Antarctica - Empire of the Penguin

[Brian G.]

Just got home from a long day. Working on getting the photos up, just hoping my hotel's internet connection picks up some speed.

 

[Hatetofly]

Gonna post a ride review Brian?

 

[Teebin]

I received a private review of this today. It wasn't pretty. Basically, the actual, Actual, ACTUAL attraction sucks snails. On the flip side, the queue and exit was pretty good and sometimes impressive. I cannot comprehend the screwing up of a long planned ride like this. On the other hand, I cannot figure out why some movies are junk.

So, let's post the credits of this show's ride. Who on the team is responsible for managing its creation? Is there a named list out there? If some of you clever ones here cannot find it, let me know.

 

[SeventyOne]

Yeah, my only thoughts going through my head were how short it was, the animations (they don't look good to me), the jumbled story and the horrible song at the end... Classic SeaWorld cheesiness.

I'm with you. The bad CGI and cheesy song remind me of the highly underwhelming Turtle Trek. They get thrill rides right (well, two out of three ain't bad), they get live animal environments right ... but they can't build a dark ride to save their lives.

 

[quickfire609]

I'm with you. The bad CGI and cheesy song remind me of the highly underwhelming Turtle Trek. They get thrill rides right (well, two out of three ain't bad), they get live animal environments right ... but they can't build a dark ride to save their lives.

This is a shame, especially since they were given all the tools to build something really impressive. I don't know what kind of budget they had, but the ride vehicle alone can do really impressive things.

 

[jtsalien]

I think everyone just kinda took for granted that it was a.) Being built at a much faster than Disney pace. And b.) Using advanced, Universal-esque ride tech, that Sea World finally "got it". I think the consensus for the ride, is that they still don't . But it's still a nice little ride, and the actual penguin environments are incredible. Which may be what matters most to them, anyway.

 

[Hatetofly]

The animation will be much like Turtle Trek...

I tried to warn you in April...

 

[maxairmike]

Even though I haven't seen or ridden it, what I'm gathering from what I've heard here and elsewhere (along with Turtle Trek) is that SeaWorld's creative team either has no concept of solid, cohesive story using appropriate and/or advanced conveyances, or they really don't care about that part of attraction design at all. I guess it would make sense they'd rather have guests come away with the conservation and help message instead of thinking about the amazing ride experience with these kind of attractions, but they can also do both if they really wanted to.

All I really cared about was the animal exhibit anyway, the ride was going to be icing on the cake, so I guess its good I had that focus.

 

[quickfire609]

I tried to warn you in April...

HTF, my girlfriend got severe motion sickness going into Turtle Trek, will that be an issue here as well? It was mostly the dome screen however, and HP/Spider Man don't give her any trouble.

 

[Cheezbat]

Hope to see some of you there for the grand opening!

 

[TheLastAshen]

I'm so glad I'm not (for once) the only one who thought this looks like a pretty terrible ride. I've seen a few videos and it, for some reason or another, reminds me of an old 80's Epcot attraction.

-The main preshow video screen doesn't match up color-wise or contrast-wise to the screens right next to it.
-The animation is pretty lackluster
-The plasma tvs built into holes in the wall is very lame.
-The multi colored lights in this attration everywhere are very ridiculous (in my opinion) I understand that you're inside a glacier or something the whole time and the designers probably didn't want to light everything blue but it just looks obsurd.
- There are what, 3 actual scenes???
-Ride vehicles do look impressive, but I don't think that redeems this awful attraction.
-After the finale your vehickle turns to a well lit, unfinished black wall (bad show)

Those are my initial thoughts. I would like to see the land its self which looks more impressive than the actual ride. So dissapointed.

 

[Cheezbat]

So I got here an hour before official park opening...was one of the first few hundred in, and they're currently telling us its a 2-3 hour wait for the ride.

 

[mebweb]

So I got here an hour before official park opening...was one of the first few hundred in, and they're currently telling us its a 2-3 hour wait for the ride.

Does anyone know how many RVs are on the ride circuit at one time? From the video, it appears that four RVs load at one time and travel as a group.

 

[UNIrd]

So I got here an hour before official park opening...was one of the first few hundred in, and they're currently telling us its a 2-3 hour wait for the ride.

Woah.

 

[Tbad556]

According to @Attractions, the ride is now up to a 4 hour wait. :stunned:

 

[Bryan]

Sounds like I'll wait to visit until after the 28th when I can use that fotl perk

 

[mebweb]

I see that one of the primary complaints about the ride so far is its duration - about 2 1/2 minutes. So, I am not a theme park insider and may be way off base here, but is it possible that the cost of the RVs at least in part dictated how long SW could make the ride experience? I realize there are other factors (space, etc.), but if they made the ride longer, they would need more RVs to keep up the attraction capacity. I would imagine these RVs are expensive, at least the cost of the Spider-Man or maybe even FJ RVs. This is a Sea World budget we are talking about here.

 

[Felipe]

So I got here an hour before official park opening...was one of the first few hundred in, and they're currently telling us its a 2-3 hour wait for the ride.

According to @Attractions, the ride is now up to a 4 hour wait. :stunned:

Oh, God... I'm scared for my visit tomorrow... :look:

 

[rhino4evr]

lol 4 hour wait for a 2 min lackluster penguin ride? Why god why?

 

[PWT]

Make that 5 hours.