Legoland starts construction on castle hotel

Business has been so robust at Legoland’s first onsite hotel that it is starting construction Wednesday on a second one, complete with castle towers, knight- and princess-themed rooms and a lobby slide.

The Castle Hotel, as it’s being called, will open at the Carlsbad theme park in the spring of 2018. Like the first hotel, which debuted in 2013, it will be three stories and have 250 themed rooms.

Park officials never divulge how much Legoland’s owner, London-based Merlin Entertainment Group, invests in park projects but at the time the first hotel opened, they said it was the costliest undertaking since the park opened. The newest hotel is expected to be even more costly, said Legoland California spokeswoman Julie Estrada.

Located on what is now a surface parking area for employees, the new project is being described by Legoland officials as a step up from the existing hotel in terms of the breadth of its theming, rooms and interactions with costumed staff.

While there are other hotel properties nearby that cater to theme park visitors, Legoland officials say they have had no difficulty filling rooms year-round.

“Average occupancy for the whole year is over 80 percent and during the summer it’s completely booked so we’re very confident there’s demand for this kind of product,” said Legoland California President Peter Ronchetti. “It’s almost like we’ve created a new niche by developing this hotel. And now we’re going to take things up a notch where it’s premium- themed throughout.”

Instead of a mix of standard and premium rooms as in the first hotel, the new one will all have upgraded rooms with more detailed and colorful decor tied to the castle experience.

From the moment young guests arrive, they’ll be greeted by staff costumed as princesses and wizards and made to feel as though they’re preparing for a grand tournament.

There will be knight-, princess- and wizard-themed rooms, a slide that children can use to take them from the mezzanine to the lobby, and a large courtyard with children’s play areas and a pool.

The rooms themselves will be designed around a story line related to the castle experience. For example, in the Knight rooms, guests are surrounded by dragons and knights as they prepare to go into battle to defend the king’s castle, while in the Wizard rooms, young guests will learn how magic is used to protect the king’s treasure with the help of giggling potions and spells.

Ronchetti said he does not know yet what the room rates will be by the time the hotel room, but they’ll tend to be about 10 percent higher than the current hotel.

The thinking behind the hotel project, as is the case with other theme park resort hotels, is that there are enough attractions at the park to justify more than a one-day visit. The unique design of the hotel not only extends the experience and feel of the theme park itself but also makes it more convenient for families to stay more than just one day.

Ronchetti said that Legoland and its owner always contemplated more than one hotel but acknowledged there was healthy skepticism even when it announced its first project.

“When we originally discussed this first hotel, people in the area thought we were nuts, and we were told by industry experts this wouldn’t work, basing the whole project around 5-year-old children,” Ronchetti recalled. “And now we know it has worked and we’re more than keen to build a large hotel.”

lori.weisberg@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-2251

Twitter: @loriweisberg