You may not know it, but Florida's newest Theme Park is also Florida's oldest.

Legoland Florida which opened October 14th 2011 was build on the site of the former Cypress Gardens theme park.

Cypress Gardens opened January 2, 1936, It was Florida's first theme park. Cypress Gardens however, did not feature rides and amusements. Cypress Gardens as the name suggest was a beautiful Botanical Garden, in later years Cypress Gardens was expanded to include a world famous Ski Show and a few small amusements.

In 1971 Cypress Gardens got a new neighbor. Just 45 minutes aways Walt Disney World opened. The park amazingly survived many years until 2003 when the park suddenly was shut down. In 2004 Adventures park group bought Cypress Gardens, Adventure parks attempted to broaden the parks audience by adding theme park rides for the park, and renaming the park to Cypress Gardens Adventure Park. In 2006 the park filed for bankruptcy, the park managed to stay open until 2009. On September 23, 2009 the park was closed indefinitely.

On January 15, 2010 the second largest amusement operator in the world, Merlin Entertainments announced they had bought the park and planned to re-open the park as a Legoland branded park. A year and 9 months later Legoland Florida was ready for opening.

On Friday October 14th I had the opportunity to attend a special media day for the park. One exciting thing I want to mention before I start my review of the park is the plans for the park. The CEO of Merlin Entertainment, Nick Varney was on hand for the event to announce future plans for Legoland. Mr. Varney revealed that Legoland Florida will open a Waterpark next to the park in May 2012. Additional plans to build a Lego themed resort themed hotel are currently in the works. Legoland Florida's long term goal is to become a multi-day resort destination.



Legoland Florida is split into 10 different themed zones featuring more than 50 rides, attractions shows, restaurants and shops. Legoland also has preserved the famous Cypress Gardens for guests to visit.

“The Beginning” is the first area the guests enter. The Beginning is mainly a shopping and restaurant area. “The Beginning” is also home to one of the parks most unique rides:

“Island in the sky”. Island in the sky is a 100 foot rotating platform that slowly raises into the air too provide a 360° view of the entire park. I highly suggest checking this ride out during the day, possibly first to get a good understanding of how the park is laid out.



The “Beginning” is where guests will also find “The Big Shop”, Legoland premiere shop where guests can buy Legoland Florida and Lego apparel and merchandise.

As guests continue out of the The Beginning, they enter the second area of the park- “Fun Town”. Fun Town looks identical to The Beginning in the sense that it is a Lego Village. Fun Town is the area where guests will find:

“The Wells Fargo Fun Town Theater”-A 4-d Theater showing 3 different 4-D films throughout the day. One thing to note about the Theater is that each of the 3 films shows at set times throughout the day. Guest should consider checking the showtimes early in the day if they have their heart set on seeing a certain film.

“Factory Tour”- is a walkthrough attraction that explains how LEGO bricks are made. The whole tour takes less than 5 minutes. Although the tour is really unrealistic, it is informative if you listen to the narration. Another plus is every visitor gets a free Lego brick that says Legoland Florida on it.

Other things found in the area are a Double Decker Carousel, some small stores and the parks premier restaurant- “Fun Town Pizza and Pasta Buffet” This is where lunch was served. The Buffet costs around 11 dollars and includes all you care to eat Pasta,Pizza and Salads as well as Pepsi products. The food is a great value for theme park food and tastes pretty good too!

Traveling clockwise, the next area guests enter is “DUPLO^® Village”. This is an area of the park intended for toddlers, and features 4 rides made just for them.

“LEGO Kingdoms” is the first major themed area in the park. Lego Kingdoms takes you back to medieval times.

The centerpiece attraction in Lego Kingdoms is “The Dragon”-a combination dark ride and rollercoaster. The rollercoaster ride itself is relatively tame. The dark ride is what sets this ride apart. Once onboard a really cool dragon themed Vekoma Rollerskater car, the train slowly moves through several humorous Lego castle scenes. Plan on riding this ride at least twice to get a chance to see all of the details.



Younger guests can also enjoy “The Royal Joust” where guests (Under the age of 12) can ride a small horse around a really cool looking course with moving lego figures.

I did not try the small flat ride in the area “Merlins Challenge” which is a themed mini himalaya flat or “The Fortsman's Hideout” a interactive play area, but I'm sure they are great fun for children.

The biggest and by far best area of the park can be found in the heart of the park, “Miniland”. Miniland is a large, fantastic display of Lego representations of some of the worlds most greatest cities and landmarks. The cities that are featured in Miniland are: Florida, Las Vegas, Washington D.C, New York City, California and Pirate Shores (not themed to a city, but a time period). You could spend the majority of your day in this area, the areas are HUGE and feature interactive elements and moving figures to really capture your imagination. Within Miniland there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of tiny little details to observe. This area of the park was in development for over 2 ½ years and it certainly show in the attention to detail. Plan to spend at least 45 minutes in this area, possibly longer. One thing to mention is that this area is NOT shaded and out in the open sun. So plan accordingly by bringing hats, water and sunscreen.



My favorite ride in the park can be found in the “Land of Adventure”. Land of adventure is split into two areas, an Egyptian area and a Dino Island area.

The egyptian area houses (my personal favorite ride in the park), “Lost Kingdom Adventure” a Sally shooting dark ride in which guests board a awesomely themed 1920's themed jeep and travel through a temple. Every time you hit a target a small event is triggered. Ride at least twice! Once to view all of the scenery and the second to actually play. (I would also like to throw in that I received the highest score during every ride(except for the round I took photos))



“Safari Trek” is a small outdoor ride that takes you past life size recreations of Elephants, Giraffes, Hippos and more. It should be noted that this rides vehicles are very small. Adults will be asked to ride alone.

