SeaWorld Entertainment came out with their full announcement on what’s coming to their parks in 2017 today. While SeaWorld San Antonio is getting a new roller coaster, their West Coast sister park, SeaWorld San Diego, is adding a new area called Ocean Explorer. The new 3-acre section will include aquariums, digital entertainment, and rides, all themed roughly around the idea of exploration.
Concept art of the new Ocean Explorer area. (Courtesy SeaWorldCares)
The signature ride of the area is going to be the “Submarine Quest” where guests take the role of explorers on a scientific expedition. Boarding mini-submarines, the three minute ride experience includes a digital navigation interface and what the press release describes as “a few other surprises.” The ride is designed to further SeaWorlds new stated goals of helping visitors better fragile ocean ecosystems. Ocean Explorer will feature five new family rides in total.
The other main attraction of Ocean Explorer will be several “undersea research bases” which include specially designed aquariums for deep ocean creatures. Animals featured will include Giant Octopuses, Moray Eels, and two species of crabs new to SeaWorld San Diego, “huge spider crabs and spiny king crabs.”
Finally, SeaWorld is also changing their orca attractions to a new educational orca encounter instead of the theatrical shows. The park describes them as “live documentaries” that “will focus on orca enrichment, exercise, and overall health.” The encounter will cover things like orca research, understanding of their habitats, and conservation, all part of SeaWorlds big effort to refocus on educational aspects of marine life. Similar changes to the orca attractions in Orlando and San Antonio should be coming in 2019, according to the company.
Concept art for the new education focused orca encounter at SeaWorld San Diego (courtesy SeaWorld Entertainment)
It looks like none of the new attractions are targeting adults, like the new Orlando and San Antonio attractions are, but they should be kid friendly and new aquariums are always good. All of the attractions are slated to come on-board in summer of 2017. More details on the new attractions can be found on the SeaWorld San Diego website here. As always, if you’ve got any thoughts or questions, let us know in the comments.
For our thoughts on other “New for 2017” attractions, make sure to check out our posts on both Cedar Fair’s and Six Flags’ announcements, and make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest news.
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