Legoland just opened in Florida last fall, and many people thought, “Why would the mecca of entertainment (Orlando) want ANOTHER theme park?” When my precious grandsons, Owen 6 and Simon 4, visited from Portland, OR, on their spring vacation this year, we found out!
Owen, Simon and Granna Barbara with a Lego dinosaur
BRAND
First of all, this park is specifically designed for children from ages 3 to 10 or 11 who are Lego’s best customers. The rides are all designed for younger children, everything is built to their scale, and there are dozens of things to climb and touch. Amazingly, the park is only open from 9:30 am to 6:00 pm which certainly makes parents happy since that is about all the time little ones can take without having meltdowns.
Everything in the park is made of Legos – from the huge “WELCOME” bricks at the entrance to statues, animals, the cars on all the rides, and the mini-scenes. Even the lifesize characters walking around are Lego men. (Just realized – I don’t think I have ever seen a Lego woman! 😉
The park features innovation, creativity and freedom, just like its building blocks encourage. There is one whole section devoted to “Imagination.” The entrance, appropriately, is a gigantic sculpture of Einstein’s face! Inside there is a huge room filled with every kind of Lego brick and accessory you can imagine. Every hour a limited number of children are invited in, and they can stay as long as they want creating and building.
An especially unique aspect of this park is the freedom they give the little ones on some of the rides. There are two Driver’s stations, one for ages 3 – 5 and another for ages 6 – 10. Each child gets his or her own Lego car to drive around a course with complete freedom, unlike other parks where the rides are on a track and the children can only “pretend” to drive. The cars for the little ones have a steering wheel and a gas pedal, and their track is a large oval. The cars for the older children have a steering wheel, gas pedal, and a brake, and they must first watch a video about safe driving before they can get into their car. Their large looping track has two way traffic, stop signs, and traffic lights. What FUN to watch these little guys driving a car for the first time! And at the end, they each get their very own driver’s license.
Owen driving all by himself!
Another ride that encourages independence and freedom involves lifesize Lego boats, which again are not on a track. Each child must ride with an adult; however, the children are the drivers. Watching six year old Owen and my daughter in their boat, I laughed until the tears rolled down my cheeks! Owen was determined that Gretchen would NOT touch that steering wheel, so their boat crashed into the side, went backwards, and got passed by at least seven other boats before they got to the end. It took longer than any other ride in the park, but Owen had the time of his life – and so did Granna Barbara!
One of the highlights of the park was the section where mini-scenes were built of famous places in the US. There were scenes of Washington, DC, New York City, New Orleans, San Francisco, Key West, Las Vegas, NASA, and of course, some featuring Florida. The intricacy of these scenes coupled with moving parts was mind-boggling, and for me, being a person who loves dolls and miniatures, I was totally fascinated.
And of course, the brand was carried through with the merchandising–all the little shops had everything you could think of made with Legos from prices of $1.99 to $99.00!
SERVICE
The park was immaculate. From the moment you entered, there was a Visitor’s booth and smiling, friendly people. There were two incidents that especially struck me that demonstrated their commitment to service.
First, since the children were so excited to be there, they often ran ahead of us to the next attraction. At one point Simon tripped and started to cry. Immediately a young man who was sweeping ran over and asked if he was OK. Then he asked if he needed a band-aid. Unfortunately, we said no at the time, but I have often wondered if the band-aid might not have been a Lego! 😉
At the track where the little ones ages 3 -5 could drive their own cars, you can imagine the difference in abilities. Many of the little boys got right in and drove around the track, almost like adults; however, the little girls seemed to have lots more trouble. As I watched, there were at least 2 or 3 children on every sequence that just “could not get it.” The darling, patient girl running the attraction would come over, show them how to do it, give them a push and watch. Finally, instead of taking them off and sending them back to their parents (as most attendants would have done in other theme parks), she would get behind the car and push them a time or two around a quite large track. It was a hot day, and I was deeply impressed that she wanted to make this a positive experience, not one of failure, for each child. I did make it a point to go up and thank her afterwards.
The most special moment of the trip: At the end of the day, Owen said to me, “Granna Barbara, this was the best day of my whole life!” What could be a better tribute than that?
The boys and Granna Barbara at the end of the day!
To learn more about Barbara’s work in Customer Service and Employee Engagement, go to www.barbaraglanz.com/programs.
