Our daughter’s loves building creative things with her LEGO bricks and she loves all of Peppa Pig’s things and stories. So we planed a stop at LEGOLAND Florida and the Peppa Pig Theme Park in Winter Haven during our trip throug Florida.
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LEGOLAND in Florida
Legoland Florida Resort is a leisure and theme park resort in Winter Haven, Florida, which opened in 2011 on the site of the former Cypress Gardens theme park. It includes the LEGOLAND theme park with over 50 rides, shows and attractions, the LEGO water park with 14 water slides, three unique themed hotels, the Peppa Pig Theme Park and, from fall 2024, a brand new SEA LIFE Aquarium.
Things to know about LEGOLAND Florida
LEGOLAND Florida is the largest LEGOLAND park in the United States and the second largest in the world, covering over 55 acres and featuring over 50 rides, shows and attractions. The theme park is aimed at families with children aged 2 to 12 and offers a variety of experiences in 14 different areas, all built from Lego bricks.
Legoland Florida is located about 45 minutes’ drive southwest of Orlando in the small town of Winter Haven (location in Google Maps). The theme park was opened in 2011. Basically, Legoland Florida is similar to other Legoland parks around the world in Denmark, England, Malaysia, Dubai, Japan or Germany. However, there is one difference – an existing leisure area served as the basis for the park. Until 2009, this site was home to the “Cypress Gardens” theme park (see Wikipedia), one of the oldest attractions of its kind in North America. The park was best known for its unique botanical gardens and world-famous water ski shows. Both can still be found today at LEGOLAND Florida.
LEGOLAND Floria is open daily from 10 am to 5 pm, in the summer months even until 6 pm. Admission prices for adults and children aged 2 and over start at $74 per day – for LEGOLAND only. If you also want to visit the associated LEGO water park, you have to pay $94. Combined tickets for LEGOLAND and Peppa Pig Theme Park (Single Day) start from $99.
Parking costs $32 – unless you stay directly at the LEGOLAND Hotel, in which case parking is included.
Our tip: For tickets, it’s always worth taking a look at Attraction Tickets. With a bit of luck, you can get good combination deals or special offers with savings of up to 50%.
A map of the theme park
On the following map you can see the size and the different attractions of LEGOLAND Florida. This map can be downloaded here free of charge.
A map of LEGOLAND® Florida
Attractions & Rides
Once you have passed the entrance to LEGOLAND, you can take various routes to the 14 different areas of the park. There are over 50 different attractions and rides in total. Here you will find many typical LEGOLAND rides such as the dragon ride or the Lego driving school. There are also a few historic rides from the time of the old “Cypress Gardens” theme park, such as the nostalgic wooden roller coaster Coastersaurus.
The roller coaster “The Dragon” transports visitors to a medieval world where they can ride a dragon and admire the LEGO landscapes. The LEGO TECHNIC Coaster is a little faster. This roller coaster offers wild curves and thrilling descents for adrenaline lovers. At the Boating School, children have the opportunity to steer their own LEGO boats and navigate through a water area. In the Lost Kingdom Adventure, you can go on an interactive ride through a jungle in search of hidden treasures and shoot at hidden targets.
Inside the park is the beautiful and historic botanical garden “Cypress Gardens”, which has been an integral part of Florida since 1939. The gardens are a horticultural masterpiece with exotic plants from all over the world with over 30 types of palm trees, 10 types of banana trees and 15 types of azaleas. The gardens are also home to a giant banyan tree that was planted as a seedling in 1939.
LEGOLAND Florida also offers two different driving schools: At the Ford Driving School, children aged 6 to 12 can gain their first driving experience while driving through a traffic course in LEGO cars. But there is also a special practice course for the younger drivers, where the children receive their own LEGOLAND driving license at the end. Our daughter was really proud of it in the end 🙂
The Lego Movie World theme area, which is based on the popular Lego film series, was launched in 2019. Here you will find the Battle of Bricksburg, Masters of Flight, Unikitty’s Disco Drop and Benny’s Play Ship, a large climbing frame.
