lborne
It all started with a rabbit
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2006
- Messages
- 1,387
Not sure if this is the right place for this, but I'm sure a moderator will move it if there is a better spot.
We went to Legoland this past Monday Oct 10. Even though this is a Disney related board, I thought I would share our trip with everyone who is lucky enough to have a rental car and are able to throw off Pluto’s scent and escape from the Disney compound to visit this newest of parks in Florida. If you are coming from Disney property, you have about a 45 minute drive to reach Legoland.
We bought annual passes to Legoland several months ago through AAA which had a good deal - buy one adult annual pass and get a free child annual pass. Luckily (ha ha) we just happened to have a couple "childs" at the house ages 8 and 12 still living with us. The adult annual passes were $129 + tax.
Monday happened to be a special preview day for annual passholders and in an amazing coincidence in our favor, the kids had that day off from school. Many of the attractions listed on the Legoland website were not even open yet, but the staff were hard at work getting things ready.
On this particular weekend, Florida happened to have a sub tropical depression over it which meant 10+ inches of rain. But true to the Florida expression “What comes after two days of rain? Answer: Monday”, we had perfect beautiful weather for the Lego land preview.
The park opened at 10:00 am but we did not arrive until about 11:00 am. We were expecting a very busy park but were in shock when we arrived and the parking lot was virtually empty. We figured there must be some secret parking lot elsewhere that we just could not see. But no, it really was pretty empty. Guess Pluto caught most everyone.
Not to be outdone by Disney, parking prices were criminal. Parking a car will cost you $12 for normal parking and $20 for preferred. Don’t bother with preferred – the entire parking lot could fit within a city block and preferred will save you about 20 paces. There were no trams because the lot is that close they are not needed.
We walk up to the ticket counter and hand them our annual pass coupons. There was no wait in line, but the process did take a little time. They had to take photos of all of us, and we upgraded one pass to the premium pass ($32 more) which gets us free parking and 10% off at the restaurants and shops. They even refunded the $12 parking we had just paid (keep your receipt). The annual passes we got were plastic credit card type with our photo and not the flimsy paper ones you get at the other theme parks.
Now it is time to enter the park. Unlike every other theme park in Florida, you do NOT need to wait 5 minutes while the machine tries to scan you finger. Lego land got it right on this part - they simply swipe the card, look at your photo and snicker, and you are in. Not even a bag check to make sure we were not carrying a nuclear weapon, which actually could easily fit in my wife's purse, not that she'd ever be able to find it. +1 for Lego land. This should really make entering the park quick and easy, unfortunately, I'm afraid you'll be waiting in long lines for the attractions.
All around the park are Lego creations. Like the lego creations at Downtown Disney but lots more. Everywhere you look is some amazing creation that if it were for sale at Wal-Mart would cost $5000, come in a car sized box with the note “ages 150+” and would take the average person 75 years to complete (5 of those years looking for that one clear triangular piece that flew under the sofa when you tore open the box). The park has retained some of the original Cypress Gardens rides and landscaping, including majestic oaks draped with moss – they even kept the water ski shows. (You just normally think water ski show when you think Lego - right?) Instead of coming in with bulldozers and leveling everything, they worked around the natural vegetation. +1 more for Lego.
Overall, the park is designed for pre teens. Teenagers are not going to find exciting thrill rides here and are generally going to be bored unless they are lego aficionados. Our 12 year old enjoyed the park enough, but would have rather been at Universal Studios with Spiderman and the Hulk rather than Murray the lego dude. Even our 8 year old felt too old to go on some of the rides, but he did give the park 1.5 thumbs up. Parents will enjoy most of the rides. There is even a special adult only attraction. No, its not a bar. It consists of a room scattered with little lego pieces all over the floor and you have to walk to the other side barefoot in the dark without cursing.
