SeaWorld California
& Aquatica California
San Diego, CA
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
Ride Rehabs - The following dates are subject to change
Journey to Atlantis - NOW CLOSED through 2025
Skyride - NOW CLOSED through TBD
Manta - Feb. 3 through Feb. 14
Rescue Rafter - Feb. 10 through Feb. 14
Electric Eel - Feb. 18 through Feb. 20
Skytower - Feb. 24 through Feb. 28
Rescue Rider - Mar. 10 through Mar 14
Tidepool Twist - Mar. 24 through Mar. 28
Shipwreck Rapids - Apr. 21 through May 2
Sea Dragon Drop - Apr. 28 through May 2
Electric Eel - May 6 through May 8
Skyride - May 12 through May 16
See Arctic Rescue (2023) in Action Here
Click Here to read our review of Howl-O-Scream 2023
 Park News - (1/14/2025) SeaWorld San Diego is celebrating Penguin Awareness Day from Jan. 18 - 20, 2025.
With nearly 300 penguins representing six Antarctic and sub-Antarctic species at Penguin Encounter, SeaWorld plays a vital role in protecting and preserving penguin species for future generations. During Inside Look’s Penguin Keeper Talks, guests will learn about penguins’ unique traits, social dynamics and the park's conservation efforts that help safeguard penguins and their habitats in the wild. In addition to Keeper Talks, SeaWorld will offer a variety of exciting experiences throughout the weekend to celebrate Penguin Awareness Day, including:
Up-close Magellanic penguin appearances
20% Off all Apparel at Penguin Encounter Gifts to all guests.
Photo opportunities with Puck the Penguin costumed character
Educational penguin artifacts to view
$5 Happy Hour specials at Wild Arctic Bar, featuring Emperor Hazy IPA on Draft and Arctic Lemonade
(1/7/2025) SeaWorld San Diego’s Inside Look returns and is bigger than ever, expanding to two weekends of exclusive behind-the-scenes access and inspiring educational experiences. Taking place from January 11 – January 12 and January 18 – January 20, the highly anticipated event invites guests to connect with SeaWorld animal care specialists, hear their personal stories about caring for the park's animals and discover fascinating facts about the animals and their species. This year, guests can look forward to three new activations, including an exclusive aquarist talk previewing our moon jellies who will part of the all-new Jewels of the Sea: The Jellyfish Experience. This immersive aquarium opening in Spring 2025 is our first standalone animal exhibit in over a decade. Visitors of Inside Look will also enjoy special access to areas of the park that are normally not open to the public, including the SeaWorld Rescue Center.
“Our zoological team is thrilled to bring Inside Look back for two weekends this year, giving guests an even greater opportunity to connect with our animals and the dedicated specialists who care for them,” said Eric Otjen, Vice President of Zoological Operations at SeaWorld San Diego. “This event allows visitors to go behind the scenes, experience new, exclusive activations, and learn about the incredible work we do year-round. For over 60 years, SeaWorld has been at the forefront of marine animal conservation and education, and we take pride in continuing to educate and inspire our guests about the incredible animals under our care.”
(10/24/2023) According to Theme Park Insider, the battle between SeaWorld San Diego and the city of San Diego over $12 million in unpaid rent / lease payments may now be moved to a Federal court. Or at least if SeaWorld has their way, as the company has filed a notice to move it from California Superior Court to the Federal system as the chain is incorporated in Delaware and has their HQ in Orlando, Florida. The move is also a more logical request for SeaWorld Entertainment, as a way to move the case to a more unbiased venue for the hearing.
2025 - Journey To Atlantis Update / Jewels of the Sea: The Jellyfish Experience - (11/2/2024) A bit more information has been revealed as to the current planned long-term closure of Journey to Atlantis at SeaWorld San Diego. According to the local news the park has closed the 20 year old attraction (2004 - 2024) to reopen it in 2025 after making an “update” to the ride experience.
SeaWorld says the updated Journey to Atlantis, the park’s first roller coaster, will be adding a refreshed storyline and adding new theming, water elements and special visual effects “to create a more exciting and immersive experience than ever before”.
If you’ve ridden the first Journey to Atlantis in Orlando, you know that the Florida version was given a very large dark ride style experience in addition to the coaster/flume fun thrills, while the San Diego version was essentially cut back to be an almost entirely outdoor flume experience. The one exception to this rule was the unique indoor elevator lift segment inside the central tower that happens just before the high speed finale. Going back to the initial plans for the attraction, there was always the intention to make this lift segment a more highly themed experience, but budget constraints and technology limitations of the time always made it so whatever they did try to install here over the years go mostly unseen and unheard, so I'd love to see this area finally fleshed out.
Here is a fun fact most guests don't know about… Journey to Atlantis in San Diego not only underwent a number of physical revisions throughout the planning phase, many of which included more indoor sections and traditional indoor lift hills, but an overhaul to the entire THEME and STORYLINE of the ride experience was heavily considered. Rather than stick entirely with the more Greek Mythology oriented concept, a few other story-lines were also in the works, some of which were tied to some of the alternate layout concepts. As I recall, a very strong favorite that almost made it once the final layout was given the green light in San Diego was one that would have tied Extraterrestrials to the mythic lost city of Atlantis.
