Sea World New Attraction 2019

[Santa07]

From 7 News:

Quote

The Viking Revenge Flume ride at Sea World - Gold Coast, Australia has been retired.

From Sea World: After 37 years and 27,000,000 riders, Australia’s first theme park ride, the Viking Revenge Flume at Sea World has been retired.

The iconic ride opened at Sea World on the Gold Coast in 1979 and is set to be replaced with a new, and exciting attraction, scheduled to open in 2019. The ride is being removed to make way for the new attraction.

Sea World General Manager, Bikash Randhawa said the decision to invest in a new attraction demonstrated the company’s continued confidence in the park, and the Gold Coast market.

“We are always looking to provide world class theme park experiences for our guests, and we know the new attraction we are planning for Sea World will be a great success. We look forward to announcing details of this attraction in the new year.

“Viking Revenge has brought a great deal of fun and pleasure to millions of visitors, and I know it will be missed. But it had a long life, and it’s time for something new, and unique,” Mr Randhawa said.

So it looks like Sea World do have plans, and seeing it's two years after MW's coaster it could be big.

Definitely many opportunities for Sea World here, if they're only using the land from Vikings I'm thinking along the lines of a family attraction or a small thrill ride.

Looking forward to any details we get (although still waiting on MW's announcement ? )

[themagician]

Thats great to know that they have got plans to replace it with something, even if it is a couple of years away. I just hope the park installs something new next year, otherwise a couple of years with the storm, jet rescue and kids rides, I personally don't think is a smart idea.

[grrofunger]

27,000,000 riders over 37 years is very efficient ride operations

Assuming 37 years x 365 days = 13,505 days of operation

27,000,000 riders divided by 13,505 days = approx 2000 riders per day

Assuming the park operated 10am to 5pm on all of the 13,505 days = 2000/7 = approx 285 riders per hour

Assuming 4 people went off in a boat each time = 285/4 = approx 71 boats per hour

71/60 = 1.2 boats fully loaded leaving the station every minute constantly for life of the ride

Yeah i know there are leap years and days of closure and varying opening hours and maintenance periods and every other variable but i am bored and 27,000,000 leapt out at me as a crazy number plucked out of thin air.

If the number is even remotely close then they are going to have to come up with a super ride to absorb all those people over the next 37 years.

[Intimidator305.]

35 minutes ago, Santa07 said:

The iconic ride opened at Sea World on the Gold Coast in 1979 and is set to be replaced with a new, and exciting attraction, scheduled to open in 2019. The ride is being removed to make way for the new attraction.

 

Well, the article says that Vikings Revenge will be replaced with a new ride in 2019. It didn't say they weren't planning anything else. Maybe there will be a few new attractions?

[Whombex]

I believe this ride was always going to be replaced for a 2019 new attraction, but with a combination of TRR incident and possible wear and tear, it's being closed now. I reckon capex was already to be set aside for 2018 construction prior to ride closure.

[westical]

May as well call it a zoo at this rate.

[Intimidator305.]

Kolmarden? I wouldn't be upset if they changed it to a zoo like Kolmarden.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

54 minutes ago, grrofunger said:

i am bored and 27,000,000 leapt out at me as a crazy number plucked out of thin air.

What leapt out at me was 'Australia's first theme park ride' which I find a little hard to believe.

[MickeyD]

Very pleased to hear SW moving forward to announce plans for a major new attraction, however a 2019 opening is a tad outrageous given how long the Park has had to wait already.

I desperately hope there are plans for at least two new flats in the mean time and I'm totally in favour of @Jobe suggestion to bring over WnW's Surf rider at the absolute least. The Wild Wave Galaxy Mouse ride was always a huge hit back in the day.. 1 thrill & 1 family ride are needed as a bare minimum over the next 2 years and can be done inexpensively.

[Santa07]

1 hour ago, Intimidator305. said:

Kolmarden? I wouldn't be upset if they changed it to a zoo like Kolmarden.

As long as they have Wildfire  

[Chubu]

3 hours ago, Glubbo said:

I believe this ride was always going to be replaced for a 2019 new attraction, but with a combination of TRR incident and possible wear and tear, it's being closed now. I reckon capex was already to be set aside for 2018 construction prior to ride closure.

Yer, I fully agree with this. I'm guessing the ride was originally going to operate until just before they start construction of the new attraction.  But with TTR incident, they just closed it early. 

