Storyland will always hold a special place in my heart. It is the first “real adventure” we went on as first time parents; my daughter was two the first time we went and she has been every year since and now I have a 2yo son who enjoyed his first time just as much. Anyway, let’s begin shall we?
Use a GPS and you’ll have no problem finding Storyland. However if your GPS, tell you they’ve found a shorter route..don’t take it. We did and we went all the way up hurricane mountain and down again. It qas very twisty and steep. Do not recommend. Once you arrive, there’s plenty of parking and the walk from car to gate is <10m. I recommend bringing a wagon or stroller! Pricing starts at $39.99 and ages 1&2 get in free! There is typically a 10-15m wait line just to get to ticketing. There is a small(ish) aquarium literally next to storyland, we went this and I briefly mention it at the end. While worth it for the kids, it’s not huge and I really wouldn’t even call it an aquarium.
The very first thing we always do at Storyland is the treehouse playground and nursery rhyme book area. The treehouse playground is BIG and has two steep blue slide, one on each side. The tree talks as you would imagine one from a story book would. There is a small opening and I assume stairs to get up to the top of the treehouse, bridges and slides. My daughter, and now son, loves this area and can always spend more time here. The nursery rhyme area has “interactive”/hands on props from kids favorite books; Mary’s school (Mary had a little lamb, big wooden shoes (one, two buckle my shoe), humpty dumpty. My daughter, 5, used to take her time in this area and stay in one spot for a few minutes at a time. She now moves quickly through these while still (I think) genuinely enjoying it, just not AS much. My 2yo enjoyed his time and played at each “station.”
The wait times for rides here can be long. For me thats to be expected but it’s a warning for those little movers who have a hard time waiting in lines. Storyland is always busy, or atleast, for us, have never been and thought “oh there’s not a lot of people here.” There is a lot of uphill as far as walking but it is stroller/wagon friendly. I can’t speak on the shops because we have never stopped at one. What I can say is there is a lot! There is a train that can take you to other areas of the park. So if you get on and plan to get off on another, grab the essentials because there isn’t space for a wagon/carrier. If you just want to take a ride around the whole park than you can do that too! Pictures are a bit expensive, at $18 for one 5×7. However what I didn’t notice until after I bought mine, is there is a picture pass for $50 and you get unlimited photos, which pays for itself in just two pictures.
There are plenty of rides for all ages including infants. When my 2yo son was three months old we brought him to storyland (so technically this is his second time here) and we brought him on a few rides! The “scariest” thing there would be the only wooden roller coaster they have. Everything else is pretty mild, at least what we’ve been on in our years coming here. My 2yo rode everything my 5yo did, plus the log flume which she doesn’t like! There was and always is something we miss during our time visiting. One of those rides is the Dino Safari Ride, we forget every single time or we can’t easily see/find it. You can see *some dinos* from the train ride around. Something we always miss but managed to get to this time, was the excavator digging area. My daughter, 5, gave it a try a couple times and that was that for her. My son, 2, threw a TANTRUM, when we told him we had to be done. At that point he had already tried it a lot longer and four or five times. He loves excavators and we knew he’d love it. Im glad we found it and next time will also let him stop at the Dino fossil dig nearby (this time we rushed him by bc we knew we’d be there for a while if he’d seen it).
So in the last four years that we’ve been going, we’ve never been up the way of Cinderella’s castle. Not for any reason but my daughter really didn’t know who that was so we just skipped that whole section. Until now. Not worth it. In fact I would just skip the Pumpkin ride altogether unless you have a princess obsessed child. The walk would have been faster than the 45m we waited in line and my kids don’t still don’t really even know who the princess are. If your child(ren) DO like Cinderella, they can meet her inside her castle and she also does a tea party before the park opens and you need to reserve those tickets in advance. There are a couple of infant can ride rides back here but for us we will continue to skip this whole section.
