Legoland Windsor Resort have submitted plans to Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council for a new Ninjago themed indoor attraction and redevelopment of one of the themed areas at the Resort.
The proposed new ‘Ninjago Masterclass’ attraction will be housed in a purpose built, single storey building, which will be located on the current site of Loki’s Labyrinth. Designed to integrate with the Ninjago theme, the building will have the appearance of a temple, with off white walls, red columns and black pergola style roofs. The attraction will also consist of an entrance portal and paved courtyard to the front of the building, and both the queue and general area will include interactive features to enhance the newly developed area. Included as part of these interactive features will be a climbing wall, brick build area, and ‘spinners’ (however it is currently unclear exactly what these ‘spinners’ will be).
Plans indicate that there will be a number of substantial changes to the Land of the Vikings area of the theme park in order to facilitate the new attraction in what will become a themed land fully dedicated to the Lego Ninjago brand. The current Longboat Invader ride will be re-located to the north east of the new area and re-themed, whilst the Spinning Spider attraction will also be re-themed to fit in with the new Ninjago area. However, there is currently no indication of any changes to the Viking River Splash attraction.
This latest proposed attraction will be similar to the recently opened Ninjago: The Ride at Legoland Billund Resort which challenges guests to master four elements to fight ‘The Great Devourer’ in a ride which sees guests attempt to hit a number of targets using their hands to control where they aim their fire whilst travelling through the attraction on the ride vehicle. It is expected that many of the elements in the new Ninjago area will use the same names as those featured in Billund’s area including ‘Cole’s Climbing Wall’, ‘Jay’s Rapid Response Training’, and ‘Kai’s Spinners’. If successful, it is anticipated that the new attraction and area will open in 2017.
These plans follow on from recent applications for a new Haunted House Attraction, and an extension to the Resort Hotel, and is in line with the Resort’s overall strategy to maintain current visitor numbers and encourage more short breaks both at the Resort and in the surrounding area. Ninjago Masterclass will be marketed as a new headline attraction to the Resort in an effort to maintain visitor numbers to the theme park in a highly competitive tourism market. The application states that the addition of a second new indoor ride, alongside the Haunted House attraction will help to spread visitor numbers across the season, giving guests more options when the Resort is affected by poor weather. The aim is that this will also mean that there is no significant increase in traffic, and issue which has been raised as part of previous planning applications. The proposed new additions will also ensure that the park is able to keep up to date with current Lego branding, with the Ninjago product range being one of Lego’s most popular products, whilst the Land of the Vikings range is no longer available. Loki’s Labyrinth was also one of the theme park’s original attractions when Legoland first opened in 1996, 20 years ago.
What are your thoughts on these latest plans for Legoland Windsor Resort? Are you pleased to see the park continuing to invest in new additions, or will you be sad to see one of the park’s original attractions leave the Resort? Have your say over on the Attraction Source Forum. We’ll be keeping a close eye on these plans and bring you the latest developments as they happen.
