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11/17/2014 4 Comments

Live IAAPA Expo 2014 Updates

Over the next few days we are going to be sharing some IAAPA updates on our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. So if you are looking for live up to the minute updates, be sure to check there.

But we'll be updating this column as often as possible so you can get a look at all the coverage in one place.

Day Three - Wednesday

Scroll down to see updates from Monday and Tuesday.

Renée is covering IAAPA today. Its her first time so follow along on her adventure with us.She's got her coffee and maps and is ready to go.

First stop of the day, Merlin Entertainment Group

More info on the LEGOLAND Florida Hotel coming in 2015. Adventure and Pirate themed rooms. Close proximity to park entrance just like in CA.

More info on Legoland FL Hotel

Legoland Ho!!! (Thanks Matt)

Legoland Hotel entrance

Legoland Hotel aerial view

Adventure and Pirate themed rooms for Legoland FL hotel.

Legoland Pool

3 new attractions coming in 2015 to I-Drive Orlando.

Orlando Eye, 30 capsules, 15 people each with LED lighting. Largest Observation Wheel on East Coast.

Madame Tussaud's interactive experience. Will be unique due to fun family elements. Just say no to Justin Bieber

Sea Life Orlando Aquarium with over 5000 sea creatures and a 360 degree acrylic tunnel educating about conservation and families engaging with sea life.

All attractions will also be featured in a Lego Display at Legoland Florida that will be 8 feet tall and 9 feet wide.

Hanging out with Coca Cola bear at IAAPA. He's got eyes that move.

Hanging out with the bear

IAAPA isn't just about rides, lots of games to try out.

Full Size Mario Kart is seriously the coolest thing ever.

ER MAH GERD FLERPER BERD

Aren't you a little short to be a Storm Trooper?

Come to the Dark Side ... we have Coasters.

Another look at the Triotech booth

Threee-Deeeee!!

Renée with her new friend, Chuey from Cool Dog Productions

An overview of the show floor ... it's quite large, and this isn't even all of it.

Pizza and Laser Tag and is that John Daly the golfer?

Weird food stuffed with ice cream. #IAAPA2014

The things I do for you people ...

More awesomeness from Sally Corporation ... Dr. Morphio's House of Nightmares.

Can't get over how awesome these AA's for Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St. Louis are.

RIP

Oculus at AET/Amusement and Edutainment Technologies. #IAAPA2014

Is this from Red's Revenge at Magic Mountain or perhaps Ravenstitch? If it's not, it could totally fit there.

That's going to wrap it up for Day Three. Hope you enjoyed!!

Day Two - Tuesday

Gerstlauer Sky Roller

Mack goodness

In one of the coolest announcements of the day, Zamperla announced they were donating this ride to the amazing Give Kids The World village and that all future rides will be wheelchair accessible.

The ride vehicles for the new Justice League dark rides coming to Six Flags Over Texas and Six Flags St Louis next year. We aren't huge fans of "cloning" rides, but this looks like it's going to be awesome, and we'd love to see this rolled out at more parks in 2016.

Some video of the AA's in action. Sally Corp has really outdone themselves.

Sticking with Six Flags, the new trains for Batman: The Ride from S&S coming to Six Flags Fiesta Texas were unveiled today. These look nice and comfy.

One of the most anticipated announcements of the day was for the Twisted Colossus trains. And they didn't disappoint.

Love how open these trains are.

For all you Coaster Porn enthusiasts

This was certainly the popular place to be

Triotech released a few more details for Iron Reef at Knott's Berry Farm. We have to be completely honest, nothing on this project has blown us away yet, and it sounds like there will be no AA's or actual set pieces. Still, it's Knott's and we are willing to wait and see for ourselves next year.

Hi, I'm Steve and I like Rollercoasters. Here I am on one. =)

Coming in 2015, the Park Journey haunted house. Anybody have a big truck and a big pocketbook we can borrow? Well, we'll borrow the truck at least. =)

Wonder if they used this at Six Flags New Orleans when they were filming Jurassic World?

