LEGOLAND 2019: Secrets

It was August 27, 2012. I was playing the Community Lemonade Game for the first time ever. You can read about it here. It was Day 56 of a 100 day odyssey I'd created for myself. I visited LEGOLAND. I met LEGOLAND's Master Builders. More importantly, Renate, who has worked at LEGOLAND before it even opened and has been there since then, introduced me to an Adult Fan of LEGO (an AFOL), Jason Daubert. I learned about building techniques, about LEGO User Groups (LUGs) and about local LUGs, SANDLUG and LUGOLA. It was that time when I started across the bridge from fan to AFOL. I wrote about that experience - you can read it here.

That was 2012. Much has happened since then - too much to share now. It is now 2018, and I went to the LEGOLAND Media Day announcement for its 2019 birthday celebrations.

I have new secrets to share with you.

Your kids can go to LEGOLAND for free in 2019. The kids 12 and under, I mean. On their birthday, kids 12 and under can get into LEGOLAND, CA for free! Got twins? Double fun!

You can go to LEGOLAND for free in 2019. It's tricky, and you must first be in LEGOLAND to do this, but maybe you have a friend who goes there. LEGOLAND employees will be wearing little circle pog/buttons. If you find an employee with a Mr. Gold, you can ask her for it. You can trade it in at the guest counter for a ticket, or just keep it as a souvenir. One fellow I know has two of them in his collection. Here's a little piece of advice that I've found out for you. If you find more than one, you can still only use one per family or group. BUT if you find one and trade it in, then someone else in your family or group finds another and trade it in again.... the tickets are good for a year, and you can use them on the same day! Isn't that a good secret? Here are the official rules, none of which call out the secrets that I have shared with you here, but I have spoken to many 'in the know'...

Check out the awesome 20th birthday cake designed by Master Model Builders Matt Slagle, Tim Sams, PJ Catalano, Chris Scheunemann.

LEGOLAND will be celebrating on the February 16th/17th and again on the February 23rd/24th weekends with special activities around the LEGO Movie 2. The LEGO Movie 2 is coming out on February 8, 2019. For those who have been following The Community Lemonade Game, you'll know that I am planning the Leading Edge Multi-National Games on the week of February 11-15. We will be working on multi-national teams to achieve common goals related to the FIRST LEGO League Jr. and FIRST LEGO League challenges. Karma! Now I think I must book a movie showing for my group, and ask lots of kids to participate in a special showing of The LEGO Movie 2! We can have a brick party and movie showing... Isn't Everything Awesome? My big question is this. Will the Everything is Awesome theme song be featured in the new movie? Or will there be another, catchier song for kids to sing eternally?

Even More Awesome Karma. The Mission Moon, FIRST LEGO League, Jr. (FLL Jr.) Expo celebration at LEGOLAND, CA will be held on the following dates: Jan 26, Jan 27, Feb 23, Feb 24, Mar 9. So if you have a FLL Jr. team and go on Feb 23/24, you get to also participate in The LEGO Movie 2 fun! THEN... plan on finding a Mr. Gold button or two, turning the button in at the Guest Services, and returning to LEGOLAND on your twins' birthday! If you can't go that far, or even if you can, If you don't know what FIRST LEGO League and FLL Jr are, or even if you do, plan on joining the Leading Edge FLL Jr. and Leading Edge FLL off season celebrations in Long Beach on Feb 11-15!

It's convoluted, that's for sure. Hey, thoughts are free. If you're thinking 'What a Clown!", I have another post to share with you about the Clowns who believe in the Power of Play at Two Bit Circus, which I visited yesterday. But that's a story for tomorrow.

Trish Tsoiasue is a community builder based in Long Beach, California . She builds socially responsible, grassroots communities, believes in the power of play, has many hobbies and interests, and lots and lots of ideas. She is trained in LEGO(r) Serious Play and the Creative Problem Solving Institute's methods of intentional creativity. The communities she has created and in which she takes most pride are the Long Beach LEGO User Group, Makersville and the (new) Leading Edge Multi-National Games, which she prototyped in 2018. She is the inventor of the Community Lemonade Game, a mechanism for path finding and problem solving that she plays. She's convinced that one day you will play it too. You can find her experiential videos on her Squigglemom YouTube channel (please subscribe!), and when she's not blogging on the Patch, she's blogging on Squigglemom.net.