Legoland Windsor Resort

LEGOLAND Windsor Resort

Entrance to Legoland Windsor
Location	Windsor, Berkshire, England, UK
Coordinates	51.46351°N 0.65114°W / 51.46351; -0.65114
Opened	March 1996
Owner	Merlin Entertainments
General manager	Sue Kemp
Slogan	Awesome Awaits
Operating season	March to November
Attendance	2.200 million (2014)
Area	150 acres (0.61 km2)
Attractions
Total	55
Roller coasters	2
Water rides	6
Website	www.legoland.co.uk

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Map of Berkshire, UK, showing the location of Legoland Windsor at 51.46351°N, 0.65114°W (grid reference SU938747)

Legoland Windsor Resort, also known as Legoland Windsor, is a child-oriented theme park and resort in Windsor, Berkshire in England, themed around the Lego toy system. The park opened in 1996 on the former Windsor Safari Park site as the second Legoland after Legoland Billund in Denmark. In common with the other Legolands across the world, the park's attractions consist of a mixture of Lego-themed rides, models, and building workshops. The park was acquired by Merlin Entertainments in 2005, which now operates the park, with the Lego Group retaining part ownership (30%). The facilities are mainly targeted at children between three and twelve.

In 2015, the park had 2.2 million visitors, making it the second most visited theme park in the United Kingdom after Alton Towers, and the 10th most visited in Europe.

History

From 1969 to 1992, the site of today´s Legoland Windsor belonged to Windsor Safari Park, which had been founded by the Billy Smart's Circus.

The Lego Group began research for the development of a second Legoland park after Legoland Billund in 1987, with over 1000 sites considered. In January 1992, Windsor Safari Park went into receivership and the 150-acre (0.61 km²) site was chosen. Throughout 1992 and 1993, planning, design, site preparation and the design and construction of models began, and new homes were secured for all the safari animals. 1994 saw the installation of services, foundations and infrastructures, and in 1995, one year prior to opening, Big Ben was installed in Miniland. By this time, buildings and attractions were becoming established and in September, advance bookings were opened for entrance tickets. Final installations were completed by the beginning of 1996 and at this point, the Legoland Windsor staff-base was recruited. Legoland Windsor opened in March 1996. During its first season, the park attracted over 1.4 million guests.

In April 2005, Lego decided to sell the Legoland parks, due to rising losses across the company. On 13 July 2005, Legoland was acquired by the Blackstone Group and control of the parks passed to Merlin Entertainments.

Areas

The park is split into 12 themed lands, incorporating various attractions, restaurants and shops: The Beginning, Imagination Centre, Duplo Valley, Miniland, Adventure Land, LEGO City, Pirate Shores, Heartlake City (New for 2015) , Knight´s Kingdom, Land of the Vikings and Kingdom of the pharaohs.

The Beginning

Hill Train

Creation Centre

The Beginning is the entrance to the park and is accessible before park opening. Also in the area is the Hill Train, a funicular, 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge railway down a curved slope. It is the only attraction retained from Windsor Safari Park, being revamped when the park opened with stained glass windows made from translucent Lego bricks by local school children. It travels 300 metres between The Beginning and Traffic and with a height difference between the top and bottom stations of approximately 27 metres. The Creation Centre closed and was converted into three new areas. The first area is a Lego Star Wars model display. The second area is the Lego Star Wars shop and the third area is the Last Chance Marketplace, where you can buy discontinued Lego products

Imagination Centre

Model of St Paul's Cathedral

The Imagination Centre is just above Miniland. It features educational attractions Build & Test Workshops, Lego Mindstorms NXT-based Lego Mindstorms Workshop and Robolab Workshop.

Miniland

A limousine within Miniland

Miniland is a miniature park in Lego form, depicting towns and cities from around the world, using nearly 40 million Lego bricks in models often at 1:20 scale. The area features a number of animated models, interacting with each other. Motor vehicles use cables under the paths emitting radio wave signals to steer and allow charging when required and overnight. The train system runs on tracks, slowing for stations using slow down bars and also charging, and the boats use rubber loops under the water driven by motors, with sensors to detect the boats for operating bridges and locks. The system, with lights and sounds, is run by 14 computers using 300 kilometres of underground cabling.