It's a shame that Sea World now has so few rides. I really hope they have plans for more than one new ride in the works. I think Storm and Jet Rescue were acually really good decisions for the park. Rides that sit between the family and the thrill category so they have wide appeal would complement the park. I'm thinking a spinning coaster would be a good addition. 

Edited December 10, 2016 by Chubu

[Jamberoo Fan]

2019 may seem a while but remember, there already is 'an exciting new attraction' coming to Sea World Resort's former Water Park area. The vacant & re-claimed land near the former location of Sea Viper & Pirate Ship is still to be utilised too. It could be a 3 stage plan - one new attraction in each location per year culminating in Viking Revenge's replacement.

3 hours ago, Glubbo said:

I believe this ride was always going to be replaced for a 2019 new attraction.

I disagree. Why would they have scheduled a 5 month maintenance period for it next year otherwise? The decision was probably made suddenly in the past few weeks.

2 hours ago, MickeyD said:

...a 2019 opening is a tad outrageous given how long the Park has had to wait already.

Given how complex the ride's removal looks to be, it's plenty of time to allow the removal to be done carefully but like I said above, we could see a couple of new attractions being installed in other locations prior to 2019. Just wait & see - after recent years of development including Nickelodeon Land - a multi-million dollar redevelopment involving new rides - & COTD last year as well as Storm Coaster & Seal Harbour in 2013, maybe SW just wasn't ready to commit financially to new projects yet & now that time to commit has arrived?

Edited December 10, 2016 by Jamberoo Fan

[Prequel]

As sad i am to see it go, it was kinda expected. Lets face it it wasn't the best Flume out there, compared to Rocky Hollow and Wild Wild West its not that good (Because its the oldest ride in Australia). Obviously Sea World has something huge planned for 2019. This is just how park develops, by changing. I am excited to see what happens.

Edited December 10, 2016 by Prequel

[Brad2912]

2019? Is that the earliest ever announcement for a future attraction?

The last time SW announced something 2 years in advance we all went Wild for what is, 4 years later, still a vacant plot of reclaimed land...

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

Don't forget the last time SW announced an attraction 2+ years away... 

 

[joz]

2019?  3 years away?  That's taking the piss.  How much damage are you happy to do to your name in the next 3 years?  

 

It's desperate enough that they need to hire a couple of traveling rides and set them up for a couple years in the field next to Jet Rescue.

 

Also FWIW I don't think Surfrider is really worth the effort to move, I think it's a good fit at WnW, and rather than move it, I might be alone in this, but I'd like to see that water park line be blurred a little be more to set WnW apart from all the other new water parks popping up.

[wipeout94]

As we know between now and 2019 the rides that are left will still have to close for scheduled maintenance (shiiiiiiiiii).

Guests will need something else to keep them at the park till later in the day. 

I'm not a fan of the idea, but the only thing I can think of is that they install a couple of temporary carnival rides in the Sea Viper area.

Any thoughts?

[MickeyD]

4 minutes ago, joz said:

 

It's desperate enough that they need to hire a couple of traveling rides and set them up for a couple years in the field next to Jet Rescue.

 

I might be alone in this, but I'd like to see that water park line be blurred a little be more to set WnW apart from all the other new water parks popping up.

@joz remember years ago there was a Holiday event called Carnival or something similar? They brought in a bunch of travelling Carni rides and the whole thing was set up where Shark Bay is today. Still for 10 million they could get 2 decent flats and a mouse to breathe some much needed life?

You're not alone on your second point - WnW could definitely benefit with broadening the base theme to add in other attractions that compliment the slides as well as to give the Park more year round appeal

[joz]

10 minutes ago, MickeyD said:

@joz remember years ago there was a Holiday event called Carnival or something similar? They brought in a bunch of travelling Carni rides and the whole thing was set up where Shark Bay is today. Still for 10 million they could get 2 decent flats and a mouse to breathe some much needed life?

Yeah I do remember that!  From memory it was mostly kiddie rides a bouncy castle and stuff like that, but yeah that was definitely a thing!  Caribbean Carnival maybe?

 

Yeah that's the thing, the park needs the energy and life breathed into it now, hence the traveling ride suggestion rather than permanent rides, I don't know how much they cost to hire but you'd suspect $10million would cover that easily?