One negative is that most all of the rides at the park can’t handle large numbers of people per hour. We did not have long waits but that was only because there were more employees than guests on this particular day. But we can imagine very long wait times for many of the attractions on normally busy days. They just are not set up for lots of waiting people. Some of the rides are very unstructured which means more potential for long delays (and injuries). On the plus side, some of the rides are very unique and won’t be found elsewhere in Florida.
One of the first rides we did was Island in the Sky which is one of the original rides at the old Cypress Gardens. Basically it is a giant teeter totter with everyone on a rotating platform on one end and a giant weight on the other, and you are lifted high into the air. You’ll get a great view of the parking lot.
Hey? Is that someone breaking into our minivan?
Next we went to the lego factory where you can watch a 3 minute movie and then see how legos are made. The movie was just finishing and our ADD family did not want to sit and wait 10 seconds for it to start again, so we skipped it and went straight to the production tour. Tour is being generous as its all in one room. It’s a miniature representation of a plastic injection molding machine, but not an actual working machine. Fine for a few minutes and you get a free lego brick with the Legoland Florida logo.
Although we did not get any, I hear the fried apples at the Granny Apple Store are pretty good. We prefer our fried food not be so healthy.
The lego studios shop is ok - small, but it did have one unique item that I want for Christmas - a lego calendar. But you have to rebuild it every month.
Miniland: Another section of the park is Miniland USA which features recreations of famous cities and their buildings all made from legos. You could spend hours here looking at miniature recreations of Las Vegas, Key West, Cape Canaveral and the shuttle, San Francisco, New York and much more. Its not just all static legos either. Some of the creations and vehicles are moving or will go into action if you push buttons nearby. Remember your sunscreen because there is no shade. I'm sure most male adults around, myself included, were wishing they could stomp around pretending to be Godzilla.
Here is the Daytona Speedway full of mini lego rednecks.
Duplo village: We did not go to because our kids are too old. But if we ever forget our birth control, I’ll be sure to fill you in when we visit.
In the knight and castle Lego Kingdoms area is The Dragon roller coaster. This is a leftover roller coaster from Cypress Gardens but that has been added too. It’s a pretty tame roller coaster, as all at Legoland are, compared to say Universal. Height restrictions are 40", but riders under 48" must be accompanied by a responsible rider over 48". Since neither Elizabeth nor I are responsible, Matthew had to go with his brother. This ride is comparable to Flight of the Hippograth (Flight of the unicorn) and just a bit more thrilling than Goofys Barnstormer, Woody Woodpecker’s roller coaster, the Shamu roller coaster or waiting in line at the DMV. Before you get to the actual roller coaster part, you move along very slowly inside a building looking at various lego creations of which I've already forgotten.
Another ride in this area is the Royal Joust where bucking horses go around a track. But don't worry parents, as my 8 year old pointed out, you don't actually get to joust and knock each other off the horses. Its one of the fairly unique rides that you can't find elsewhere in Florida.
We did not do Merlins Challenge nor did the kids do the Forestman’s hideout which looked like a really nice ropes course / playground area.
For lunch we ate at The Market Restaurant which is near the entrance. Here are various offerings such as Asian, roasted chicken, chicken sandwiches, soup and salad. We had the roasted half chicken, a cup of soup and a small salad. The prices were reasonable and service was pretty quick, but again, there was no one else in line. If there had been lots of people there, it would be chaos as there are no defined lines for the stations. The salad takes a while just because you pick what items you'd like while the employee behind the counter add them to your lettuce - very slowly. It took about 3 minutes to get my small salad. Prices were pretty reasonable and in line with most other theme parks.
After lunch we took in one of three 4D movies. Check show times to see which movie is playing at what time. The theater is called the Wells Fargo Fun Town 4D Theater and the shows run about 10 - 14 minutes. I forgot the name of the movie we saw, but it was a bit Speed Racer and a bit Tron, but in a much more basic computer animation style. Interestingly, none of the animated characters spoke. Unfortunately the music was very loud - so much that a few people with little kids left. Hopefully they will make adjustments as they get feedback.
