The next trip on our Focus on Florida tour took us on a journey to one of Florida’s ‘newest’ theme parks; LEGOLAND Florida. Originally known as Cypress Gardens, Merlin Entertainments has turned the previous park into one of the most recognisable brands, giving us plenty to look forward to with lots of rides and attractions that we had not experienced before.
On arrival, we were greeted with a huge LEGO styled entrance that we have come to recognise from other parks within the franchise along with a grand LEGO themed hotel running along the left hand side of the park entrance. One of the first things we noticed was just how clean and new everything appeared, certainly a very welcoming start to our day!
After clearing through the park entrance we headed towards the first attraction that we could find, and it wasn’t long before we found Mia’s Riding Adventure. This large family ride is a spinning disk that hurtles up and down a short track giving guests plenty of air-time and can prove to be a very thrilling attraction for many. The ride itself is located within the park’s Heartlake City, an area of the park which is certainly themed and catered for the younger ones.
Immediately after our first riding adventure we headed across the park towards our next zone; The World of China. To get there, however, we would first walk through DUPLO Valley. We were really taken back! With no fewer than 5 farm themed attractions, this educational area of the park didn’t only look great but also packed plenty of excitement for the younger guest. In fact, we were quite jealous ourselves that some of the rides we were a little too big for!
Once arrived in The World of China, we headed straight for the area’s main attraction; Quest of CHI. This water attraction sees boats filled with 8 guests, standing 4 a side, travel around the rides course firing water cannons at various targets and of course, each other! We certainly got more than we bargained for, and with perfect aim hit one of the more difficult targets facing our boat. Expecting to see other guests get squirted, we instead found ourselves drenched as the target had in fact been a trap and surprise cannons had fired back. The ride itself had good length too making it a worthwhile and enjoyable experience for all that ride it.
Well and truly soaked, we decided it best to next tackle one of the park’s major attractions and attempt to dry out on The Dragon. The roller coaster itself was one of the original attractions kept from the days that the park was still Cypress Gardens but you certainly wouldn’t have known it. A huge castle has been constructed around the main part of not only the zone but the ride itself giving guests a really immersive feel to LEGO Kingdoms.
From here we continued our quest and next found ourselves riding The Lost Kingdom Adventure. This adventure themed interactive laser battle is themed very closely to Indiana Jones and allows families to combat each other for the highest score which is displayed throughout the attraction on a vehicle display located in the middle of both rows.
On our way to the next attraction, Coastersaurus, we took time to take in some of the excellent theming that Merlin has installed into this park. The look and feel of the park is completely different to anything else that Florida has to offer and has a real charm to it. This midsized, family wooden coaster is another one of the park’s original attractions but has had a huge overhaul since the LEGOLAND transformation. With a theme loosely matching another famous movie brand with dinosaurs, the ride takes passengers on a rather rattle-y journey around short circuit before doubling over its entrance area and back into the station.
With another one of the park’s major attractions conquered, we headed to one of the newest rides and areas; NINJAGO World. Similar to one of the other experiences in the park, two rows of passengers board massive cars and travel a single railed circuit with the car itself rotating to face different screens. Whilst fronting these screens, guests once again fire at targets but this time with a HUGE difference! Instead of holding and pointing any form of ‘weapon’, passengers are turned into real Ninjas, swooshing their hands and arms towards the screens. With a little bit of LEGOLAND magic, targets react to the passengers movement in an action packed competitive journey. Unfortunately due to this the ride does suffer from periods of downtime, which did impact our visit to the ride.
After completion, we headed through LEGO City where some of LEGOLAND’s more traditional attractions, that can be found in its sister parks, such as Ford Driving School, NFPA Rescue Academy and of course Boating School are all located. One addition that this area has to offer is another one of the original Cypress Gardens attractions that has received a huge re-theme. Flying School is a family sized inverted roller coaster that has had a brilliant LEGOLAND makeover. Although the ride itself is short, and quite rough, it is definitely a serious coaster for some of the less experienced visitors.
With all this excitement we thought it seemed like a good time to take our first break of the day. We headed back down the hill and straight for Fried Chicken Co. again located within LEGO City. Themed like an American diner complete with working LEGO juke box, the restaurant proved the perfect hideout for us, and the fried chicken food was great too!
We left LEGO City with very satisfied stomachs and headed straight for the park’s main show; Pirates’ Cove Live Water Ski Show. This is one thing LEGOLAND has approached completely differently to any of the other parks in Florida. The show was like nothing we had seen during our tour to date, and its venue at the side of a massive lake looked incredible!
On exiting the show, we decided to head to the beautifully preserved gardens themselves which made the original park so popular all those years ago. We were so pleased to see that the gardens have stayed, and it even looked like additions were being made to this part of the park too. In fact, the gardens were so immersive, that you could find yourself completely forgetting that you were even in a theme park!
Rides on AQUAZONE Wave Racers and Project X were next with both being great family attractions with enjoyably short queues! We especially loved the latter as it was the very same rollercoaster that was once homed in LEGOLAND Windsor. It’s not often that you get to ride a coaster where the actual ride itself has been in more than one country.
Although the majority of the rides were now completed, we still had one of our favourite areas of the park to explore; MINILAND USA. One of the best parts of any LEGOLAND is its ‘miniland’. No matter the age of the guest, everyone can enjoy these areas within the parks with each guest being transformed back to their childhood. One thing that we were particularly interested in was all the different areas that have been recreated with fantastic detail that are different to the areas within the UK park. The phenomenon that is Star Wars has even managed to invade the miniland, with some of the more famous characters and scenes having been recreated in their own little part of the parks zone.
With the park well and truly explored we began to head towards the exit. We had tried to stop off for a drink whilst within the miniland but were promptly informed that drinks could only be purchased from the parks restaurants, with the refill stations only for those guests that had purchased refillable cups. Back within Fun Town, we stopped off for our drink and for Granny’s Apple Fries. We don’t think that chip like fried apple slices can really count as one of your ‘five a day’ but they tasted great all the same. Here you will also find the Wells Fargo 4D Threater (currently showing The LEGO Movie 4D) and The Grand Carousel.
On exit we visited the parks two gift shops; LEGO Studio Store and The Big Shop and it was big! LEGO toys of every franchise and for every age were available for purchase and we could have stayed in there for the rest of the day! Unfortunately we couldn’t, so with the final boxes put back on the shelf we made our exit.
LEGOLAND Florida was brilliant! A unique park that is completely different to any of the other major attractions in Florida is perfect for the whole family with arguably more rideable attractions for the younger ones than even some of the larger parks. The history and character of the original Cypress Gardens appears to have been well preserved and built upon and any guest making the trip to this slightly further out park will be sure to find plenty to their liking.
