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SeaWorld Orlando: General Discussion

MakoMania said:
Orlando’s Journey to Atlantis has just closed for a big refurbishment. Mack will be coming in to retrack the coaster sections of the ride, the building facade is getting repainted and I understand there will be changes/updates to the effects on the dark ride section as well as a new audio system installed.
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Interesting. Hopefully the dark ride section will be a big improvement as I found the whole ride very mediocre in 2018.

Any indication on how long it’s going to be down for? I assume if there’s a partial retrack on the cards it’ll be a good few months?
 
This is very good news; I remember the coaster section being somewhat on the rough side in 2016, so hopefully this retrack makes it nice and smooth!

I also wouldn't complain if the dark ride section was updated, although from my ride, I seem to remember the coaster section feeling in greater need of a refurb.
 
Ian said:
Interesting. Hopefully the dark ride section will be a big improvement as I found the whole ride very mediocre in 2018.

Any indication on how long it’s going to be down for? I assume if there’s a partial retrack on the cards it’ll be a good few months?
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They aim to have it up and running for the summer I have heard, but there hasn’t been any official confirmation of a reopening date.
 
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The glut of videos that have appeared of Ice Breaker in the past few days is vomit inducing.

Just a whole load of enthusiasts/influencers/TV presenters riding the thing with the red carpet treatment going on about how amazing it is.

Sure, it looks fun - but one YouTuber stated that the airtime was "unreal". Now look, calm yourself.

/rant
 
Totally agree. It looks like a solid family thrill coaster that perhaps does exceed expectations in the airtime department, but it certainly isn’t the second coming of christ.
 
It looks like a fun ride for sure, and it definitely fills a gap in the coaster lineup. What on earth is the point those straps on the restraints though? They just look unpleasant.

I'm not a fan of how generic the area looks either - I've seen Six Flags coasters with better theming and landscaping. I have the same issue with Pantheon and Emperor, have Seaworld decided they don't do theming anymore?
 
It's the de-evolution of their signage efforts that really gets me.

From:

FKNX-MWXsAE7qRN


and

FKNX13zX0Akejx4


to

FKNYOK0WYAMywEx


and finally

FKNXnshWQAYm5Fq


I look forward to the surf coaster having a temporary roadworks construction sign welcoming guests to the ride.
 
According to RCDB, Ice Breaker's 1,900ft long, which is shorter than Rita. I suppose there wasn't much option to make it shorter so that they could spend more on the theming. Sea World do seem to be building and repainting quite a few rides at the moment, and they have increased some Opex to lengthen Williamsburg's season and to add Halloween events to the Sea World parks. However, their budgets for capital development are obviously tight these days. That's not to say they aren't spending the money they have got wisely. But this isn't a cash bonanza.
 
They seem to be trying to do more projects with the same amount of money while still using expensive tier 1 manufacturers like B&M and Intamin. Having said that, rides like Infinity Falls & Sesame Street Land have been installed under current management and are very well themed.

I also believe the theming budget for the proposed Intamin giga at BGW was slated to be much higher than Pantheon's, which makes no sense to me but there we go.
 
Brad97 said:
I'm not a fan of how generic the area looks either - I've seen Six Flags coasters with better theming and landscaping. I have the same issue with Pantheon and Emperor, have Seaworld decided they don't do theming anymore?
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It's always baffled me a little bit how Seaworld became known for theming, it's very intermittent. The first SW park I visited was San Antonio the same week I had also visited Fiesta & Over Texas, rides like Steel Eel and Great White were presented with far less theming than rides in the SF parks.
 
Rick said:
It's always baffled me a little bit how Seaworld became known for theming, it's very intermittent. The first SW park I visited was San Antonio the same week I had also visited Fiesta & Over Texas, rides like Steel Eel and Great White were presented with far less theming than rides in the SF parks.
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I would agree with this. I first went to SeaWorld Orlando in 2009 and my overall take from the park then was that it was a very well presented and landscaped park with, Atlantis aside, little what you would class as traiditional theme park theming. I don't think that has changed much between then and now, although I will conceed that the newer entrances features are less impressive.
 
I do agree that Sea World's theming has been hit or miss. Aquatica's well themed and although it lacks the scale of Volcano Bay, it's a more interesting concept. They did try to create more themed areas. The bit with Kraken and Journey to Atlantis would have been a mythical themed area. The Antartica area has a strong theme, and I guess the Seasame Street area does, although I haven't seen it myself. I don't actually have a problem with the entrance to Ice Breaker, but looking at the POV onride theming is lacking. I think it is just a case of the budgets being tight.

There are two problems here. The first is that in the Orlando area you have to invest a lot to stand still. Arguably the gap between what Disney/Universal and Sea World are doing is bigger now than it was when Sea World was doing things like Turtle Trek, Journey to Atlantis and Antartica. Of course, you could argue that Sea World can't outspend Disney/Universal so they're better off doing completely different kinds of rides, which is what they're trying to do. Although Velocicoaster and Tron coaster are both much bigger high thrill launch coasters with a lot more theming.

The second problem is that the public appetite for animal shows and captive whales/dolphins is declining. As the interest declines, they need to put more emphasis on the rides and theming, which is difficult to do with their current budgets.
 
AstroDan said:
The glut of videos that have appeared of Ice Breaker in the past few days is vomit inducing.

Just a whole load of enthusiasts/influencers/TV presenters riding the thing with the red carpet treatment going on about how amazing it is.

Sure, it looks fun - but one YouTuber stated that the airtime was "unreal". Now look, calm yourself.

/rant
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Sorry that I’m a little late to the party on this one, but how do we necessarily know their claims are untrue? None of us have ridden, and looking at some of the rider-cam footage, some of the riders looked to be getting jolted upwards really quite forcefully, which would suggest strong airtime!
 
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Rick said:
Increasingly, riding roller coasters doesn't feel like a pre requisite for having an opinion about them. As long as you've seen the POV or watched a vlog, right ?
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I guess that can give you an idea of how something might ride, but you don’t know for sure until you get on the ride and experience all of its sensations for yourself.
 
Coaster Studios has done a very promising review of Ice Breaker, it might be a lot better than most people were expecting! :)



The airtime looks very good and it looks like a solid family-thrill coaster, fitting in nicely between Air Grover and Manta/Mako. :)
 
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