Sea World Celebrates 50 Years

[themagician]

https://seaworld.com.au/celebrating50
 

For five decades our premier marine park, Sea World has succeeded in making its name pre-eminent in bringing people joy and memories that last lifetimes. And now, 50 years and 50 million guests later we have become Australia’s favourite family theme park, all of which is inspired by you.

I wonder if they’ll actually be celebrating in park, or if it’s just this online stuff

 

[Park Addict 93]

This bugs me, photo is of what is now the Seal Stadium, not Dolphin Cove/Beach.

[Im Hungry]

After Sea World's 50th and Dreamworld's 40th, who's the next big park to celebrate a milestone?

Really taken aback by some of these milestones, particularly the big prize:

1971- 2021

Saturday 30 October 2021

Over 50 MILLION guests

Over 20 THOUSAND animal rescues

Over 30 THOUSAND team members employed

Over 15 MILLION Burgers sold

Visit on a Village Roadshow One Pass in the month of October for your chance to WIN UNLIMITED entry to Sea World for 50 YEARS!

 

Quote

Visit Sea World in October on a valid Village Roadshow One Pass for your chance to win 50 YEARS UNLIMITED entry to Sea World, Warner Bros. Movie World, Wet’n’Wild and Paradise Country, it’s the ultimate golden ticket!

 

Edited October 5, 2021 by Im Hungry

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

4 minutes ago, Im Hungry said:

After Sea World's 50th and Dreamworld's 40th, who's the next big park to celebrate a milestone?

Movie World just had it's 30th... (3/6/91)

Wet n Wild GC was 30/9/84 - so it just turned 37

Jamberoo will turn 41 in 3 weeks

Merimbula's Magic Mountain 38

Luna Park Sydney was 86 yesterday

Aussie World is 32 next month

White Water World will be 15 at the end of the year.

Luna Park Melbourne will hit 109 in December.

Adventure World Perth and Rainbow's End NZ will both be 39 next month.

That's all I can be bothered with, although i'm sure there are others out there - doesn't look like anyone has a BIG milestone planned for a while.

[blurrybilly]

You would expect 50 years to be a big in park celebration if Movie World had an event for 30. 

[Im Hungry]

45 minutes ago, blurrybilly said:

You would expect 50 years to be a big in park celebration if Movie World had an event for 30. 

Low key a shame we won't be seeing a huge celebration of 50 years at Sea World, but given Spooky Nights will be running on the weekends, that should suffice.

[Brad2912]

and once again....only ONE PASS holders are eligible to win the prize, not membership holders

[Coasterjoe]

God I miss Bermuda Triangle

[MWgirl247365]

1 hour ago, Im Hungry said:

Low key a shame we won't be seeing a huge celebration of 50 years at Sea World, but given Spooky Nights will be running on the weekends, that should suffice.

I think a celebration isn’t completely ruled out, I mean there’s still time to get something together 

[Slick]

2 hours ago, Coasterjoe said:

God I miss Bermuda Triangle

And chairlift, Vikings Revenge, Pirate Ship etc. etc.

[ShakeShack]

Extremely disappointing, and such a missed opportunity for them to not be running any form of in park celebration.

With the success of Movie World's 30th event, I'm floored by the fact that we won't be getting anything. Especially for an arguably more significant milestone.

On a positive note, I'm loving the 50th logo design.

Edited October 5, 2021 by Luke Beazley

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

11 minutes ago, Luke Beazley said:

Extremely disappointing, and such a missed opportunity for them to not be running any form of in park celebration.

With the success of Movie World's 30th event, I'm floored by the fact that we won't be getting anything. Especially for an arguably more significant milestone.

On a positive note, I'm loving the 50th logo design.

I think the difference is, Hooray was planned when borders were open, and although things timed poorly with it's premiere, it had mild successes. 

Sea World on the other hand turns 50 while borders are still shut - and there's probably a lot of apathy at VRTP about planning more events (outside the usual) until things return to BAU. They should be running fright nights now and they aren't - so Spooky Nights is already a risky endeavour - Plus they'll now be outside school holidays - so everything points to 'unlikely' but it is a shame they didn't put on something special.

[ShakeShack]

That's a very fair point. In saying that, a major event would be something they would've been planning for more than a few months. Hooray's concept had been floating around for a few years before it was introduced as the 30th celebration.

I think you're on the money though. There would've been an almost crowded event lineup with Spooky Nights, Fright Nights and then a 50th celebration.

There has also always been some contention within the company for as long as I can remember, on when Sea World should actually celebrate it's anniversary.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

3 minutes ago, Luke Beazley said:

In saying that, a major event would be something they would've been planning for more than a few months. Hooray's concept had been floating around for a few years before it was introduced as the 30th celebration.

