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Hi Kev,
Thanks for the overview - I'm hoping to get there next week.
I was at Carlsbad last year and went to Billund when I was a kid many years
ago, but I have never quite managed to get to the Legoland in the country
where I was born!
As an aside, were there any bargains to be had in the big shop or elsewhere
in the park? Does Windsor have a range of bulk items you can buy like in
Carlsbad?
Many thanks,
--
Richard Morton
Britdog Lego.
http://lego.britdog.com
http://www.idynamicsinc.com
"Kev Holmes" <kev.holmes@net.ntl.com> wrote in message
news:Gt7J1G.6Iz@lugnet.com...
> Okay, first visit of the year to LLW on Sunday. Dived in about 3PM and got
> caught by the rain at the end of the day! There are no new major rides, • but a
> few surprises around the park. The first thing to note was that The • Beginning
> had been given a makeover; new frontages to the Big Shop and Cafe, and a • new
> shop dedicated to Lego Clothes on the left as you enter. The Cafe has been
> rebranded as "The Pit Stop Cafe", due to it's proximity to the Racers • ride.
> From what we could see, they're still running with just the 3 Racer • centres
> downstairs - I wonder if they'll ever open the two above them.
>
> The biggest surprise came when walking between France and the Railway Yard • in
> Miniland - Belgium (and Italy) had disappeared! That whole island has been
> transplanted to a new section down by Holland and replaced by a Racing • display.
> This includes a neat figure of eight racetrack, with a couple of
> guest-controlled sports cars and a video display showing the action (using
> active cameras rather than a recording). As each car completes its lap, • it's
> called into the pits and pnuematically controlled figures "attend" to it.
> There's also a guest-controlled dragster race and all the usual funfair • stuff
> that appears at race tracks. They've even done one of my favourites from • LLC,
> the bungee-jumping crane - more of which later...
>
> We carried on down to My Town, but apart from painting the lighthouse,
> switching over to a Jack Stone themed stunt show, and changing over the • train
> to an Explorer theme, not much had changed. Oh, the motocycle shop has • gone and
> been replaced by a food outlet (that's real food, not stuff made from • ABS!),
> and Brick Brothers is now aligned with selling My Own Train/Metroliner and • Jack
> Stone, again probably due to the proximity of themed attractions. We • didn't see
> any changes across in the Pirate/Castle areas, although the castle shop is
> selling the Blacksmith's Shop. This prompted a discussion with the shop's
> supervisor, who bemoaned the merchandising of the set - it dosen't match • in
> with the HP or Knight's Kingdom themes, nor with the Hidden Inn, hence it • was
> difficult to find the appropriate place to display it. [N.B. It's £25 at
> Windsor, unlike the £29.99 online, plus season ticket holders get 10% off • that
> too] Naturally, I helped her sales targets by buying one!
>
> When we returned to Miniland, one of the animators was overseeing the
> racetrack. We chatted about the amount of work that had been undertaken to • get
> the display set up over the winter and he opened up about some of the • issues
> they'd encountered. One of the more frustrating seemed to be the • susceptibility
> of the bungee-crane to wind! Even with a light breeze, the string tends to
> "leap" off of the pulley at the top of the boom, rendering it • inoperable...
> Apparently the variant in Billund has the same problem, whereas the • Californian
> one is in a more sheltered position. An outcome of this discussion was • that the
> family and I were invited down into the Miniland control room to have a • look at
> the control system and things such as the items under repair or pending • release
> for the first time. Apparently, a fair amount of the repair work revolves
> around correcting problems that the guests have caused - finger-snapped • models,
> a case of sabotage when someone caused a train to crash inside a tunnel by
> placing one of the moving vehicles on the track so that it was pushed in • by the
> train, even a child climbing to the top of the hill above the Scottish • dam!
> Other tidbits of information were:-
> Each remote control car costs around £4,000...
> Don't expect to see the Miniland airport implemented... (long story...)
> The rotating tube station platform was disabled as a safety precaution • against
> guests getting injured (!!!)
> If anyone has any ideas on other animations they can do around Miniland,
> particularly using pneumatics, they'd love to know!
>
> When we finally got back to The Beginning we dived into the imagination • centre,
> where they've got a display of scale models of the crown jewels... The • amount
> of GOLD lego that they've used is impressive!!! (I can't think of any sets
> containing gold pieces, as distinct from gold-plated... These were • definitely
> not plated) I didn't have a lot of time, but suspect that the displays • would be
> almost impossible to photo because of the lighting and glass covers.
>
> With the removal of most of the clothing range, the Big Shop was given • over to
> carrying the sets and the park merchandise. Notable exceptions were that • the
> Santa Fe Chief, the Breezeway Cafe and Pizza To Go weren't there. They had • the
> pirate sets and the full range of sculptures though.
>
> Once the kids had gone to bed I was about to start on the blacksmith's • shop,
> when my wife reminded me that her PC was dead and needed my attention - so
> three hours, and a number of machines disassembled and reassembled later, • I
> went to bed... Only to come down to breakfast next morning to find that my
> darling chidren had taken it on to make it up for me!
>
> I'll just have to buy another for myself!
> Cheers,
> Kev
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | LLW 2002
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| Okay, first visit of the year to LLW on Sunday. Dived in about 3PM and got caught by the rain at the end of the day! There are no new major rides, but a few surprises around the park. The first thing to note was that The Beginning had been given a (...) (25 years ago, 19-Mar-02, to lugnet.legoland.windsor, lugnet.loc.uk)
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