◆ Legoland’s newest
theme-park attraction is full of interactive martial-arts fun — complete with ninjas.
WINTER HAVEN — Central Florida’s newest theme park attraction is a hands-on, hands-off experience. Lego Ninja World debuted at Legoland Florida on Thursday.
The centerpiece ride of the area, based on a popular line of Lego figures and settings, allows visitors to fire at onscreen dragons and enemies using one weapon: their hands. Before boarding, riders learn a handful of martial-arts inspired maneuvers with names such as “chops of fury,” “lightning strike” and “fireball flinger.”
These movements are performed above sensors that are built into the ride vehicle’s lapbar. Movements prompt fiery big-screen actions. The more targets hit, the higher the score.
Kids catch on quickly, said Adrian Jones, general manager of Legoland Florida. Adults need a little time, he said.
“After the first two screens you go ‘OK, I’ve got a bit of a technique now,’ ” said Jones, who prefers the “cobra” motion. “And then you start being able to maneuver it. When it finishes, you want to go on again.”
The game is played with a simple flicking motion, but the ride system is more complicated, said Ernest Yale, CEO of Triotech, which manufactured the Ninjago ride and designed it in collaboration with Legoland.
“There are more than 100 computers running at the same time, talking to each other in this ride,” he said.
“It’s integrating the sensors, which recognize the movement of the hands, and then throwing that to the computer algorithms,” Yale said. “So it’s sent back to the server back in the server room, then back to the projection system, synchronized with the movement of the vehicles, the sounds, the smoke effects and the scoring.”
Riders, wearing 3-D glasses, sit four across in the Lego brick-inspired vehicle. A single lapbar, equipped with four sen- sors, comes down over all of them. Each participant has color-coordinated movements on the screen and on their individualized scoreboard in the car. The vehicle glides in front of a series of screens with tasks to complete and bad guys to conquer. There are hidden “Easter eggs” and other secrets during the ride, which boosts the repeat-abilty of the attraction.
Any of the advertised techniques create the same effect. It’s a matter of personal preference, Yale said.
“Part of the fun of the ride is the mastery,” he said.
Before Legoland Florida visitors arrive at the ride’s building, they walk through an Asian-inspired area with dragons created out of Lego bricks and a series of hands-on games meant to develop ninja skills and dexterity.
“We wanted to build the story. We’re in Florida. You’ve got to tell the story,” Jones said. “So the whole idea of becoming a ninja was created. … We felt
that created the land and built the anticipation.”
An opening ceremony Thursday morning featured ninja rituals, instructions about maneuvers, pyrotechnics and confetti blasts. Celebrities, including members of the cast of Netflix’s “Fuller House” series, were on hand.
Lego Ninjago World is the first major attraction to open at a Central Florida park in 2017.
Also expected to launch this year are Universal’s Volcano Bay water park, a Jimmy Fallon-based ride at Universal Studios, a raft ride at Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Pandora — the World of Avatar land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.