Legoland Planning New Theme Park in Florida
Disney World is about to get some serious competition as Florida’s premier theme park, as Florida may soon be home to the second Legoland theme park in the US.
Legoland Model Builder
Merlin Entertainment Group Inc., the company that designs Legoland, is said to be doing research on building an entire new theme park in central Florida.
The latest round of chatter was triggered by Screamscape, which reported that one of it’s readers was asked to participate in a survey where the questions “were all about building Legoland Florida, which would be based on the basic design and layout of the Legoland California park, and feature about 50 different rides and attractions.”
The location mentioned for the park was in Winter Haven near Cypress Gardens, about an hour’s drive south of Disney. Some mainstream news organizations followed up on the chatter, and a local NBC affiliate WESH TV got confirmation from a Legoland Spokesperson that Merlin Entertainment was indeed looking into a theme park in central Florida.
And now a few other locations are also being bandied about now, including near Old Town in Kissimee and another spot on the grounds of a failed amusement park, Splendid China, which is located just a few minutes off Disney.
Legoland California
Legoland has three parks in Europe and only one theme park in the US, in Carlsbad, California, just off San Diego, where it charges $63 for an adult ticket and $53 for children.
They’re trying to change the focus of Legoland California from a theme park for day-trips into an attraction where visitors can stay overnight. And to this end, they recently got permission from Carlsbad’s planning commission to build a 250 room Lego-themed hotel within the grounds.
Stands to reason that if they go ahead with the plans for Legoland Florida, it will be the full package – with a Legoland theme park and a hotel and other resort facilities.
That pits them in direct competition with Disney World, and has the potential to trigger some big changes in Orlando’s theme park landscape, including possibly a major price war which would likely spread out to include the companies’ parks in California.
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4 Responses
If this increases property values and desirability, I vote for Winter Haven. My mom has a condo down there she is wondering how she’ll ever be able to sell.
Hey, it makes sense. Even in the toughest economic times, families take breaks and treat themselves. A day at Legoland falls into that category. It remains to be seen, however, if they have the chops to go up against Disney for the wallet share the Mouse now commands in central Florida. To date, the second largest tourist attraction visits in the state belongs to Sawgrass Mills outlet mall in the Ft. Lauderdale area … which means Mickey is miles ahead of Universal Studios and Seaworld.
Lego hotel rooms – great.
Have anyone visited Legoland in California ? Is it actually successful? Ive heard a lot of different feedback on it.
Nice, now like Disney, Legoland will have options for travelers no matter which coast they are closest to.
Thanks for sharing such a nice article. Very nice photo. Legoland theme park in UK is a complete family entertainment package. Dragon coaster is a dangerous ride, very scary for children as well as adults. Don’t miss the live running shows, building workshops, lego models in all shapes and sizes, driving schools, fire academy. For more details refer http://www.journeyidea.com/legoland-theme-park-uk/