[themagician]

So maybe we will see something replace the water park in 2017. Something to use part/all reclaimed land/sea viper site in 2018. And a Vikings Revenge replacement in 2019. If that all did happen, then I believe that would really make the park once again, and truly make it a full day park with variety for anyone. 

[joz]

I'm glad someone still has some optimism, really I haven't seen anything that would make me suspect anything good is coming.

 

I'm still utterly blown away that they just closed the ride and said the replacement was 3 years away.

[Reanimated35]

Ok, no one else has said it yet, and as much as I'd like to, this isn't going to help make friends in the right places, but IMO it has to be said. 

Dick move Sea World. 

There are 364 other days in a year. Why did you have to release this to the media on a day like today? It's one thing to announce a new coaster the day before/of/after the opening of the Lego store down the road (for example), but to put out a statement like this on the day that Dreamworld reopened after such a tragic event? Not cool. 

This was a day that the theme park industry and community should have come together as one to show their support for the reopening of a park. Regardless of which park or how much of a competitor they are.

I'm honestly a little disappointed to not have seen photos of any of the management team from any VRTP park showing their support at Dreamworld. 

(Apologies if they were there and I just haven't come across any mention of it.)

[themagician]

You know what @reanimated35, I actually agree with you on that. Despite it not making major news headlines, they did make a statement about it, and media have written about it. This weekend is all about DW, not any of the other parks. They could've waited a couple of days to release that info, even on Monday wouldve been fine, but this weekend is about the reopening of DW. It's like VRTP didn't like the attention they were getting, and they thought, "you know what, we can't have everyone focus on DW, let's just make the statement today about a ride that's 3 years away, and try and make the news". That's why I've held off on posting about these plans on my page until next week, because this weekend is about DW (a part from the post I made about WC, but that was already happening and was outside of DWs operation hours).

[joz]

I don't think Sea World announcing the closure of Viking's Revenge on the same day as Dreamworld's reopening was Village trying to steal a headline, it's them trying to bury the story.  It's not like 'We've closed an iconic ride for a new attraction in 3 years' is a good message after all

Edited December 10, 2016 by joz

[Park Addict 93]

14 minutes ago, joz said:

I don't think Sea World announcing the closure of Viking's Revenge on the same day as Dreamworld's reopening was Village trying to steal a headline, it's them trying to bury the story.  It's not like 'We've closed an iconic ride for a new attraction in 3 years' is a good message after all

I don't think they were ready/wanting to announce it at all. I would say 7 News were reading these forums *waves* or were somehow otherwise advised. Perhaps they have a software running to monitor web page changes at the parks.

22 minutes ago, themagician said:

You know what @reanimated35, I actually agree with you on that. Despite it not making major news headlines, they did make a statement about it, and media have written about it. This weekend is all about DW, not any of the other parks. They could've waited a couple of days to release that info, even on Monday wouldve been fine, but this weekend is about the reopening of DW. It's like VRTP didn't like the attention they were getting, and they thought, "you know what, we can't have everyone focus on DW, let's just make the statement today about a ride that's 3 years away, and try and make the news". That's why I've held off on posting about these plans on my page until next week, because this weekend is about DW (a part from the post I made about WC, but that was already happening and was outside of DWs operation hours).

They made a statement to one media outlet, a release was not made.

44 minutes ago, reanimated35 said:

Ok, no one else has said it yet, and as much as I'd like to, this isn't going to help make friends in the right places, but IMO it has to be said. 

Dick move Sea World. 

There are 364 other days in a year. Why did you have to release this to the media on a day like today? It's one thing to announce a new coaster the day before/of/after the opening of the Lego store down the road (for example), but to put out a statement like this on the day that Dreamworld reopened after such a tragic event? Not cool. 

This was a day that the theme park industry and community should have come together as one to show their support for the reopening of a park. Regardless of which park or how much of a competitor they are.

I'm honestly a little disappointed to not have seen photos of any of the management team from any VRTP park showing their support at Dreamworld. 

(Apologies if they were there and I just haven't come across any mention of it.)

I agree, but after being told a statement would be released Friday afternoon and that a draft had circulated internally then being told by a VRTP media representative on Friday "It will be released when it's ready". I am not always a fan of the way VRTP operate but I must defend them here.

I think 7 forced their hand here, better to run with a statement early than "no comment" causing 7 to speculate.

I'm am also a little disappointed to not have seen any of the management team from VRTP showing their support at Dreamworld.