SeaWorld Orlando
Discovery Cove and Aquatica
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
---- THE LATEST NEWS ----
(1/19/2025) The Seven Seas Food Festival Is Returning Soon
(1/10/2025) Inside Look Programs Return This Weekend
(12/17/2024) SeaWorld Orlando To Host New Year's Eve Party
(11/20/2024) 2025's Flying Theater Coming From Mack Rides
(11/8/2024) SeaWorld Orlando & Aquatica Start Black Friday Pre-Sale
Ride Rehabs - The following information is not guaranteed to be 100% accurate, refurbishments are subject to change.
Journey To Atlantis - NOW CLOSED through TBD
 Park News - (1/19/2025) The Seven Seas Food Festival will return to SeaWorld Orlando from January 31st to May 4th, 2025. In addition to 25 different booths set up around the park (see the list here) offering tastes of new and popular dishes (and beverages) from around the world, the park will also be offering a number of free concert performances at Bayside Stadium. The list so far includes:
Feb. 1 - Boys Like Girls
Feb. 2 - Sara Evans
Feb. 8 - Expose
Feb. 14 - Turnstiles: Billy Joel Tribute
Feb. 15 - Holly Hatchet
Feb. 16 - Absolute Queen Tribute
Feb. 21 - LeCrae
Feb. 22 - TBA
Feb. 28 - The Bee Gees Now! Tribute
Mar. 1 - Warrant
Mar. 7 - Starship ft Mickey Thomas
Mar. 8 - TBA
Mar 15 - TBA
Mar 16 - ZZ Top
Mar 22 - TBA
Mar. 23 - Luis Fonsi
Mar. 28 - TBA
Mar. 29 - TBA
Apr. 4 - TBA
Apr. 5 - TBA
Apr. 11 - TBA
Apr. 12 - TBA
Apr. 19 - TBA
Apr. 25 - TBA
Apr. 26 - Mitchell Tenpenny
May 2 - TBA
May 3 - TBA
(1/10/2025) The “Inside Look” programs will return to SeaWorld Orlando starting this weekend, as well as more next weekend (Jan. 11-12 & Jan. 18-19). These are included with park admission, and offer some limited-space tours of behind the scenes facilities at the park, including animal habitats, a trip inside the Rescue Center as well as meet & greet opportunities with park staff.
New this year will be a backstage experience with the Flamingos, as well as a chance to see what take place with the Dolphin Nursery, Rescue Center, Aquariums, Pacific Point Preserve, Wild Arctic and many others. “Due to the event's immense popularity, guests are advised to arrive early to ensure access to this extraordinary offering.”
Visit the official website for all the latest information about what is offered.
(9/3/2024) Sad news from Discovery Cove this week, as the local news reports than a 60 year old man was found unresponsive in the water at the park on August 31st. He was taken to a nearby hospital where it was announced later that he had died. An investigation by the Sheriff's Office is still taking place to follow-up as to what happened.
2025 - Flying Theater Attraction - (11/20/2024) SeaWorld Orlando and Mack Rides have announced that the new Flying Theater attraction coming to SeaWorld Orlando in 2025 will be a Mack Rides AIRIFIC Flying Theater. Mack and their Tacumeon Rides division first unveiled the AIRIFIC concept three years ago, bringing their own unique twist to the Flying Theater concept.
Passengers load onto the the AIRIFIC’s Flying Theater seats on different floors within the ride building, btu helping to increase capacity far beyond what we typically see from a Flying Theater, there are actually two sets of seats on each floor. Passengers are loaded and a large turntable rotates the rows 180º into the theater dome to enjoy their ride, meanwhile the second bench of seats becomes available for unloading/loading for the next group of passengers.
To date, I believe there is one AIRIFIC in operation, opening at the VinWonders Nha Trang theme park in Vietnam in Summer 2023, so the SeaWorld Orlando attraction will be a first of its kind in North America.
(9/19/2024) As Screamscape had previously posted as a rumor, SeaWorld Orlando has now confirmed that in Spring 2025 they will open the ‘World’s First Fully Immersive Arctic Flying Theater” attraction where the former Wild Arctic attraction once stood. The new attraction is said to be a “one-of-a-kind immersive flight theater” that will take riders on a ‘dynamic adventure through the Arctic”. This will still be a family friendly attraction however, with only a 39-inch height requirement within the attraction’s two mutli-level theaters (for extra capacity).
“This new experience invites families to soar over icy landscapes, dive beneath frozen waters and come face-to-face with some of the planet’s most magnificent creatures. From majestic beluga whales to awe-inspiring orcas and walruses, this adventure puts riders right in the middle of the action. It’s also all indoors, so rain or shine, this attraction guarantees a cool, thrilling escape for the entire family all year round.” SeaWorld sent us a video clip showing off some of the amazing real-world footage their crew has captured on site in the arctic. So nice to know that this will be a real adventure and not something computer animated, so check it out below!
(10/29/2023) We’ve heard this rumor quietly mentioned a few times over the past few years, but then nothing ever happened as the park opted to focus for adding back-to-back-to-back roller coasters instead for a time. With that out of the way apparently SeaWorld Orlando is now ready to move forward again with those rumored plans to build their own Flying Theater style attraction as a replacement for the closed Wild Arctic simulator ride. While I don’t have a timeline on this yet, the park is currently very busy working on the new Penguin Trek coaster for the 2024 season. I can only assume that the Flying Theater project wouldn’t be ready until 2025 or 2026, depending on when construction starts.
In the meantime, keep an eye on this area of the park to see if any kind of survey markings can be spotted over the next few months as an indication that work may be preparing to start.
2026/2027 - 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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