LEGO Friends Heartlake Grand Hotel review

We have discussed many of the new LEGO Friends sets already (see links at the end of this post), but I felt that #41101 LEGO Friends Heartlake Grand Hotel is so grand and so full of interesting details and new pieces, it deserves it’s own review. So let’s begin the tour of the Grand Hotel! 🙂

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL DESCRIPTION: Enjoy an amazing stay at Heartlake City’s Grand Hotel! Have the vacation of a lifetime at the Grand Hotel in Heartlake City! As the cab pulls up in front of the hotel, help Andrea, Stephanie and Olivia hand their luggage to Nate the bellboy who is waiting for them with a trolley. Head through the revolving door and enter the glamorous hotel lobby under the amazing chandelier to start exploring. Collect the keys from Andrea’s aunt, Susan, at the check-in counter and pet the hotel cat. Take the elevator up to the second floor to find the rooms. which will you choose, the double or the single? Check out the view from the balcony and freshen up in the shower before heading to the rooftop pool. Take a dip or relax in the sun lounger with a freshly made drink from the smoothie bar. Later on enjoy cake and coffee at the hotel café or get an ice cream served on the terrace by the fountain outside. In the evening give Andrea the chance to shine as she sings on the stage of the cozy hotel bar accompanied by her friends on the jazz piano and saxophone. Take the lift to the top floor where Nate is spinning some tunes from the DJ booth, accompanied by his friendly dog. What will tomorrow hold? At this incredible hotel there’s enough to keep them busy for the whole vacation! Includes 5 mini-doll figures: Andrea, Olivia, Stephanie, Susan and Nate, plus a dog and a cat. Hotel measures over 11” (30cm) high, 12” (32cm) wide and 6” (17cm) deep. Black cab measures over 2” (7cm) high, 4” (11cm) long and 1” (5cm) wide. 1552 pieces. Price: $129.99 – BUY HERE

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL FEATURES: This three-story hotel features a lobby, reception area, café, jazz bar, master bedroom, single bedroom, rooftop pool area, functioning elevator, outside dining area, fountain and a black cab. The hotel lobby features a revolving door, chandelier, reception desk with computer element, café and a jazz lounge with stage, grand piano, saxophone and microphone elements. The master bedroom features a double bed, vanity desk and a sliding door to the balcony. The single bedroom features a single bed, en-suite shower room, flat screen TV element and a sliding door to the balcony. The rooftop pool area features a swimming pool, juice bar, sun lounger, umbrella and a DJ booth. The outside dining area features a table, chairs and a food trolley.

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL MODULAR DESIGN: It is not immediately obvious when you first look at this set that it comes with a modular design. Meaning the hotel is built up of large, interconnected sections that can be taken apart and reconfigured in any way you like (in the video-review below you will see some examples). This is a huge advantage both for playability and also for displaying the set. But it gets even better! The rooms and floor sections are not the only features that are modular. The inside sections can also be easily moved. If you want to set up the receptionist area somewhere else, all you have to do is pick up the entire booth and move it. Same with the breakfast corner, the furniture in the bedrooms, etc. – they can all be easily repositioned without having to take anything apart. In addition, several stand-alone modular sections are also included; the fountain area, the stage with piano, the bar, and the lounge area are all separate sections that you can rearrange the hotel however you wish.

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL ACCESSORIES: As pretty much all LEGO Friends sets,, the LEGO Friends Grand Hotel comes with tons of accessories. These include the bellboy trolley, suitcases, drinks, glasses, bottles, cakes, ice cream, hairbrush, lipstick, perfume bottles, tables, chairs, flowers, room keys, speakers, and more. I should mention here that most of the decorations you see are stickers. The only printed elements are a few round and regular tiles as pictured below.

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL NEW ELEMENTS: For many LEGO fans new pieces are the most exciting feature of a set. Here you will get a number of very useful new pieces. The rounded arch-inserts with three spokes are a brand new piece, and you get four of them here in tan. The decorative 1×1 brick with the swirly scroll design are also a new piece, and you get ten of them in pearl gold. Both of these extremely useful pieces that I’m sure we will continue seeing in other sets as well, and hopefully in many more colors. There are many other rare pieces and pieces in new colors that LEGO fans will enjoy. I particularly like the design of the two small plants at the front using the new plant stem elements.

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL FUNCTIONS: Since this is a building, you are not going to see a whole lot of moving parts, but there are a couple of them here that are worth mentioning. The revolving door in the lobby looks really good. The elevator that connects the floors is a simple design that works well, although as far as design it is also the weakest part of the set. It is pretty much the same as the elevator in the #10224 LEGO Creator Town Hall, but with some faults. In the Grand Hotel the elevator has no doors at each floor and there is a big gap between the elevator and the floor. So guests can just fall in the elevator shaft or trap their foot between the elevator and the floor – both big liabilities for a hotel.

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL TAXI: There is one vehicle included with the set; a black taxi cab. While not the main feature of the set, it has a noteworthy design. It can fit four mini-dolls (rare for any LEGO vehicle), and it has a functioning trunk! The only downside is that the cab has no doors, but you can easily remove the roof to move mini-dolls in and out.

➡ LEGO FRIENDS GRAND HOTEL MINI-DOLLS: The set comes with five mini-dolls: Andrea, Olivia, and Stephanie are regulars in the LEGO Friends line, but Susan and Nate are unique to this set. Talking about characters, I should also mention that the set includes a dog and a cat.

In the video-player below I have included several videos for you. The first one is a full review of the set by JANGBRiCKS where he shows you the set in more detail. The second video is directly from LEGO highlighting the features of the hotel. The third video is Episode 9 of the LEGO Friends movie series titled “The Grand Hotel”. It is about 23 minutes long. Enjoy! 😀

All in all I have to say that this set is fantastic! It is an impressive and beautiful looking building for those who like a new addition to their Heartlake City layout. The set can also be easily converted into a regular LEGO City setting by simply changing the mini-dolls to minifigures, and perhaps changing out the purple to a more traditional color. And for those looking for new and rare elements and colors, here you get a lot of them. The price per piece ratio of this set is 8 cents, which is excellent. You pretty much can’t go wrong with it either as a set or just for the parts. It is available under the LEGO Friends section of the Online LEGO Shop.

So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO Friends Heartlake Grand Hotel? Are you planning to get it? Or do you have it already? If you do, feel free to share your own review in the comment section below! 😉

And you might also like to check out the LEGO Friends section for more news, reviews and discussions, or select from the following related posts:

• LEGO Friends Pop Star Sets Review
• Small LEGO Friends Sets with Big Surprises
• 2015 LEGO Friends Sets Reviews
• LEGO Friends TV Series Episode 4 & 5
• LEGO Friends Jungle Sets & More!