Sea World 2010 (Castaway Bay & Antarctic Penguins)

[themeparkgc]

Last night I received an email from MyFun revealing a few more of the details of their new attraction this year.

As a valued MyFun Member, we want you to be the first to know that later this year Sea World will launch an exciting new $6 Million family attraction. The interactive adventure zone will cater for kids of all ages and feature exciting themed rides and fun filled child friendly play areas. Keep your eye on the MyFun web site for more information…

For those that missed it, this attraction was first announced in December last year. Below I have taken a couple of excerpts from here.

Gold Coast theme parks in ride war by Lucy Ardern and Tanya Westthorp [...] Mr Fisher would not go into detail about the plans for the new Sea World attraction, but said it was 'water related' and was a 'multi-million dollar investment'. "It will appeal to families with younger children -- we felt that was something that was missing," he said. [...]

Mickey D your on the mark yet again as of Dec 20th Sea World has several employees who freely roam the park doing surveys with family groups. They will ask a series of questions based on the park in general then will bring out 4 cards from there bag. Which are 4 picked attractions in concept design for the park on the card and they are asking which one of these 4 attractions would you like to see in the park in the very near future, you must rate them 1-4, 1 being best. I can say what 2 of the attractions are, one being a twist 'n' splash unit, very well themed may i add and the other i will say is a large flying fox attraction. As for now thats all i can say but it shall get the speculation rolling.

Edited May 27, 2010 by Gazza

[Reanimated35]

Well if they're spending $6m on a flying fox, surely they're getting ripped off unless its from one side of the park to the other (to replace the skyway?). Let's hope we get something decent and well themed so the long journey out there seems worth it.

[themeparkgc]

Just a quick question to anyone who has gone to Sea World recently. Has demolition progressed past this level (shot was taken on 6 May)? Have they demolished the junior pools or are they still standing? Photo from NearMap.

[Reanimated35]

Attractions Maintenance The Water Park is closed from 27 April - 1 September. Sea World Aquarium is closed from 24 May. Shark Attack is closed from 24 May. Bert and Ernies' Big Dive at Sesame Street Beach will be closed for scheduled maintenance from 24 May - 20 June inclusive. Zoe’s Sub Splash at Sesame Street Beach will be will be closed until 12 September. Skyway is closed until 12 September. Sesame Street Beach will be closed for scheduled maintenance from 29 November - 12 December inclusive. Jet rescue Coaster will be closed for scheduled maintenance from 1 - 14 November inclusive. Monorail will be closed for scheduled maintenance from 15 - 28 November inclusive.

So the Skyway isn't going after all. Anyone know what the reason for the massive delay? As in what parts were in need of replacing? Or was it more related to the removal/upgrade/something of the sharks and aquarium?

[themeparkgc]

^ I just noticed Zoe’s Sub Splash at Sesame Street Beach will be closed for until September 12 also... mmmnn...

[Gazza]

So the Skyway isn't going after all.

Did I miss something?

[Spotty]

Thats what I was thinking, last I heard was it was just closed until further notice. So it must have been a maintenence issue that was unexpected, or when it went down for scheduled maintenence something was found that required a large amount of work. Then they must have had to wait for parts or something similar and had no idea how long it was going to take to fix or get parts. Hence why there was no date as to when it opened. Obviously they now have a time frame and have updated it.

[Reanimated35]

Did I miss something?

Exactly as Spotty said, It was firstly listed for a few days in the park as "Closed due to high winds" even on a calm day, Then they changed it to closed until further notice which is how they closed down the train and other no longer existing rides. Plus with the maintenance going on in the buildings right beside it, it did seem a bit of an ominous warning it was on its way out.

[Suhan]

Just a quick question to anyone who has gone to Sea World recently. Has demolition progressed past this level (shot was taken on 6 May)? Have they demolished the junior pools or are they still standing? Photo from NearMap.

No I don't think so. When I went a couple of weeks ago they were painting the big mushrooms that were in that kiddy pool so I think they aren't.

[Gazza]

Wooo, copypasta...I'll write the post like this so it makes sense to someone who finds the post down the track. On todays GC Bulletin there was a myfun promotional slip over front cover for the paper (They are promoting their latest VIP pass as the 'national year of fun'), and it announced a whole lot of stuff we didn't know yet. SW is getting "Castaway Bay", which will contain "Battle Sails", a presumably a splash battle type ride (with 80 water cannons!) The Sky Fortress is a net/rope play structure (like Camp Jurassic at IOA or Redwood Creek Challenge Trail at DCA i guess) The accompanying picture looked really good, well themed with rustic timber, ropes, lanterns etc. It also will contain a high ropes course...sky ropes i think it was called. Frustratingly, it caught my eye because i found a copy of the paper sitting abandoned at the MW bus stop, so I took the paper, and separated off the slip over, but somehow on the bus I left it behind, so I can't scan it in. Any other locals get todays paper?

