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Monday, January 25, 2010
Eco-related concerns over Cypress Gardens being turned into the world's largest 'Legoland'
Posted by Katie Machol on Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 4:30 PM
When I recently heard about the sale of Cypress Gardens to Merlin Entertainments, who were going to transform it into a Legoland theme park, I had some eco-related concerns and hesitations.
Here's a little background on the company first: Merlin Entertainments is a fast-growing British entertainment company with a hand in 60 attractions and theme parks in 13 countries. According to the company's website, their properties and projects include "four Legolands (one in California), five other full-sized theme parks, six hotels, the London Eye Wheel, nine Madame Tussauds attractions, 27 Sea Life aquariums, Warwick Castle in England and four year-round haunted house attractions called the Dungeon." Did I mention they're only second to The Walt Disney Company in terms of worldwide attractions companies?
Next, I could just imagine the devastation to the rest of the land the park currently sits on in Winter Haven being subjected to bulldozers, tearing up the grounds to make room for this shiny new money maker of a destination in Central Florida. Not to mention the the resources and energy that would go into making brand new rides and buildings to fill it.
Luckily, I did my reading and research that calmed my fears (somewhat). Nick Varney, CEO of Merlin Entertainments, claimed, "...their botanical gardens are safe with us." The company plans on keeping and reopening the beloved botanical gardens. (And possibly keeping the water skiing show as well!)
Another benefit of this theme park will be the amount of jobs and revenue that it will bring into the area. This Legoland is set to be the largest one yet and will need a thousand plus employees to run it. "It's 1,000 jobs when we really need them,'' said Gov. Charlie Crist. (He took the words right out of my mouth.)
One final bonus: cheaper admission than Disney World! The Miami Herald reports:
"Legoland Florida will be priced about the same as Busch Gardens in Tampa. That's about $7 to $10 less than the big three Orlando parks, which currently want $86.29 including tax, though two-thirds of all theme park visitors pay discounted admission. Legoland also offers senior discounts and sells more annual passes than most parks."
My only other issues that exist concerning the new park (to name just a few) have to do with the huge carbon footprint it will have after it is opened: the millions of cars per year traveling to Legoland that will further pollute the air, the amount of trash that will be created (recycling program implemented, hopefully?), and the devastation to the surrounding land to build more hotels and attractions around the theme park.
Legoland Florida is set to open in Fall 2011. I guess we'll see if Merlin keeps their word concerning the botanical gardens and rides. Hopefully, this ends up being more of a blessing than a burden to Winter Park.
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