Al's Blog – Advice You Can't Refuse

Legoland has purchased one of Florida’s original attractions Cypress Gardens and some tourism analysts think it won’t work in the Orlando metropolitan area. To those who don’t believe here’s some of what Merlin, the parent company of Legoland, have to say about it’s choice of location. Merlin has a successful track record of  taking historic gardens and making them a hit currently they have in their portfolio three garden attractions  two in Great Britain and one in Italy. Besides the gardens forty to fifty main attractions are planned plus the Lego themed attractions for Orlando’s Legoland.

Other information disclosed is Merlin’s plan to keep Splash Water Park open as a separate ticket from Legoland. In the park they plan on keeping at least one of the wooden roller coasters. At this point they also plan to continue another Cypress Gardens tradition it’s water ski show.

Because of it’s out of the way location (about forty minutes to Disney) tourism insiders have openly wondered why Merlin chose the Cypress Gardens park to open it’s second Legoland in the United States. The answers started with the historic gardens plus the cost of developing a completely new park as opposed to renovating an existing park. Because so much of the infrastructure is in place the time frame to open the park shaves many years off the opening date.

So you decide do you think Legoland Orlando will be a hit or a miss?

The Orlando area will soon have a new attraction located at the former Cypress Gardens theme park. What really makes this interesting is the Blackstone Group has a hand in the purchase. Blackstone has been making moves in Orlando that will eventually give it control of numerous Orlando area attractions including Universal Orlando, Sea Worlds parks, four water parks and now another entry into the Orlando theme park market. I think Disney is going to have a real challenge for Orlando theme park dollars.

Rumors have been circulating that Merlin (worlds second largest amusement operator) has been wanting to enter the Orlando market for some time now. There is only one other Legoland in the United States and it’s in Calfornia so geographicaly Orlando is a good fit to open another Legoland in  the United States with it’s high concentrarion of tourism.

The possibilities of this planned theme park acquisition are to be disclosed this coming Thursday at a news conference. There are numerous ways the company can make this location work better than it has ever before. With their numerous other entertainment options my guess is they will combine the Legoland theme park with other properties it owns perhaps combining it with a Madame Tusasauds Wax Museums. They also bought the Splash Island Water Park and botanical gardens as part of the acquisition. It will be interesting to see how they utilize the current infrastructure of Cypress Gardens, Splash Island, the botanical gardens and will they keep the water ski shows. We shall soon find out but one thing is for sure it will be good for Orlando tourism.

Hopefully you will have the time whenever in Orlando to visit Capone’s Dinner & Show visit www.alcapones.com