Edited June 26, 2010 by Gazza

[themeparkgc]

^ My copy doesn't have the promotional sleeve. I think the copy that you picked up was one of the ones they give away at the theme parks. I know in the past I've had free Courier Mails and Sunday Mails from DW and WWW (each with DW and WWW upgrade advertising), so I am guessing WVTP are doing the same with the Gold Coast Bulletin. I'll rephrase the question. Did any other locals get yesterday's Gold Coast Bulletin from one of the theme parks?

[Gazza]

Success! I dunno how I skimmed over it, but SW is also getting an Antarctic penguin exhibit too, So I'm guessing thats is what Shark Attack/Dugong Discovery is being ripped out for. This is actually shaping up to be a pretty solid year now everything is known...Yeah, there's no big coaster anywhere but SW will well and truly appeal to the families with Castaway Bay and the Penguins I mean, I'm a fan of any theme park attraction that is done well, big or small. The Sky Fortress concept art already makes it look like it will be quite nicely themed, and despite it being a gentle ride, battle sails will be a load of fun, considering what Battle Galleons was like at Alton.

[joz]

Was wondering when they were planning on telling people about the Penguins. The one thing I'm curious about is if Castaway Bay is part of Seaworld, or Seaworld Resort. If it's an up charge for Seaworld guests then I'll be seriously pissed.

[stardust]

Seaworld really needs more rides, it's so boring at the moment, I don't know anyone that would pay to go there. We went because of the VIP pass but left quickly, with Bermuda having no fire the only good ride is that ski-jet boat thing.

[TimMc333]

the only good ride is that ski-jet boat thing.

Jetski Rescue? I agree the park needs another ride, but I'm very excited that they're putting penguins in! I was at the park last week, The thing that bugs me is that on a busy day they only have 1 Jetski Rescue train running. Being the only good ride in the park you'd think they would be running at full capacity with a lot of guests waiting... :/ But bring on the penguins and that splash-battle ride!

[Gazza]

Jetski Rescue?

Jet Rescue?

[TimMc333]

Jet Rescue?

Ah yes, no 'ski' in there is there

[MickeyD]

ok so do we know if these Critters will infact be King Emperor Penguins? I'd be interested to know how they can effectively simulate their environment

[themeparkgc]

^ They'd probably do what Seaworld San Diego have done with their Penguin Encounter exhibit. Their website states that they have emperor, king, adelie, gentoo and macaroni species of penguin. Here's a couple of photos Gazza got for Parkz.

• Pic 1
• Pic 2

[whitsy]

Bit silly as they already got bloody penguins at the park, Why would you want more of the little smelly morons? lol

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

I spoke too soon in the other thread... If in fact they are getting different species in, then i'm all for it. Fairy penguins are common (and I refuse to call them "little" penguins) in just about every marine park in the world. To get some of the more exotic species in a custom habitat would be great. Besides nothing says we can't chuck all the penguins into one enclosure? could be interesting... But saying why would you want more - it's like saying we didn't need shark bay because we had one in a tank down the front, or we didn't need ray reef because we had rays in shark bay...

[JamesMovieWorld]

What happened to the rumor about Sea World having hippos?

[whitsy]

I spoke too soon in the other thread... If in fact they are getting different species in, then i'm all for it. Fairy penguins are common (and I refuse to call them "little" penguins) in just about every marine park in the world. To get some of the more exotic species in a custom habitat would be great. Besides nothing says we can't chuck all the penguins into one enclosure? could be interesting... But saying why would you want more - it's like saying we didn't need shark bay because we had one in a tank down the front, or we didn't need ray reef because we had rays in shark bay...

Exactly why would you want more, Why double up on everything when that space could have gone towards building more rides. The animal aspect of the park has been well covered, Time to spend more time on the others. Edited July 5, 2010 by djrappa
Added nothing to discussion

[themeparkgc]

What happened to the rumor about Sea World having hippos?

According to the database, it was announced and it didn't progress past that stage. I think it was supposed to go where Ray Reef now exists.

[rappa]

To answer a few questions/comments from this thread... People would pay to go there because there is a HUGE demographic that isn't interested in thrill rides, people actually WANT to see animal exhibits. The animal aspect hasn't been 'pretty well covered already' because there are countless marine species not on exhibit at Sea World. There are certainly most ride types on 'exhibit' throughout the many theme parks on the gold coast. You're not doubling up on animals when you have two vastly different species like here with the penguins. As was said, very different when you're talking about big ole 1m tall animals compared to the cute small little guys already in the park. Question is, will these be going where Shark Attack once was or somewhere we don't know about yet.