Next was the Land of Adventures. The first attraction we did here was the Coastasauraus, which is an old wooden roaller coaster leftover rolle rcoaster from Cypress Gardens. The cars are small and two adults can not fit in one, so it is best to go adult and child per car. As far as roller coasters go, this one is pretty tame too, but the kids liked it enough and went 3 times in a row. Not much themeing except the lego dinosaurs near the entrance. Otherwise, you'll get a good view of the back of a strip mall across the street.
My favorite dinosaur - Thesaurus.
The Lost Kingdom Adventure was my favorite attraction. It is in the Indiana Jones theme and is similar to Buzz Lightyear at the Magic Kingdom where you use a laser blaster to hit targets. The targets change or light up or move when hit. We did it twice in a row with no waits. The ride does not emphasize shooting, the "guns" do not look like weapons, and the targets are not overly scary, so it is relatively tame for the little ones.
The last ride we did in this area was the Safari Trek. This is a slow outdoor ride where you get in a jeep (2 persons max, but only 1 adult per vehicle) and it follows a track around the African Plains (not the real ones) where lego animals abound and make you glad that it was not your job to build them. There are elephants, giraffes, lions, etc.
The next land I’m taking you to on this amazing fact filled trip report is Lego Technic. There we went on Lego Test Tack, which is a spinning coaster ride similar to Primevil whirl at Animal Kingdom. It’s a great fun coaster that you can experience right in your own home by sticking your finger down your throat. Minimum rider height is 42", riders under 48" must be accompanied by a responsible rider of at least 48" in height.
Next we rode the Aquazone Wave Racers. This is a very unique ride and everyone, including myself, enjoyed this ride quite a bit. Up to two people stand up in what looks like a miniature airboat (minus the toothless pilot from the Florida swamp) that is attached to several others around the center entrance point by a pivot arm. As tthe boats start to rotate and pick up speed, you are flung out on the arm and you can steer your self so you are farther or closer to the center. Its fun, but watch out for the end when it stops and you come crashing into the center. Minimum rider height is 40", riders under 52" must be accompanied by a responsible rider of at least 52" in height. This is one of those rides where when the park is semi crowded will have long wait times despite their being two complete identical rides.
The next are we went to was the Imagination Zone. The only attraction we rode here was the Kid Power Towers. Here you sit in one of two seats attached to one side of a 4 sided tower and pull yourself up with a rope. You are not actually pulling yourself up as it is hydraulically assisted, similar to power steering in your car. Once you pull yourself up to the top of the tower and let go, you come down slowly – unlike Tower of Terror. Minimum rider height of 40", riders less than 48" must be accompanied by a responsible rider of at least 48" in height.
Another great section is Lego City. The best attraction here is the Ford Driving school where kids ages 6-13 get to ride around miniature city streets in electric powered Ford cars, which as opposed to real Fords, actually work. First you and your children are ushered into a big ugly room with zero themeing with the only thing going for it is that it is airconditioned. “Big Time Fail”, as my kids said. Has no one on the design team been on Test Track? About halfway through the line inside this room, your child's photo is taken. They were taking a maximum of 18 kids per session, so the short line still moved really slowly. When you are done waiting here, you file into another bleak room, this one with benches, to watch a 5 minute video on how to drive. Kind of like that class you had to take after getting too many speeding tickets, except cheaper. You learn what the colors on the stop lights mean (Hint: Yellow means hurry and that moment between yellow and red that I like to call Orange, means downshift and hit the accelerator.) Interestingly, they don’t give any instruction on how to navigate a roundabout, which the kids will soon face and which most Americans have no clue on what to do except shout "There's Big Ben" every time they go around. After the movie, the kids head out one door while the parents, not listening to directions, try to follow. But the parents are supposed to exit the opposite door, which they eventually do. The kids all find an available car out on the city streets which they hot wire and then drive around. Its great fun and watching how they speed through red lights or drive on the wrong side of the road seems really funny despite the fact that most adults see this every day in the real world. At the end, they all get a cheesy paper Ford Drivers License which can be upgraded to a real plastic driver’s license with their photo on it (which, if you were paying attention, you will remember was taken earlier) for only $15.00. Must be where the term "highway robbery" came from. My last speeding ticket was not that much. This is another one of those rides that is just not designed for large flow though. They can only take about 18 kids at a time, which means about 18 kids per approximately 5 minutes.
