Legoland Mindstorms min. age -- really 9 & other Qs

[Scotch]

I seem to recall during past trips that the Mindstorms classes are open to kids 8 on up. We'll be visiting this spring when DS is just 2 weeks shy of 9. But I just checked the Legoland website and the Mindstorms page says: " Guests ages 9 and above need to make a reservation the day of their visit." :-( Does anyone know if the 9 years is a hard and fast policy or would they be willing to make exceptions?

 

[Misskitty3]

I seem to recall during past trips that the Mindstorms classes are open to kids 8 on up. We'll be visiting this spring when DS is just 2 weeks shy of 9. But I just checked the Legoland website and the Mindstorms page says: " Guests ages 9 and above need to make a reservation the day of their visit." :-( Does anyone know if the 9 years is a hard and fast policy or would they be willing to make exceptions?

I doubt you will need to provide proof of age or anything! Some 8 year olds are much more mature than 9 year olds....if your kid is within a few days of 9 and is proficient with Lego, I would just sign him up!

 

[joelybelly]

I would love for my son to go to this!! He will be one day shy of being 9 when we go. So im sure he will be able to get in. Does anyone know how long the program is? thank you in advance!!!

 

[Scotch]

I'm going to try and sign my kiddo up! I'd like to know how long the class is as well. And how early do we need to go to secure a spot? We rarely arrive at Legoland near opening as we never have trouble finishing the park even if we arrive mid to late morning.

 

[Misskitty3]

I'm going to try and sign my kiddo up! I'd like to know how long the class is as well. And how early do we need to go to secure a spot? We rarely arrive at Legoland near opening as we never have trouble finishing the park even if we arrive mid to late morning.

We were there at rope drop last May on a Saturday. I signed DS up and he got a time around 1pm, if I remember correctly. You will want to try to be their early. If you are going after the beginning of April, the Lego hotel guests will have been in the park an hour by opening.

 

[Scotch]

Thanks. Maybe I'll head to the park early to sign him up, return to our rental for breakfast (as we are all late risers during vacations), and return to the park late morning with the family. I didn't think about the new hotel opening and the impact it may have on park attendance times. Glad we're going before that date!

 

[Scotch]

We were there at rope drop last May on a Saturday. I signed DS up and he got a time around 1pm, if I remember correctly. You will want to try to be their early. If you are going after the beginning of April, the Lego hotel guests will have been in the park an hour by opening.

OMG our trip is just around the corner! I just realized I forgot to ask a clarifying question -- does my son have to be present to sign up or can I go sign him up on my own? Since we're not early starters, just wondering if I can do a solo morning run for this by myself.

 

[Misskitty3]

OMG our trip is just around the corner! I just realized I forgot to ask a clarifying question -- does my son have to be present to sign up or can I go sign him up on my own? Since we're not early starters, just wondering if I can do a solo morning run for this by myself.

You should be fine to sign him up without him actually being there.

Would you mind coming back after your trip and letting us know how it goes? DH and DS will be there in June and the Mindstorm thing is at the top of the list!

 

[Scotch]

You should be fine to sign him up without him actually being there.

Would you mind coming back after your trip and letting us know how it goes? DH and DS will be there in June and the Mindstorm thing is at the top of the list!

Thanks. And yes, of course, I'd be happy to report back; there are so few posts re Mindstorms here. This assumes, of course, that I can actually get a spot for my older son. We're going to be there during spring break and we've only got one day allotted for the park.

I just discovered that the new 4D short film currently playing is on Chima, and my 5 year old is crazy about that new story line. So he's going to be super excited when I tell him about it!

 

[Scotch]

No problem signing up. We were there last week, one of the many busy spring break weeks. We didn't manage to get into the park until ~11:45 am for various reasons and I thought for sure I was out of luck on the Mindstorm class. When I got there the lady said no problem, she can open up another class for later that afternoon (3:30 pm originally but later changed to 5:00 pm). I also saw a sign outside the Mindstorm building that the class is open to 9 year old or 3rd graders -- the website doesn't mention the 3rd grader aspect -- so I wasn't worried. I still mentioned that my son is just shy of 9 years old and she said it was fine. I sat in on the class and I think the 9 years old or 3rd grade requirement makes sense (unless you have a super advanced kid but either that kid would still be at least in 3rd grade or would have enough experience with Mindstorms that the class would be boring).

So the class (~45 minutes? I forgot to keep track) goes over some software programming exercises with a Mindstorms robot. The one we did involved "Dr. Heartbeat" (or something like that) and the kids were instructed to program the robot to move in certain ways to carry out tasks on a pretend human body diagram on big tables. (On other days I'm told they may offer a different themed class as well.) For example, they had to program the robot to pick up balls (representing bad "blue" blood cells) or shoot some target. My son has no general programming experience and no prior experience with Lego Mindstorms, so this was all new and interesting. He wasn't so keen about taking the class when I first mentioned it. But he really enjoyed the class and had a great time. For a beginner, the class time was really too short to do much more than figure out one or two of the four exercises presented. Of course now I'm waiting to see if Mindstorms will get added to his Xmas wish list, after which I'll have to tell him that those kits are way too expensive as gifts for 9 year olds.

 

[helenb]

Thanks so much for the review! It is much appreciated!

Do you think the class would be good for slightly older kids, or kids who have some experience with Mindstorms?

 

[mooglegirl]

My son (8 1/2) has done two different Mindstorms programs, and my husband said there were kids there who had done the programs before and/or knew how the programming worked who were going "outside the box" programming their robots. So I think an older child or one with Mindstorms experience would be fine.