“Coastersarus”is the first wooden rollercoaster ever in a Legoland park. The ride built in 2004 is a junior rollercoaster. Don't let that fool you however, Coastersarus back row offers some great pops of airtime. Like most of the other rides, larger guests will be asked to ride alone in a row.



The area of the park with the most “thrills” (using that term very loosely), is the “Lego Technic” zone.

The biggest ride in the park is the “LEGO TECHNIC^® Test Track Coaster”- A Mack extended wild mouse coaster, with extremely cool looking cars. Coaster enthusiasts will enjoy the beginning of the ride, which unlike your standard wild mouse coaster, starts with a great 45 foot drop. The second half of the ride with the hairpin turns I found to be too over-braked for my liking, however the ride is designed for kids. The ride is capable of running 8 cars at a time so I can never imagine the wait being too long.



“AQUAZONE^® Wave Racers”- Is the “Dumbo” of Legoland Florida. This ride has a great aesthetic appeal, and looks like a ton of fun. Unfortunately the ride is a capacity nightmare with only two carousels with six single rider vehicles on each. Your wait will be long! As for the ride itself, it's a ton of fun. I quickly learned that turning your vehicle steering wheel quickly will “whip” the vehicle around the corner. The ride cycle was very long on this ride too, somewhere around 90 seconds! Another fun aspect is that this ride is interactive for non-riders too. Guests not riding can press buttons around the perimeter of the ride that blast water (Blast is an understatement of how much water comes out of these cannons) straight up, drenching riders who don't steer their boat clear. (It is possible to stay dry). I highly recommend riding this really unique ride!



The area that I think kids will enjoy the most is “Lego City”, Lego city features the parks signature kids rides. Unlike most theme parks, Legoland is not a passive experience for kids. Lego City is the epitome of this!

At “Ford Driving School” kids from 6-13 can get behind the wheel of a “car”. Unlike the Disney “Autopia” attractions, the cars here are not on a track, nor are the cars going in a straight line. The ride takes place on a miniaturized drivers ed range (“Lego style” of course) filled with stop lights, traffic signs and roadblocks. I was unable to experience the school due to my age. However, I can imagine that if I was a kid, this would hands down be my favorite attraction. The capacity of this ride might be a problem. It seems that the range is open to only a small group of children at a time. However children in the queue are entertained by a pre-show video explaining traffic laws (probably something that most real drivers need to review again) that should keep them entertained. If your kid wants to do driving school, I would head to this ride first to avoid crowds later in the day. Guests that are between the ages of 3-5 can experience “Ford Junior Driving School”.

“Boating School” is similar to Driving school in the aspect that kids get to drive their own boat. Boating School however does follow a course. Boating school also allows parents and older guests to ride. I did not experience Boating School, while the line wasn't particularly long, the ride is very slow loading with only a handful of boats on the actual course at one time. Hopefully as the ride operators adjust to running the ride, they will add more boats. Again this is probably a ride you want to do first thing in the morning to avoid long lines.

A third “School” attraction “Flight School” is located in the far corner of the park. Flight School however is not an interactive experience. Flight School is your standard Vekoma Suspended Family Coaster. It is pretty rough for a kids coaster, and the over the shoulder restraints are a bit uncomfortable.



“LEGO City Rescue Academy” is an interactive family experience in which families race each other to “save the day”. The ride requires lots of pumping (First teams must pump to power the vehicle to the emergency, then must pump a hose, and finally pump to power the vehicle back to the finish line). The ride certainly looks fun, however it probably is best experienced with the entire family as it appears you need lots of physical strength to complete the challenge.

“Imagination Zone” is a large building located in the back of the park. During my visit the building served as the Press room, so we were not able to experience the regular activities that occur inside the building. When not used for events the Imagination Zone is where guests (mainly kids) can build and then test or race building their own lego cars and robots. (AKA what your kids can do at your local LEGO store.) Save this area for last as it is the least unique.

“Pirates Cove” is located along the parks lakefront area. This is the smallest land in the park and only is home to one show.

“The Battle for Brickbeard’s Bounty” is Legoland's live ski show. While the name of the show and storyline are very corny, the show is pretty spectacular. The waterskiing Lego figures (Yes, you read that correctly) is a pretty amazing (and hilarious). My personal favorite part is the Jet Ski battle between the guy in a Lego Pirate Costume and the main hero. Guests in the front rows WILL get wet. Throughout the shows water cannons are shot of towards the crowd. Do not miss this show! I really didn't feel that I would like the show, but I am glad that I saw it.



“Cypress Gardens-The Historical Botanical Gardens”- Is still open for the guests. It's tucked away in the back corner of the park.The setting has been restored to its pristine condition, and the collection of native plants, including azaleas and camellias, has been reclaimed and combined with a range of exotic species to create a horticultural masterpiece.

Conclusion
Legoland Florida is off to a great start. It has a great mix of family friendly attractions with some mild thrills, all tied into one of the biggest brands on the planet that represents Imagination and creativity. The park is very expensive, I highly recommend finding the best ticket price ($75 dollars is very steep) for example Coaster Club (Official club of Coaster-net) Coaster club members are eligible for tickets around $55. Lack of shade is also a problem. Water and Sunscreen are essential!

Legoland Florida is a 45 minute drive from Orlando. The park offers bus transportation to the park. (TIP-Coaster Club members get a special rate on bus tickets of $1.52 a person!) Regular Adult tickets are $75 and Children Tickets are $65

Check out more Legoland Photos from Media day HERE!