Legoland builds Carlsbad’s tourism

Despite this year’s challenging economy, Legoland California continues to post excellent numbers for both Legoland and their new Sea Life Aquarium.

While Legoland won’t give out numbers specific to this park, their parent company, Merlin Entertainment Group, is reporting 28% annual growth in visitors for its 57 attractions. The numbers no doubt have been bolstered by the addition of the Sea Life Aquarium with its 36 displays enclosed in a 36,000-square-foot, two-story building. Opened last summer, the aquarium contains more than 250,000 gallons of water — 200,000 of which are devoted to the Lost City of Atlantis, a display featuring sharks, rays and tropical creatures all swimming in an elaborate depiction of the lost city made of Legos.

We especially enjoyed the acrylic tunnel that puts you right in the middle of the tank with dozens and dozens of creatures swimming around you.

Young visitors also will enjoy the Discovery Zone Touch Pool with its hands-on opportunity to interact with several species of sea creatures.

There is a separate charge to get into Sea Life Aquarium, although there are combo tickets that help bring down the price. The aquarium is about $19 for an adult; the combo ticket adds $10 onto the normal adult Legoland ticket of $63.

When Legoland opened in 1999 it helped put the San Diego area on the theme park map. On any given summer weekend day, you’re likely to see as many as 10,000 people enjoying the 128-acre park.

While directed at kids between 2 and 12 years of age, the park has found a way to involve parents, grandparents, teenagers and people of any age. People don’t just go on rides, they’ll actually do things like build model racing cars or participate in pirate ship water fights.

They’ll also marvel at the number of creations that can be made from the Lego, the basic building block invented more than 50 years ago that has come a long way from the simple four-walled structures we oldsters built when we were kids. Legoland features more than 15,000 detailed Lego creations throughout the park, ranging from animals to model cities to a life-size replica of a 2006 Volvo SUV.

Those Lego creations are fascinating. If you can imagine several American cities depicted in miniature, and everything built from Lego blocks, you can quickly get the idea of how intricate these displays are..