Sea World (Australia) Wild, Polar Bear Cub & Storm Update

[original]

I've been through the search pages but couldn't find a post for this anywhere, so I hope I haven't missed it someone already posted the link, but I am quiet sure you've all seen the photo on Facebook for Sea World's next addition 'Wild', which they are already promoting before they've even open 'Storm'.

 

Well going back a couple of months now the Gold Coast Bulletin (the local paper) printed this article about the upcoming attraction:

 

Gorillas on theme at Sea World

Jeremy Pierce | 12:01am July 10, 2013

 

GOLD Coast theme park Sea World is branching from marine to extreme with a new multimillion-dollar jungle-themed attraction featuring Queensland's first gorillas.

 

The exhibit, to open in 2015, will include gorillas, hippos, crocodiles and other animals as part of an African encounter attraction.

 

The gorillas would be sourced from an international breeding program designed to shore up populations of the primate.

 

Sea World officials were yesterday tightlipped about the project, which is the park's latest foray away from traditional marine-themed attractions.

 

An interactive dinosaur attraction was added this year.

 

A Sea World spokesman said the African safari-style attraction would be an exciting addition to the theme park, which forged its name on dolphin shows and aquarium exhibits.

 

"We are all excited about a wonderful new attraction which will be a Sea World first, but we're not able to release any more details just yet," he said.

 

Gorilla populations have been decimated, as one of the closest living relatives to humans battles loss of habitat and hunting for sport and meat.

 

There are about 50,000 gorillas left in the wild and just 600 of the famous mountain gorillas.

 

Al Mucci, president of the Queensland branch of the Australian Zoo and Aquarium Association, said Sea World's gorillas could act as pin-ups for the plight of the animals.

 

"The animals in the exhibit are ambassadors for their cousins in the wild," he said. "We have seen with the tigers at Dreamworld's Tiger Island the positive impact this kind of attraction can play in conservation efforts.

 

"It is also heartening to see a theme park is choosing to spend millions of dollars on an animal exhibit rather than a ride.

 

"It shows that there is value in this kind of attraction."

 

Only three parks in Australia have gorillas and none in Queensland, but it is understood Australia Zoo on the Sunshine Coast has expressed an interest in housing gorillas.

 

The photo Sea World posted has now been changed and pushed back a year to 2015.

 

This photo from NearMap is old but it gives you an idea of where the ride is going and the current land reclamation currently taking place

 

Meanwhile, Sea World recently had the birth of their first baby Polar Bear:

HERE'S a solid dose of cute for the afternoon, Sea World's baby polar bear cub, now the size of a Labrador puppy, has taken it's first steps just as the theme park unveils a new $1.5 million expansion of the polar bear enclosure.

 

The nine-week-old cub, which now weighs about ten times its birth weight at 6kg and is the size of an eight-week-old Labrador puppy, has stunned polar bear keepers who watched vision of it taking its first steps around its den.

 

Sea World Marine Sciences director Trevor Long said the cub's development is right on track with the average cub taking its first steps between 46 and 60 days.

 

``We are delighted to see the little cub taking its first steps inside the maternity den and we look forward to introducing mum Liya and the cub to the `Cub Kindy' play area in the coming weeks,'' he said.

 

``This area will also feature a camera from which cub highlights will be shown on `Cub Cam' throughout the day at Sea World.''

 

Once the cub is old enough to leave `Cub Kindy', protective mum Liya will introduce her baby to Sea World guests for the first time as they explore Polar Bear Shores.

 

Sea World has started construction of the $1.5 million extension which will allow Liya and the cub, as well as twin male bears Hudson and Nelson, to be viewed by the public at the same time.

 

``We are so excited about the extension... this new section of the exhibit will be a wonderfully enriching environment featuring a large pool, and various substrates and natural vegetation as well as foraging pits for the bears to dig and play in,'' said Mr Long.

 

``Like the existing Polar Bear Shores, this new area will be themed like an Arctic summer and will provide a stimulating and enriching environment for the bears to explore.''

 

Mr Long said the first 150 days of the cub's life was critical but polar bear keepers were pleased with its progress and Liya was constantly caring for her baby and displaying positive maternal behaviours.

 

With Sea World just about to open the brand new enclosure allowing all 4 bears to be on show at once

An artists impression of the new enclosure

 

The latest photo from the park of mum and cub only posted 3 days ago

 

However, the opening of the new enclosure Sea World plan to maximise of this and the water roller coaster Storm so they've pushed the opening of the coaster back from the spring holidays, about to start to the summer holidays. Looks like the trains will be themed to Coast Guard boats.

The latest pic from NearMap of the coaster and in the left the construction is for the Polar Bear exhibit

I'm hoping the old Bermuda building (the one with Sea World written on the top) will provide for a really cool queue area and themed dark section for the ride, which VRTP have proved they are very good at it.

 

Hope all of this information hasn't been posted before, but I couldn't for the life of me find a Sea World thread, unless I'm completely blind.

[cfc]

We don't have an official Sea World Australia discussion thread, so posting this information here should be OK. I enjoyed Sea World back when TPR visited it in 2011--very nice park.

[mattnz]

Really pleased to hear all this news, we thoroughly enjoyed Sea World last year and it looks like they're going from strength to strength. The water coaster is just what the park needed.

[azza29]

The park just posted on their Facebook page that Storm Coaster will be opening "very, very soon" - so possibly even this weekend.

[azza29]

The park has uploaded a CGI POV. Looks short but nicely themed.

[Gav]

The ride soft opened yesterday at 12pm. I made it to Sea World at around 3:30, so took 3 casual rides and a few pics/vids.

