SeaWorld Orlando is inviting park guests to "soar" over the Arctic, starting next year.
The park announced today that it will open a new Arctic-themed flying theater attraction in spring 2025. The as-yet-unnamed show will have a 39-inch height requirement, allowing young children to experience the ride.
Theme park fans first fell in live with flying theaters when Disney opened Soarin' Over California in 2001. That inspired a wave of similar attractions around the world, such as Legoland's Flying Adventure rides to one offs such as Wings Over Washington and the FlyOver chain of regionally-themed experiences.
The SeaWorld attraction will feature twin, 30-seat, multi-level theaters for the four-minute, 30-seconds show. The production will include scenes of the Aurora Borealis, underwater visuals, and plenty of Arctic wildlife, including beluga whales, orcas, and walruses. Here is a teaser video from the park, showing some of the filming for the attraction.
"We are thrilled to introduce this first-of-its-kind attraction to SeaWorld Orlando," SeaWorld Orlando President Jon Peterson said. "This indoor immersive flying theater experience reinforces our commitment to education, animal care and research. As guests disembark from the attraction, they'll find themselves in the awe-inspiring wonder of one of the world's most remote places, face-to-face with some of those very animals found within the Arctic such as beluga whales, walruses and more. By bringing the wonders of the Arctic to life, we are offering guests an unparalleled and immersive experience that will create lasting memories for people of all ages."
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A much-needed addition for SeaWorld to get a break from the heat and/or rain. Hopefully Busch Gardens can do a similiar retrofit of the old Akbar's building.
What a pity they didn’t use the “aquasphere” from Abu Dhabi as that is stunning immersive and unique attraction for the Artic experience.
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I've always liked the Wild Arctic section of Sea World Orlando, including the old simulator attraction. I certainly hope that the park is not just putting in a new ride and has budget and plans to freshen up the animal habitats. We went through the area on our most recent visit back in June, and it was pretty sad how few animals were present (a couple of beluga whales, a pair of sea lions and a single walrus). They don't need to make major changes or even bring back the polar bears (problematic animals to keep in captivity), but they do need to make some tweaks and additions to the displays considering a new ride is going to bring more guests to this area of the park.
As far as the ride system, I've been pretty impressed with the non-Disney versions of the flying theater concept the simply turns guests to face the screen versus lifting them into the theater. The lifting feature is pretty cool, but ultimately it comes down to the quality of the movie. Sea World cannot skimp on shooting the movie, and should try not to litter it with CGI effects. I'm skeptical that they can do it since their last attempt (Europe in the Air at BGW) was a pretty poor film, as were the video segments of the old Antarctica motion base ride.