There is a Ford Driving School Jr. for ages 3-5. I’m told this is where Kyle Busch goes to practice between races.
After that we tried Boating School. This is where you get to drive an electric boat around a water track. As opposed to the Ford Driving School, and just like in real life, there is no prior education required to get out on the water and run into things. Although there were only 6 people in front of us, it still took about 5 minutes for us to get a boat. This is going to be another one of the rides with extremely long wait times when the crowds are larger. Since the boats are free floating and not on a track, steering is a requirement, and by the looks of the boats out there, it was not easy. I found the steering to be fairly unresponsive and difficult to control. Many people had managed to turn their boats completely around and were going in the opposite direction blocking everyone else and crashing into the dock or other boats. Employees were there to help push you back on track, but I can see where these bottlenecks are going to slow the ride down even further. I’m betting there are no more than 45 riders per hour capacity here. I also see some pinched fingers as frustrated kids reach outside the boat and try to push themselves off the docks or other boats.
And of course, the other ride is Flying School. This is a hanging roller coaster and also a leftover from Cypress Gardens. To get to it, you go around back of the Driving School. In fact, on the way there, you will have an excellent overall view of the driving school and it makes a great location for filming your kid while he/she is driving out on the streets. Unless you are like my wife and need to constantly give instructions to the driver (usually me), then you need to be down at ground level next to the course.
This is a relatively minor roller coaster as far as hanging steel coasters go, but one of the more thrilling rides at Legoland Florida. It would be a great ride if it were not for its one major downfall – it is jerky and throws your head side to side and the padding is hard. I felt like I was in the ring with Muhammad Ali. Try as I might, I could not keep my head from being flung hard into the side. And it was not just me, others on the ride complained about the same thing. The employee termed it “air turbulence” but it was more like "assault and battery". The kids went a second time, but for Elizabeth and I, one round was plenty. A redesign of the padding would go a long way in solving the problem.
Yet another unique attraction is Rescue Academy. Here, teams of 2,3, or 4 people climb into one of 4 firetrucks and race each other to put out a fire in a nearby building. To begin, two people must pump a handle up and down inside the fire engine to move it near the building. Once there, everyone hops out and 2 people aim the water hoses at a window in the building while 2 people pump water (again by pushing a handle up and down). When enough water goes in, the window opens and shows you've rescued someone or whatever, and then its back into the fire truck to pump your way back to the beginning. It's a great concept and we had fun doing it, but it's not easy. We saw several teams that were not strong enough to do it and so the employees had to help. 3 teams could not spray enough water into the window to put out the fire, so were instructed to get back in the truck anyway and head for the finish line. It is a real workout and after doing it, I figured I could skip the gym for a week. I can't imagine its going to get a lot of use in the heat of summer.
The park is closed already at 5pm, so we did not get to do everything. We did not get to see the water ski show, nor The Big Test – this interactive show uses acrobatics, music and playful fun to teach fire safety as the zany crew of Fun Town Fire Department attempts to conquer the “Big Test” to become official firefighters.
Like Disney's pin trading program, Legoland has a similar thing where your child can trade lego figures for the ones attached to the employee's shirts. Bring your child's old tired armless figures for trading.
As much as I liked being there with no crowds, my hope is that it does get somewhat busier so that they can stay in business. There used to be an old water park and plans are to revive it next year.
Overall we really enjoyed the park and would recommend it to anyone with children ages 3-12. We have gotten pretty burned out on Disney, Universal and SeaWorld /Busch Gardens, so it was nice to experience a completely new (well, almost if you forget it was Cypress Gardens) park that was clean and fresh. The cast members (or whatever they are called here) were extremely enthusiastic and went out of their way to help, even if we did not ask for help. Let's hope they keep that attitude up.
