Asia's First Legoland To Open On Sept 15

NUSAJAYA, April 25 (Bernama) -- Asia's first Legoland is set to open for business on Sept 15. Legoland Malaysia General Manager Siegfried Boerst said the RM700 million theme park on a 76-acre land in Iskandar Malaysia, Johor, was 75 per cent complete. He said that last month, the contractors began work on theming the park, and next month they would begin installing the 50 million Lego bricks and models. "I'm pleased to announce that due to the hardwork of all our contractors, we will now be opening the park ahead of schedule by a number of months," he told reporters here today. Legoland Malaysia here is the sixth Legoland theme park in the world and the first in Asia. The park, with seven special themes namely Lego kingdom, imagination, land of adventure, lego technic, the beginning, lego city and miniland, is especially designed for families with children from two to 12 years of age. Boerst said over 35,000 annual passes had been sold and 60 per cent of the buyers were Malaysians. The annual passes, priced at RM195 per adult and RM150 per child, are valid until end of 2013. "The official park single-day tickets will go on sale online later this month and these tickets will be priced at a special introductory offer of RM96 for adults and RM70 for kids," he said. Legoland Malaysia expects to attract one million visitors in its first year of operation. Tickets are available online through the AirAsia RedTix and Legoland Malaysia websites. Boerst said Legoland Malaysia was in talks with local tour operators to provide packages for visitors from the Klang Valley. "We hope to provide more transportation for our visitors here and there are plans to set a up new route with the local authority for buses to be here," he said. On accommodation, he said, Merlin Entertainments Group had signed a management agreement with LL Themed Hotel Sdn Bhd to develop and build the Legoland Hotel. The Legoland Hotel is expected to be ready in 2014. Meantime, Legoland Malaysia is in talks with hotel operators in Johor to provide shuttle buses from their hotels to the park. "We are in discussion with the hoteliers and we hope they can work together with us," he said. Legoland Malaysia will feature more than 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions when it opens. Other Legoland theme parks across the world are in Denmark, the United Kingdom, Germany and Florida and California in the USA. It is the second after Legoland Billund park, Denmark, to house the Observation Tower, where visitors are lifted up 41 metres for an excellent view of the Legoland theme park as the tower revolves to make a complete circle in 50 seconds. (US$1=RM3.06) -- BERNAMA