 

 

Really fun ride, and wetter than the two water coasters I've been on at the SeaWorld parks in Orlando and San Diego...It's about as wet as Dudleys, or the rapids at SFMM if you sit in the back row. Front row is marginally better, middle rows have a moderate amount of wetness.

 

You wander into the ride area through a shipping container bridge. A sign gives the story that a cyclone has ripped through. Thing seem calm because you are in the eye of the storm, but you must evacuate to the coast guard boats to escape before the trailing side of the storm hits. You walk through an outdoor area filled with wreckage, themed to be like a container port. You then enter a warehouse which has the floor flooded and toppling shelving, floating containers etc. You are grouped at the load, with single riders filling spare seats. The ride has individual lap bars, and a diagonal sash seatbelt, which works well because the ops can clearly see if you have it on. A short flume section takes you out of the building, past a window with a projection of the storm raging outside. The coaster section is fun enough...A direct clone of the one at Djurs Sommerland, so right turns only the whole way generating good laterals. The big drop into the trench is fun, with a pop of air over the hill with the waterfalls. As you crash through the upturned ship you splashdown, and get very wet. The rest of the ride floats through the same warehouse (But a wall down the center means the queue doesn't see this part of the ride), which has broken bits of ship scattered about (bits of hull, steel framing, a giant diesel ship engine, control panels, boilers etc. The fire effects aren't turned on yet, but you can see stacks of oil drums where they will be set off from. The grand finale effect is passing under a complex set of pipework, where the boat is held for a few seconds and a tipping bucket arrangement sends a huge cascade towards the boat. There's no escape if you are seated on the right. And then you are back at the unload. A short ride, but never a dull moment.

As you head out the exit the walkway continues out past the dark ride scenes, so you can watch boats splash down. A split in the walkway leads to a viewing area right by the splash down where you can get soaked by wave of each boat if you wish.

It's the best overall attraction at the park, great, detailed theming, but Jet Rescue is still probably the better "coaster".

Ride entrance

barge tyres = theming

The seat belts used on the ride. Those between 110cm and 200cm can ride.

Heading into the dark ride finale

The propeller rotates and drips water onto boats as they shoot under

Entrance to the indoor queue

inside the warehouse

Nerd shot!

loading area

the soak zone next to the splashdown

Some of the broken ship theming

hard to photograph, but the water dump effect is up the back

lots of water!

Well done Sea World!

Edited December 3, 2013 by Gav

[azza29]

Thanks for the update! Happy they got this open before Christmas. I'm heading up there with my wet-ride hating brother next weekend, might have to trick him into riding... "no, the water is just for braking - like Diamondback!"

[cal1br3tto]

^^Thanks for the detailed report. I had initially wondered why I hadn't paid attention to this ride, until I realized it was a water coaster (ugh, terrifying). But the theming looks very impressive, especially since there's an actual coherent storyline. I don't know much about this park, so maybe that's par for the course there, but great job either way.

[cfc]

Look like Sea World and Mack did a very good job "theming up" a Super Splash ride. Much more entertaining than the "bare bones" version.

[Werner]

This is looking great! Yet another reason to visit Aussieland one day...

[PKI Jizzman]

Very impressed with how it looks, especially the final splash down! Kind of eerie.

[mattnz]

Looks like another very well-themed ride for Australia! Amazing job by Sea World, and a great fit for the park.

[KrakenKing]

 

What I found most amazing about this ride, is how they painted the track to match the surroundings, trying to camouflage it more. Dirty and rusty coming out of the "Rusty" tunnel, then into a pure white to match the cascading water.

[A.J.]

Very clever use of the Mack Rides crate.

[KBrylczyk]

I always love when parks put that much effort into themeing. It can make an average ride incredible which they have done here very well!

[hydra]

Wow, I had not even heard this was under construction. Looks awesome.

So the big final splash is in the warehouse? Thats killer!

Also, the aged effect on the track is pretty cool too. Looks like a home run for sure.

[SoCalCoasters]

Excellent looking coaster!

 

Will there actually be any fire effects added or is this the final look?

[darklingscribe]

Crazy good themeing for this ride, I like that they didn't choose to theme it around a sea creature or an ocean based myth. It was a good idea to create a story that centers on the work that the coast guard does in rescuing crews from ships caught in a storm.

 

It would be nice if Sea World San Diego had a similar attraction that would recognize the Navy or Marines, both of which have large bases in in San Diego.

[gisco]

The ride looks very well done. Love the theming to it. Not a big fan of getting drenched on a ride though.

[coasterfreak101]

Wow, I never even realized this was being build - nonetheless that it was awesome! I always wish the roller coaster portions of these Mack watercoasters were a little nicer-looking, but that airtime hill and the splashdown inside the warehouse are really cool!

[australianalex]

I kind of forgot about this coaster being built and was more focused on Abyss at Adventure World Perth's construction, but I'm really happy that this is finally open and looks much better than I expected! I find Mack watercoasters to be a bit average as rides, but SeaWorld did an awesome effort theming Storm. It's probably one of the most well themed rides in the country.

[simaticable]

Looks like Mack did a great job on the ride. I love how it is a coaster/dark ride combo.

[Woodie Warrior]

Wow! A roller coaster, dark ride, and water ride all in one.

 

I forgot this was even being built, but it looks pretty awesome.

[azza29]

Excellent looking coaster!

 

Will there actually be any fire effects added or is this the final look?

 

There were some fire effects in the CGI POV, and I've seen some marketing copy which mentions fire, but they don't appear to have been turned on yet.

[cal1br3tto]

What I found most amazing about this ride, is how they painted the track to match the surroundings, trying to camouflage it more. Dirty and rusty coming out of the "Rusty" tunnel, then into a pure white to match the cascading water.

That is a very nice touch. Glad you caught that right away so later people won't look at that section of track and complain that the park isn't taking good care of it.