50th Million Brick Laid at Legoland Florida to Mark The Grand Opening Celebration
The 50th million LEGO brick was successfully laid by Legoland Florida General Manager Adrian Jones this morning at a VIP ceremony held in the Lego Technic area of Central Florida’s newest theme park. Adrian Jones was assisted by Kjeld Kirk Christiansen, the grandson of Ole Kirk Kristiansen, LEGO’s founder, during the ceremony.
The brick was a very special one… made of gold and it signified Legoland Florida as the 5th Legoland theme park worldwide as it joins Legoland Bullund – Denmark, Legoland Windsor – England, Legoland Deutschland – Gunzburg, Germany and Legoland California in the line up.
The LEGO story is a humble one as Ole Kirk Kristiansen, the 10th son of an impoverished farmer family in Jutland in western Den mark started making wooden toys in 1932 to make a living after having lost his job during the depression. In 1942 a fire broke out at the factory forcing a rebuild. Initially, he made miniature versions of the houses and furniture he worked on as a carpenter, but in 1947 moved onto using plastics. By 1949 he had produced over 200 plastic and wooden toys. He came up with the name Lego from the Danish leg godt (“play well”) and the company grew to become the Lego Group (“lego” coincidentally means “I put together” in Latin).
On March 11, 1958, Christiansen died from a heart attack when he was 66 years old and today Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen is the current vice chairman of the board of LEGO. He left a huge legacy behind and one that you can enjoy on your next visit to Florida. Tickets are available through FloridaLeisure.com
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Also, some exciting news emerged from the Grand Opening event as Nick Varney, chief executive officer of Merlin Entertainments Group, also announced that Legoland Florida plans to open a water park and a themed hotel at the Polk County theme park.
Legoland officials said the water park will open in May, just seven months after the official debut of Legoland Florida. It will feature Lego elements, including the ability to build your own Lego raft and float down a river.
“It will be totally awesome and it will be totally Lego,” said Varney.
The water park will be an add-on cost to the standard Legoland admission.
