'Penguin Expedition' at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium

[Jamberoo Fan]

I just noticed Sea Life Sydney Aquarium opened their new Penguin Expedition attraction on 9th November last year. Simply, it is a penguin exhibit featuring a 2-minute boat ride through the exhibit. Nevertheless, it is themed to a scientific expedition to & around Macquarie Island. The ride features temperatures of a 'comfortable' 6 degrees Celsius. Each boat can fit 8 people. According to Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, it is 'the world's first ride-through penguin experience'. Here is their concept video that was released in May last year:

While this is a topic about Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, may I ask should Sea World take inspiration from this attraction?

Edited January 5, 2017 by Jamberoo Fan

[joz]

No Sea World should not take inspiration from this.  

 

Let me preface what I'm about to say with the following; there is nothing cruel about a boat ride through an animal exhibat.  

 

The problem is perception, Zoo's (and particularly marine parks) have a real image problem with the uninformed masses.  The way you change that perception is to have the animals in as realistic a setting as possible, and have them tell their own stories, and you want them to be displayed in a way which conveys the respect for the animals that all zoos in this country have.  

 

When you add a ride you make them a sideshow in the guests eyes.  Rather than it being a chance to watch them and get an understanding of them, they are reduced to props on a ride.  

 

Again there is nothing cruel about this, as the exhibat looks good from the video and the only thing that has changed is the guests perception, but I think you mess with that perception at your peril.  Besides any of this, the best way for an animal exhibit to be seen is over a period of time, not moving through it quickly.

[Jamberoo Fan]

17 hours ago, joz said:

 Besides any of this, the best way for an animal exhibit to be seen is over a period of time, not moving through it quickly.

I agree with what you are saying in your whole post @joz but for your information, you can still view all the penguins without actually riding the boat ride portion of the exhibit.

[westical]

20 hours ago, Jamberoo Fan said:

According to Sea Life Sydney Aquarium, it is 'the world's first ride-through penguin experience'.

Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin would probably beg to differ, although technically there are no live penguins during the actual ride part. Plus it's not that great anyway.

[Gazza]

What about at the end when you spin around and a big curtain goes up to reveal the penguins, with the woman singing in the background?

[westical]

Good point, the vehicles do dock in the penguin area.

[Chubu]

I think the difference here is that you acually go into the exhibit, to get on to the Sydney Penguin Expedition you go through an airlock into the 6 degree enclosure. You're separated by a fence of glass, rather than a floor to ceiling glass wall.

Edited January 9, 2017 by Chubu

[westical]

No different to SeaWorld Orlando, it's open air. 

Photo Credit - me

[Chubu]

But don't you get off the vehicles in the open air part? Rather than "ride-through" the open air zone?

[westical]

Yep, per what Gazza and I mentioned. 

Ah, you said to get on to the expedition. My apologies. 

[Chubu]

Just from what I see the Penguin Expedition claims  "the world's first ride-through penguin experience" because the ride itself takes you through the open air part of the exhibit (and the entire ride including the onload and off load take place in the climate controlled area). Where as Empire of the Penguins, the ride transports you to the open air section from outside. It's really just a technically depending on how one would define 'ride-through'.

The Penguin Expedition is pretty cool for something that's basically squished into a tiny space at Sydney Aquarium (But its got nothing on Empire of the Penguins). The ride itself is only really 90 seconds, the claimed 2 minutes likely includes the loading and unloading time. When I went it had a 25 minute wait (and the staff were struggling to manage the line). It's good to see not everyone in the general public are scared of water rides right now