One of the more pleasant surprises of the day was The Gravity Group showing off the new trains for SwitchBack.

These are simply beautiful

Don't think that's what the track is gonna look like. =)

Some POV and off-ride footage of Switchback coming to ZDT's Amusement Park in TX

We aren't sure what else will be announced today, the Expo closes in about 45 minutes (as of the updating of this article) but we'll have MUCH more tomorrow.

Day One - Monday

Before we even left, site contributor RD made sure we wouldn't miss a thing at the Expo

The Expo doesn't actually begin until Tuesday but that doesn't mean the IAAPA fun doesn't start Monday night with a great IAAPA Connect at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. It's basically a great night to start off the festivities where the vendors can get together and mingle.

The day before the madness at the Exhibit Hall. Not a whole lot of media to be found.

Queen Elsa Renee loves gingerbread frozen

IAAPA Food Porn at Be Our Guest at WDW Magic Kingdom

IAAPA knows how to put on a nice spread, no surprise there

Chris hanging out with none other than Dick Knoebel from Knoebel's.

Ta'Da!!

Santa is all like "I'm team Park Journey "

Good Night from the Magic Kingdom

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11/10/2014 0 Comments

Legoland CA announces new attractions and gets ready for Holidays

Last week we were invited out to Legoland California as they announced their new attractions for 2015.
The park announced both a new Star Wars "Death Star" Mini-Land and a Lego Friends Heartlake City area. Both will be opening in 2015. For all the information on those announcements see the full Press Release.

Today we are going to take a look at the preparations that are already taking place for these new attractions as well as a look at preparations for Holiday Snow Days and Winter Nights.

Later this week we'll take a look at the rest of the park as it's truly one of our favorites.

2015 Park Additions

As we arrived it was a beautiful but warm day in Carlsbad.

The park set up a nice little continental breakfast for the gathered media. Always nice to see after having a 3 1/2 hour drive in the early morning.

The announcement was held in the nice air conditioned 3D theater.

Media Rep Jake Gonzales welcomes us all to Legoland

General Manager Peter Ronchetti announces the first of two attractions, the Death Star Mini-Land

The next few pictures should look pretty familiar to anybody reading this.

The Force will be with you ... always.

Lego R2D2 came out to join Peter for the announcement, we need to get one of these for any future Park Journey meets, because it's awesome.

Next the Lego Friends came out to announce Heartlake City. I have to admit, I'm unfamiliar with the Lego Friends because my kids are a bit older than the target audience, but the area looks like it's going to be very well done and I think I'll bring my 7 year old Niece to see this when it opens. She'll love it.

Peter and the Lego Friends

A close-up of Lego R2D2, be sure to visit him when you are at the park.

It looks like work has already started on the Death Star miniland, which if you are familiar with the Star Wars Miniland is next to the Hoth set.

The park would neither confirm or deny that this was the spot of the Death Star Miniland, but it would make sense.

Star Wars Death Star Miniland opens on March 5, just in time for Star Wars Days on March 7 and 8.

The park also didn't announce where Heartlake City will be, but in looking at the artwork, it appears to be taking over some of the WaterWorks area, which makes sense because Heartlake City will also have a water feature.

We'll have much more on these two new additions in the months to come and we'll of course be there for the opening of the new Miniland in March.

Holiday Snow Days and Winter Nights

Preparations are also underway for Holiday Snow Days and Winter Nights, including an ice skating rink at the front of the park.

I've personally never seen Legoland at night so I'm hoping we'll get to see the event this year.

Trees heading to Miniland have received lots of lights.

The Fun Town Police and Fire Academy is closed and is getting snow for the holidays. Hope it doesn't melt before then. =)

Lego Christmas Tree

Offseason Refurbishments

Splash Battle is closed for an offseason refurbishment

This is a really great attraction and it's great to see it get love every offseason.