We went to Legoland this past Monday Oct 10. Even though this is a Disney related board, I thought I would share our trip with everyone who is lucky enough to have a rental car and are able to throw off Pluto’s scent and escape from the Disney compound to visit this newest of parks in Florida. If you are coming from Disney property, you have about a 45 minute drive to reach Legoland.
We bought annual passes to Legoland several months ago through AAA which had a good deal - buy one adult annual pass and get a free child annual pass. Luckily (ha ha) we just happened to have a couple "childs" at the house ages 8 and 12 still living with us. The adult annual passes were $129 + tax.
Monday happened to be a special preview day for annual passholders and in an amazing coincidence in our favor, the kids had that day off from school. Many of the attractions listed on the Legoland website were not even open yet, but the staff were hard at work getting things ready.
On this particular weekend, Florida happened to have a sub tropical depression over it which meant 10+ inches of rain. But true to the Florida expression “What comes after two days of rain? Answer: Monday”, we had perfect beautiful weather for the Lego land preview.
The park opened at 10:00 am but we did not arrive until about 11:00 am. We were expecting a very busy park but were in shock when we arrived and the parking lot was virtually empty. We figured there must be some secret parking lot elsewhere that we just could not see. But no, it really was pretty empty. Guess Pluto caught most everyone.
Not to be outdone by Disney, parking prices were criminal. Parking a car will cost you $12 for normal parking and $20 for preferred. Don’t bother with preferred – the entire parking lot could fit within a city block and preferred will save you about 20 paces. There were no trams because the lot is that close they are not needed.
We walk up to the ticket counter and hand them our annual pass coupons. There was no wait in line, but the process did take a little time. They had to take photos of all of us, and we upgraded one pass to the premium pass ($32 more) which gets us free parking and 10% off at the restaurants and shops. They even refunded the $12 parking we had just paid (keep your receipt). The annual passes we got were plastic credit card type with our photo and not the flimsy paper ones you get at the other theme parks.
Now it is time to enter the park. Unlike every other theme park in Florida, you do NOT need to wait 5 minutes while the machine tries to scan you finger. Lego land got it right on this part - they simply swipe the card, look at your photo and snicker, and you are in. Not even a bag check to make sure we were not carrying a nuclear weapon, which actually could easily fit in my wife's purse, not that she'd ever be able to find it. +1 for Lego land. This should really make entering the park quick and easy, unfortunately, I'm afraid you'll be waiting in long lines for the attractions.
All around the park are Lego creations. Like the lego creations at Downtown Disney but lots more. Everywhere you look is some amazing creation that if it were for sale at Wal-Mart would cost $5000, come in a car sized box with the note “ages 150+” and would take the average person 75 years to complete (5 of those years looking for that one clear triangular piece that flew under the sofa when you tore open the box). The park has retained some of the original Cypress Gardens rides and landscaping, including majestic oaks draped with moss – they even kept the water ski shows. (You just normally think water ski show when you think Lego - right?) Instead of coming in with bulldozers and leveling everything, they worked around the natural vegetation. +1 more for Lego.
Overall, the park is designed for pre teens. Teenagers are not going to find exciting thrill rides here and are generally going to be bored unless they are lego aficionados. Our 12 year old enjoyed the park enough, but would have rather been at Universal Studios with Spiderman and the Hulk rather than Murray the lego dude. Even our 8 year old felt too old to go on some of the rides, but he did give the park 1.5 thumbs up. Parents will enjoy most of the rides. There is even a special adult only attraction. No, its not a bar. It consists of a room scattered with little lego pieces all over the floor and you have to walk to the other side barefoot in the dark without cursing.
One negative is that most all of the rides at the park can’t handle large numbers of people per hour. We did not have long waits but that was only because there were more employees than guests on this particular day. But we can imagine very long wait times for many of the attractions on normally busy days. They just are not set up for lots of waiting people. Some of the rides are very unstructured which means more potential for long delays (and injuries). On the plus side, some of the rides are very unique and won’t be found elsewhere in Florida.
