Legoland California gets the Google Street View treatment

Legoland California became the first U.S. theme park mapped by Google Street View, the Web giant’s interactive walk-through mapping application.

To view the virtual Legoland, go to Google Maps, type “Legoland California” into the search field and drag the little yellow pegman onto the aerial photo of the Carlsbad kiddie park.

Google employed a camera-mounted three-wheeled cycle to photograph Legoland during park hours back in May 2008.

Visitors’ faces, and even some T-shirt logos, have been blurred for privacy reasons — giving some of the images the surreal feel of a top-secret trip inside a totalitarian state. (See photo after the jump.)

Since 2007, Google Street View has grown to cover public streets and highways in 200 cities worldwide. During the past year, Google has expanded its reach onto private property by partnering with race tracks (Laguna Seca), universities (San Diego State) and theme parks (Disneyland Paris).

The Google team photographed Universal Studios Hollywood earlier this year, but images of the movie and television theme park aren’t expected to appear on Street View until 2010.

Find the latest amusement and theme park news at the Los Angeles Times Funland blog: www.latimes.com/funland. Follow Funland on Twitter and Facebook.

— Brady MacDonald, Los Angeles Times staff writer

Photos: Credit: Legoland California and Google Street View

Permalink | E-mail | Print | Add to My Trips

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 18, 2009 at 4:56 pm by Brady MacDonald and is filed under California, Disneyland Paris, Europe, Family & Kids, France, Legoland, San Diego, Theme Parks, Universal Studios Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.