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SeaWorld Orlando
Discovery Cove and Aquatica
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
---- THE LATEST NEWS ----
(12/30/2025) SEAQuest Construction Update
(12/28/2025) Track Arrival for SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep
(12/22/2025) Sad News From SeaWorld Orlando
(12/13/2025) SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep Construction Update
(12/6/2025) Mako/Duck Lawsuit Takes and Interesting Twist
Ride Rehabs - The following information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, refurbishments are subject to change.
Nothing is known to be scheduled at this time…
 Park News - (12/22/2025) Sad news from SeaWorld Orlando today as the park has announced the death of one of their killer whales. The park says that Katina, who was 50 years old, began to suffer from declining health issues as she aged, with animal care and medical teams monitoring her condition constantly for the past several weeks. They say she passed while surrounded by the park team members who had worked with her for nearly 40 years.
Katina was originally captured around 1975 and lived at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Canada but was sent to the SeaWorld parks in 1979, spending time in San Diego and Ohio for several years before moving to the Orlando back in 1984 where she stayed. Katina was also the mother of “Baby Shamu”, the first killer whale to successfully be born and thrive in captivity.
(12/6/2025) Remember that weird story not long ago about a woman who files a lawsuit against SeaWorld Orlando after claiming that she was struck by a duck in might-flight while riding the park’s Mako roller coaster? The claim also blamed SeaWorld for building portions of the coaster over water that attracted the duck in the first place to the “danger zone”.
SeaWorld has now fired back it seems in an interesting way, confirming that their own investigation into the matter revealed that it was not a duck at all that came into contact with the woman, but instead it was a wild migratory snowey egret.
“This matter does not and has never involved a duck” and as such the allegations “are no longer true or facial, nor are such allegations actionable against SeaWorld.” SeaWorld Orlando says, and rightly so, that they are not in any way responsible for the actions of a wild migratory bird. This also falls in line with current Florida law that also states that business owners are not legally responsible for the actions of wild animals that take place on their property, unless the owner has “brought the animal into its possession, harbored it, or introduced it to the locality.”
I lawsuit claim that the woman was stuck by a duck was attempting to claim that the duck being on the site was SeaWorld’s responsibility for creating the duck friendly water spaces around the park.
According the report at WESH, “SeaWorld stated it did not possess, control, harbor, or introduce the wild 'duck' [or egret] to its premises," the park argued. SeaWorld contends the legal grounds for dismissal remain, even assuming the plaintiff's initial allegation of a duck was true. "It follows that Martin’s cause of action must fail because she cannot state a legally supportable basis for a lawsuit against SeaWorld, and this claim should be dismissed, with prejudice.” SeaWorld also mentions that the woman also “refused medical transportation at the park and did not seek medical treatment until the day after the incident.”
(10/28/2025) Would you believe that a woman is now trying to sue SeaWorld Orlando after she was struck in mid-air by a flying duck while taking a ride on the park’s Mako roller coaster? The new lawsuit was filed on Monday says the event happened back in March 2025 when a duck flew into the path of the roller coaster, and she says he was then knocked unconscious by the impact.
She claims that SeaWorld should have warned her about the “dangerous condition of the park” before she got on the ride, and now she wants $50,000. They also say the whole thing is the park’s fault for designing Mako to travel over water, and thus attracting waterfowl to be attracted to the area around the ride.
Oh boy… this is going to be a doozy. Of course, I don’t know if the fact that the chain was already the subject of another very famous bird / rider impact story way back in the late ‘90s when make model Fabio was struck in the face by the goose while riding the new Apollo’s Chariot roller coaster on media day in front of the cameras at sister park, Busch Gardens Williamsburg. Of course Fabio famously took it all on the chin that day and declined any intent to sue the park for any facial injuries he suffered that day.
As for the woman who hit the duck... well... I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that she’s just “Quackers”. To my knowledge, so far no one has contacted to duck to see if it needs legal representation of its own.
(7/2/2025) We have to drop a congratulations to SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove interactive park in Orlando for the park’s 25th Anniversary celebration. As hard as it is to believe, 25 years have past since SeaWorld launched what may still be the most unique park in all of Orlando, offering a day’s worth of never-before seen close-up experiences with animals set within a lush tropical resort setting with an all-inclusive style price-scheme. Over those years they say that they have unwrapped 10 million snorkels to put into guest’s hands, offering an experience unlike any other you will find anywhere.
2026 - SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep - (12/30/2025) Kingdakev is back at SeaWorld Orlando this week to check out the construction of the new SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep dark ride. At this point it looks like much of the steel structure needed to put together the attraction building is now on site, just waiting to be put together. Check out the video clip below.
(12/28/2025) SeaWorld Orlando confirmed the arrival of several truck loads of track from Vekoma for the new SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep dark ride.
