by Alanna Peters

This past weekend I had the opportunity to take my family to the Brick or Treat nights at LEGOLAND California. What an awesome perk for being a LEGOLAND blogger!

I’m not going to lie, by the time Saturday evening rolled around, I was NOT in the mood for dealing with crowds and lines with fussy kids. We’d had a long day of school and art festivals. But, I had the tickets, and I knew the girls would love it. And surprise, it ended up being awesome!!!

I expected the park to be only minimally full since we were going after hours. I (incorrectly!) assumed that all the day-goers that did not have Brick-Or-Treat passes would already be gone. That didn’t seem to be the case, as many of them were still moseying their way out slowly over the next few hours.

It was a bit confusing and stressful when we first arrived, as we discovered there was a separate wristband we needed for Brick-Or-Treat, which we didn’t find out about until we were further inside the park. This was not communicated to us when we first entered the main gates which was a bit frustrating – especially since the Brick-Or-Treat entrance we went to was no longer giving out wristbands and we had to trek through the crowds to the other entrance.

Once we did get into the Brick-Or-Treat area though, everyone’s moods improved. We immediately found a treat station right inside the gate and the girls were thrilled!

The spooky LEGO decorations in the park were fabulous, and all the Halloween lights were awesome. There was a moving light display sequenced to music which happened to be playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as we approached. (A family fave!) So fun!!! Halfway through the park we stopped at the castle where they were getting ready for a stage show. It was quite silly in my opinion, but the girls sat nicely through it – I think it was a welcome rest after a long day of fun! (And hubby found beer at the BBQ restaurant. Win.) We continued on to several other treat stations and enjoyed looking at all the Halloween surprises and costumes.

One other thing that was a little disappointing was the Pop badge challenge. When we got to the table where they were giving out badges, we were turned away because we hadn’t filled out our cards. What cards?! Apparently they were supposed to have handed them to us along with our wristbands but for some reason they skipped us. Not a huge deal for us though, since my girls hadn’t been collecting anyway.

We ended the night with some Bluegrass music in Heartlake City. These guys were awesome! Definitely a legit band. My girls had a blast dancing along and my husband and I enjoyed a chance to take a break and listen to music.

My big takeaways from the event:

• I would recommend either going for the rides OR going for the Halloween fun. It would be overwhelming to try to both in the evening. If you have the time to do it, I would go early and do rides during the day and save the dark for Brick-Or-Treat. The ride lines still seemed to be really long, which surprised me. (My kids didn’t even ask for rides though, they were having so much fun looking at lights and displays and finding treat stations!)

• I appreciated that not all of the treats were candy. There were Clif Z Bars, Honest juice pouches, and even a Frankenstein commemorative LEGO brick.

We all left the park in high spirits. I was pleasantly surprised that the crowds didn’t bother me at all. We did skip the treat stations in the Sealife Aquarium because that line was INSANE. I will definitely make an effort to go back next year! The Brick or Treat event does require a separate admission ticket ($45) unless you have the fancy pass. We have the standard passes though, and as passholders, we have the option to purchase the Brick-Or-Treat admission at at price of $5 or $15 (depending on which weekend we choose), which I think is well worth the money. This happens on Saturdays in October, so I highly recommend putting it on your October/Halloween To-Do list for next year!!!