Central Florida will soon have another option in theme parks. Legoland is coming! What is Legoland you ask? It takes the concept of one of the most adored childrens toys - Legos and makes it into an entire park. Thats right. Soon there will be a whole theme park in Winter Haven, Florida devoted to Legos.

You may recall the Lego attraction at Downtown Disney. Well, thats the general idea, only picture a whole amusement park centered around the theme. There is one such existing park in the United States- in California. There are also a few Legolands in other countries.

This Legoland is going to take over the property formerly used by Cypress Gardens in Winter Haven. Cypress Gardens was home to tens of thousands of plant and flower species. They also held water shows and began adding rides over the past few years in order to attract more visitors. But apparently, their efforts were not enough and the park closed this past September. It will be interesting to see how Merlin Entertainment will redesign the space to house Legoland.

Winter Haven is about an hours drive from Orlando, so its definitely another possible draw to the Central Florida area while families are on their Orlando vacation. Most children own and like Legos, so its easy to imagine that families traveling to Orlando to visit Disney, Sea World, or Universal, will make the short trip to Legoland. Many already add Busch Gardens in Tampa to their plans. This just gives one more option.

The park is set to open by late 2011.

Labels: central florida, cypress gardens, downtown disney, golf orlando vacation, legoland, visitors