From now through the end of June, visitors to LEGOLAND® Discovery Center and SEA LIFE Kansas City are invited to experience all-new Pirate-themed events. My daughters and I checked out these new activities this week, taking the ultimate pirate challenges with scavenger hunts, LEGO® build activities, photo ops, and learning opportunities.
TIP: Read to the end for a chance to win FREE tickets to Legoland or Sea Life!
Note: The attractions and the events will continue to take extra precautions for health and safety including implementing enhanced physical distancing measures, limited capacities, and stringent cleaning protocols following the guidance of local and national health officials. Guests are encouraged to purchase tickets online in advance to ensure they can visit on their desired day. Weekends and days when school is out often sell out, so plan ahead.
So, what is a visitor to expect if they visit Pirates Ahoy!?
LEGOLAND Discovery Center Pirates Ahoy
We visited Legoland on a weekday to check out the event. it was not crowded and we were able to easily enjoy the attraction. The morning was less crowded than the afternoon, so if you are available in the morning hours you might keep that in mind.
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Upon entering, visitors see a challenge to participate in a Pirate-themed scavenger hunt in Miniland (the Lego replica of Kansas City's most loved landmarks) for a chance to win a Pirate Ship Lego set. Miniland took hundreds of manhours to build and thousands of Lego bricks and the likeness to our favorite spots are fantastic. The girls loved finding pirates invading Kansas City, playing ball with the Royals, buying BBQ at Joe's, storming the Plaza, performing at Starlight, and more. The creativity of the pirate invasion was so much fun we explored Miniland when we first arrived and again before we left. Kids also enjoy the interaction as they race cars at the Speedway, watch scenes from the Wizard of Oz come to life, and more.
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Throughout the day, Captain Red Beard came out for visits and photo ops with the children:
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Pirates Ahoy! Legoland Kansas City
We also enjoyed meeting, Alex Moon, the current Master Model Builder at Legoland. Alex is a lifelong Lego fan who grew up creating with Lego bricks from an early age. He says that he fell in love with Duplo blocks as a young boy and the interest grew over time. Alex competed for the position of Master Model Builder last March. The competitors built designs during multiple rounds of competition as they had to work with limited time and supplies to create unique designs to fit a theme. He built a model of Liberty Memorial (in photos) and a child's ideal home complete with a Ferris wheel as two of his entries in the contest. He won the position and now works full time at Legoland designing new masterpieces for the attraction in his workshop and teaching kids how to build small designs throughout the day. He taught my girls how to build a mini pirate ship (one of two pirate-themed designs offered during Pirates Ahoy!) while we were there. He encourages kids to use their imaginations and creativity to solve problems and tweak their designs as Lego builders.
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Crown Center
2450 Grand Blvd, Kansas City, MissouriCrown Center is the place for pure entertainment. With exciting events and unique attractions. A center full of locally owned shops and restaurants. And two luxury hotels so you can stay at the center of it all.
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LEGOLAND Discovery Center
Legoland Discovery Center Kansas City offers a fun, highly interactive and educational 2-to 3-hour indoor experience. Based on the ever-popular Lego® brick, Legoland Discovery Center provides a range of interactive play areas.
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Sea Life Kansas City
This aquarium experience will get you up close and face-to-face with amazing underwater creatures such as sharks, octopus, our green sea turtle named Gertrude, stingrays, sea stars, seahorses, jellyfish and thousands of colorful fish! A favorite a...
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The Master Model Builders have designed many wonderful LEGO masterpieces for guests to enjoy throughout the years. The giant treasure chest is the newest big build, but many favorites are still there for guests to enjoy.
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In addition to pirate decorations, the Legoland Attractions also embrace the pirate theme. There are many opportunities for kids to build and create with Lego bricks. Guests check out their own bin of sanitized Lego bricks to play with throughout the attraction and return them before they head home. The bricks are then cleaned for the next guest to enjoy. My girls loved making stop motion Lego films with pirate-themed backgrounds and racing "Pirate Ship" boats on the race track!
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In addition to these attractions, guests also enjoy a giant Duplo Village for little ones, a Lego Pizzeria where kids are encouraged to build their own pizza with Lego bricks, a 4D Lego Cinema (showing three 15-minute films daily complete with special effects including wind, snow, and bubbles), rides, a Ninjago challenge, and a train-themed play area.
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We spent four hours playing at Legoland Discovery Center. Guests typically spend an average of 2-hours per visit, but you are welcome to come early and play all day. They even have a cafe that serves lunch, or you may leave and lunch at Crown Center (we went to Fritz's) and come back to play longer. If you have a Lego fan in your family (and who doesn't?) you might consider an annual pass to enjoy unlimited visits throughout the year! Pirates Ahoy! Legoland offers a lot of fun and imagination for kids and we give it two thumbs up!
SEA LIFE Pirate
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Guests at Sea Life begin their adventure with pirate-themed photo ops and the opportunity to participate in a survey where you are awarded a custom Pirate name for your adventure. My girls loved their pirate names and wondered why they and their friends weren't given monikers like Buccaneer Grumpy O'Patches, Skipper Scurvy Seadog, or Matey Bones O'Malley.
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Much of the decor and ambiance at Sea Life naturally lent itself to this summer's pirate theme, but to heighten the pirate experience they have added historical pirate trivia and fun decorations to the site.
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One of the all-time favorite attractions at Sea Life is the Touch Pool. Guests clean their hands before and after carefully touching the sea creatures with the guidance of an educator. The girls enjoyed touching chocolate chip sea stars, cowry sea snails, pencil sea urchins (that "hug your finger" when given a gentle touch with just one fingertip), slipper lobsters (the newest addition to the pool), shark eggs, and more.
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The girls enjoyed the many animals throughout the aquarium. With walk-through tunnels, blacklight exhibits, the sea turtle rescue exhibit, Stingray Bay, numerous photo op aquarium bubbles, and many interactive touch screens offering educational information, there was much to see and experience.
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We saw many interesting animals at Sea Life, but my personal favorite was the Weedy Sea Dragon, a marine fish related to Sea Horses. The animal almost appears to be mythical. In addition to watching and learning about the weedy sea dragons (like most exhibits throughout the attraction there is a regularly cleaned touch screen that educates guests about the animal), you may participate in an interactive dance experience with an on-screen sea dragon as well.
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Keeping with the pirate theme, guests have the opportunity to make a take-home craft: Pirate Crab. This project is offered in Stingray Bay, one of the last exhibits at Sea Life.
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The final exhibit at Sea Life is Doodle Reef, an engaging interactive experience for kids where they design a sea creature on screen and it is animated coming to life first in a small aquarium, and then on the BIG screen. This creative experience is always a hit for kids!
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We typically spend 1-3 hours visiting Sea Life. For this lifelong Kansas Citian, I always enjoy the chance to see and learn about sea creatures that we don't often get to meet in the Midwest.
Bonus:
For lunch, we had to eat at Fritz's at Crown Center - the favorite restaurant for KC kids who delight in watching as trains deliver the food straight to your table!
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