The submarines have arrived at Legoland California, in preparation for the launch of the park's new "deep sea" adventure this summer.
Legoland California announced today that its Lego City Deep Sea Adventure ride will open in July. Previously, the park has said only "summer" for an opening date. The attraction will be the first North American installation of the ride that Legoland has opened as Submarine Adventure at Legoland Dubai and Atlantis Submarine Voyage at Legoland Windsor in the United Kingdom. It's also Merlin Entertainments' largest single investment in any ride in a Legoland park to date.
Legoland has installed eight 22,000-pound submarines in the ride's 300,000-gallon tank. From those subs, visitors will be able to see more than 2,000 real sea animals, including several species of stingrays and a variety of sharks. The subs will be equipped with touch screens, powering an interactive element where riders can direct a Lego minifig dive team identify ocean treasure throughout the four-minute ride.
Let's take a first look at the subs and the tank:
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This looks like a plussed version of the Nemo Subs at DL. However, I worry that there won't be enough screens to satisfy the number of guests loaded into each sub. I'm still waiting for a park to effectively deliver an AR attraction, and this seemed like a perfect place to do it to limit the on-board technology needed to make this ride work. Being able to use your phone in-lieu of a vehicle mounted touch screen would have been a game changer for themed entertainment. I'm curious to see who tries to implement AR first - will it be Disney and its deep pockets but fickle fan base, Universal with its screen-based stereotype that it's trying to break, or a smaller chain that has nothing to lose?
"posters at Micechat... a colossal waste of time."
Fixed. (LOL)
Seriously, though, no matter how this turns out, it's got to beat last summer's Submarine Quest ride at SeaWorld San Diego.
A submarine ride that doesn't go underwater? A SeaWorld ride without animals? Legoland is beating SeaWorld at its own game.
Ha. I see what you did there. Yeah, it feels like that alot lately. I question why I bother reading it anymore. Especially since Kevin Yee doesn't post much anymore.
If everything those experts at Mice Chat said is bad was bad, then nothing would be good. That site is full of people who are completely up their own bung-holes. Sorry to be so blunt, in most of their minds, if it ain't Disney, it ain't crap. No, wait. It it ain't Disney that Walt and the Nine Old Men built, it ain't crap.
Why can't adult theme park fans realize that not everything has been made to appeal to them. We are about to lose A Bug's Land. Sure, it's off the shelf spiny rides with themeing. Honestly - what's wrong with that if the faces of the kids getting off the rides is joyful? There will be little more to this submarine ride than one can get from standing at a window in the same aquarium, but guess what? To a kid that is in LegoLand's target market - this will be AMAZING!
No disrespect intended to anyone, but why do we as a fan base always look to break things apart? Sorry - stepping down off my soapbox now.
You know, Rob, I agree with you on that. The fan base is so quick to deride attractions that don't directly cater to them. I kind of felt that way about Toy Story Land at DHS. But at the end of the day, if you don't like it at least it helps fill capacity at the park.
My disappointment comes with parks using off the shelf carnival rides that I can hardly fit in. Disney excels in making rides that the whole family can enjoy. So many attractions at Legoland and Seaworld are miniscule (and I'm a really small guy). I can't imagine what the average American feels like.
Why the hell are people visitng other sites?
This looks decent if executed well. Definitely better than what I consider a waste of 45 minutes+ at Disneyland with the Nemo subs.
If you hold anything at a Legoland park to Disney standards, then you'll definitely be underwhelmed. However, if you look at it from the perspective of an elementary schooler (which, after all, is Legoland's target demographic), many of the park's attractions are just as enjoyable (if not more so) than what the destination parks offer. This seems no different...it may be fairly dull for adults, but for kids it's likely to be one of the best rides in the park. It's also a huge embarrassment for SeaWorld that Legoland's smaller ride is likely to be vastly superior (and will probably actually operate for more than three months).
The big advantage that Legoland's attractions have over everyone else's (including Disney's) is that they often elicit play and imagination. (The company's name is formed from the Danish words "LEg GOdt" - "play well.") Many elementary-aged kids prefer Legoland to Disney for this reason. It's aimed at them and pressing their buttons in a way that the more broadly-aimed Disney parks cannot.
Ultimately, I think Legoland California and SeaLife have done more than anything else to cripple SeaWorld San Diego, as The Wizarding World of Harry Potter cut down SeaWorld Orlando. This is where the Orange County/San Diego-area young family and school markets are going now.
I've ridden the Atlantis ride at Legoland Windsor and it's great for what it is. It could be better (a longer, more twisty track and more space between "submarines" would help) but the fun comes from actually moving underwater alongside the real animals. That said, the "interactive screens" are really nothing of the sort and no-one really pays them much attention.
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Sounds like a fantastic idea that will be dimished by typically Legoland level execution. Alot of the posters at Micechat have been on the UK installation and said that it was a colossal waste of time. Here's hoping they've learned their mistakes and fixed them on this version. I honestly don't see why this can't be on par with their Sea Life aquarium displays.