Cypress Gardens

### opened

January 2, 1936 (as Cypress Gardens)November 2004 (as Cypress Gardens Adventure Park)October 15, 2011 (as Legoland Florida)

### Annexed/Sold

1985 (by Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich)April 1, 1995 (sold to employees)

### Closed

April 13, 2003 (as Cypress Gardens)September 23, 2009 (as Cypress Gardens Adventure Park)

### 1. of rides

As Cypress Gardens Adventure Park:12 (total)6 (roller coasters)

As Legoland Florida:

29 (total)4 (roller coasters)

**Cypress Gardens** (now known as **LEGOLAND Florida Resort**) was a theme park that was apart of the SeaWorld chain in the mid-80's and early-90's. Like the SeaWorld Parks, Cypress Gardens lacked the rides and coasters during its time under Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and Busch Entertainment. The park was mainly run as the botanical gardens that still can be seen today.

## Later History

After Bill Reynolds and other park managers bought the park on April 1, 1995, they were able to operate the park through the 2003 season. At this time, the losses from the post-9/11 proved too much.

### Cypress Gardens Adventure park

The park was bought by Adventure Parks Group, some of the rides the park gained were clones of those at its sister park, Wild Adventures. However, after summer 2006, Wild Adventures and Cypress Gardens were split. Wild Adventures remains under management of Hershend Family Entertainment (known for Dollywood and Silver Dollar City), while Cypress Gardens was sold to Land South Holdings.

However, on September 23, 2009, management said they were unable to "keep the park running in its traditional form".

### Legoland Florida and fate

After the park was closed, 2 coasters were relocated and one demolished:

* Fiesta Express (a Kiddie coaster) was relocated to Gilligan's Funland in Sea Isle City (which closed after the 2013 season)
* Galaxy Spin was relocated to the Kissimmee location of Fun Spot and opened in July 2011 as *Power Trip* and operates today as "Rockstar Coaster"
* Starliner was relocated from Miracle Strip Amusement Park in Panama City, Florida for the 2007 after the park closed in 2004. Before its removal, it was the oldest roller coaster in Florida.
* It is unknown what happened to the flat rides

The following were rethemed into Legoland Florida, along with the relocation of Jungle Coaster from Legoland Windsor

* Triple Hurricane-named for the Hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Jeanne that struck the park in 2004. was reopened as *Coastersaurus.* For the 2013 season, it received GCI's Millennium Flyer trains
* Swamp Thing-a clone of the ride of the same name at Wild Adventures that opened a year earlier, Swamp Thing was repainted, rethemed, and reopened as Flight School. It is currently the only suspended coaster in a Legoland Park
* Okeechobee Rampage-A Vekoma Junior Coaster that was relocated and altered into The Dragon Coaster
* The stadiums for the ski shows and the Island and the Sky (removed in 2018) also remained when the park reopened
* The Splash Island Water reopened in May 2012 as a Legoland Water park, with Southern Belle Models found in the Cypress Gardens section of the park
* Although the parks original Zamperla Disc'O (Disc'O) was removed, the park would add one as part of Heartlake City for the 2015 season

## Notes

* Legoland Florida is owned by sister company Merlin Entertainment, who also own the Icon Park complex on International Drive near SeaWorld Orlando
	+ Merlin and SeaWorld are both owned by The Blackstone Group
* There is another park called Cypress Gardens in  Moncks Corner, South Carolina, but has been indefinitely closed due to record flooding in the area
* Along with Legoland Windsor, are both the largest Legoland's to date at 150+ acres

## See Also

* SeaWorld Orlando
* Dubailand