The newest member of the international LEGOLAND clan is LEGOLAND Shanghai Resort (opened 2024). It have plenty of thrills.
What to See on the Boat Tour
LEGOLAND Shanghai Resort
One of its more mellow offering is the Boat Tour, which is a lazy float down canals filled with brick-built landscapes. There is also the occasional splash zone. It’s no thrill ride, but it provide an unexpectedly soothing tour of parts of the park at water-level height, and even without any real action the cool breeze and shade are worth the trip alone on a hot day.
Wait in line to get off; here’s what you get on the boat. From the entrance plaza with its giant dragon statue, the resort expands outward into different themed sections accessible via waterways and walkways. Those waterways is more than decoration.
They are also the path of the Boat Tour, which snakes through ride area beneath bridges that other attractions passes over.
Along one stretch by the queue, jet-skis race on a looped track, splashing past brick models that has riders mounted on them. It is a small sideshow, but it seems to entertain kids queuing up for the short bursts of splash and action.
The canal itself runs through to a brick-built mountain backdrop, where tour boats meander along at walking pace. And the speed is fitting (this isn’t an adrenaline ride).
A covered structure hold the line, complete with numbered boarding markers and some switchbacks to keep everyone orderly. There’s also a seating area that has a station desk with a LEGO figure sitting there. The railing lead you down a ramp to the loading dock.
Each boat have a couple of rows of bench seating, probably holding about a dozen people each. Once the dock attendant signals you’re good to go, you’re off! The bow has a minifigure face painted on it that grins for no reason.
As you ride along, overhead, there’s a roller coaster that takes riders around the canal, they scream, you bob along. It’s kind of funny how different it is.
Early on, there’s a little stone bridge that crosses over the water; right after that, there’s a fountain that spews out into the air every so often. You won’t get wet, but if the wind blow you might get a bit of a mist.
The canal winds past oversized minifigure heads lined up along the bank. Some wear caps, and others sit beside the fountain jets. The canal passes underneath a streetscape of brick-built storefronts.
Up close, the detailing and scale hold up, thousands of bricks stacked into familiar shapes that create static displays, but they still look cohesive.
Along a stretch of the waterway are palm trees made out of LEGO bricks. Boulder clusters pile along the shoreline. As the canal turns, the greenery transition to tall grasses and reeds.
That more quiet part of the ride feel almost like a marsh, with a brick frog perched on a lily pad and the reeds hemming in the water. It’s a pocket of calm before looping back around to the busier parts of the ride.
Next is a small arched bridge and a traditional-style brick pavilion. Ahead along the route, another boat is sometimes moored, staggered so the boats don’t crowd each other.
Brick buildings with bunting strung between them pack in a bit more as the canal town section come into view. A frog figure is tucked away in one corner, and a building reflect cleanly off the still water until the boats disturb the surface.
Again you pass under the stone bridge, this time from below. Catching the jet-skis bursting through from the other side. The timing isn’t scripted; sometimes you glide under in silence.
Then there’s another view of the white mountain, some more palm trees, a green hillside, and a brick tower that looks like a pagoda. And just there, at the water’s edge, is another detailed building. Even though the ride isn’t stopping long enough for a closer look, you can tell how much attention was paid to the craftsmanship when you’re this near.
As the canal narrows as it bends toward the sun, light bounce off the water. Along the bank, there’s a little sandy patch where someone has put down a small brick model, hard to make out from here on the boat.
For awhile, coaster track parallel the canal, and in one place, a shark fin juts up out of the water. It is not menacing, but cartoonish.
The boat noses back under the covered dock, and lanterns hanging from the prow catch the light. On the platform, staff stand waiting to help passengers get off. Depending on traffic, the entire circuit last around ten minutes.
Minifigures sits tucked into benches in empty seats waiting for the next group to board. Looking down from overhead, the boats is lined up neatly along the dock, waiting to move out again. It’s not going to be your highlight reel from the day; the Boat Tour isn’t realy for that.
Instead, it does what it needs to do. It provides a change of scenery from the park’s brick work, a chance to take a break from walking, and a couple of minutes of un-hurried drifting time in a theme park. Do you know what the Boat Ride is like at other resorts’ LEGOLANDs?
How was it compared to?
