Legoland Florida Resort is expanding with a freestanding Sea Life aquarium attraction and a Ferrari-based activity inside its original Winter Haven theme park next year, it was announced Wednesday.
Sea Life Florida will be the second such operation from Merlin Entertainments Group in Central Florida. Sea Life Orlando opened on International Drive in 2015.
“We’re going to celebrate, of course, the animals of Florida and a lot of the things that make us really important to the Winter Haven area,” said Kelly Hornick, head of marketing and communications.
“But our final exhibit is going to culminate in this beautiful tank, which is going to the theme park under the sea. So you’ll see these beautiful coral seascapes celebrating what makes Central Florida special in the theme park world,” she said. “It’s going to be the world’s first theme park under the sea for the fish.”
Sea Life and Legoland attractions are both operated by Merlin Entertainments Group, a British company. The aquarium, scheduled to debut in fall 2024, will open near the entrance of the Winter Haven theme park, but it will not be Lego-themed.
“We really want to be our own destination, and we’ve done a lot of work to get us there,” Hornick said.
Legoland Florida opened on the former grounds of the Cypress Gardens attraction in 2011. Since then, the resort has revamped an existing water park and opened three kid-centric hotels. In 2020, it opened Peppa Pig Theme Park, an attraction based on an animated series and geared to preschoolers and their families.
The Sea Life addition “really extends all of the reasons to stay on-site at our resort,” Hornick said.
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“For preschoolers to have their own theme park and an aquarium just builds out the resort destination for that specific age demographic, which is really important to us – those that might not be ready for the bigger roller coasters and water rides and slides,” she said.
Meanwhile, a new racecar-themed exhibit is under construction inside Legoland Florida theme park. The Lego Ferrari Build and Race is expected to open in spring 2024.
“When you first come into the garage and the experience, there will be a life-size Ferrari model completely made of Lego,” Hornick said. The park is not saying which model it will be yet.
“That model will be exclusive to our park,” she said. “Then the experience is several rooms where you’re building and testing and looking at how you can create your own Ferrari or car experience through different tracks.”
The Ferrari area will be in a building that has been used for model building near Lake Eloise and the Pirate River Quest attraction that opened in January. The company has similar Ferrari experiences at Legoland California and Legoland Windsor in England.
Merlin Entertainments operates 140 attractions in 24 countries, including Madame Tussauds Orlando, a neighbor of Sea Life Orlando Aquarium at Icon Park. The Winter Haven aquarium will be the company’s 50th Sea Life attraction.
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