SeaWorld San Diego (SWSD) Discussion Thread

[DougMJr]

Heading to San Diego in 41 days, looking forward to seeing the park and whatever construction or clearing is done for Manta. Looks like it is going to be a great addition for the park.

[StarTrekGeek]

SWSD Facebook

 

Construction has begun

 

Nice!

[j3llysham]

Looking forward to Sea World next year when it opens! New coasters are always interesting and definitely something to look forward too!

[SoCalCoasters]

I went to the Boy Scout Fair in San Diego today, and whatdya know, there was a Sea World booth, which had info about the park, and a big banner advertising Turtle Reef.

 

Park spokespersons confirmed a few things:

 

-Riptide Rescue is a NEW Airboat, not a refurbished one as previously thought.

 

-It Turtle Reef (including RR) will open sometime in mid-June, they're aiming for earlier, so if they haul their butts, it may be open in early June.

 

-The Sea Turtles of by Shipwreck are staying put, they had around 80 hatchlings last year, so there is no longer a turtle shortage problem. Around 60 turtles will be in the Aquarium at a time.

 

-The Manatees were removed because the Florida Fish & Wildlife Association wanted them back, closer to their natural habitat.

 

-The exhibit will start at the "beach" where the turtles are born, then move into the aquarium for their natural habitat.

 

I also have info on One Ocean & Manta, so I'll post it in their respective threads...

[SoCalCoasters]

Ok, I got some interesting info on Manta today, from some park spokespersons at the Scout Fair in San Diego.

 

-Forbidden Reef is gone for good, it will not be returning. Manta will be taking up it's area now.

 

-The Mantas have been moved to the Aquarium in the Journey To Atlantis gift shop for the time being.

 

-A large section of the back of the park will be closed for the next year, so watch out for bottlenecking over by Shipwreck, especially when One Ocean gets out...

 

-Construction has already started.

 

-It is unknown whether or not the Bat Ray feeding will return in this new area. Odds are not in its favor sadly

 

- The queue and gift shops will have aquariums.

[Gnome]

how are they going to be getting rid of the forbidden reef for good, or at least the manta ray feeding? Who's the suit that made that decision? He gonna burn!

[PAL]

Here's a brief Manta construction update for you. The occasion? Shamu has a new show; it was passholder preview day. I'll talk about it if there's any interest. It's fair to say the show appeared a work in progress. As long as the trainers are out of the water, it's far less compelling.

 

The photos will do the rest of the talking.

The Manta site: That's a lot of dirt. Insert PETA attack joke here. I thought better of it. I see the manta touch pool is still intact (although high and dry), as is its plumbing plant.

Turtle Reef overview: I see you down there Riptide Rescue!

Riptide Rescue was testing. Contrary to the billboards around town which proclaim "Turtle Reef, Now Open," the passholder preview day is June 17. GP jollies follow on the 18th.

Surfy sign: The manatees never had it this flashy.

What are they doing to those baby turtles? Don't look honey!

Your bonus shot, a brief glimpse of the new One Ocean Shamu show. The less said the better.

[BabaSD]

We were down in the park today and they had the ride and reef area opened up - not finished yet but still.

 

The ride was short!

 

some pictures of RTR:

 

The area can get very busy...

Packed. by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Soft Opening by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

I do not know, are these locks normal for this type of ride? The load/unload time was 5 minutes while the ride was only 1 minute - and the boats did nto even swing that much during the ride:

DSC06896 by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

DSC06901 by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

The blue board with long screws holding area lol

Nice board by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

What ride is this?

sign, side by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Huss-ness

What button? by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

No theme, no shade - no problem!

Q by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Damaged...

scratched by PadresFan619, on Flickr

[PAL]

Missed it by *that* much.

[BabaSD]

Missed it by *that* much.

 

lol. saw your pics in the coaster thread. What day did you go? We were also there on Friday but the area was un-walled, but still closed up.

 

Here are pictures of the Turtle Reef area to go along with the Riptide Rescue pictures and video that made the last post on the previous page (hate it when that happens!). But you really should go back a page

 

The viewing area was really not ready, there was only a few turtles in the tank and the "interactive" areas were still closed off. But what was there looked great and the shop was awesome! Really lol - the merch was top notch and puts most of the other shops in the park look bad.

 

Turtle Reef by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Fakers by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Glue by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Just keep moving... by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Pohot op by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Turtle Reef viewing area by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Turtle Reef viewing area by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Turtle Reef viewing area by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Upskirt!

Turtle Reef viewing area by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Turtle Reef viewing area by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Turtle Reef viewing area by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Turtle Reef by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

wait for the bags! by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Um, ok? by PadresFan619, on Flickr

 

Dead turtles you can buy...

Dead Turtles! Buy two! by PadresFan619, on Flickr

[PAL]

Looks nice, a good replacement for the manatees. We came through on Friday.

[6flagsbrad]

Those locks look like a hassle to have to apply each cycle. Seems like poor design for the ride. It does seem like a nice addition to the park though.

[fatdaddy]

I was there Friday, aww crap, I missed it by a day.

[deathbydinn]

Some good news about Riptide Rescue; longer ride time and brackets are only temporary!

 

I’ve got a couple of quick updates about the new Riptide Rescue ride at SeaWorld San Diego. According to David Koontz, the park’s Communications and PR Director, the ride cycle time has been increased to 90 seconds as of last weekend. Also, some of you have noticed some slow loading going on, as the ride ops were placing red metal brackets on each swinging arm to keep the cars stable during the unload/load process.

According to David, the safety brackets will only be in use for the first few weeks of operation while work to install an internal locking mechanism onto the ride is being performed. Once in place, this will dramatically speed up the reload times which is great news.

 

http://www.screamscape.com/html/seaworld_california.htm

[harper83087]

Does anybody happen to know if vertical construction has started? I'm very curious about this coaster and cant wait to ride !

[chickenbowl]

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150250663581855.341970.70105691854

Seaworld has posted some pictures of Manta's track being built in Germany!

[Gmaster562]

Getting more and more excited about this! It'll really give me a reason to go back!

[FrightFest1408]

The track looks like its from Pax Company...

[Dom]

yay. I'm from germany, so I think I will never ride this coaster but it looks really great. I found also a video on YouTube:

It's relative new and I hope you like it

[DJeXeL]

Track has arrived!

 

All photos from Screamscape

 

 

 

 

[Mr. Starr]

This coaster is looking like a really awesome addition to SWSD! Perfect amount of family thrills that the park really needed.

 

Props to SeaWorld, and I can't wait to see this thing built!

[harper83087]

Now the fun can begin! I'm actually really excited for this one, it looks like a nice little coaster. Does anybody know when it's scheduled to open? I have a friend who can get me into the park for free so it's a win win on my side haha.

[Chrisrad]

Cool! I'm actually going to make a point to go ride this.

 

My sister is at the park a lot so if anyone wants pictures of anything, let me know - as long as she can take them from within the park. I haven't been there in years so I don't know the layout of the place, and don't exactly know where this is going.

[DJeXeL]

^^ I believe Sea World did the usual "Summer 2012" as the opening "date." Yea Manta is really a big deal for the park as their last new "major" addition was JTA back in 2004. There were rumors floating around about a Premier indoor launched coaster back in 2009 but those fell through thanks to the city.

 

^They have construction walls up but she should be able to get pics without violating any rules/trespassing. Whatever updates she can provide would be great!

[Jew]

^Those weren't rumors. Plans fell through due to the city & sale of Busch parks. But that rumored ride was the intended ride. Initial preparation was well underway when the ride got shelved.