Friday, March 29, 2024

Photo Essay: Legoland Waterpark, Florida

InPark was lucky to attend the grand opening of Legoland’s new water park in central Florida. Built as a park within a park (admission to Legoland Florida is required, PLUS an additional $12 charge for access to the water park), the water park is a resurrection of Splash Island Water Park, which, along with the original Cypress Gardens, has had a tumultuous history. 

Most of the changes have been cosmetic, laying the Lego theme onto the pre-existing structures and attractions. In nearly every case, it’s been a major improvement. The park is geared for a younger visitor, and as such has a smaller capacity than other water parks in the Orlando area. With just 1,300 people in attendance at opening day, the attractions were jammed and space was at a premium. Still, as a supplement to the already successful Legoland Florida park, it’s likely to be an additional draw for the park and new revenue stream.

The entrance to Legoland Waterpark. It’s not a separate gate in the traditional sense, it is a park-within-a-park. Entrance to Legoland is required, along with an additional $12 charge for use of the waterpark.
The most “Lego” aspect of the park is the river (original), which includes a Build-a-Raft feature. Guests can grab giant floating Lego blocks to decorate their rafts.
What modern waterpark is complete without a great kid’s play structure.

Some details seem to be overlooked, like this barely-camoflauged water pump.

Other details are rather cute, such as this Lego man occupying the lifeguard chair.

The wave pool (original) excels at creating soft, kid-friendly rolling waves.

Most of the park’s body slides are contained within the play structure, known as the Joker Soaker (original).

Legoland Waterpark’s most thrilling attractions come in the form of three body slides on the Splash Out structure (original). Unfortunately, the access stairs afford a great view of the park’s “boneyard” and decaying sections of the unrestored Cypress Gardens area.

The Twin Chasers are two intertwined tube slides. Guests can ride in single or double tubes.

Both Twin Chasers provide relatively calm, smooth rides, one enclosed and the other open-air.

Another Lego “touch” hiding under one of the Twin Chasers.

Although the Splash Out slides aren’t new to the park, they still provide good thrills for the teen and tween set.

As expected, some guests get more into building their raft than others.

To celebrate the grand opening, Legoland attempted to break the world record for most number of beach balls thrown into the air at one time. The previous record was 400.

With over 1,300 guests in attendance for the media event, there were more than enough beach balls to break the world record.

The only major addition to the park was this Duplo Splash Safari tiny tots play area.

Located near the Lego wave pool, this water table lets guests build small Lego dams and test them against water rapids, or just splash one another!

To end our visit to Legoland Waterpark, the quintessential bucket pour!

Martin Palicki
Martin Palicki
Martin Palicki owns and publishes InPark Magazine. Started in 2004, InPark Magazine provides owners and operators the perspective from "in"side the "park." Martin has also written for publications like Sound & Communications, Lighting & Sound America, Attractions Management and others. Martin has been featured in Time Magazine, CNN.com and Folio. Martin lives in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA.

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