One of the first rides we did was Island in the Sky which is one of the original rides at the old Cypress Gardens. Basically it is a giant teeter totter with everyone on a rotating platform on one end and a giant weight on the other, and you are lifted high into the air. You’ll get a great view of the parking lot.
Hey? Is that someone breaking into our minivan?
Next we went to the lego factory where you can watch a 3 minute movie and then see how legos are made. The movie was just finishing and our ADD family did not want to sit and wait 10 seconds for it to start again, so we skipped it and went straight to the production tour. Tour is being generous as its all in one room. It’s a miniature representation of a plastic injection molding machine, but not an actual working machine. Fine for a few minutes and you get a free lego brick with the Legoland Florida logo.
Although we did not get any, I hear the fried apples at the Granny Apple Store are pretty good. We prefer our fried food not be so healthy.
The lego studios shop is ok - small, but it did have one unique item that I want for Christmas - a lego calendar. But you have to rebuild it every month.
Miniland: Another section of the park is Miniland USA which features recreations of famous cities and their buildings all made from legos. You could spend hours here looking at miniature recreations of Las Vegas, Key West, Cape Canaveral and the shuttle, San Francisco, New York and much more. Its not just all static legos either. Some of the creations and vehicles are moving or will go into action if you push buttons nearby. Remember your sunscreen because there is no shade. I'm sure most male adults around, myself included, were wishing they could stomp around pretending to be Godzilla.
Here is the Daytona Speedway full of mini lego rednecks.
Duplo village: We did not go to because our kids are too old. But if we ever forget our birth control, I’ll be sure to fill you in when we visit.
In the knight and castle Lego Kingdoms area is The Dragon roller coaster. This is a leftover roller coaster from Cypress Gardens but that has been added too. It’s a pretty tame roller coaster, as all at Legoland are, compared to say Universal. Height restrictions are 40", but riders under 48" must be accompanied by a responsible rider over 48". Since neither Elizabeth nor I are responsible, Matthew had to go with his brother. This ride is comparable to Flight of the Hippograth (Flight of the unicorn) and just a bit more thrilling than Goofys Barnstormer, Woody Woodpecker’s roller coaster, the Shamu roller coaster or waiting in line at the DMV. Before you get to the actual roller coaster part, you move along very slowly inside a building looking at various lego creations of which I've already forgotten.
Another ride in this area is the Royal Joust where bucking horses go around a track. But don't worry parents, as my 8 year old pointed out, you don't actually get to joust and knock each other off the horses. Its one of the fairly unique rides that you can't find elsewhere in Florida.
We did not do Merlins Challenge nor did the kids do the Forestman’s hideout which looked like a really nice ropes course / playground area.
For lunch we ate at The Market Restaurant which is near the entrance. Here are various offerings such as Asian, roasted chicken, chicken sandwiches, soup and salad. We had the roasted half chicken, a cup of soup and a small salad. The prices were reasonable and service was pretty quick, but again, there was no one else in line. If there had been lots of people there, it would be chaos as there are no defined lines for the stations. The salad takes a while just because you pick what items you'd like while the employee behind the counter add them to your lettuce - very slowly. It took about 3 minutes to get my small salad. Prices were pretty reasonable and in line with most other theme parks.
After lunch we took in one of three 4D movies. Check show times to see which movie is playing at what time. The theater is called the Wells Fargo Fun Town 4D Theater and the shows run about 10 - 14 minutes. I forgot the name of the movie we saw, but it was a bit Speed Racer and a bit Tron, but in a much more basic computer animation style. Interestingly, none of the animated characters spoke. Unfortunately the music was very loud - so much that a few people with little kids left. Hopefully they will make adjustments as they get feedback.
