Welcome To Screamscape!

Buy SeaWorld Orlando Tickets

Park News - (9/3/10) SeaWorld Orlando will their annual Halloween Spooktacular event on Oct 9-10, 16-17, 23-24 and 29-31, starting at 12pm (noon). Kids can then search for hidden sea treasures using their special Spooktacular maps at over a dozen locations, where a variety of treats are offered.
    (8/24/10) Just as SeaWorld was coming to the end of their own review process of the animal training procedures for the Killer Whales, OSHA has announced a $75,000 fine to the Orlando park for three safety violations related to the death of a trainer earlier this year.
    Of course OSHA’s accusations are kind of pointless, as they claim SeaWorld had their trainers interact with “dangerous animals”…. And no duhh… they’re called Killer Whales for a reason. The trainers, more than anyone, are aware of the situation they have strived their whole lives to be in as Shamu Trainers.
    SeaWorld has responded as the allegations are completely unfounded and will contest the reported violations. “OSHA's allegations in this citation are unsupported by any evidence or precedent and reflect a fundamental lack of understanding of the safety requirements associated with marine mammal care”.
    Here is an official link to SeaWorld’s full response to the OSHA Report.
    (8/19/10) Take a nice photo tour of Discovery Cove with an update at Amusement Insider featuring over 100 pictures.
    (8/7/10) Good news for Florida park fans… Busch Gardens Tampa and SeaWorld Orlando have actually decided to hold their ground and not raise their ticket prices… yet. "At this time, we have no plans to increase prices at SeaWorld,” said SeaWorld spokesman Nick Gollattscheck.
    (7/28/10) Despite a few rumors suggesting that Polar Express may be set up over at Busch Gardens Tampa this winter, I’ve confirmed with my own sources that Polar Express will be coming back to SeaWorld Orlando once again this winter.
    (7/27/10) SeaWorld invited a bunch of reality TV’s biggest players from Survivor, Amazing Race and Big Brother to come and play at Discovery Cove. Check out the video embedded below of the reality stars enjoying tropical Discovery Cove to raise money for Give Kids The World.

    (7/14/10) A nice photo report from Aquatica has been posted to Amusement Insider this week.
    (7/9/10) BGT Nation has posted some new pictures from Aquatica (with Omaka Rocka) as well as a peek at the new Sea Garden site that just opened as a replacement for the former Clydesdale Hamlet.
    (7/6/10) SeaWorld has launched a special Twilight Ticket offer for park admission after 3pm for $39.95 for both Adults and Children. Good through Labor Day, the typical closing time for SeaWorld this summer is 10pm, so it will give you a good 7 hours of play time in the park (plenty enough to ride Manta, Kraken and Journey To Atlantis to your hearts content) for half the price of a regular day ticket. You can buy them online here.
    (7/1/10) A new SeaWorld Orlando construction update can be found at Orlando Parks News where they took a look over the construction wall into the former Hospitality Center as well as a look around the rest of the park.
    (6/23/10) SeaWorld Orlando is testing out a new “text message” service similar to the one in use at Busch Gardens Tampa. You can read more about it here.
    (6/16/10) SeaWorld celebrated the one year anniversary of Manta by posting some fun facts and footage of the ride at the official blog.
    (6/8/10) Sunday was another sad day for SeaWorld Orlando’s Shamu family as Taima (Tai), a 20 year old Female, died from complications involving the birth of a stillborn calf. Park veterinarians attempted to assist but the complications were too severe.
    (5/31/10) I’m told that new construction has begun over a the former Clydesdale Hamlet building. According to one source it is going to be some kind of “Sea Garden” exhibit… whatever that is. More when we find out.
    (5/21/10) While SeaWorld Orlando prepares to launch this summer’s SeaWorld After Dark evening shows on May 29th, it was confirmed that Shamu Rocks will still be performed without any trainers in the water with the whales.
    Other “After Dark” additions to the park include Sea Lions Tonight and Reflections: Fireworks & Fountain Show Finale.
    (5/19/10) A SeaWorld trip report was posted to Behind the Thrills this week with a few interesting items of note, such as the Jazzie Jellies ride being taken apart for a major rehab and a small peek at some clearing going on over at Discovery Cove.
    (5/3/10) Orlando Theme Park News has posted a large general photo update from SeaWorld Orlando this week. It features a ton of great pictures of Manta, Atlantis, as well as aerial shots of the rest of the park taken from the Skytower.
    (4/21/10) While SeaWorld Orlando began to charge passholders for rides on the SkyTower over spring break, it seems this was just a preliminary test, as they have returned to offering free rides once again. However, the new sign posted out front that showed off the new discount price for Passholders is still there… just with sticker that says “free” placed over the top of the old price. I’m told that the park is likely to begin charging passholders to ride once again sometime between mid June and early July.
    (1/7/10) Heads up to anyone planning a trip to SeaWorld Florida. I’ve been told that Journey To Atlantis just closed for the next several weeks for a major winter rehab, which is typical for this time of year. From what I’m told the ride will likely reopen around Jan. 25th. The good news is that Blackstone has apparently dropped a little money-bomb on this project and are asking the park to try to restore as much of JTA’s special effects back to the way it was when it first opened. Longtime JTA fans have long complained about just how many of the ride’s more impressive effects have been lost over the years, so this is great news. However, don’t look for it to be fully restored by the end of this little rehab. This will be an ongoing project being done little by little over the next several months. More importantly, this is a great sign of quality things to come from Blackstone’s ownership of SeaWorld and Busch Gardens.

