WINTER HAVEN – Legoland Florida’s new roller coaster swirls riders into an outer-space situation, one that may create mild out-of-body sensations. Galacticoaster debuts to the public Friday.
There’s a spinning factor in the new attraction. Each eight-passenger vehicle – two rows of four people each – rotates whilst moving forward and up and down along the rail for the indoor coaster. There are swooping close encounters with heavenly bodies, Lego blocks in antigravity mode and swarms of Separators, a sort of astro-anthropomorphic version of the tool that pries apart Lego bricks in real life.
Before boarding, passengers customize their rides, selecting creative options for the spacecraft’s wings, nose and tail (dragons, balloons and hamburgers are among the styles). After a group is on the ride, they see images of themselves sitting inside their specialty craft.
Soon, the cars shift 90 degrees and quickly begin the journey, a Lego Galaxy-saving quest. That first launch into darkness goes about 40 mph and surprises some people even though the word LAUNCH looms over the portal. (Reading is fundamental, y’all.)
A moving sidewalk will help with the loading and unloading of Galacticoaster, the new indoor roller coaster at Legoland Florida. It debuts Friday. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
Central Florida certainly has space-themed coasters in the lineup, starting with Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain, the state’s oldest running roller coaster, and continuing with Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Epic Universe’s Stardust Racers. Galacticoaster may remind folks of a less intense version of Cosmic Rewind with some on-track movements a la Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts at Universal Studios.
But this is geared to the Legoland demographic, squarely in the 2- to 12-year-old visitors. My inner child freaked out a bit due to the speed and mystery of it all, but the 90-second ride time is child-friendly. It doesn’t go upside down, but the ride’s intensity is a step above that of the Dragon, its sister coaster.
Riders would might like more oomph aboard Galacticoaster, should finagle seats on the back row, which experiences a touch more whip action. Passengers have a lap bar that lowers from overhead but doesn’t constrain the shoulders. Grown-ups may appreciate the ample amount of knee room for the ride. It’s pretty simple to get into the ride vehicles, and the moving sidewalk traveling alongside them should create continuous load status with a goal of 1,000 riders per hour.
The new attraction is kind of big – 30,000-square-foot show building – and a big deal, too. Merlin Entertainments Group, the park’s owner, is spending $90 million to open Galacticoaster in Florida and, soon, at Legoland California.
“This is our largest single investment ever in Legoland’s history. So that how that plays out is you’ll see more theming all around us,” Blake Boyter, senior project manager, said this week.
“You can see the density of the theming is much higher than other places in our park. … We’ve got no other ride system like this, with the speed, the ability to rotate, all of those different aspects are unique to this ride,” he said. “And then on top of all that, most people expect more media, more music, more videos, and that’s what we’ve incorporated into this.”
Chief Engineer Biff Dipper will instruct future Galacticoaster riders about procedures. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel)
One room of the Galacticoaster queue features an animatronic named Biff Dipper, who gives ride instructions alongside screens with other Lego characters and space imagery on a ceiling screen.
“He moves, and he’s got a face that’s more animated than ever before,” Boyter said. “He bends down and looks at the kids. I mean, he’s a minifig come to life.” (Biff is 3.5 feet tall and the size of 10,000 minifigs combined, Boyter said.)
The exterior is a salute to multiple Lego Space sets, including the Lego 885 set, the first model introduced by the company in 1979. The main entrance is fronted by an enormous version of Lego 918, a space transport. Push a nearby button and hear a spiel. There’s also a Duplo play area and an array of figures, including an alien family. There are about 583,000 bricks used out there.
A covered Duplo play area is available outside the new Galacticoaster at Legoland Florida. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/ Orlando Sentinel)
The Lego brand has a lot of space-oriented product lines from which to choose.
“We actually threw a little bit of it all in here,” Boyter said. “Instead of making hard decisions, just grab a little bit from the M:Tron, the Blacktron, the Space Police. … It incorporates everything.”
Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. BlueSky: @themeparksdb. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. Subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.