Next was the Land of Adventures. The first attraction we did here was the Coastasauraus, which is an old wooden roaller coaster leftover rolle rcoaster from Cypress Gardens. The cars are small and two adults can not fit in one, so it is best to go adult and child per car. As far as roller coasters go, this one is pretty tame too, but the kids liked it enough and went 3 times in a row. Not much themeing except the lego dinosaurs near the entrance. Otherwise, you'll get a good view of the back of a strip mall across the street.
My favorite dinosaur - Thesaurus.
The Lost Kingdom Adventure was my favorite attraction. It is in the Indiana Jones theme and is similar to Buzz Lightyear at the Magic Kingdom where you use a laser blaster to hit targets. The targets change or light up or move when hit. We did it twice in a row with no waits. The ride does not emphasize shooting, the "guns" do not look like weapons, and the targets are not overly scary, so it is relatively tame for the little ones.
The last ride we did in this area was the Safari Trek. This is a slow outdoor ride where you get in a jeep (2 persons max, but only 1 adult per vehicle) and it follows a track around the African Plains (not the real ones) where lego animals abound and make you glad that it was not your job to build them. There are elephants, giraffes, lions, etc.
The next land I’m taking you to on this amazing fact filled trip report is Lego Technic. There we went on Lego Test Tack, which is a spinning coaster ride similar to Primevil whirl at Animal Kingdom. It’s a great fun coaster that you can experience right in your own home by sticking your finger down your throat. Minimum rider height is 42", riders under 48" must be accompanied by a responsible rider of at least 48" in height.
Next we rode the Aquazone Wave Racers. This is a very unique ride and everyone, including myself, enjoyed this ride quite a bit. Up to two people stand up in what looks like a miniature airboat (minus the toothless pilot from the Florida swamp) that is attached to several others around the center entrance point by a pivot arm. As tthe boats start to rotate and pick up speed, you are flung out on the arm and you can steer your self so you are farther or closer to the center. Its fun, but watch out for the end when it stops and you come crashing into the center. Minimum rider height is 40", riders under 52" must be accompanied by a responsible rider of at least 52" in height. This is one of those rides where when the park is semi crowded will have long wait times despite their being two complete identical rides.
The next are we went to was the Imagination Zone. The only attraction we rode here was the Kid Power Towers. Here you sit in one of two seats attached to one side of a 4 sided tower and pull yourself up with a rope. You are not actually pulling yourself up as it is hydraulically assisted, similar to power steering in your car. Once you pull yourself up to the top of the tower and let go, you come down slowly – unlike Tower of Terror. Minimum rider height of 40", riders less than 48" must be accompanied by a responsible rider of at least 48" in height.
Another great section is Lego City. The best attraction here is the Ford Driving school where kids ages 6-13 get to ride around miniature city streets in electric powered Ford cars, which as opposed to real Fords, actually work. First you and your children are ushered into a big ugly room with zero themeing with the only thing going for it is that it is airconditioned. “Big Time Fail”, as my kids said. Has no one on the design team been on Test Track? About halfway through the line inside this room, your child's photo is taken. They were taking a maximum of 18 kids per session, so the short line still moved really slowly. When you are done waiting here, you file into another bleak room, this one with benches, to watch a 5 minute video on how to drive. Kind of like that class you had to take after getting too many speeding tickets, except cheaper. You learn what the colors on the stop lights mean (Hint: Yellow means hurry and that moment between yellow and red that I like to call Orange, means downshift and hit the accelerator.) Interestingly, they don’t give any instruction on how to navigate a roundabout, which the kids will soon face and which most Americans have no clue on what to do except shout "There's Big Ben" every time they go around. After the movie, the kids head out one door while the parents, not listening to directions, try to follow. But the parents are supposed to exit the opposite door, which they eventually do. The kids all find an available car out on the city streets which they hot wire and then drive around. Its great fun and watching how they speed through red lights or drive on the wrong side of the road seems really funny despite the fact that most adults see this every day in the real world. At the end, they all get a cheesy paper Ford Drivers License which can be upgraded to a real plastic driver’s license with their photo on it (which, if you were paying attention, you will remember was taken earlier) for only $15.00. Must be where the term "highway robbery" came from. My last speeding ticket was not that much. This is another one of those rides that is just not designed for large flow though. They can only take about 18 kids at a time, which means about 18 kids per approximately 5 minutes.