Everyone is talking about Storylands new water park, Moo Lagoon. It is worth the hype. It is big. There’s water everywhere. Even if you stand on the edge of the water area, you’re still going to be hit. There’s sprayers in shapes of, flowers, insects, a rainbow, a tractor and probably a lot more that I just didn’t realize water was coming from it (because yes there’s that much water spraying around). There is a water “playground” if you will. It has water spraying from every angle and of course a bucket that fills with water and then tips on the poor unfortunate souls underneath it. My kids do not like these kinds of water park plays so we didn’t even attempt to climb even one step but I did observe slides of various sizes. Behind this area, but still apart of Moo Lagoon are the big slides for older kids or adults. My kids could’ve spent all day here or at least a couple hours. We played for maybe 45m here. There’s a pizza shop directly next to it so it’s a good place to sit and eat….that is if you can find a seat. It is extremely busy. People every where, kids every where, water everywhere. You don’t need life jackets or arm floats for this area, it’s pretty shallow. If you have a little that would like a more low-key water area there is a splash pad area in front of Dr. Geyser’s Remarkable Raft Ride! The changing area in Moo Lagoon is still being built so we changed in one of the parks other changing buildings and there’s many of them!
There is a, what I call, a ball pit building. Inside this very hot building is tons of plastic balls to be shot through cannons either up or downstairs. We skipped it this year because the day we went was hot so I just knew it’d be sweltering in there. In previous years my daughter loves this and can spend a lot of time here.
Off to the side of this same building is another big room with a stage. On this stage, Daniel Tiger and a friend (who idk) come out and perform. I don’t have much to say about this because we’ve only been once and it was short lived (again my kids don’t know who Daniel tiger is). I remember it being way too hot and crowded during that time. So we haven’t been to a show since. If you have a kiddo who does like Daniel tiger, you’ll just want to check the times of the shows and get there early to get a good seat.
Livingshores Aquarium. If you do visit during your trip to Storyland, I’d either do it first before entering the park or the very last thing you do. It is not inside Storyland so you do have to leave the park and walk across the parking lot to get there. We left the park at 4 to go to Livingshores. Which in my opinion, was the best way to do it. I wouldn’t call this an aquarium so much as I would call it a touch tank exhibit with a few viewing fish tanks and some reptile tanks. With that said, the kids like it and it makes them happy so why not? There is an caged exhibit that houses birds of various kinds. It was closed this time but the one other time we went, my daughter was so happy to be surronded by birds. You can touch sting rays, sharks, urchins, starfish and you can even put your hand in a nibble fish tank and the fish will literally swarm your hand and suck and clean your hand until you pull it out. Oddly enough, I could have done this all day. It was the strangest feeling but it was also so cool. Anyway, my 5yo did not like that feeling and my 2yo tolerated it. My 5yo enjoyed the stingray touch the most and she spent the majority of her time waiting for the stingrays to pass her by so she could feel their slimy wet gummy bear skin. Again we went around 4pm and it closes at 5pm so we were the only ones here. There’s a small sand box towards the end of the aquarium, my two year old loved and and once he found it, that was it for him. Above the sand box is a projection of ocean life that you can see in the sand. We spent 45m here and that was MILKING it. We had them go around a few times and then we just let my son play in the sand for a while, while my daughter stayed with the stingrays.
I will always love Storyland. We have a picture of my daughter, who we call Rory, in front of the dinosaur statue also named Rory from every year that we’ve been. And yes I sob everytime I compare the pictures. There are plenty of areas and characters to pose with/in front of. Storyland is nostalgic and fun and it’s definitely worth the trip! Prices are fair and they have deal packages, which we did this time around for Storyland and Living Shores. If you have kids who like fish, touch tanks, etc, then that deal is worth it, other wise they have some other deals worth looking into. You can bring your own food to save you from burning a hole in your pocket. I would say it’s best for ages 2 and up. However, if you have a younger child that’s just tagging along, there are still rides that they can do with you/family. Ride wait times can be a bit long and harder for kids to wait but it’s to be expected at an amusement parks, nothing we have been on has ever been longer than 45m. Get the picture pass to get your money’s worth of pictures, it’s a pretty good deal. We typically go from open to close and still don’t get to do/see everything; that may be because of wait times. The Waterpark is awesome and I’m so glad they’ve added it! We could’ve spent so much time here. The water is refreshing on a hot day and after walking around the park for a few hours. You will get wet, no matter how hard you try not to. There isn’t much for seating in this are as it is VERY VERY busy.
little Movers Maine 