2010 - Omaka Rocka at Aquatica - (4/5/10) According to a guest Aquatica has opened the new Omaka Rocka slides this past weekend. According to our source the slides are a slightly on the bumpy side it seems, due to the inclusion of some kind of “breaker” device used periodically on the slides to slow the riders down before plowing into the funnels. I had previously heard that during some employee testing several weeks ago that they were experiencing some issues with excessive speed on the slides and were going to have to resort to something like this. Honestly however, I can’t remember hearing about anything like this ever used before on a typical slide, though I have seen similar ideas used on the more old fashioned “rapids” style tube attractions that have mostly gone out of style these days. Our source also warned us that for some reason the Omaka Rocks slides have a 250 pound weight limit… the lightest of any slide in the park according to the official Aquatica park info page that lists the weight limits of the other slides as being between 300 and 600 pounds.
    (12/24/09) Aquatica has officially announced their new attraction for the 2010 season… Omaka Rocka, which translates into “Rocking River”. The two new slides should be ready to open by March and will put guests in two-seater tubes though an enclosed slide that will drop through a total of three funnels along the way before your ride is done. Portions of the slides will travel through sections of semi-transparent tubing as well.

Holiday 2010 - Christmas Celebration - Rumor - (1/27/10) According to the latest rumors we can expect to see quite a large Christmas holiday celebration coming to SeaWorld Florida in 2010. In general the positive numbers that not only SeaWorld has seen from the winter holiday season mixed with the fantastic launch of ChristmasTown at Busch Gardens Williamsburg has left the new corporate masters hungry to capitalize even more.

2011 - Discovery Cove Expansion - Semi-Confirmed - (7/14/10) The Orlando Business Journal talks a bit about the yet to be announced expansion plans underway at Discovery Cove that will see a new salt-water reef pool opened in 2011. Apparently the park has already files for tons of new permits for the project, all labeled as being for “Discovery Cove Exp 2011”.
    (5/4/10) Insiders tell us that early construction work for the Discovery Cove expansion already begin about two weeks ago. The western end of the property is currently being cleared and bigger trees relocated. They hope to have it finished in time to open it in the later half of Summer 2011. Don’t look for an official announcement however until this fall.. once all the buzz over the Wizarding World of Harry Potter has died down.
    (1/26/10) I’ve been sent a little update about that proposed Discovery Cove expansion. I’m told that right now they would like to have it complete around late summer or fall 2011. However instead of a new large mammal interaction program, I’ve told that the plan is to build some kind of large salt water environment that may feature a small cave. However the really cool idea here is that guests will be able to pay an extra fee to use Sea Trek dive helmets to experience it all… walking around at the bottom of the exhibit. You can see a good how-to video from the Sea Trek attraction in Hawaii here.  On a side note however, they may convert the existing reef pool into a new fresh water attraction due to the ongoing problems the park has had with “leaks” on the bottom since it was first filled up back in 2000 when the park opened.