LEGOLAND Florida Grand Opening

[Cale]

The new LEGOLAND park in Florida now has an official date for it's grand opening. October 15th

http://thedisneyblog.com/2011/05/23/legoland-florida-announces-october-15th-2011-grand-opening-date/

I'm not sure if any special AFOL activities are being planed for the opening. I've been asking around but no one has confirmed anything. Even so there has been interest in PennLUG of a few of us getting a group together and going down. So who wants to crash the party?

Cale

[ctbyrne]

If I am not busy with work or something I would love to go, and if my girlfriend is not busy she would love to go about 10 times more than me.

[Shuppiluliumas]

Maybe we can find out at Brickworld if there will be anything there for us.

[vyronwynter]

I have been putting together some preliminary plans for a week's stay.

Mapquest says it is a 17 and a half hour drive from my house. I checked Amtrak, but found that will take over 23 hours each way at a price of about $250. I then checked airline prices and found a fairly convenient, round-trip fare of about $250. That is a direct flight from Philly to Orlando and is 2 and a half hours each way. So that will be my way of getting down there.

I found a house that sleeps 10 (4 bedrooms) that rents for $104 a night for a week's stay. I do not know if that includes all the taxes. But even if it runs another $50 that still makes it less than $15 a night for 10 people and we get a whole house for that price. We could serve a breakfast everyday and leave other meals to people's own decision.

I looked into distances from this house to other things. It is about an hour to Busch Gardens Tampa and Orlando (PaB wall at Downtown Disney). It is 20-30 minutes to Cypress Gardens. And Cape Canaveral is less than 90 minutes away. With a week to fill, we could visit LEGOland three days (Sat, Sun, Wed) Busch Gardens two days (Mon, Tues) and Kennedy Space Center on Thursday. We could visit Downtown Disney at night since it stays open until 11 PM every day. With more than two cars going down (or rented if the need arises) we could accomodate personal changes to that schedule.

I had planned to talk about all this at the next meeting. But I thought we might want to get a jump on this idea. So I am presenting this scheme before hand so all may consider it and be ready to make a commitment.


Tony Sties

[ctbyrne]

love it.

[Evil Jack]

I defiantly want to got. Not sure yet if I could dedicate a whole week to this or not. I have to check PTO and see if someone would be able to help my wife watch my son. Will let you know what I can do soon.

[legolover530]

i'm definitely interested! i haven't done legoland california since may of 2000, and have been super psyced since the first press release of an east coast option

not sure what my work schedule will be like, but with 2 kids, it definitely won't be for the week

flying is definitely the best way to go, southwest cannot be beat, they actually lowered our flight after we booked and sent us a credit for the difference:)

the 'remodeled' legostore is open in downtown disney, but i was really disssappointed as the pab wall is a good 1/3 shorter than it used to be (but still huge compared to kop) and the new round design saw the removal of the awesome display portals that adorned the perimeter. tons of shelf space and display with a huge adjoining freebuilding room with a shiteload of pieces which i perused for pab addins of course, lock ness creature is still there as well as some amazing new outside models of a knight and dragon, snow white and 7 dwarfs, and buzz and woody (i'll download and upload pics someday )

june 3-5 is reserve drill weekend for me so i won't be able to see you guys again july drill is 9-10 so if we could do the 2nd weekend, i could make a meeting for once have fun sorting, planning, and ranting -chris

[P_Thorne]

@Vyronwynter: If you're pondering KSC, I was there for the Shuttle launch in late February, so I've got all the recent intelligence about renting a car (Priceline and Dollar), driving the B(ee|each)line Expressway, the importance of buying your KSC ticket beforehand, why the $41 price is a good deal for any space nut, and why it's valid for two days.

@Legolover530: When were you at the Downtown Disney LEGO Store? In February, it was operating out of a huge yellow tent, with an undersized PaB wall. The panels around the permanent store (I visited in 2008) *looked* like renovation fencing, but weren't specifically labeled as such.

If you're driving through central Florida with the aid of a GPS, know ahead of time where its "reroute and avoid majors" option is. FM-Traffic is handy, too. Because everybody *else* is directed by GPS onto the majors and when they're accident clogged, they are *really* clogged.

And when you take photos, remember establishing shots. That has nothing to do with LEGO bricks but, as far as my scrapbook goes, I'm still kicking myself.

[ctbyrne]

I will be thoroughly upset if I don't get to witness a drunk-build in this house.

[Cale]

I would definitely be in for a Florida adventure.

Cale

[legolover530]

we went down 30april through 10 may for my son sam's 3rd birthday (his fifth and sadly his last free disney admission)

the new building is just round and kind of boring from the exterior with a neat cupola thing up top that looks like a 2nd floor but i think it's just for more natural light. the adjacent room i mentioned had a bunch of desktop cpus still waitig hookup and a full run of wall cabinets with window panes maybe for a local lug to display mocs?

i really loved the old portals around the exterior but i generally don't do well with change (it still breaks my heart everytime i hold a piece of lightbley, yet find such a thrill to find a vein of classic grey in a 2nd hand lot
-chris

[vyronwynter]

p

[Evil Jack]

I want to go, in the worst way, but alas I cannot.

[Shuppiluliumas]

I probably wouldn't be able to make something like this, but it sounds awesome.

[ctbyrne]

It really does sound awesome, but I don't think I'll be able to do it. If my life settles down more come October, I will try and make arrangements there (probably with Vicky) to coincide with your trip and only stay for the LEGO portion of the trip. All the LEGO, and a reduced break from work. Let me know if in the coming months the hotels all appear to be filling up (like they do for BrickFair).