Cypress Gardens, the former theme park that was located in Winter Haven (now it will become LEGOLAND Florida, as you may know) had a somewhat difficult period in the last years of its existence.
During the last year of operation, Cypress Gardens' management decided to sell all the rides that they had, and they wanted to keep only the water park with the gardens (they also got rid of the animals). Some of these rides remained here in Florida (i.e. The Starliner and the Galaxy Spin), others never got to be sold, and were re-purposed for LEGOLAND Florida (i.e. The Triple Hurricane, The Swamp Thing and more).
But there's more. Some rides (or maybe only one) got shipped further away, across the Atlantic Ocean. Indeed, one of our readers, Ben Miller (that we thank a lot!!) sent us some pictures of the familiar Storm Surge, a water attraction that was in Cypress Gardens. Now, it found found a home in a London theme park, (which is by the way a Merlin theme park) called Thorpe park. Take a look:
According to our friend Ben, the ride is themed around a disaster (even though, to tell the truth, the theming looks to be very subtle):
It is now located in the aera of the park called "Amity Cove":
The Danger sign is the first reference to a disaster, the theming of the ride:
On one part, we're happy to see that Merlin didn't waste anything. But on the other hand, why didn't they keep it in LEGOLAND here in Florida, making it the 51st ride of the park?
Thanks again to Ben Miller for the fantastic pictures that he sent us! Have a great day, everybody!
