Experience that holiday feeling right here in the UK, with free tickets to the LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort… In case you hadn’t noticed, here at First Choice, we’re making 2016 the Year Of Yes. There’s no better feeling than going on holiday – but what about when you get back home? Holiday blues can make us all feel pretty low. Luckily, we’re here to make everything better. We’ve teamed up with the LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort to bring you an action-packed year. If you book your All Inclusive First Choice holiday in 2016, we’ll give you up to two FREE kids’ tickets to the LEGOLAND® Windsor Resort.* That’s right – you simply book your dream holiday, and we’ll add some extra sparkle to your year. You’ll receive one free child ticket per full-paying adult, up to a maximum of two free kids’ tickets. Once you have your tickets, you can get into the holiday mood with a family day out, or head to LEGOLAND® once you’re back to re-live your time away. Your free tickets will be valid until June 2017, so you’ll have plenty of time to use them.
The park was acquired by Merlin Entertainments in 2005, which now operates the park, with the Lego Group retaining part ownership (30%).[2][3] The facilities are mainly targeted at children between three and twelve. In 2015, the park had 2,250,000 million visitors, making it the most visited theme park in the United Kingdom and the 9th most visited in Europe. From 1969 to 1992, the site of today´s Legoland Windsor belonged to Windsor Safari Park, which had been founded by the Billy Smart's Circus. The Lego Group began research for the development of a second Legoland park after Legoland Billund in 1987, with over 1000 sites considered.[2] In January 1992, Windsor Safari Park went into receivership and the 150-acre (0.61 km2) site was chosen.[2] Throughout 1992 and 1993, planning, design, site preparation and the design and construction of models began,[2] and new homes were secured for all the safari animals.[5] 1994 saw the installation of services, foundations and infrastructures,[2] and in 1995, one year prior to opening, Big Ben was installed in Miniland.
By this time, buildings and attractions were becoming established[2] and in September, advance bookings were opened for entrance tickets.[6] Final installations were completed by the beginning of 1996 and at this point, the Legoland Windsor staff-base was recruited.[5] Legoland Windsor opened in March 1996. During its first season, the park attracted over 1.4 million guests. In April 2005, Lego decided to sell the Legoland parks, due to rising losses across the company.[8] On 13 July 2005, Legoland was acquired by the Blackstone Group and control of the parks passed to Merlin Entertainments. The park is split into 12 themed lands, incorporating various attractions, restaurants and shops: The Beginning, Imagination Centre, Duplo Valley, Miniland, Adventure Land, LEGO City, Pirate Shores, Heartlake City (New for 2015) , Knight´s Kingdom, Land of the Vikings and Kingdom of the pharaohs. The Beginning is the entrance to the park and is accessible before park opening. Also in the area is the Hill Train, a funicular, (1,067 mm) narrow gauge[9] railway down a curved slope, using previously abandoned vehicles from Brazil.
It is the only attraction retained from Windsor Safari Park, being revamped when the park opened with stained glass windows made from translucent Lego bricks by local school children.[5] It travels 300 metres between The Beginning and Lego City and with a height difference between the top and bottom stations of approximately 27 metres.[10] The Creation Centre closed and was converted into three new areas. The first area is a Lego Star Wars model display. The second area is the Lego Star Wars shop and the third area is the Last Chance Marketplace, where you can buy discontinued Lego products Model of St Paul's Cathedral The Imagination Centre is just above Miniland. It features educational attractions Build & Test Workshops, Lego Mindstorms NXT-based Lego Mindstorms Workshop and Robolab Workshop. Miniland is a miniature park in Lego form, depicting towns and cities from around the world, using nearly 40 million Lego bricks in models often at 1:20 scale. The area features a number of animated models, interacting with each other.
Motor vehicles use cables under the paths emitting radio wave signals to steer and allow charging when required and overnight. The train system runs on tracks, slowing for stations using slow down bars and also charging, and the boats use rubber loops under the water driven by motors, with sensors to detect the boats for operating bridges and locks. The system, with lights and sounds, is run by 14 computers using 300 kilometres of underground cabling. Duplo Valley, previously Explore Land, Duplo Gardens and "Duplo Land", is aimed at younger children. Featuring the Rides & Attractions: Fairy Tale Brook, DUPLO Valley airport (Previously known as Chopper Sqaudtron), Duplo Train, DUPLO Valley Theatre, Raft Racers, Splash Safari, Brickville and Drench Towers. Coastguard HQ as seen from the Heartlake Express Lego City, formerly known as Traffic, is themed around transport. Balloon School: Experience the ups and downs of a hot air balloon ride. Coastguard HQ: a boat school ride for children Fire Academy: help the firefighters here participants are challenged with powering a LEGO fire engine and putting out a ‘burning’ building.
L-Drivers: drive school for 3-5 children LEGO® City Driving School: drive school here children can drive their on car Heartlake City (formerly Lego City until redecoration in 2015) based on the LEGO Friends produce range includes two rides that opened in May 2015, Heartlake Express, a railway ride round Land of the Pharaohs, and a Disk'O coaster called Mia's Riding Adventure. Also in the area, is the "Return to Skeleton Bay" pirate stunt show (NEW for 2017), and "LEGO Friends to the Rescue", a live music concert around the harbour performed by the LEGO Friends. Viking's River Splash on its opening day Land of the Vikings is situated behind the Hill Train, it was opened in 2007 and is based on the plunderings of Nordic Vikings. The Kingdom of the Pharaohs contains "Laser Raiders", an interactive dark ride through an Egyptian tomb where visitors shoot targets to gain points. Pirate Shores features a log flume, Pirate Falls, a play area and a pirate ship ride named the Jolly Rocker.
Knights' Kingdom features The Dragon roller coaster,[5] which starts inside the fake plastic castle, passing Lego tableaux, before travelling outside reaching a speed of around 30 mph (48 km/h). Adventure Land is situated around a lake at the bottom of the park. The main attraction is Atlantis Submarine Voyage by Sealife, which features "submarine" vehicles used to travel through the tank. Legoland Windsor typically opens from March to November, with closures on some days. For the 2008 season, the Q-Bot queueing system was introduced.[11] For a per-person fee, guests are provided with a small pager-like device to "reserve" places in queues virtually, allowing guests to use their queuing time elsewhere in the park. The initial contract between Q-Bot developers Lo-Q was for 1 year from 8 April 2008.[11] This contract was extended for 2009 before a new 3-year contract was signed on 26 March 2010. Three tiers of the device are available at different prices which reduce the queue time by different proportions.