LEGOLAND News
Visitors to LEGOLAND Windsor will see changes to one of the park's original and most popular areas in 2015 as the famous Traffic attractions become part of a newly improved LEGO City area and LEGO Friends will be coming to the theme park too!
The LEGO City Driving School is bigger and better than ever with more child-size Fiat cars as well as a new lane on the test course. Boating School also gets a new look featuring more boats and more LEGO models, featuring surprising animations and audio affects - making LEGO City more Lego-tastic fun than ever!
Novice motorists (aged 6-13) looking to pass their LEGO City Driving School test this year will be briefed in a bright and colourful newly re-vamped training area before taking the wheel of a LEGO Brick shaped mini electric powered Fiat car to negotiate the test course. With an increased capacity more drivers can get behind the wheel than ever before and under six year olds can get in training too at L-Drivers. Over at the new look Boating School guests navigate the waters around the busy Coastguard HQ. Then it's time to jump aboard a fire engine to put out a raging fire at the Fire Academy and take a flight on Balloon School.
This year LEGOLAND Windsor will be awash with buccaneering adventure in the new Pirate Shores, now open at the park. Featuring themed rides and activities and 100s of LEGO models, Pirate Shores promises some serious swashbuckling fun.
More than 100 brand new LEGO models and themed features make the Pirate Falls Treasure Quest log flume ride an exciting Lego-tastic voyage. Guided by Scallywag the Parrot, riders join Captain Goodbrick on an explosive quest for Captain Blackheart’s hidden treasure. Add in the rollicking Jolly Rocker pirate ship ride and Pirate Goldwash. Plus, opening in May, Castaway Camp an all new pirate adventure play area and a new themed family restaurant Pirate Shores Burger Kitchen; Pirate Shores adds up to a hearty dose of family fun; strictly not for landlubbers.
To celebrate the opening of Pirate Shores a very special new appointment has been made at the LEGOLAND Resort Hotel as Charlie “the corpsing” McCaw takes up his perch as Parrot in Residence. Hotel guests will be able to “chat” with the ultimate pirate side-kick whose other skills include “playing dead”.
LEGOLAND Windsor’s talented team of special Model Makers and Animators have spent a mammoth 2,541 hours creating some of Europe’s most iconic landmarks, including a 4 metre tall Eiffel Tower, as the famous Miniland gets a new Paris.
Installed when the park opened 18 years ago, the original Paris scene was in need of a makeover, so the buildings and boulevards were taken out at the end of the 2013 season to be replaced by resplendent new LEGO creations. As well as the Eiffel Tower, the scene features an incredibly detailed Arc de Triomphe, The Louvre and The Moulin Rouge with lights and animations. All of the structures are amazingly intricate recreations and the Model Makers have spent hours examining photographs and footage of the real buildings to ensure maximum accuracy.
The entire scene is comprised of more than 650,000 LEGO bricks with 230,000 of those making up the Eiffel Tower. The buildings weigh a staggering 389kg (that’s more than 62 stone!) and most of them were carefully maneuvered into place last week. The 150kg Eiffel Tower is the final piece of the Paris landscape to be installed and the top of the Tower was placed into position with military precision by Model Makers today.