Antarctica - Empire of the Penguin

[Felipe]

I wonder if they'll try to use all the negative reviews and underwhelming impact it has had on metrics improvement compared to what was forecasted to argue that they failed to deliver the best workmanship they were hired to provide, or something along those lines? This could get interesting, though I bet it gets settled out of view for a bit less than the $200k.

That would be the most asinine rationale, though... We all know the theming was the only good thing in this land. Well, and the penguin exhibit. Everyone agrees that it's everything else that sucked; the ride and the food got the negative feedback.

 

[Hatetofly]

Hey that ride system has huge potential! Too bad SW messed up so bad on this project its put a pause on further applications...

 

[Hockeyman55]

Hey that ride system has huge potential! Too bad SW messed up so bad on this project its put a pause on further applications...

Well that's a shame, I was hoping someone else use this ride system and put it to good use.

 

[Hatetofly]

Well that's a shame, I was hoping someone else use this ride system and put it to good use.

Someone eventually will but not as soon as I hoped...

 

[Cheezbat]

The ride is a decent ride system...just WAY too short in Antarctica. If it was even twice as long as it currently is, it wouldn't have gotten the same negative press.

 

[Hockeyman55]

Finally got a chance to ride this for the first time last weekend and thought it was decent for what it was, but then again my expectations going into this were at the bottom of the barrel for all I have heard about it, so going into it I knew what to expect and knew it wasn't going to be in the same league as Transformers, Spidey or FJ. Of course it could have been better by ten fold but I enjoyed it and my kids loved it so that made me happy. The highlight for me was the penguin exhibit itself at the end of the ride and thought it was cool how close they come swimming up to the glass, one even jumped up on the little rock structure and was gently nudged by one of the team members patrolling the area back into the water.

I am curious though, this ride has taken a beaten in the fan community but how does the GP perceive this ride? Does it typically have a decent ridership/wait times through out the day?

 

[anihilnation]

I was in seaworld last month and the wait time for Antarctica was 40 minutes (when I went in January it was only 10 minutes), all throughout last summer wait time was constantly 120+.
I think the GP is mixed rather than negative, a lot of people especially like seeing the actual exhibit, I think a lot of people dislike it that they have to go on the ride in order to see the exhibit. (I have noticed that they actually have an employee by the exit doors so that no one can get in.)

Anyway, I went on opening day and waited 2 hours to get on it (and I was there when the park opened, but the ride immediately suffered technical difficulties), I was majorly disappointed; however, every time I have been on it since I liked it, it is a cool ride, just not what it was hyped up to be and not something you would want to wait a long time for.

 

[Cole]

Rode the ride recently and my god did I just not care about anything. I feel like I'm in the unpopular boat when I say seaworld just isn't a incredible universal tier boat and this is a prime example of that. It's kind of always aquarium first ride second. They get away with tons of flaws just because there are animals there. When walking out of the ride almost everybody there was saying "those penguins were cute" or "what a cool exhibit" I don't think anybody cared about the ride itself. It's like having a crappy thunder mountain and then having a goat exhibit afterwards to make up for it. Just ehh, also it can't be seaworld without a cheesy song!!! Sing it with me now :bolt:

 

[anihilnation]

The real shame is that the ride system has so much potential for something really grand ...

 

[Cole]

The real shame is that the ride system has so much potential for something really grand ...

yeah I know, Lorax would've been incredible if it was actually happening. The ride system was really sweet. I'd honestly would've liked to see kong use it, when his foot hits the floor the whole car could've shook. But alas this ride apparently scared the other theme parks into using it

 

[knokout1]

I still don't know if they could have done much better with the space they have. You really get the feeling that this is a very small plot just by the size of the few rooms you go through. I don't think any space was spared in making that. What do others think they could have added to really make this any longer? Don't just say "a better story", I want to see ideas.

 

[Hockeyman55]

I still don't know if they could have done much better with the space they have. You really get the feeling that this is a very small plot just by the size of the few rooms you go through. I don't think any space was spared in making that. What do others think they could have added to really make this any longer? Don't just say "a better story", I want to see ideas.

Elevators

 

[UNIrd]

I still don't know if they could have done much better with the space they have. You really get the feeling that this is a very small plot just by the size of the few rooms you go through. I don't think any space was spared in making that. What do others think they could have added to really make this any longer? Don't just say "a better story", I want to see ideas.

It could have remotely resembled the concept art?

 

[Teebin]

It could have remotely resembled the concept art?

LOL! All of our faces when the softs videos started showing up on youtube. The only part of the experience I think they should have kept was the penguins jumping out of their tanks and among the guests. I thought that really cool!

 

[knokout1]

I agree the ride is much less than spectacular, but it isn't a complete failure like some make it sound. Seaworld could have made just a lame ride, but they made a good zone to go with it, even if it is really small. Not giving them excuses, they dropped the ball with the opportunity they had with the trackless cars. I just wanted to see some other ideas of what they could have done with the space.

 

[anihilnation]

Elevators

Exactly! Also, they should have used less space for the giftshop, restaurant etc

Something that would have been great, was to have it so that part of the ride would go through an icy cavern and then all the sudden it would transit to an underwater tunnel where you would see the penguins swim around, so kind of like shark encounter but with the trackless RV and penguins ...

 

[shiekra38]

Exactly! Also, they should have used less space for the giftshop, restaurant etc

Something that would have been great, was to have it so that part of the ride would go through an icy cavern and then all the sudden it would transit to an underwater tunnel where you would see the penguins swim around, so kind of like shark encounter but with the trackless RV and penguins ...

Or they could have reduced the indoor queue by a half a mile and used some of that space

 

[UNIrd]

Or they could have had the vehicles not seem like they're just spinning around aimlessly in big, wide-open rooms.

 

[Shadow Carelli]

Went to the park today for my class trip... The ride was broken the whole day... Along with everything else. Then throughout the day things started to work besides this ride. The penguins were still cool though!

 

[Milla4Prez66]

I got to ride it for the first time like 3 months ago when I got to visit SeaWorld one night as part of a work ceremony and really hated it.