There's always something fun getting added to Miniland and this offseason it looks like the San Francisco Miniland is getting some attention.

Just hope they aren't adding a San Francisco Giants parade. =)

Lego Movie Experience

Lastly, the new addition for 2014 was the Lego Movie Experience. This has been open since the Spring but we were unable to make it down. So we wanted to share with you this great walk-through.

Everything is Awesome!!!

Any Lego fan would be in heaven in this workspace.

That's going to wrap it up for this Legoland update. We'll have more from Legoland later in the week as we take a look at the rest of this awesome park.

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11/6/2014 0 Comments

Legoland California announces 2015 park additions

We were invited out to Legoland, California today to see what they have on tap for 2015.

Below is the press release and some promotional images. We'll have MUCH more for you tomorrow with a full park update about the event.

Light speed ahead! LEGOLAND® california Resort continues moving upward into 2015

Record Year leads to NEW LEGO® Friends Area and LEGO STAR WARS™ MINILAND EXPANSION

CARLSBAD, Calif. (November 6, 2014) – A galaxy far, far away and some new Friends took center stage as LEGOLAND® California Resort announced two major additions for 2015 at the annual press conference. General Manager Peter Ronchetti shared the family theme park’s 2014 successes before announcing the LEGO® Star Wars™ Miniland Death Star is arriving in time for spring break and an entirely new area, Heartlake City, based on the popular LEGO® Friends product, is opening before summer.

“This is our tenth straight year of continuous attendance growth and much of this can be attributed to providing our guests with a fun, family environment to enjoy unique interactive experiences and create family memories,” said Ronchetti.

“In 2011 we were the first LEGOLAND in the world to open LEGO Star Wars Miniland and the success and popularity that it has had throughout the years is out of this world,” said Ronchetti. “Our guests have asked us to bring the Death Star to the experience, and we’re excited to be able to do that next year!”

Opening March 5, 2015, LEGO Star Wars Miniland Death Star spans 6-feet across and offers guests the chance to view iconic film scenes made of LEGO bricks that were filmed inside the Galactic Empire’s space station. This includes the famous trench run scene where Luke Skywalker maneuvered his X-wing fighter through the combat zone and trench to blow-up the station and its planet destroying super laser. LEGO models of Stormtroopers, a Rebel X-wing fighter pilot and an Imperial Star Ship pilot will be on display. Guests can also use their imaginations to construct their own LEGO spaceships at building stations. LEGO Star Wars Miniland Death Star is opening just before the Park’s annual LEGO Star Wars Days happening March 7 and 8, 2015.

“With all the success we’ve had over the years, we continue to work harder than ever to outdo ourselves each year by creating attractions that immerse guests into LEGO Group’s popular intellectual properties,” said Ronchetti. “Last year we made a huge splash with the addition of the LEGO Legends of Chima Water Park presented by Cartoon Network and this year we are excited to continue that trend with the addition of LEGO Friends Heartlake City.”

LEGOLAND California is making a significant investment in LEGO Friends Heartlake City, opening summer 2015. The new area is based on one of the LEGO Group’s hottest toy lines “LEGO Friends”, which focuses on the lives and personalities of five girls: Mia, Olivia, Andrea, Stephanie and Emma. The new area invites guests to sing along with Andrea at her tour bus, stroll through LEGO horse stables, enjoy a building activity at one of the LEGO brick tables and go for a horseback ride on the carousel in Mia’s family ranch. The adventures are endless for guests as they enjoy living like LEGO Friends for a day in Heartlake City.

The LEGO® Star Wars™ Miniland Death Star and the new LEGO® Friends Heartlake City are included in the cost of admission to LEGOLAND California Resort. For ticket prices, operating schedule and additional information, visit www.LEGOLAND.com or call 760-918-LEGO (5346).

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