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SeaWorld San Diego

SeaWorld is a much different company than they used to be. Just because they did something in the past doesn't mean that's the way things are going forward. Their priority for the new ride budgets is the hardware, not the thematic elements. I don't like it, but it's a fact of life under the new management and spending priorities.

I totally get what you're saying, but I also think that their priorities are out of whack and short-sighted, and sooner or later they're bound to come to the realization that guests, even locals, still expect some level of quality. At this point SeaWorld is pumping out rides that are inferior in quality to Six Flags, Cedar Fair, and pretty much any other major chain, and there are Six Flags and Cedar Fair parks in driving distance of SWSD and most other SWP parks. I also suspect many people in the company actually do care about creating high-quality attractions and theming, but they're just being vetoed by the one or two shareholders who prefer the "build the cheapest possible things as cheaply as possible" business plan.

In any case, what's more important is that building nothing but roller coasters means there's no incentive for the probably 50% of potential guests who can't/don't ride roller coasters to want to visit the park because they'd have nothing to do except stand around and hold other people's stuff all day. This is something I've personally seen happen with my own family and friends and something I see people complain about constantly on pass holder pages and review sites.

In this particular case, I don’t think it was the fact it was a “cheap, unthemed” flat ride that was the downfall. Its really the fact they went with an unproven test model that is/was the larger issue.
That's the reason it broke in the first place, but I think the ride's problems went deeper than that. As far as I can tell it was received very poorly because it just wasn't a fun or interesting or even comfortable ride, even when it did work, and I suspect its unpopularity is the reason why SeaWorld evidently doesn't see much incentive in getting it running again. I'm hoping they've learned from this that they can't just slap anything down and call it a new ride, and expect it to boost attendance and revenue all the same.
 
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Any guesses what's going on here? They've been "making waves on our next new project" since the first time I visited the park. It'd be cool if this became a 360° dome theater like the one for Turtle Trek.

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New coaster announcement scheduled for Tuesday the 27th. I'm curious to see how similar it is to BGW's ne Jet Ski/Snowmobile coaster. I have a feeling Intamin gave a bulk discount, so maybe a third or fourth coming to BGT or SWO since both have unused simulator buildings...
Honestly, I’d bet money on a near identical train design.
 
I'll be fine with an identical train design as long as there's some attempt at theming lol. Shouldn't be too hard to work a story in there considering most of the building is already themed, all they need to do is add some decor to the queue and the ride path. Some sort of pre-launch video like on Wave Breaker would be a good addition too.
 
Will the ride have a theme or is it going to be like the last coaster?
I'd like to know that too. The promotional video SeaWorld put out didn't contain any sort of visual of the actual ride lol. The fact that the one piece of artwork they've released just shows a roller coaster track with snow underneath it gives me a bad feeling though, since that's the same thing they did with Ice Breaker and Emperor. Maybe we'll at least get a short pre-launch video like on Wave Breaker? It kills me that this chain has devolved so much that matching the minimal theming on a low-budget ride they built in 2017 seems like a lot to hope for.
 
I'd like to know that too. The promotional video SeaWorld put out didn't contain any sort of visual of the actual ride lol. The fact that the one piece of artwork they've released just shows a roller coaster track with snow underneath it gives me a bad feeling though, since that's the same thing they did with Ice Breaker and Emperor. Maybe we'll at least get a short pre-launch video like on Wave Breaker? It kills me that this chain has devolved so much that matching the minimal theming on a low-budget ride they built in 2017 seems like a lot to hope for.
The video on Youtube...has rocks so....its something more then the last coaster but wish they could have done just a similar theme as next door and just made fake ice walls all around you and.....like water below you. That would honestly be so cool
 
The video on Youtube...has rocks so....its something more then the last coaster but wish they could have done just a similar theme as next door and just made fake ice walls all around you and.....like water below you. That would honestly be so cool
Wait, where were the rocks? I think the roller coaster clips in the video were from Wave Breaker haha. It's weird that they didn't provide any concept video like they did for DarKoaster and Catapult Falls. I have to imagine they already have a similar video created for this and know exactly what it's gonna look like, unless there's still some uncertainty over theming elements or something? But yeah, if it had similar rockwork and ice theming to the rest of the Wild Arctic exhibit that would be amazing, though I'm not getting my hopes up.
 
It's interesting that at the end of the video, they claim it's a "straddle" coaster (which I take to mean like Pony Express at Knott's), but Wave Breaker doesn't actually straddle. I suppose there's a divider for your feet, but I don't really consider that "straddling".
 
Went to the park today.

Got two rides on Emperor. They were running one train the day before Thanksgiving.....one train. The wait wasn't terrible for my second ride as I only waited about 35 min and that was for the front row! First time I didn't have to wait long at all as that was the first ride I hit up this morning. I did get a glimpse of the footers going into place for Arctic Rescue. They had the dirt area and footers in place for the supports and track to go in.

Manta had the worst line out of all the rides. Get this: They were only running two trains, but they literally went out of their way to make the ops as crap as possible. They didn't use the exit station but instead had the guests exit out on the entrance station and waited until the second train has hit the final brake run until they finally decide to load the empty train. Remember, they let the entire train sit empty in the station the entire time the second train is dispatched. When guests are finally loading and having their restraints checked, the second car is sitting there waiting at the exit station for the first train to dispatch so they can unload the second train on the exit platform! WTH. They did this the entire time in line which looked like maybe a 30-45 min wait with good ops but turned into nearly two hours.

Oh, it gets better. One of the ride ops in charge of dispatching the trains had to run out of his position to assign rows and decided to assign me to the front row, which already had a stacked wait. He then runs out of the entrance ramp and back to his position to open the gates to dispatch the train. Easily the most grossly inept ops I've ever seen at that park. Other than that, Electric Eel and Atlantis had good ops.

Gonna come back once Arctic Rescue opens. Hopefully they won't be so wildly incompetent with Manta ops this time and Emperor will run two trains.
 
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