Legoland Florida unveils ticket pricing, will open in 12 months

October 21, 2010, 3:01 PM · Legoland Florida tickets are now available online. Legoland Florida officials on Thursday said the Winter Haven theme park are now on sale at the company's website. The central Florida park is slated to open in October 2011.

One-day admission will be $65 for adults, $55 for children ages 3-12. Annual passes will cost $99. Plus passes, which include parking and food and merchandise discounts, will cost $159 for adults and $129 for children. Note that the park is calling these "preview" prices.

Here's more detail about the new park, which held a hard-hat tour for the press today.

Replies (12)

October 21, 2010 at 3:54 PM · A lifetime pass hunh? Very interesting.

If its $2500 for Legoland I wonder what SeaWorld, Uni, and WDW would be?

Someone with far more free time than me could calculate (today's price) x (normal price increases) x (typical lifespan) x (time value of money) to figure out the equilibrium price versus what we think they'd actually charge.

October 21, 2010 at 5:32 PM · I want to view the map of the park, but when I click on the link to the map, a search window pops up. Beware, TPI users!
October 21, 2010 at 6:34 PM · Yeah, they have a busted link on the Legoland website for the park map. Frustrating.

The lifetime pass to the Legoland theme parks used to be $1,000, less than a decade ago. So that's been the fastest-rising recent admission price in the theme park business that I can recall.

Still, the $99 Legoland Florida annual pass price is aggressive, a strong attempt to lock in the Central Florida family market. If I my kids were still under age 10 and we lived in Central Florida, I know what they would be getting for their birthdays next summer.

October 21, 2010 at 7:15 PM · Jason,

Looked like an interesting question.

I first calculated the number of years for you to break even on a LegoLand pass using an average annual price increase of 5.7% and an inflation (discount) rate of 2.6%.

Based on this, you breakeven on the LegoLand pass on what would be your 13 annual pass.

If you then base Disney pricing their ticket based on the 13th annual pass renewal, the current value (price you would pay) of the pass is $7200.

Disney has a long history in Central Florida and can be more aggressive on pricing. If they calculate the annual pass on 17 annual passes, the current price would be about $10,000.

If Disney is even more agressive on pricing and who thinks they wouldn't be,you can have a lifetime of Disney for only about $14,999. (Breakeven for 22 annual passes)


Raw Data Sources

Expected Price LegoLand 1/1/11 is $159. Since it is a discounted rate as the park is not yet open, we will treat the same as an annual pass renewal.

Expected Price for a Disney annual pass renewal on 1/1/11 is $459

Disney price for a basic annual pass renewal has increased on average about 5.7% from 1991-2009. They are the effective price leader for the market. I used this site for the raw data. http://allears.net/tix/tickethistory.htm

Inflation has averaged about 2.6% annually since 1991. I used this for the discount rate.

October 21, 2010 at 8:30 PM · It's interesting that the Legoland Florida opening date of October, 2011 is the same as the 40th anniversary of WDW. Is Legoland hoping some of the WDW publicity rubs off on them or are they trying for an unobtrusive opening with all the attention centered elsewhere?
October 21, 2010 at 9:25 PM · Coat-tails. With every newsroom in the world cutting its travel budget, it seems, reporters are more likely to go out in the field if they can cover multiple stories. Opening Legoland around the same time as the WDW 40th will help increase coverage of both events.

That said, the dirty secret of travel journalism is that many people who cover theme parks get their travel to them paid for by the parks. (FWIW, Theme Park Insider is not one of them - I never accept travel expenses from theme parks, such as airfare and hotel. And if I'm not covering an official press event, I always pay my own way into the parks.) If Disney's picking up the tab to fly planeloads of reporters and bloggers to Central Florida, Legoland can throw its press event at the same time and get coverage without having to pay to bring anyone in.

Brilliant.

All this, of course, assumes that Legoland does its opening at the beginning of the month, close to the Disney anniversary. If it waits until later in the month, it will get close to no out-of-town coverage, since few publications will send their correspondents to Central Florida twice in the same month.

October 22, 2010 at 7:37 AM · Legoland are such small parks, they are hardly fun for children within their narrow age focus. Purchase power parity adjusted, 100$ translates to about the same price Merlin (thats the Lego park operator) or other regional parks charge in Europe for annual passes, which usually allow entrance to some other parks.

How much does Six Flags charge for annual passes? Legos should be cheaper.

Dear econ math wizzards,

in regard to the lifetime pass, its a sucky deal obviously, since no one would buy an annual pass that often. But lets asume for a second a mythical person knows for certain he/she would actually do so, since economists love to asume problems away.

In that case the annual card is still a horrible deal due to substancial bankcrupcy risk. Merlin is owned by a Blackstone PE fund, thus leveraged like crazy.

October 22, 2010 at 10:42 AM · Puh-leeze. I can vouch that $99 is an excellent value for a Legoland AP, provided you visit the park twice or more during the year. (I'd say you need at least four visits to make the Plus AP a worthwhile investment.)

Sure, Legoland targets a narrow age range, but if your children are within that range, they'll have the chance to visit a theme park tailored just to them. My kids preferred Legoland to Disneyland when they were between 5 and 8. Guess what? There's always a supply of elementary-aged kids to keep Legoland parks filled.

I've always thought the lifetime pass a bit of a gimmick, but there are life-long Lego fans out there who care less for the attractions in the park and more for the engineering and artistry of Lego construction. The lifetime pass used to include one session a year with a Lego master builder (haven't checked to see if it still does), which I suspect was as much a draw for whoever would buy that pass as anything else. Still, I've not seen any numbers on how many Ambassadorships Legoland actually sells.

Finally, there's zilch chance of Legoland closing due to Blackstone's finances. Given the political climate in America, Blackstone clearly qualifies as a "too big to fail" institution. (I'm not saying that I agree with businesses being too big to fail, but it should be clear by now that both Republicans and Democrats are playing that way.) Legoland's doing fine as an individual unit, too, and would draw investment interest if Merlin or Blackstone ever wanted to divest it.

October 22, 2010 at 12:56 PM · Thanks 75.77.224.66 for indulging me, that was fun!


PS> Y'all should register with the site, its easy and makes it more personal

October 22, 2010 at 3:32 PM · As a passholder for Legoland California I can tell you that if you have children from the age of 2-10 you will be there often if you live close. We use our passes about 3 times a month, visits are abour 5 hours average. We do a lot of playdates there and just the special events like Star Wars weekend and then the upcoming "Brick or Treat" makes the annual pass a great deal! I too thought that I would not enjoy but this theme park has something for everyone. Ours just opened a water park and it is AWESOME!
October 22, 2010 at 11:24 PM · I'll be in Florida in August, but it won't be open. If it was i would give it a try.
October 23, 2010 at 6:56 PM · I've never been to a legoland, although I think that miniature "lands" are kind of cool. I'll tell you what is the coolest thing I've ever seen - Madurodam in Netherlands. Freed from having to make everything out of plastic bricks, everything in this miniature city is highly realistic, with boatloads of moving trains, cars and er, boats.

I will probably never bring the fambly to Legoland, as the kids are a bit older now and unlike me they never really took to lego when they were little. But a Madurodam type attraction, if it was well done and well priced I would definitely bring them to see.

I have no idea if Blackstone will go broke some day, but don't minor Florida attractions have a history of disappearing? Think of Splendid China (another scale model town) and of course Cypress Gardens.

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