Miniland USA
One of the main attractions in the LEGOLAND theme park is Miniland USA, where famous US landmarks and cities are recreated from LEGO bricks.
From the Statue of Liberty in New York, to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, from the casinos in Las Vegas to the White House and State Capitol in Washington, everything here has been recreated in loving detail, giving visitors the opportunity to go on a journey through the USA without leaving the park. Many of the miniature landscapes are also equipped with moving elements and interactive functions. You can make the volcano at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas erupt at the touch of a button or set a band playing in front of the Capitol in Washington. Our daughter found that really exciting.
Other recreated landmarks include the Daytona International Speedway, Lombard Street, the Painted Ladies and the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, Times Square and the Rockefeller Center in New York, the Southernmost Point in Key West the Ocean Drive in Miami Beach and many more.
We found Miniland USA absolutely fascinating and there were always new details to discover.
The LEGOLAND Hotel in Winter Haven
LEGOLAND Florida Resort offers the opportunity to stay in one of its own themed hotels to fully enjoy the LEGO experience. These include the LEGOLAND Hotel, the LEGOLAND Beach Retreat and the LEGOLAND Pirate Island Hotel. We spent one night at the LEGOLAND Hotel, which was a very special experience and offered us the great advantage that we only had to walk a few meters to the LEGOLAND park entrance the next day.
We were able to park our rental car for free in the large parking lot and then walked from there to the check-in.
There is plenty for children to discover in the room. The highlight was definitely the little treasure hunt. Right at the entrance to our room was a safe in which a free LEGO treasure was hidden for the children. The code to open the safe must be obtained by solving three small puzzles in the room. The safe contained a LEGO NINJAGO building set and a carton of apple juice for each child. We have never seen a treasure hunt like this in any other hotel and think it’s a great idea.
The hotel has 152 rooms and suites, each with its own LEGO theme designed especially for children. Although it was only 10 o’clock in the morning, we were already able to go to our room. We thought it was really great to be able to freshen up and put our things away before visiting the park. Our room was a Kingdom Room, i.e. everything here is decorated in a knights, kings and princesses design. The room offers space for up to five people and a separate sleeping area for children. Our older daughter (and we) thought the room was totally cool because it was something completely different from the usual hotel rooms.
Amenities at the hotel include a large resort pool, meet & greets with LEGO characters and various other leisure activities. Everywhere in the hotel and on the grounds there are figures made entirely of LEGO bricks and everything is designed in the style of the little men. So just walking through the hotel is a highlight in itself – there’s plenty to discover here 🙂
Our stay at the LEGOLAND Hotel included a free breakfast in the Bricks Family Restaurant, which we were really looking forward to. As we are total buffet lovers, we were initially a little disappointed that breakfast was served here and that we couldn’t help ourselves from a buffet. However, the selection was quite large and varied: there was a platter with hearty, warm dishes, toast, omelettes, fresh fruit, yogurt, muesli & cornflakes, muffins, coffee, tea and juices. It tasted very good and we were also full.
The Peppa Pig Theme Park
LEGOLAND Florida Resort also includes the Peppa Pig Theme Park, which is located right next to LEGOLAND Floria. You can find our report on this and many more pictures in this article (to follow).
Is a visit to LEGOLAND Florida worthwhile?
LEGOLAND Florida and the small Peppa Pig Theme Park naturally have a hard time against the big theme parks in Orlando. Especially as the park is a 45-minute drive from Orlando. But LEGOLAND Florida and the Peppa Pig Theme Park are a perfect destination for families with younger children up to the age of 6, as the children can ride lots of rides here – in contrast to the big parks in Orlando – and the parks are designed with toddlers in mind.
Due to the size of LEGOLAND, you should definitely plan a whole day to explore the theme park. This way you can experience as many attractions as possible and also have time for a (food) break in between. We really enjoyed it and we think that this was not our last and only visit to LEGOLAND 🙂