There is a Ford Driving School Jr. for ages 3-5. I’m told this is where Kyle Busch goes to practice between races.
After that we tried Boating School. This is where you get to drive an electric boat around a water track. As opposed to the Ford Driving School, and just like in real life, there is no prior education required to get out on the water and run into things. Although there were only 6 people in front of us, it still took about 5 minutes for us to get a boat. This is going to be another one of the rides with extremely long wait times when the crowds are larger. Since the boats are free floating and not on a track, steering is a requirement, and by the looks of the boats out there, it was not easy. I found the steering to be fairly unresponsive and difficult to control. Many people had managed to turn their boats completely around and were going in the opposite direction blocking everyone else and crashing into the dock or other boats. Employees were there to help push you back on track, but I can see where these bottlenecks are going to slow the ride down even further. I’m betting there are no more than 45 riders per hour capacity here. I also see some pinched fingers as frustrated kids reach outside the boat and try to push themselves off the docks or other boats.
And of course, the other ride is Flying School. This is a hanging roller coaster and also a leftover from Cypress Gardens. To get to it, you go around back of the Driving School. In fact, on the way there, you will have an excellent overall view of the driving school and it makes a great location for filming your kid while he/she is driving out on the streets. Unless you are like my wife and need to constantly give instructions to the driver (usually me), then you need to be down at ground level next to the course.
This is a relatively minor roller coaster as far as hanging steel coasters go, but one of the more thrilling rides at Legoland Florida. It would be a great ride if it were not for its one major downfall – it is jerky and throws your head side to side and the padding is hard. I felt like I was in the ring with Muhammad Ali. Try as I might, I could not keep my head from being flung hard into the side. And it was not just me, others on the ride complained about the same thing. The employee termed it “air turbulence” but it was more like "assault and battery". The kids went a second time, but for Elizabeth and I, one round was plenty. A redesign of the padding would go a long way in solving the problem.
Yet another unique attraction is Rescue Academy. Here, teams of 2,3, or 4 people climb into one of 4 firetrucks and race each other to put out a fire in a nearby building. To begin, two people must pump a handle up and down inside the fire engine to move it near the building. Once there, everyone hops out and 2 people aim the water hoses at a window in the building while 2 people pump water (again by pushing a handle up and down). When enough water goes in, the window opens and shows you've rescued someone or whatever, and then its back into the fire truck to pump your way back to the beginning. It's a great concept and we had fun doing it, but it's not easy. We saw several teams that were not strong enough to do it and so the employees had to help. 3 teams could not spray enough water into the window to put out the fire, so were instructed to get back in the truck anyway and head for the finish line. It is a real workout and after doing it, I figured I could skip the gym for a week. I can't imagine its going to get a lot of use in the heat of summer.
The park is closed already at 5pm, so we did not get to do everything. We did not get to see the water ski show, nor The Big Test – this interactive show uses acrobatics, music and playful fun to teach fire safety as the zany crew of Fun Town Fire Department attempts to conquer the “Big Test” to become official firefighters.
Like Disney's pin trading program, Legoland has a similar thing where your child can trade lego figures for the ones attached to the employee's shirts. Bring your child's old tired armless figures for trading.
As much as I liked being there with no crowds, my hope is that it does get somewhat busier so that they can stay in business. There used to be an old water park and plans are to revive it next year.
Overall we really enjoyed the park and would recommend it to anyone with children ages 3-12. We have gotten pretty burned out on Disney, Universal and SeaWorld /Busch Gardens, so it was nice to experience a completely new (well, almost if you forget it was Cypress Gardens) park that was clean and fresh. The cast members (or whatever they are called here) were extremely enthusiastic and went out of their way to help, even if we did not ask for help. Let's hope they keep that attitude up.