(12/13/2025) Some great new aerial video showing off the construction site for the new SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep attraction coming to SeaWorld Orlando can be seen below, as shot by Bioreconstruct. You can definitely make out the outer wall foundation and support footers in place for the main attraction building, which has been placed behind the Wild Arctic attraction building.
This gives us a great sense of the scale of the new attraction, as the main attraction structure that will enclose the ride does appear to physically be a bit larger than the Wild Arctic exhibit next door. For this I’m comparing it to the two rooftop structures that house the indoor walk-through portion of Wild Arctic and not counting all the water-filtration equipment outside or the former Simulator building which was converted into the Expedition Odyssey flying theater attraction earlier this year. There is a bit of a gap between the guest pathway next to the exit of Wild Arctic that will serve as the entrance to the new attraction area and the actual attraction building, we can only assume some of this will be used for a lengthy queue space.
(11/18/2025) Lots of fun projects getting unveiled at IAAPA this week. Vekoma and SeaWorld Orlando showed off the first ride vehicle for the park’s new SeaQuest: Legends of the Deep unique dark ride.
While we knew the basic idea of what SeaWorld was up to, this also confirms that the ride is apparently the first version of Vekoma’s new Suspended Dark Ride attraction system. You can see more about what it is capable of in the video from Vekoma below as well.
(9/17/2025) SeaWorld Orlando has announced that a new suspended dark ride is coming to the park next year to be called “SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep”. According to the official description, “guests will embark on a vibrant submersible adventure through dazzling undersea ecosystems, where they’ll encounter extraordinary lifeforms, breathtaking environments, and inspiring stories of the sea. This groundbreaking attraction plunges explorers into an environment of awe and mystery, guided by the SEA Collective’s Adventure Team.
From an immersive feel and advanced special effects to a spectacular finale launch that celebrates the ocean’s resilience and beauty, SEAQuest: Legends of the Deep fuses science and spectacle into an extraordinary family adventure.”
???? - Future Attraction Concepts Survey - (7/2/2025) A short time ago the United Parks were said to be sending out guest surveys to get reactions to three possible new attraction concepts. There is no guarantee that any of these will be something built, but it is a good indication about the kinds of ideas and budgets they may be looking into for future inspiration right now. It is worth keeping another thing in mind when reading these. Based on similar surveys issued by other chains in the past, Six Flags is a good example, the ideas being presented to guests for one park may actually be for an attraction proposed for an entirely different park in the chain. The idea here being to present the concept to other markers to see if it resonates with guests elsewhere or not as well. In this case, the three concepts do kind of sound like could fit into SeaWorld Orlando, so on to the ideas.
The first would be a major restoration to the park’s existing Journey To Atlantis coaster/flume attraction. It’s no secret that over the years since Journey To Atlantis opened in Orlando, the various effects along with the original storyline that was being told have decayed to the point of being virtually unrecognizable. So in this proposal the park would give the attraction a “full refresh that restores its original effects and introduces enhanced theming, music, and scenic elements” in order to give the ride “an exciting new chapter”.
Reaction - Tell Me More! : I do like this idea, but I also know SeaWorld a bit better than most as a former insider from way back in the Anheuser-Busch era. Busch had big visions for their products, and when they worked it was magic… and when things didn’t quite work as expected and attractions were later faced with potentially costly upkeep budgets… more often than not, the annual maintenance budgets were never enough to restore things back to the original vision. This isn’t to say that every project was “left to rot”, as sometimes the corporate office in St. Louis would give an ear to bigger proposals to upgrade and improve things. Sometimes the idea to push forward to make things “even better than before” did make sense, especially if they felt they could market it as something new and get a good return on the investment going forward. With Busch out of the picture and the park’s now under the United Parks & Resorts banner, things are different today than they were before, but a proposal to restore Journey To Atlantis into a top tier attraction in the Orlando market is hard to argue against, and the ride portion itself is still enjoyable.
The second concept is a bit odd, with a proposal for an “immersive journey into the enigmatic world of jellyfish and other creatures than have roamed the oceans since before the age of the dinosaurs.”
Reaction - Meh : Not much else is included here, including any kind of description about the proposed ride system they are thinking about. This doesn’t sound like a coaster, but more like a slow moving family ride, or even a dark ride. So if this brings back any flashbacks to the defunct Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin dark ride, then you are not alone. I can’t help but imagine an entire slow moving dark ride that meanders through caverns of light-up jellyfish dangling from the ceiling instead of icicles and stalactites. On the business side, it just doesn’t sound like something that would be easy to market in a way to drive new guests through the gate.
The final proposal is for a new roller “coaster experience unlike any other. This dynamic coaster will take riders through a series of extreme elements, including a vertical launch, inversions, moments of weightlessness, high speed turns, and more all in an open-feel vehicle so you experience every part of it. Additionally, riders will experience unique track elements which will build the anticipation at the beginning of the experience using special effects and motion never seen before!”
