Legoland snaps onto visitors record.

Byline: Jennifer Davies

Jan. 26--The lure of pirates helped boost Legoland's attendance last year to record levels.

While the rest of the theme park industry was flat for 2006, the Carlsbad park yesterday announced a 15 percent increase in attendance with 1.66 million visitors.

John Jakobsen, president and general manager of Legoland, said the reason for the upswing was the new Pirate Shores section, which includes two new rides and two water-play features.

"The year turned out better than expected," Jakobsen said.

After the opening of Pirates Shores in June, attendance figures for the summer and fall were 20 percent better than …