SeaWorld Orlando (SWO) Discussion Thread

[justint87]

What surprised me about riding in the back, was not just how many G's you pull in the pretzel loop, but HOW LONG you pull those G's. And to everyone who says it "looks slow", you haven't ridden it. For a flyer, the pacing is great.

 

Sea World and B&M were smart about building this "attraction". Instead of building the biggest, tallest or fastest, they said let's take a proven design, that hasn't been built in Florida, and put a true Sea World spin on it. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

 

I agree with you 100%. It has excellent pacing and it might not be a record breaker but it is one great and fun attraction. B&M and SeaWorld did a great job.

[Guest]

Will they take off the Zero car to mount a camera?

 

That one they put out with it on the guys head such.

[hobbit]

LOVE MANTA !

[rawrtotheargh]

^^ In the videos i've watched it seems like the zero makes for a bit of a distraction in the front row.

 

For people that have been on it is that the case?

 

I would imagine while in normal looking position you wouldn't see it.

Must just be a POV thing.

[Guest]

No, like this

 

That way they can Mount a camera

[Six Flags Enthuseast]

^I'd find that pretty distracting if I were riding and there was a camera that big in front of me!

[Guest]

Just for media day.

[Botohead]

Rode Manta twice over this weekend and was blown away. Haven't been on a B&M flyer before & honestly didn't have very high expectations (I have been on a flying dutchman, and didn't run back in line for a second go...). The overall experience of this attraction, from the landscape, queue, viewing areas to the coaster itself are perfectly executed.

 

As someone mentioned earlier though, Sea World's marketing campaign is promoting this as more of a gently gliding, almost family-type attraction - which it definitely is not. I hope prospective riders will use their common sense and know their limits before riding. I would hate for Sea World to get complaints about the unexpected intensity of the ride, and would hate even more if that caused the ride to somehow get toned down.

 

I've been looking forward to RRR more than Manta this year. Having now been on Manta, UO has a tough act to follow!

[Guy T. Koepp]

^^ & ^^^ That rig had 6 cameras on it. 1 POV. 1 center camera for a master shot, and 4 ice cube cameras for iso's. So while the rig was huge and cumbersome. It carried a lot of equipment on it.

[Daytona'95]

So i'm going to put my two cents in on Manta

Pretty much I had high expectations for this one and it delivered

It was so good that it jumped to a tie with Montu for my all time favorite coaster after round one ( which is rare for a coaster to rank high for me after one trip)

It took 14 trips through the line to get a ride on all 8 rows

Round #6, We experienced technical difficulties and we hung around at the base of the lift for about 30mins before they got us

(Fine by me as I have always wanted something like that to happen)

13.05 trips later, I still just couldn't get enough of it.

Rows 1 & 8 are the best to me, with 7 and 3 being alternate choices

and the rest well, has already been said so I wont repeat it anymore

Ohh and of course a few pics of the well photographed ride from my phone....

By far the coolest series of twists, turns, and loop I have ever been on

More Manta... we just couldnt get there...yet

Ride Ops getting the rest of the train off. We had a really funny guy helping us off. I was on the car hiding behind the palm tree.

Chain dog hiding above the brake...I had nothing else better to take a pic of during the removal of riders

It just looked cool

[live2tell75]

Found this small article about one of the designers of Manta in the paper yesterday. http://www.tampabay.com/news/business/tourism/article999098.ece

Thought it was interesting.

[justint87]

^ Good find. Now we know for sure why they couldn't have the coaster actually touch the water to create the splash.

[crazydaveh]

^^ In the videos i've watched it seems like the zero makes for a bit of a distraction in the front row.

 

For people that have been on it is that the case?

 

I would imagine while in normal looking position you wouldn't see it.

Must just be a POV thing.

 

It's not distracting to me while riding in the front row. You're looking forward and kind of down, not up at the track which is above you most of the time.

[Sticky Nicky]

SeaWorld's new $50 million coaster tribute to rays

 

That is a very impressive figure and from the looks of the themeing, it was well spent. I do wonder how much went into purchasing all of the Rays and other sea creatures.

[jkwan]

We experienced technical difficulties and we hung around at the base of the lift for about 30mins before they got us

 

I remember when that happened. My friend and I were walking toward Manta when we heard over the loud speaker that Manta was temporarily closed. So we turned around and headed toward Kraken.

Overall, we rode Manta 5 or 6 times and I started to get a headache after going on the pretzel-loop that many times.

But like everyone says, the front of the train is more scenic, so you can see the awesome themeing, and the back is more intense, especially on the pretzel-loop. The only other flier I've been on is S:UF at SFoG and Batwing at SF over America and Manta beats both of them.

[Speeddeamon128]

This ride & theming looks AMAZING! I can't wait to ride it next month

[GriffonFan09]

Manta looks awesome....it's going to be at the top of my list of must ride coasters. I've never rode a flying coaster before, anyone know what it's like?

 

I went to Orlando on spring break for Disney and passed by SeaWorld only to see Manta's lift and the top of it's dive loop. It looked pretty sweet...

[Six Flags Enthuseast]

^It's just as different as you may expect! It depends on the size of the flyer you go on (Tatsu

[GriffonFan09]

Yeah I figured I'd be really different. I've never been on a lay down coaster either. I've done inverted ones like Alpengeist and Raptor but I have never had the opportunity to try a flying. I live about 3 1/2 hours from SFGA...maybe i should take a trip down there and try SUF, and Kindga Ka....

 

Thanks

[KrakenKing]

I made it out to Sea World today in hopes of riding Manta. It wasn't closed or anything, but two of the trains were not working. One was in the holding bay, and one was stuck in the flying position in the station. So one train operation had the wait to 60min.

 

The good news is, the aquarium part of the attraction is now open and it looks spectacular in person! SeaWorld did a great job, not only with the ride, but also with the non-rider portion. Didn't have my camera so wasn't able to get any pics.

[rawrtotheargh]

^ I hate being stuck in flying position. It gets so uncomfortable after like 3 minutes.

[GriffonFan09]

Ow that does sound like it hurts... Anyone know what the G's are on the dive loop? I've been wondering. And do you get wet on the wing dip? (LOOKS AMAZING!!!! )

[Daytona'95]

^It does hurt. My shoulders and shins were sore for four days after hanging for 30mins when it broke down.

The loop isn't all that bad, little strong near the bottom. (hopefully tomorrow I might be able to get some info from the Rollercoaster Physics app)

And for the wing dip, only from rows 4-8 and on the right side will you get a sprinkle, or a soaked hand if you reach for it.

[Guest]

Well I can't tell you the G's but I can tell you that you do get wet.

[alpengeist04]

^Yea, I got a little wet on the hand and knee sitting on the right side in row 8.