Current Sea World Thoughts (2018)

[Original]

Yep, I don't think there needs to be an argument on what the parks missing, because it's missing most essential things when it comes to rides. 

It doesn't have a big, thrilling coaster, it needs a proper family ride for all ages and, yeah it's missing it's flume ride. I think Joz put it perfectly.

For me, the 2 most important things to the park are the dolphins and the Ski Show as its heritage and the lake is the first thing you see when you walk in. Bring the standard up of the Dolphin, reimagine a ski show for 2018. 

[Brad2912]

I go to SW maybe 3-4 times a year, because it just doesn’t do anything for me in terms of excitement. The visits I do make are for Carnivale, and when I give in to my son to take him on the kids rides or see the Paw Patrol show. I haven’t watched the dolphin or jetski show on any visit in the past 3 years. 

When mates come up from interstate, the park isn’t even mentioned as a “maybe let’s go there this trip”. 

It’s lost it’s identity imo...

[pushbutton]

In 2007 it had an amazing immersive family ride (Bermuda Triangle), chairlifts, miniature railway, and better and more frequent monorails (plenty of transport rides), better dolphin show  (animal show), a good pirate show (family show), Vikings Revenge  (good family water ride), a water park (suitable for all ages but now replaced by a water splash play area suitable only for little kids), and Sea Viper (thrill ride).

So it had various attractions and the whole family could easily find multiple fun things to do, regardless of their ages and preferences. 

Sadly the same cannot be said now.

 

[New display name]

21 minutes ago, pushbutton said:

In 2007 it had an amazing immersive family ride (Bermuda Triangle),

 

What is this Bermuda Triangle you talk about?

[Flynn_Smith]

Not sure if anyone has mentioned it, but SeaWorld's website has been updated to the more modern design.

[themagician]

It hasn't been mentioned, and has only just been updated in the last couple of hours. Great to see pretty much all the imagery has been updated, and the new park map style has been added too.

[Outlaw Run Fanboy]

Seal Guardians is the crappiest show I've seen at a theme park yet.  The whole shift in the shows expressing 'environmentally friendly' shows is not a good move.  The so called 'jokes' are cheesy, the story line is crap.  One time I went, they choose a bloke out from the crowd and didn't even warn him he was going to get wet, and next thing, his phone died, when the water tipped on him! Bring back the old Sea World, when it was legitimately GOOD!

 

 

Edited May 1, 2018 by Outlaw Run Fanboy

[MickeyD]

2 hours ago, pushbutton said:

In 2007 it had an amazing immersive family ride (Bermuda Triangle), chairlifts, miniature railway, and better and more frequent monorails (plenty of transport rides), better dolphin show  (animal show), a good pirate show (family show), Vikings Revenge  (good family water ride), a water park (suitable for all ages but now replaced by ..

 

Sorry to be pedantic but the SW Skyway was a Cable Car Push. This is a Charlift:

[pushbutton]

5 minutes ago, MickeyD said:

Sorry to be pedantic but the SW Skyway was a Cable Car Push. This is a Charlift:

Yes, but cable cars are chairlifts to me! Always have been. Always will be! 

That's thanks to my childhood Butlin's holidays, of which chairlifts similar to those at Sea World were a big part and helped create many very special memories. 

31 minutes ago, Outlaw Run Fanboy said:

Seal Guardians is the crappiest show I've seen at a theme park yet.  The whole shift in the shows expressing 'environmentally friendly' shows is not a good move.  The so called 'jokes' are cheesy, the story line is crap.  One time I went, they choose a bloke out from the crowd and didn't even warn him he was going to get wet, and next thing, his phone died, when the water tipped on him! Bring back the old Sea World, when it was legitimately GOOD!

 

 

I haven't seen it yet but from the title of the new show I suspected as much. 

It's a theme park.  It's supposed to be FUN. Not educational! 

I won't be in any rush to see it.

Edited May 1, 2018 by pushbutton

[themeparkaddict]

They have also updated maintenance

[Whombex]

Went Sunday for the first time in 5 years.

I'm up to speed on the Park's status because of this forum, and intentionally went that day due to a number of reasons (Post Games/Holidays, Pass expiry in a few months+Storm's impending downtime for VR removal), but was still longing for that third 'big' ride. This said, I visit the park with a view to Animals first, Rides second. If I don't see every show/feeding, the park is definitely not a day's trip. Last time I went, Gondolas and  Sea Viper were still open, and Storm hadn't yet opened. To me, there's two decent coasters, so the next Teen/Adult focused ride shouldn't be a coaster.

