| Pirates Landing | |
| Park: | LEGOLAND Windsor |
| Current attractions: | Pirate Falls: Treasure Quest Jolly Rocker Spinning Spider Pirate Goldwash Caricatures |
| Current food facilities: | Pirate's Burger Kitchen |
| Former attractions: | The Amazing Mazes Bum Shaker Muscle Maker Pirate's Training Camp The Enchanted Forest |
| Former food facilities: | Crossed Ribs BBQ |
| Opened: | 1996 |
| Renamed: | March 2010, March 2014 |
| Nearby areas: | Knight's Kingdom Kingdom of the Pharaohs Land of the Vikings |
Pirate Shores is an area of LEGOLAND Windsor. It began life as the Wild Woods area when the park opened in 1996, and incorporated inspiration from both the Pirates and Castle playthemes, before becoming the exclusively pirate-focused Pirates Landing for the 2010 season. It acquired its current name for the park's 2014 season.
History[]
At LEGOLAND Windsor's opening, the Wild Woods could be loosely divided into a pirate-themed half featuring the Pirate Falls log flume, the Pirate Goldwash attraction, and the Crossed Ribs BBQ restaurant, and a forest-themed half featuring the Spinning Spider teacups ride, The Rat Trap adventure playground, the Muscle Maker train & Bone Shaker bike rides, The Amazing Mazes, a set of three themed mazes, and The Enchanted Forest, a walkthrough attraction featuring models of woodland wildlife.
The first changes to the area were the removal of the Bone Shaker in 2000 and the Muscle Maker in 2003, which became a picnic area and a coin-operated remote-control truck attraction respectively. Later, for the 2007 season, some portions of the land were ceded to the newly-created Land of the Vikings: two of the three mazes were removed to create space for that land's signature Vikings' River Splash ride, which wrapped around the one remaining maze, now dubbed Loki's Labyrinth, and the Spinning Spider was also reassigned to the new area.
For the 2010 season, the Wild Woods were fully rethemed into a pirate-specific area named Pirates Landing. The Jolly Rocker swing ship ride was installed on the space formerly occupied by the Muscle Maker and Bone Shaker, Pirate Falls was refreshed with a new "Dynamite Drench" tagline, and the Rat Trap was rebranded as the Pirates Training Camp.
Just a few years later, for the 2014 season, the area was again rebranded with its current name of Pirate Shores, accompanied by another refresh of Pirate Falls, this time with the "Treasure Quest" subtitle, a totally new Castaway Camp play area to replace the aging former Rat Trap, and the Pirate's Burger Kitchen replacing the Crossed Ribs BBQ restaurant.
While still appearing on the park map as late as 2020, the Enchanted Forest's models fell into increasing disrepair over time, and were eventually removed entirely, with its former pathways now used for hosting activities during special events such a Halloween.
Most recently, following the closure of Viking River Splash during the 2023 season, the Spinning Spider was reassigned back to the area once more.
Attractions[]
Pirate Falls Dynamite Drench Finale
The Pirate Falls Dynamite Drench is a re-themed version of Pirate Falls which opened in 1996, it was not just re-themed though, the whole attraction was "closed, cleaned, rewired, re-animated and marketed as an ‘explosively enhanced’ update" in 2010 for Pirates Landing. The ride is a log-flume and follows an hunt for treasure.
Jolly Rocker is a swinging pirate ship with LEGO theming, it has 8 rows and is able to hold 5 people in each row. It was introduced for the 2010 season and was originally from Heide Park, which is also owned by Merlin Entertainments.
Goldwash in Pirates Landing
Pirate's Training Camp is an extended version of what was The Rat Trap. It has been re-themed to be Pirates focused. It included wooden-shipwrecks, squishy floors and other interactive areas.
Pirate Goldwash is a small attraction where children can pan for gold and win a medal at the end of it, for an extra fee.
Caricatures is another small attraction which costs a fee. It involves the artist drawing your caricature.
Resources[]
- Pirates Landing at LEGOLAND Windsor
- Pirates Landing at Go Merlin
- Pirates Landing at Completely LEGOLAND Windsor