Duplo Valley

Extreme Team Challenge

Duplo Valley, previously Explore Land, Duplo Gardens and "Duplo Land", is aimed at younger children. Featuring the Rides & Attractions: Fairy Tale Brook, DUPLO Valley airport (Previously known as Chopper Sqaudtron), Duplo Train, DUPLO Valley Theatre, Raft Racers, Splash Safari, Brickville and Drench Towers.

Lego City

Costguard HQ as seen from the Heartlake Express

Lego City, Formally known as Traffic, is themed around transport

Heartlake City

Heartlake City, is new for 2015 and includes two rides that opened in May 2015, Heartlake Express, a railway ride round Land of the Pharaohs, and a Disk'O coaster. Also in the area is the Pirates of Skeleton Bay, a stunt show.

Land of the Vikings

Viking's River Splash on its opening day

Land of the Vikings is situated behind the Hill Train, it was opened in 2007 and is based on the plunderings of Nordik Vikings.

Kingdom of the Pharaohs

Lego brick animals

The Kingdom of the Pharaohs contains "Laser Raiders", an interactive dark ride through an Egyptian tomb where visitors shoot targets to gain points.

Pirate Shores

Pirate Falls

Pirate Shores features a log flume, a play area and a pirate ship ride named the Jolly Rocker.

Knights' Kingdom

Knights' Kingdom

Knights' Kingdom features The Dragon roller coaster, which starts inside the castle-shaped building, passing Lego tableaux, before travelling outside reaching a speed of around 30 mph (48 km/h).

Adventure Land

Adventure Land is situated around a lake at the bottom of the park. The main attraction is Atlantis Submarine Voyage by Sealife, which features "submarine" vehicles used to travel through the tank.

Park operation

Legoland Windsor typically opens from March to November, with closures on some days.

Q-Bot

For the 2008 season, the Q-Bot queueing system was introduced. For a per-person fee, guests are provided with a small pager-like device to "reserve" places in queues virtually, allowing guests to use their queuing time elsewhere in the park. The initial contract between Q-Bot developers Lo-Q was for 1 year from 8 April 2008. This contract was extended for 2009 before a new 3-year contract was signed on 26 March 2010. Three tiers of the device are available at different prices which reduce the queue time by different proportions. Most rides can be selected with Q Bot, with the exception of those which boast large or thin alleyways.

Incidents

• In 2006, a fire broke out in a storage barn onsite during the end of season fireworks on 28 October, with no injuries.
• In 2008, after noise complaints, Jungle Coaster plastic housing was placed over the cars, leading to reduced capacity to two adults per car, due to weight restrictions. However, at the end of the 2009 season, the ride was removed and the site used for hotel construction.
• In May 2009, a 9-year-old girl got her hand trapped in Pirate falls- The Log Flume. The police, ambulance and fire brigade were all called. The ride remained closed the next day as health and safety checks were done and the ride has since been edited to change the design.
• In September 2010, the park's high quantity of wasps during the season was featured on Watchdog, with general manager Sue Kemp appearing with host Anne Robinson and confirming new signage, actions and details on the website.
• In February 2014, the park cancelled a private event organised by Islamic cleric Haitham al-Haddad due to safety reasons following a backlash and threats by nationalist groups.
• On busy days during 2013 (such as 31st May & 26 August), people got stuck in their cars trying to get out the Car Parks and the resort and traffic turning left to the M4 got stuck getting to the motorway itself. Traffic coming down Imperial Road was bad enough so it was decided, after three trials, that signs would be changed to send people coming off the M4 down Goslar Way to approach the park from the south. The Problems continued but traffic to the park deceased some of its traffic.

Awards

Since opening in 1996, the park has won a number of awards:

• Voted UK's Number One Family Attraction by Group Leisure Magazine, 1999.

See also

• Legoland Discovery Centre

External links

• Legoland Windsor
• Legoland Windsor Park Map (Flash Animation)
• Legoland Windsor Guide, UK: Theme Parks.
• Legoland parks, Scream scape
• September Newsletter (PDF), UK: Legoland.