Watch the first look, on ride POV for Arctic Rescue

Whoa this ride is kind of long! Thats pretty cool. Wish there were more arctic themed elements... fake snow, arctic animal animatronics/figures,maybe a wind effect in that tunnel blowing "snow" or something. Nevertheless, this ride seems like a winner and glad the Wild Arctic space didn't sit ride-less to long.

I wound up getting a chance to go check out Arctic Rescue during today's pass preview. Overall, I thought the coaster was a fun family ride, but it is definitely on the tame side. Those who have ridden Wave Breaker at SeaWorld San Antonio probably have a pretty good idea of what to expect, as this is essentially a plussed version of that, with a bit more length and nicer surroundings at the expense of a storyline or show elements. While there is a little whip to some of the twists, the ride on the whole is significantly tamer than Manta across the park, and is a good starter coaster that should fit in decently well. The biggest problem to me is the seat and restraint design, which will be tight on larger guests and necessitates a 48" height restriction, excluding many younger riders who would really enjoy the coaster. The other big issue is capacity...with one train today, the ride was averaging about 16 people every 4.5 minutes, and while that will probably be cut down to 2.5 minutes once they've got the second train going, that's still shy of 400 riders per hour (by comparison, Manta pumps out a 20 person train every 1.5-2 minutes). This is going to be one to hit first for at least the summer, and potentially longer if it winds up being as popular as I expect.

Looks like we have another mediocre coaster with a puzzlingly tall height requirement to look forward to in Orlando next year lol.

@the_man2 exactly!

well, certainly has that "coaster in a parking lot" vibe

also, seems like a lot of wear on the paint finish of the track for a ride that is not even officially open yet

I know it’s a kiddie coaster and not to expect much, but I’m not really feeling an “arctic rescue”. Needs a lot more theming.

That's my biggest fear for SWO. This obsession with the park becoming the "roller coaster capital of Orlando " is driving SeaWorld in completely the wrong direction.

Trouble is ... where will it end? Roller coaster capital of Florida next? ... then the world ... LOL

Rumors seem split between Intamin & B&M, but with Wave Breaker and now Arctic Rescue already 'in the shed' then my money is on another SWE set of 3.

I do see some trees planted so hopefully they grow and add a bit more foliage to the ride. I did notice a few theming elements such as flags of nations involved in the Arctic and a helicopter. I wonder how the loading area and queue are theming wise. Remember that when Wild Arctic opened 30 years ago its exgibit area was nicely themed, maybe its the same perhaps. Still looks like a fun ride.

Another so so coaster - what does the creative team work on ?

I don't know if he was laid off, saw the writing on the wall and left, or just wanted to leave to form his own company, but their longtime creative guy isn't there anymore and has his own company now.
https://bmorrowproductions.com/

Anyway it doesn't really matter, if they wanted to theme the rides better they could hire him or someone similar and they wouldn't really need a creative team. Its more of a matter of not wanting to spend $ on theming.

Do better sea world

Wow, such negativity! As someone with first-hand experience, I guess I should add a bit more to my thoughts...

-Mediocre is not a word I'd use to describe Arctic Rescue. It's not going to wow enthusiasts and is not a thrill ride, but is decent enough to be worth a ride every visit and should be really popular with the family-oriented audience of SeaWorld San Diego. Despite the lack of theming, I'd say the coaster compares favorably to something like Slinky Dog Dash or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and is probably about on par with Cobra's Curse in my overall rankings.
-The height restriction is 100% due to the seating style. These trains are extremely open, which could potentially cause a small rider to be thrown from the train if their legs are too short. It's fair to question the decision to go for that ride style with this type of ride, but I don't think there's a way they could have gone with any lower of a restriction without dramatically altering that.
-SeaWorld has never done immersive theming, and the theming in the ride area for this one is better than a majority of coasters in the chain. There are props scattered all over the ride area representative of what one might expect to see in the wilds of Alaska and the ground is landscaped to look like snow patches scattered about. You're honestly not going to get much more than that on a SeaWorld budget.
-The station is indeed the best themed part of the ride, and is designed to look like the interior of a research outpost. It's probably about on par with Mako's station in terms of the quality of detail. You also exit the attraction directly into the Wild Arctic exhibit, which is pretty much unchanged from the way it has always been. The queue, unfortunately, is quite possibly the worst I've seen for a permanent attraction...stanchions and ropes set up in a cattle pen under an overhang of the building's roof. Not sure if that's temporary, but given how long they had they certainly could have put a permanent queue in.
-From my source inside the company, SeaWorld Orlando's coaster project for next year is NOT going to be an Intamin Family Launch coaster. Supposedly one was under consideration, but SWO instead pushed for a "first in Florida" attraction as they needed something that couldn't be found at Disney or Universal in order for it to be marketable.

I'm not going to come out here and say Arctic Rescue is the greatest ride ever, because it's not. However, it's still a decent family coaster and a lot better than most regional parks offer in that regard.

Though I don't have the on-ride experience AJ has, I have ridden both Wave Breaker (SFSA) and DarKoaster (BGW), and agree that this coaster style is not about inducing high thrills. However, I do think it's an issue that a low-thrill coaster is not more accommodating. I highly criticized BGW when they installed Verbolten as a replacement for Big Bad Wolf, because they were billing the launching drop-track coaster as a family attraction with a 48" height restriction that replaced an Arrow suspended coaster that had a 42" height requirement.

Arctic Rescue is not replacing a previous attraction, but I still have an issue with an attraction with a 48" height requirement being billed as for the "family". Now, having the more exclusive height restriction helps to manage demand, particularly for a coaster that has low throughput, but I think it establishes an expectation that likely leaves guests underwhelmed with the overall experience.

Personally, I think if Intamin were able to allow the individual cars to "drift" around turns, that would make this coaster style truly unique (though maintenance would likely be a nightmare). Aside from that, the seating position is not all that, and the decidedly "meh" intensity of the overall course reduces the appeal, particularly in parks that already have other launching roller coasters.

@AJ I think everyone would agree that SW entertainment as a brand never really provided an immersive theme experience when it came to their coasters. One could argue that there was indeed a time when they were better than most major chains with Verbolten, Alpengeist and Montu. Even if they didnt extended the theming through out the ride, at least the queue areas were well themed. I'd jump for joy to see anything remotely reminiscent to the queues for Mako or Manta. Now the norm is "well we painted the rollercoaster blue, you know, to represent the ocean." They did give us sand right outside of the warehouse style queue of Pipeline Coaster, so for them that's a win now.