WINTER HAVEN, Fla. -- Legoland Florida Resort’s LEGO Star Wars Days promise to transport guests to a galaxy far, far away over two weekends in May, and those weekends will be strong with the Force.
Begin your Lego Star Wars Fantasy Day with an Imperial meet and greet, with Captain Phasma, the park's first woman LEGO stormtrooper figure character. Yes, she’s completely evil, and she’ll be around to enforce the First Order's will through May 20.
But hope remains as “The Force Awakens” and takes center stage at Star Wars Miniland.
The park unveiled the new "miniland" in time for “May the 4th Be With You” Day, a play on the Star Wars movies’ greatest line: “May the Force be with you.”
"It sits up at the top of the hill in Miniland U.S.A.," said Brittany Williams, the park’s Public Relations Manager. “And it is made of more than a half a million bricks."
Looking up the hill through Miniland, you can see the Finalizer -- a First Order Resurgent Class Star Destroyer right off the shoulder of Lady Liberty.
"You can really follow the new display, it kind of goes counterclockwise to tell the story of 'The Force Awakens,'" said Williams.
You can see Kylo Ren’s capture of Poe, Rey’s rescue of BB-8, Poe and Finn’s escape from the Finalizer, the wreck of Finn and Poe’s TIE Fighter, Rey, Finn and BB-8’s escape from Niima Outpost, and the escape from the starship graveyard.
“'Star Wars' is a huge fan base, and they really want to come as close to possible to the real thing, but through LEGO,” said Williams.
30,000 bricks of LEGO make up fanbase favorite Chewbacca. The loveable wookie stands guard at a height of seven feet, six inches tall.
Rey and her staff guard the opposite entrance to Star Wars Miniland. She’s about 5 feet, 9 inches tall -- same height as our Virginia (we can tell from the selfie on socials).
If you have no idea who these people are, here is a primer on “The Force Awakens” characters in the LEGO display and in the movie:
- Poe - Good guy, has a partial map leading to the location of Luke Skywalker. Everyone is looking for Luke throughout the movie -- he is in some kind of exile after something went wrong in Jedi training.
- BB-8 – The droid who Poe entrusts with the map information. He’s like this movie’s version of R2-D2.
- Rey - A scavenger on the desert plant of Jakku with a mysterious past, waiting for the return of her family, even though we are pretty sure they are never coming back – and oh, she has some powers!
- Kylo Ren – Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa’s son who has gone to the Dark Side -- downer! This may be why Luke is in exile?
- Finn - Finn is a stormtrooper who goes rogue. He does not want to kill as he has been trained to do after he was kidnapped as a child from his family.
If you don’t know Princess Leia, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker or Chewbacca, may I direct you to Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope.
Good watching, and remember: the Force be with you, always.
Legoland Florida Resort's "Star Wars Days" runs May 12-13 and May 19-20.