Sea Life Florida - New Aquarium at Legoland Florida

SwampDonkey said:
Not a lot of information, but Legoland is building a Sea Life aquarium at their Florida resort. It opens fall this year as a stand alone attraction next to the Legoland theme park in Winter Haven Florida.
Sea Life Florida
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I don't really understand this, there is already a SeaLife in Orlando, are they just gonna move the animals there to this new location or ?
 
SusScrofa said:
I wasn't even aware there is a legoland in Florida.
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It's been up and running since 2011, lol.

It used to be a botanical garden/theme park called Cypress Gardens. I went there on a field trip during it's last year of operation, 2009. Nice place, but looking back, it's not a surprise that it ended up closing down. My entire grade went (So, about a hundred kids and all, plus our teachers and various adult chaperones) and we were literally the only people there. For the entire day. Place was just a ghost town!

Cypress Gardens - Wikipedia

Apparently, part of the terms of sale was that the botanical garden would be preserved, so I guess if I ever feel the need to rekindle childhood memories, I can go to Legoland and stick to the botanical garden portion of it. Lol.
 
AnActualFan said:
I don't really understand this, there is already a SeaLife in Orlando, are they just gonna move the animals there to this new location or ?
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Legoland is located in Winter Haven, Florida. Winter Haven is over an hour away from Orlando, potentially more, depending on the traffic (Which can usually be counted on to be bad).

Central Florida is a family-friendly entertainment mecca. Having two Sea Life Aquariums, about an hour apart from each other, probably won't impact either locations' visitor numbers.

I mean, SeaWorld is also in Orlando. Orlando's Sea Life Aquarium isn't even five miles away from it! I have yet to hear about it "taking business away from SeaWorld".
 
AnActualFan said:
I don't really understand this, there is already a SeaLife in Orlando, are they just gonna move the animals there to this new location or ?
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No, it is a new aquarium, they are not closing the Orlando facility. Merlin also owns Legoland, Legoland Water Park, and Peppa the Pig theme parks and the Beach Resort hotel in that same property area, along with the Sea Life in Orlando. Basically this is a property extension for them in the Legoland resort area to capture more tourism time and revenue.

Legoland is also popular for residents and tourists in the Tampa area to go over to without having to get into the Orlando parks, which can take hours to get over to from Tampa.

I am more curious as to how large it will be, there is scant information online.
 
A little more information in this article. Apparently they are going to reconfigure the main Legoland entrance, so the aquarium will be at (but outside) the main gate like in the Legoland California.
  • The largest tank and main part of the aquarium will be a 200,000 gallon oceanic tank "segmented into three oceans".
  • 24 tanks surrounding the main tank.
  • Digital touch screen displays.
  • Single level facility.
  • It will not have a stingray touch pool.
The layout sounds similar to Orlando where they have a main tank segmented into the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Orlando is also single level and has surrounding tanks like the article is describing.
 
Paywall, but news is saying "early 2025" for the opening. Given the current state of construction I would guess a spring opening.
Legoland Florida building Sea Life aquarium settings, animal lineup – Orlando Sentinel

The ocean exhibit sounds completely different from other Sealife Aquariums in terms or decorations:
Inside, a unique presentation is planned for the aquarium’s ocean exhibit, McMahon said.

“It’s going to be showing some really cool attractions – like coral-themed castles and Ferris wheels, hotels, carousels, a haunted house – as kind of the backdrop for some of these cool animals that we’re getting,” she said.

A tunnel will run through it, providing good views, she said. The concept isn’t “Legoland underwater,” though.

“We’re trying to just celebrate Central Florida as the theme park capital of the world,” McMahon said.
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A few more details:
In addition to the ocean exhibit, Sea Life Florida visitors will see blacktip reef sharks, an octopus, moon jellies, a touch pool stocked with cold water invertebrates, a seahorse gallery and more, the curator said.
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Opening May 23 2025
LEGOLAND Florida announces opening date for aquarium. What to know now
This one-of-a-kind theme, not found in any other SEA LIFE Aquariums worldwide, incorporates coral castles, carousel hideaways and cozy hotel-like spaces, all designed to keep the animals safe while they explore their underwater world," officials said.
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It is interesting that it will be themed different from other Sealife Aquariums, so that's nice.
 
Here's a walkthrough video I found that covers what appears to be all of the Aquarium. They really did go heavy on the castle/amusement park theme, and there are a lot of digital displays. What I applaud them for though, is that they seem to have a lot of Atlantic / Caribbean species on exhibit (makes sense since it's Florida), but there's a lot more than I was expecting. They actually have a group (I think I saw 3 or 4 in the video) of
Atlantic Guitarfish (Pseudobatos lentiginosus) in the Stingray tank, which aren't that common and much prettier than the Shovelnose Guitarfish in my opinion, so that's neat to see they were able to source some of those.
 
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