SeaWorld Orlando's floorless Bolliger & Mabillard coaster will become the first roller coaster in Florida to get a permanent virtual reality overlay, as SeaWorld designs and installs a new VR storyline for the ride. The experience will reflect the ride's name and long-standing theme, putting riders in under the ocean's surface alongside a mythical Kraken sea serpent.
In addition, the park will offer a new nighttime show called Electric Ocean, which will play at the Bayside Theater and feature music, fountains, bioluminescent lighting, and fireworks. The park also will add a new show at the Nautilus Theatre and renovate its Dolphin Nursery to replace concrete walls with acrylic windows that will allow visitors to see the dolphins underwater. The changes are expected to debut next summer.
In San Antonio, SeaWorld will open Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster. The $18 million, 2,600-foot coaster will put riders in seats that look like personal watercraft for a high-speed ride around and over the park's Ski Lake. SeaWorld hasn't revealed the manufacturer of the coaster, which will be themed to its ABC-TV series "Sea Rescue," but riding side-by-side while hunched over a pair of handlebars reminds us a bit of Shanghai Disneyland's TRON Lightcycle Power Run roller coaster. (Or, if you're feeling more cynical, Knott's Berry Farm's Pony Express, too.)
At SeaWorld's original park in San Diego, the company will provide additional detail about its Submarine Quest ride and Ocean Explorer pavilion, along with a more "natural" orca show in Shamu Stadium. The "submarine" track ride will run through outdoor and indoor scenes, including past aquariums holding crabs, eels, octopuses and other marine animals. On board, the subs will feature game-like elements that allow riders to solve tasks they learn about animals depicted in the exhibits. The new land and orca show also will debut sometime next summer.
Update: And now, here's SeaWorld's official announcement, with some additional concept art.
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On Kraken the headsets will be permanently installed on the trains. Riders will board the train, take a seat, lower their restraint, and then put on their headset. There will be no calibration based on the seat number necessary.
SeaWorld is hoping this will improve capacity since VR so far has been a capacity disaster. Parks are lucky if they get 250+ pph on a VR coaster. Also, most riders opt out of VR for repeat rides. That alone says a lot about it being a gimmick. This is not an experience that people love and want to repeat.
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