Reaction - Sounds Good To Me! : No matter the owner of the parks, once thing we’ve been able to count on from the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens theme parks over the years was the creation of dynamic and fairly unique new roller coaster experiences that rarely disappoint. In this case the artwork doesn’t help, it just shows a strange four-row, four-across vehicle as a single large car on a coaster track. While four-across seating at the parks usually goes hand-in-hand with B&M, doing so with a “vertical launch” complete with new never before seen elements and special and new “motion never seen before” definitely sounds like someone else.
Looking to other frequent suppliers of coasters and rides for the chain leads me in a few different directions. Intamin could be tapped here, though for the most part they’ve not been used by the chain in Florida as they’ve been working with Universal quite a bit lately. But Intamin does offer a unique new roller coaster with a vertical launch system that was built into a compact indoor structure in Dubai called the Storm Coaster.
Premier Rides built three copies of their popular Sky Rocket II coaster system for the company for both Busch Gardens parks and SeaWorld San Diego, before building the custom layout Ice Breaker coaster for the Orlando park. Currently Premier Rides is building their most unique ride of all time for Canada’s Wonderland, AlpenFury, that features a dive underground before launching up vertically straight out of a fake mountain structure and into an extensive layout with 7 inversions.
Lastly on my list would be Mack Rides. Mack really hasn’t done much on the ‘coaster’ side of things for the chain, but they did build all three Journey to Atlantis rides as well as the unique Cobra’s Curse spinning coaster in Tampa. However, Mack Rides is sure to be high in demand as the creator of the new Stardust Racers at Universal Epic Universe, and if that wasn’t enough they opened a ride in Europa-Park last year called Voltron that sounds exactly like it would certainly check every box what they describe in the survey.
Unique vertical launch? Check…
Extreme and unique track elements? Check and Check!
Effects and motion never seen before? Oh… Check those boxes for sure as Voltron features forwards and backwards launches, a turn-table switch track in the middle of the ride layout, and a crazy effect inside an indoor effects tunnel where the entire piece of track that the train is sitting on detaches and bounces up and down wildly while it looks like the entire tunnel is being electrified.
Oh… and trains that seat four-across in four-rows like in the survey artwork.
So while I'd love to see JTA restored to glory… I think I’d love to see a copy of Voltron dropped into SeaWorld first.
2026/2027 DELAYED - Project Starboard / Hotel Resort - (12/17/2023) SeaWorld’s Project Starboard has been revealed as a plan to build a 15-story tall, 504-room hotel on the site of a nearly 30-acre back-stage plot at the corner of Central Florida and International Drive that is normally used for employee parking, as well as landscaping and general storage. The hotel is expected to feature a parking deck as well as an elevated pathway that will lead to an exclusive park-entrance for the resort guests located between the Nautilus Theater and the former Clydesdale Barn structure (some of which will be removed to make room). I’m guessing all the employees who used to park here will be forced to move to the employee parking on the other side of the park.
From the look of things, the curved shaped building will offer a roof-top lounge that has viewing into the park, as well as be designed over a lush pool area with extensive landscaping and what appears to be a lazy river and two large pools. What is a bit odd is that some extended non-pool areas will be built over the top of what is currently a water drainage canal, with the elevated pathway going over this as well as a small backstage park road that currently runs along the perimeter that will have to remain. According to the plans, it looks like the main entrance into the new resort space will be on the International Drive side of the plot.
During a previous announcement at an earnings call, SeaWorld did mention they were working on plans to design and open their first on-property hotels (plural) with the first expected to open in 2026.
A second smaller project also seems to be in development, known as Project Canopy, which appears to be located next to the backside of Discovery Cove, in a green space that runs between the road off Central Florida that goes to OC Fire Station 54 and a back-stage road that runs around Discovery Cove.
(7/9/2023) Something new besides the new roller coaster may be in planning for SeaWorld Orlando. According to a post on IG, something called Project Starboard is planned to take over an approximately 14 acre piece of property at the corner of Central Florida Parkway and International Drive. The majority of the site highlighted for the project has been used as employee parking for those who work in departments and locations on that side of the park. The loss of this parking area may be cause for some operational disruption within the park if it goes forward.
???? - Project Canopy / Second Resort - (1/15/2024) New information has been discovered about SeaWorld Orlando’s second planned hotel project, aka: Project Canopy, which is intended to service Discovery Cove. It turns out the land earmarked behind the park isn’t for the hotel itself, but appears to be a new employee parking lot that will likely serve as a replacement for the one being lost to build Project Starboard. Meanwhile the new Project Canopy hotel is actually planned as a 6-story 250-room hotel to be built just south of the entrance of Discovery Cove, along with an expansion to the parking lot there so it can serve both the mini aquatic park as well as the hotel guests.
(12/17/2023) A second smaller project also seems to be in development, known as Project Canopy, which appears to be located next to the backside of Discovery Cove, in a green space that runs between the road off Central Florida that goes to OC Fire Station 54 and a back-stage road that runs around Discovery Cove.
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