LEGOLAND California has announced that their newest resort, the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel, will open on April 27, 2018. Fans of the little plastic bricks can start booking now!
Theft and supply constraints cited for setbacks
Although the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel was announced just last year, many people do not realize that it has been under construction for nearly seven years. While the official announcement was made in January of 2017, that was just to cover for some embarrassing setbacks.
Despite operating many LEGOLAND theme parks, Merlin Entertainment Group found it difficult to construct a hotel using LEGO bricks. Under strict guidelines by the LEGO Group, workers were not able to use kragle to hold the bricks together. Instead, workers had to rely on the brick and knob configuration to hold everything in place. This meant the bricks were easy for thieves to haul off in large amounts. Supplies of the light, medium, and dark grey bricks were also hampered by the release of the UCS Millennium Falcon.
A castle fit for a king – or family of 5
With over 250 castle-themed rooms, the LEGOLAND Castle Hotel will delight guests from all genres of medieval fantasy. Uncle Walt’s Insider recently caught up with the new LEGOLAND Castle Hotel spokesman Rougned “Elvis” Beltré, who recently moved to California from the United States, to discuss the new hotel.
Mr. Beltré shared, “Mucha gente sueña con vivir en un castillo. Al menos el 17% de esas personas nunca tendrán la oportunidad de cumplir ese sueño. Nuestro objetivo en LEGOLAND es, al menos, darles a nuestros huéspedes el gusto de sus sueños de dormir en un castillo.”
We asked Mr. Beltré what his favorite thing about staying at the LEGOLAND Castle was. He replied, “Los churros. La mayoría de la gente no sabe esto, y probablemente no debería decírtelo, pero importamos todos nuestros churros de Disney. Es verdad. Muestreamos el churro en todo el mundo y descubrimos que el mejor churro lo elabora Disney. Los ponemos en todas las almohadas durante el servicio de cobertura.”
Too well-themed?
One concern that came up during a recent tour is just how the hotel designers stuck to medieval castle design. We asked Mr. Beltré if there might be concerns about safety, given the hotel is made out of ABS plastic.
Mr. Beltré calmed our fears when he shared, “Durante el proceso de planificación, descubrimos que LEGOLAND en realidad se encuentra en terrenos que no se encuentran bajo ninguna jurisdicción del gobierno, incluida la República de California. Esto significaba que podíamos usar los ladrillos LEGO y mantenernos fieles al tema del castillo medieval. Colocamos las antorchas lo suficientemente lejos de las paredes para que no se derritan ni provoquen fuego. Lo más importante es que los niños menores de 12 años no podrán ingresar en el calabozo sin la supervisión de un adulto.”
As a public service, Uncle Walt’s Insider wants to remind its readers who may be traveling to LEGOLAND California’s new Castle Hotel to make sure their passport is current, shots and immunizations are up to date, and they have applied and received the necessary visas for admittance into California.
Is the new LEGOLAND Castle Hotel worth a trip out of the country? Let us know what you think!
Cover photo by Jarrod Lombardo via Flickr, Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0), modified.
