Florida Field Trips #5: LegoLand
Dear friends,
Yesterday, I took my four youngest kids, ages 6-12, to LegoLand Florida,
about an hour and half from our house in Seminole County. Last fall, LegoLand opened in Winter Haven,
not far from US Highway 27, on the grounds of what used to be the historic
Cypress Gardens theme park. Cypress
Gardens was a classic Florida fixture for several decades until it ran out of
money a few years back. I remember going
there over 25 years ago with my husband!
Our home school co-op scheduled this as a field trip so we could get
the school discount, which is just a fraction of the cost of a regular ticket. We paid $5 each for children ages 5 through 12,
and $25 each for teens, adults, and preschoolers age 3-4. Under age 3 is admitted free. A regular adult ticket is $75 at the gate or
$68 on-line, while children’s and senior citizens tickets are usually $65 at
the gate or $60 on-line. The moral of
the story: go with a school group if you can!
We were initially told to bring our home school ID cards, but only our
leader had to show hers. Parking costs
$12 for a car (maybe more for larger vehicles?) and can be paid by credit
card.
You can rent a single stroller for
$9 or a double stroller for $14. I
rented one at lunch time so I could bring my heavy lunch bag to the back end of
the park where our friends were eating, and so my tired six year old didn’t
have to walk so much. It was well worth
the money. Speaking of lunch bags, I’ve
been told there is refrigerated storage area in the white mansion so you can
bring it in. I didn’t realize that ahead
of time and had left mine in the car.
You can also get food in the park.
I saw an all-you-can-eat-and-drink pizza, pasta and salad buffet for
$9.99 for adults and $6.99 for children.
At that price, I would have been tempted to just eat there if I hadn’t
had as many kids with me! Some of the
other food is a big more expensive, such as a bottle of Gatorade that is $3 if
you buy it inside or $2.50 if you buy it from a cart outside. Other amenities include a pet kennel and
locker rental.
The hours are 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM, Thursday through Monday (closed
Tuesday and Wednesday), but they don’t seem to be very strict on the closing
time. We didn’t leave the park until
6:20, and there were plenty of people still in it.
They are opening a LegoLand Water Park this summer.
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| Island in the Sky |
While LegoLand is much more fun than the old Cypress Gardens, I am very
grateful that they have retained the best features of the old park, including
the actual gardens, water ski shows, and the Island in the Sky ride which is a
viewing platform that rises high above the park and spins slowly for a terrific
view of the Florida countryside. I’m
not sure which of the current rides remain for the CG days, but there are four different
roller coasters and lots of other rides for all ages to enjoy.
There truly is “something for everyone” at
LegoLand, even if you don’t usually play with Legos. We compensated for the differences in age and
interest levels by trading off kids with three other families as necessary. We kept in touch with cell phones so we could
meet up frequently and trade kids again.
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| New York City |
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| Statue of Liberty |
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| U.S. Capitol Building |
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| Space Shuttle at Kennedy Space Center |
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| San Francisco with Golden Gate Bridge |
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| San Francisco |
The Safari ride for young children takes you
through an area with full size Lego animals.
Some attractions that are not made of Legos still
retain the theme, such as at the water ski show where the ship looks like it is
made of Legos and the pirate is called Captain Brickbeard instead of Blackbeard. During this show, there are four full-size
Lego men (people in costumes) and a Lego pirate who water ski and act out the
skit. 
In the Dragon roller coaster ride, the outside is a Lego looking castle
with the trademark colorful plastic flags, a Lego gargoyle, and Lego soldier. During the preliminary inside segment, you
travel through a castle with large Lego sculptures of dragons and courtiers. 
The Dragon coaster ride was fun but not overwhelming, and I think it is the best pick of
coasters for younger riders. There is
also a nearby Merlin’s Challenge ride for very younger children which is sort-of-kind-of
like a junior roller coaster (goes up and down a little on a circle track) but
ironically rougher on my joints than the Dragon and the wooden Coastersaurus! I didn’t ride the Flying School suspension
coaster, nor Project X (?) which is more curvy.
I also loved the Clutch Powers 4-D show we saw. What is 4-D? It is 3-D with the additional sensory
elements of wind, water and “snow.” There are three 4-D shows available,
including a racing one, and another with a wizard theme that looked a little
dark for my tastes.
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I am also super glad I took the opportunity to walk through the
gardens, which I missed the last time I was at Cypress Gardens. A Southern belle made from Legos replaces the human ones that used to grace the park.
The most outstanding feature of the gardens is a massive banyan
tree that has several trunks.
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| Banyan Tree |
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| Gazebo, with pond that has alligators! |
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| I think this is a Jack-in-the-Pulpit flower |
I always
love to stop and pay attention to details about God’s creation. I kept noticing soft white clumps of fuzz on
the grass in one area, and realized it came from baseball sized white clumps
growing high up in the trees. Yes, they
were silk floss trees, the ones with really spiky trunks. Very educational!
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| "Silk floss" |
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| Look closely to see the soft white seed balls on the silk floss tree |
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| Trunk of silk floss tree |
I have posted more Cypress Gardens photos on my main blog.
One thing I didn’t like as much was that the map gave very little
detail about what each attraction was. For example, we thought The Lost Kingdom Adventure was a roller coaster, but it turned out to be a little car that takes you through Egyptian tombs so you can shoot targets with a laser gun -- fun, but not the roller coaster, which was the adjacent Coastersaurus. So you should do your research on-line ahead of time. You can explore the Park Map here: http://florida.legoland.com/en/Park-Map/Park-Map/
I guess that’s enough about LegoLand and Cypress Gardens for now! I hope it helps as you plan your trip!
This
is the fifth post in my Florida Field Trip series. You can find the other ones here:
Have fun!
Virginia Knowles
www.StartWellHomeSchool.blogspot.com
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