Things I liked: the undercover plaza. It looks great and the Monorail passing through it works well for the atmosphere.. The Tavern is in good shape, and the food there was good quality. @joz would be proud. Castaway Bay Reef looks nice, Nick Land was full of kids and looked fresh.

The photo on entry thing reminded me to ask: did we reach a consensus here if that was souvenir selling or affinity protester stopping? Closed buildings stuck out like a sore thumb: Future Jellies at Monorail station, helicopter joyflight booth with rollerdoors down,  and so on.

The maze around VR's station needs to go asap, with the zigzag through the station and under the bridge to JR confusing me as I approached it from the Polar Bear exhibit.

Rode Storm for the first time, was pretty fun! Having the ride entry pass over the splashdown was great. Got just went enough (3rd row), so dried out on JR after. A nice combo. 

Can I ask: Is VR and its' station/footprint going only, or is the Cinema and Castle? I noticed that the bridge no longer has the castle elements. If a new ride goes in there, will it be indoors so it won't affect the Rays/Polar Bears/Fairy Penguins?

 

[Edit] By my comment above, I would like to see a new coaster in Viper/Corkscrew/Pirate Ship's footprint, but a non-coaster ride should be next. I'd certainly not complain if they go a 1-2 sucker punch of Coaster AND something else...

Edited May 1, 2018 by Glubbo

[westical]

3 hours ago, pushbutton said:

It's a theme park.  It's supposed to be FUN. Not educational! 

You’d hate EPCOT. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

20 hours ago, Skeeta said:

I have a few questions regarding the shows. 

Who is creating the shows? 

Who is approving shows?  

Which managers at Village like the shows?   

Which managers would pay out of their pocket to see the shows?

Now for my thoughts - 

The people creating the shows are crap at their jobs.

The people signing of the shows don’t know what a good show is.

The management don’t care about the shows.

I know hell would have to freeze over before I paid to watch any of the shows and SW are only using the shows as a filler which leaves you feeling empty.

 

Whilst i can't give a solid answer on all of these, I have an inkling that the answer to many of them might be good ol Froggy. He was also instrumental in many of Wonderland's shows, and TBH, I find most of them leave you wanting.

If i'm right, unfortunately the approval process is by the same person as the creator. I've never much liked much of what he has done at any park he's been a party to.

19 hours ago, pushbutton said:

In 2007 it had an amazing immersive family ride (Bermuda Triangle), chairlifts, miniature railway, and better and more frequent monorails (plenty of transport rides), better dolphin show  (animal show), a good pirate show (family show), Vikings Revenge  (good family water ride), a water park (suitable for all ages but now replaced by a water splash play area suitable only for little kids), and Sea Viper (thrill ride).

So it had various attractions and the whole family could easily find multiple fun things to do, regardless of their ages and preferences. 

Sadly the same cannot be said now.

 

Was the Train operating in 2007 @T-bone? I thought it had stopped earlier than that.

I wouldn't call the pirate show 'good' and sadly nothing on that lake can compare to the Ski show - much like nothing compares to PASS. I wouldn't call Vikings a 'good family water ride'... it was a water ride, and an old one at that.

[Jobe]

2 hours ago, AlexB said:

Whilst i can't give a solid answer on all of these, I have an inkling that the answer to many of them might be good ol Froggy. He was also instrumental in many of Wonderland's shows, and TBH, I find most of them leave you wanting.

If i'm right, unfortunately the approval process is by the same person as the creator. I've never much liked much of what he has done at any park he's been a party to.

Was the Train operating in 2007 @T-bone? I thought it had stopped earlier than that.

I wouldn't call the pirate show 'good' and sadly nothing on that lake can compare to the Ski show - much like nothing compares to PASS. I wouldn't call Vikings a 'good family water ride'... it was a water ride, and an old one at that.

Its better than no family water ride at all.................

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

that doesn't make it good.

[elemist]

Wild idea.. but do they need to invest in rides at Sea World.

 

I mean they already have two other parks that are all about the rides, Sea World is more about the animals. I've always found the strategy of having three separate parks really odd, i mean that significantly increases overhead, and reduces the overall investments made in the park.