In recent memory though, Hooray would be the exception, rather than the rule. It was 'the most' extravagant park-wide package they've put on in decades. I do sometimes wonder how much of what our parks do is reactionary to things said on social media (or here) and I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they'd completely forgotten about it until they threw a huge party for MW and then someone went 'hey, you know Sea World is 50 this year too, right?'.

yeah ok, i'm a bit too cynical, but stranger things have happened.

[ShakeShack]

I think you're on the money to some degree.

It smells like an after thought to me, personally. Just ticking the box really.

[Naazon]

I actually just think it should be as simple as a different / additional lake show, like a "through the years" show, performing the iconic acts. Even incorporating Thunder Lake Boat/Truck since its garnered a lot of attention both nationally and online internationally. (I see gifs/videos appear on Reddits front page occationally)

If they wanted more effort, then maybe a an original/different/varied seal and/or dolphin show since they more or less still do the same performance, just a different story and in a different order.

 

And also, its completely understandable if they celebrate its 51st birthday too. I feel the world is aware of the effect COVID has had and will get onboard if marketed correctly. I'm no marketing expert but playing off the fact SW along with many other people had to postpone milestones like birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, birts ect..

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I'm not even sure they could do the Ski Pyramid with the current lake size - they used to set it up down the 'river' near the pirate ship and appear to the stadium already set up. Of course they could pull it off (if they had the skilled and talented skiiers) but the setup would be in full view of the crowd.

I do agree a 51st would be understandable and worthy of a bigger celebration at a better time. Hopefully they think that is a good idea.

[LunaParkFan]

Still hoping they refurbish Vikings Revenge, it's the family ride with a bit of a thrill that the park could really use for it's lineup and of course it'd be a lot cheaper to fix up Vikings Revenge than to demolish and put in a new ride.

[themagician]

Other than the lake show, they couldn’t really do an event for the park to level of Hooray for Hollywood. All the iconic parts of the park are rides or animal shows. And it takes a long time to retrain the animals to perform old shows. As already said, the only thing they could bring back is the Waterski Wipeout show (or one of the others that I can’t remember the names of) or something like Planet SOS in the 4D cinema (but I don’t think that’s usable space anymore). 
 

Id like to see them at least decorate the park with banners and a couple statues (like the Bugs Bunny one)

Edited October 6, 2021 by joz

[joz]

I think a 50th event would have been great. BUT...

 

With the timeline for new Atlantis slipping, you're now in a situation at SW that as well as Viking's, you now have Monorail and Leviathan as SBNO rides. I don't think now is a great time to hold such an event where the park to casual guests looks worse than it ever has (despite an upwards trajectory).

 

I don't think that's why Village didn't do a 50th event, but I also don't think it's a great idea to do a big marketing push before the park is ready for it.

 

Also quick aside: the ski pyramid used to depart from the ski dock, you could totally do one with the lake in its current configuration.

[fletch]

59 minutes ago, LunaParkFan said:

Still hoping they refurbish Vikings Revenge, it's the family ride with a bit of a thrill that the park could really use for it's lineup and of course it'd be a lot cheaper to fix up Vikings Revenge than to demolish and put in a new ride.

While they could much easily fix up Vikings rather than adding a new attraction, I just can't see it happening. It's been sitting there empty for almost 5 years now, and the reason it closed in the first place (correct me if I'm wrong) was partly because of the TRR incident and from what I've heard there were parts of the trough that were damaged. When Vikings closed for maintenance after the TTR incident the park removed some parts of the ride, and I doubt they would still be holding onto those most likely out of date components.

[MrLukeCarroll]

I think the biggest issue with VRTP and celebrating the 50th anniversary is at this current moment in time it feels like even they don't know what the park is today or it's trajectory past the next 6 months. Will it settle in as the family park of the chain, how many thrill seekers will it pull over from MW with their 3 new rides and how will those crowds settle once the initial hype wears down sort of thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if when everything is done they tied a "50th Birthday Celebration" into the New Atlantis official opening period. Disney is currently showing us you can celebrate a 50th for 18th months and it's fine.

[JoshiYomanto]

At least with a 50 year pass you might get a chance of riding leviathan without having to renew your pass

[TomiJ]

41 minutes ago, JoshiYomanto said:

At least with a 50 year pass you might get a chance of riding leviathan without having to renew your pass

Edited October 6, 2021 by TomiJ

[Naazon]

14 hours ago, MrLukeCarroll said:

how many thrill seekers will it pull over from MW with their 3 new rides and how will those crowds settle once the initial hype wears down sort of thing.

Seeing as they are only advertising Vortex out of the new 3 as a Thrill ride and the rest of the lineup is very family orientated (with exceptions of Storm, although my child happily went on that at age 6 and Jet rescue does have a higher height limit) , I would say little, and they know and expect little.

 

I think SW has their plans for being more family than thrill.

Edited October 6, 2021 by Naazon