SeaWorld Orlando (SWO) Discussion Thread

The new and improved Iron Orca is expected to be much less rough on the train(er)s.

 

Thanks, you guys have been great. I'm here all week. Don't forget to try the fish--- err, ummm... the veal! Try the veal!

I needed this after a stressful day. Thank you! I feel much better now!

Here is a rendering.

It would be very interesting for them to make the necropsy public as they do for many zoo animals in Europe but I can imagine that most americans would lose their mind if they tried something like that here.

I agree on both fronts. It would be interesting but it would never happen in America. Apparently there's a push from the PETA / Animal Rights people for Sea World to make the results public, (which I'm sure they will) but they won't believe anything that comes from it anyway. I think they're under the impression that the necropsy will somehow reveal that the whale was a suicidal / homicidal maniac and he was driven to that state because he was in captivity. They'll probably also use this as another excuse to freak out about his bad teeth (which was 100% the fault of Sealand of the Pacific and not Sea World, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story?) and anything else they could find that they could twist to frame it as a "sign of trauma".

Here is a rendering.

RIP RMC Tilikum!

 

I needed this after a stressful day. Thank you! I feel much better now!

If I made one person crack a smile at my horrific, insensitive jokes about this dearly departed majestic marine monster then my work here is done. Have a Six Flags Day! Whoops, wrong thread!

Here is a rendering.

Needs VR. I hope this is only concept art.

So it has been announced that Donnie Mills, the park President of the Orlando SEA parks is retiring, and Jim Dean, the President of the Tampa SEA parks will replace him and Stewart Clark, who was the Vice President of Discovery cove will replace Jim Dean in Tampa.

This is an interesting move, as Jim Dean has been fairly successful as Busch Gardens never really felt the effects of Blackfish and Adventure Island recently had its best summer in history. However, he is known to be less animal focused. Stewart Clark, is very likable and is said to value the animal side of the parks highly, as can be expected from his time at Discovery Cove.

It will be interesting to see what direction the parks move in under this new leadership.

I will be heading to SWO end of Jan/ beginning of Feb. Does anyone know if any rides will be down during this time due to rehabs or because of time of year?...

Well, I guess either no one knows or no one wants to help... oh, well, guess I'll just find out in 2 weeks

I'm in the same boat as you, bud. I hope Mako is up and running.

Holy hell, if it isn't, I will swallow a whole bottle of aspirin.....

I might be going here during my trip to Florida. Im really stoked . Never been here before just to the one in California when i was small. Looking forward to riding Mako and I haven only been on one B&M hyper and thats Raging Bull at Great America. Kraken looks really awesome too! Also does SW still have orca whales? Or did crazy PETA put a stop to that? If so kind of a shame since the whales are one of the best parts of a SW park

The website usually shows planned closures. Last I checked Journey To Atlantis is closed for a huge chunk of time and the Antarctica ride portion is only open weekends. This was as of a few weeks ago when I looked.

The website usually shows planned closures. Last I checked Journey To Atlantis is closed for a huge chunk of time and the Antarctica ride portion is only open weekends. This was as of a few weeks ago when I looked.

Ah, found it, thank you, I obviously overlooked that on the website, thank you!

The website usually shows planned closures. Last I checked Journey To Atlantis is closed for a huge chunk of time and the Antarctica ride portion is only open weekends. This was as of a few weeks ago when I looked.

 

Ah, found it, thank you, I obviously overlooked that on the website, thank you!

Could you link where that is? I'm wondering as well for April

The website usually shows planned closures. Last I checked Journey To Atlantis is closed for a huge chunk of time and the Antarctica ride portion is only open weekends. This was as of a few weeks ago when I looked.

Let's be honest, the ride portion is not really worth waiting for if you've already done it once.

The website usually shows planned closures. Last I checked Journey To Atlantis is closed for a huge chunk of time and the Antarctica ride portion is only open weekends. This was as of a few weeks ago when I looked.

 

Let's be honest, the ride portion is not really worth waiting for if you've already done it once.

The website usually shows planned closures. Last I checked Journey To Atlantis is closed for a huge chunk of time and the Antarctica ride portion is only open weekends. This was as of a few weeks ago when I looked.

 

Ah, found it, thank you, I obviously overlooked that on the website, thank you!

 

Could you link where that is? I'm wondering as well for April

When you go to the website, click on rides and the individual rides have their own links and it will tell you on each rides link

Yea I looked up the sight myself as well so far so good. Just as long as I can get all three of the coasters in thats great. and of course maybe the water ride too. Im super excited about Mako! Its the tallest and fastest in Florida. I know thats not saying much as of course there is taller and faster but still as Florida is a hub for amusement parks its pretty neat to go on the tallest and faster of them all.(of all florida coasters) Also the fact its Florida's only hyper. The other two look petty fun too. I heard a lot of praise about Kraken. In a way it looks more fun then Kumba.

Don't get too excited about Kraken. The location is cool, the layout is tandard B&M, and the ride is quite honestly standard B&M. The only thing standard about Kumba is the layout, everything else is incomparable. I enjoyed Manta much more than Kraken, but it's a pretty good floorless anyway.

Don't get too excited about Kraken. The location is cool, the layout is tandard B&M, and the ride is quite honestly standard B&M. The only thing standard about Kumba is the layout, everything else is incomparable. I enjoyed Manta much more than Kraken, but it's a pretty good floorless anyway.

Well I have one good reason to say why I'm excited to ride it, out of the 33 B&Ms I've ridden, none have been a floorless... well, 3 are now, but they weren't converted until after I had ridden them. I have ridden all the other styles by B&M, so this will complete it for me.

^^Manta is the best coaster in the Orlando area by a wide margin but amazingly there's a very real chance that Fun Spot Kissimmee will have something to say about that next year.

^Call me crazy but I prefer Kraken to Manta by a wide margin......

^^Manta is the best coaster in the Orlando area by a wide margin but amazingly there's a very real chance that Fun Spot Kissimmee will have something to say about that next year.

Ehh. I would say it beats Kraken, but it can't beat Mako in its own park. Even against Nitro, airtime wise, Mako eats Nitro and shits all over it, but as for the overall ride experience, I can;t decide whether or not to say the same.

Im honestly really excited to ride all three. Believe it or not i only been on one B&M Hyper and that was Raging Bull. So Im looking forward to riding a more modern up to date version of a B&M hyper. Kraken looks cool too because it has both the real drop and inversions. While Kumba had awesome inversions it did lack the drop(it was only curved oppose to straight down)...but it seems Kraken has both. Manta looks awesome too because I only been on one flying coaster. Thats also at Great America. So im hyped to get to go on my second flying coaster and Im sure its better then Superman too.

Call me crazy but I prefer Kraken to Manta by a wide margin......

I agree, but I was at the park a few days back, and it wasn't very good. It's still the best floorless coaster IMO, but the B&M rattle was bad, and the whole ride was really... tame.

Ehh. I would say it beats Kraken, but it can't beat Mako in its own park. Airtime wise, against Nitro, Mako eats Nitro and shits all over it, but as for the overall ride experience, I can't decide whether or not to say the same.

QFT.