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

As mentioned previously though, the park will struggle with activists and do-gooders causing problems with animal attractions, and TBH I think the park has enough (attractions and problems). I think they'd do well to continue the good work they've done with their current stable, but to expand the park's attraction base to encourage visitation - again as mentioned - more of an 'ocean park' than an 'animal park'

[elemist]

15 minutes ago, AlexB said:

As mentioned previously though, the park will struggle with activists and do-gooders causing problems with animal attractions, and TBH I think the park has enough (attractions and problems). I think they'd do well to continue the good work they've done with their current stable, but to expand the park's attraction base to encourage visitation - again as mentioned - more of an 'ocean park' than an 'animal park'

I agree with the activist and do-gooder issues with the animal attractions, but if you take away the animal attractions then Sea World becomes what?? Why is it even needed at that point? They would be better closing the park completely and diverting all the funds to Movie World / Wet n Wild.

I would much prefer to see 2 awesome parks, rather than 3 average parks.

[webslave]

If you're keen on an animal park you'll go to a zoo or wildlife sanctuary first and foremost.  If you're keen on fish you'll go to an aquarium.  Sea World is meant to be the point where theme park meets the the first two.  Right now it's failing in that mission, on the basis that it's theme park credentials are substandard.  By virtue of focus zoos, sanctuaries and aquariums will most-always beat out SW on animals, which is why the theme park section is all the most important.  It can only stand on the sum of its parts.

[themagician]

Over the past couple of years the park hasn’t really rained any attractions. Generally parks attraction count goes up, but for SW it went down and remained down. All these attractions have shut, but no or just a minor replacement. I think SW is a nice park, but definitely isn’t a full day park anymore and doesn’t appeal to a large enough group of people anymore 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

12 minutes ago, elemist said:

I agree with the activist and do-gooder issues with the animal attractions, but if you take away the animal attractions then Sea World becomes what?? Why is it even needed at that point? They would be better closing the park completely and diverting all the funds to Movie World / Wet n Wild.

I would much prefer to see 2 awesome parks, rather than 3 average parks.

I'm not saying take the animal attractions away - i'm just saying don't make it the primary focus. As Webslave referred to above... where theme park meets.

I am by no means suggesting that the nature of the animal attractions there is what we should aspire to, but if you look at Hong Kong's Ocean Park as a whole - it does the dolphin \ seal \ other aquatic animal thing quite well, but its main focus is the theme park side of things, and while it has some hellish attractions (such as the dragon) even their old mine train is worthy for the view alone, plus a great little B&M and many other rides and attractions that don't solely rely on animals, but still interlink with them.

(My personal favourite attraction was their polar adventure. Despite being completely indoor \ enclosed, i found the exhibit to be quite amazing - and just the thought of what Sea World could do with a concept like that had me quite excited)

...But they need a bigger ride stable to bring the punters in so that they can deliver their conservation message. if they keep dropping rides, and only installing animal attractions - they will become 'just a zoo' - and zoos get far less 're-visits' than theme parks do - as has been said numerous times already - sea world isn't a park people will choose to do, and its usually just 'because its included' that most people will go. go back 10-15 years, and that wasn't the case - it was a must-do part of anyone's GC holiday...

[joel]

SeaWorld helicopters reopened today

 

[joz]

3 hours ago, elemist said:

I agree with the activist and do-gooder issues with the animal attractions, but if you take away the animal attractions then Sea World becomes what?? Why is it even needed at that point? They would be better closing the park completely and diverting all the funds to Movie World / Wet n Wild.

I would much prefer to see 2 awesome parks, rather than 3 average parks.

That's entirely my point though, to future proof the park you need rides. The park needs rides and will at some point in the next 20 odd years need to update it's identity. It's bullshit that is the case because they genuinely haven't done anything wrong, but that is looking like it doesn't matter.

 

As for closing it, yeah ask Disney or Universal if they think there's any advantages to be had having multiple parks in the same market. SW MW and WnW with proper investment and a good mix of attractions will make more than if they sunk every cent they have into MW. I think the financial results from the past few years demonstrate that too.

[pushbutton]

Not only has Sea World done nothing wrong, but they actually go out and save a lot of marine wildlife which would otherwise die.

I doubt it would make much difference to the activists if they were told that though. For some people protesting is a serious hobby, sadly.

[Brad2912]

90% of “activists” are merely uneducated sheep following the crowd for social media likes and a false sense of worth...