and Count Dooku. Within that room there was also a race car VR ride experience for an additional $5, and while we were considering doing it, each time we visited this exhibit there was no one there to let us in and operate the ride.
We did, however, get to build our own LEGO race cars! There are two ramps and a long track you can use to race your LEGO car, and there are a number of bins built into the tables in this section so you can build your very own car however you want! I didn’t play with LEGOs too much as a kid, and I definitely never built a LEGO car, so this was a new experience for me. We built our own and then we built one together, and that one we tested out on the track! I then took our beautiful car to the higher ramp and watched her speed up and then break apart when she hit the end of the ramp. Honestly, it was fun to watch.
We went on both free rides in the Discovery Center: Kingdom Quest and Merlin’s Apprentice. Kingdom Quest was a lot of fun: you sit in a vehicle and shoot a gun at different targets such as spiders and boulders, some physical and some on a screen. Merlin’s Apprentice looked cute, but it wasn’t necessarily and experience either of us would repeat as it wasn’t the most comfortable ride experience. You sit in a vehicle and pedal yourself to move up on the ride. The scene looked really cool though!
To finish off the night we checked out the LEGO statue of Yoda some of the adults completed in about an hour! About half of Yoda was pre-built when we arrived, but to know that the rest of the statue was completed in such a short amount of time was mind-blowing! Also at this event was a short film being shown in a LEGO theater, but we ended up getting distracted by everything else going on and didn’t end up seeing the 15-minute film. So while we didn’t participate in these events, we did help build the Star Wars mystery character! There was a board and bins with numbered pieces that were painted, and containers of Legos of different colors that correlated to the colors painted on the numbered boards. It was really calming to do, almost like a LEGO version of a coloring book! While we were out here we even saw a LEGO Darth Vader walking around! The night finished off with a few raffles for LEGO Star Wars sets. I really wish we won, but even though we didn’t both of us had such a great time that night!
The next Adult Night at LEGOLAND Discovery Center Boston is an ugly sweater party on December 12th from 7PM-9PM. Tickets are $22.95, and can be purchased online or in-person. College students can receive $5 tickets if you present your student ID if you purchase your ticket at the venue. Food and drinks are an additional cost.
If you know anyone who loved playing with LEGOs as a kid, or who still loves playing with them now, I highly recommend checking out one of the Adult Night events!