Now here me out… because the attraction was in development from the late 1990 until the first shovel broke ground around 2002, and at the time one of the hottest entertainment properties on TV at the time was The X-Files on the FOX network that ran from 1993 to 2002. An official license was not expected (though I’m sure someone in the corporate office probably looked into it) but the floating artifacts in the lagoon that your boat slowly circles around after the first splash-down before returning to the tower was once envisioned as a crashed UFO sticking up out of the water, surrounded by bubbling water and steam vents. Alien forces were at work here, affecting the very currents of the water to pull your boat from here inside the Atlantis tower itself, which would have had a bit of an alien technology makeover inside. Once inside the riders were essentially ‘captured’ within the tower, and a beam of light would come down from the top of the shaft, pulling your boat into the air and scanning everyone during the hidden elevator style ascent to the top. In the end, I don’t think there would have been any actual aliens present there, but I think the story was that it may have been a piece of ancient alien technology left behind still running on auto-pilot, essentially scanning the boats for any sign of lost Atlantean DNA signatures, once at the top, and upon getting a negative scan for the designed DNA traits, the boats were kicked out at the top of the tower and sent on the final wild roller coaster style ride back to the bottom. I think the raw idea was that if any lost tribes of Atlantis were found, the Atlantis tower would then beam a signal home for a rescue mission to be dispatched to pick-them-up, but given the presence of the crashed UFO in the water out front, that last rescue mission may not have gone as planned.
Anyway… that’s what I recall hearing about first hand a quarter-century ago when I still lived in San Diego. The San Diego park has always had a bit of a semi-hidden obsession with the idea of alien technology… as you may recall how the park’s old Mission: Bermuda Triangle ride ended with a mysterious other-worldy rescue energy coming from the depths of the trench. Maybe another day I’ll talk more about a planned coaster concept where Manta sits down that was approved and then canceled at the last second in 2008/2009 when the economy hit the skids. This would have involved a launched coaster with aquatic themed cars that would eventually launch into a large show-building and take a deep dive to the bottom of the ocean for an encounter with the unknown! Think of it as an underwater themed version of what eventually was realized as Verbolten at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and you’ve got a pretty good idea of what was planned and the timelines involved at both parks.
So back to San Diego… what else is planned for 2025 other than a jazzed up Journey To Atlantis? Would you believe… Jellyfish? Yeah… what was supposed to be the big new attractions for 2024 was never built, as the park was focused more on building their new main entrance and now Jewels of the Sea: A Jellyfish Experience has now been confirmed as being a 2025 attraction for the park that will be installed inside of the former Clydesdale barn, not far from Journey to Atlantis. This isn’t the first time a new attraction was planned for the former Clydesdale barn structure, as you may recall the very short lived Submarine Quest ride, which despite the name took riders into the sky on an elevated track around the immediate area, and then encouraged kids to play with touch-screens on-board rather than take in the view. Ummm… yeah… I’m not surprised they let that concept go in conjunction with major flaws with the ride system itself that came up, but since then I think the former barn building has simply sat quiet and forgotten.
(9/29/2023) SeaWorld San Diego is getting a new attraction in 2024 called Jewels of the Sea: The Jellyfish Experience. According to the press release, this new exhibit will be added to the park’s Ocean Explorer area, which is immediately to the right after you enter the park.
“Glowing with an ethereal light, Moon Jellyfish, Pacific Sea Nettles, Upside-Down Jellyfish, and Comb Jellies will gracefully glide through the water, showcasing their hypnotic movements that seem almost unworldly. The experience features an 18-foot-tall cylinder, among the tallest jelly cylinders in the country, and a five-foot diameter sphere jelly habitat with water that pours from the top and sides for guests to touch. Guests can have the perfect photo-opp with a 10-foot-tall acrylic living arch of jellyfish for guests to walk through for views from multiple angles. ”
2026 - New Roller Coaster - (10/5/2023) Screamscape is hearing that long term planning may have begun to add yet another roller coaster to SeaWorld San Diego. The ride could open as early as 2025 or 2026, and the early rumor is that they may have asked B&M to come up with a layout for a Wing Coaster. Given that the park has a sensitive relationship with the local governing agencies, especially when it comes to building anything with height, I would suspect that if SeaWorld San Diego were to build a B&M Wing Coaster, they would take inspiration from Thunderbirg at Holiday World, which uses a magnetic launch system rather than a lift hill.
Another great possibility, and one that would definitely tie into the California surf culture, would be for the San Diego park to build a copy (or near clone) of the Pipeline Surf Coaster that opened at the Orlando park earlier this year (see video below). This next-gen stand-up coaster is themed like a giant surf board and also uses a magnetic launch to keep the action fast and low when needed. The real surprise is the hidden piston built into every restraint unit that quite literally lifts the riders off their feet for a true Hang 10 moment of airtime at the peak of every hill that is guaranteed to make you squeal with glee.
Stay tuned!
???? - S&S Screamin Swing - Rumor - (1/30/22) I’m passing on this rumor with a huge grain of salt, but according to the source SeaWorld San Diego now may be in line to add an S&S Screamin’ Swing ride like the new Tidal Surge under construction at the sister park in San Antonio or the Finnegan’s Flyer that was built for Busch Gardens Williamsburg. I’m told that if this goes through, the new ride could replace part of the land used for the park’s failed Submarine Quest ride.
New Attraction Footage -
2023 - Arctic Rescue - (7/3/2023) Screamscape was invited to send a local member of the crew down to give the new Arctic Rescue roller coaster at SeaWorld San Diego a spin. The video below shows off a POV of the coaster in action from the front row and from the back as it passes through three launch zones throughout the journey.
Howl-O-Scream 2023 Review -
(10/4/2023) Screamscape was invited to try out this year’s Howl-O-Scream event and I decided to send in my good friend Andy to check it out. For a little history, back in the day, growing up in San Diego, Andy and I would often frequent all the haunts we could find in town, which included several years of visits to the city’s once famous ‘Scream in the Dark’ haunt, the Haunted Museum and others from years past. They managed to shoot an awesome video for us that captures all the fun of Howl-O-Scream and sent back a quick review as well, so enjoy!
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SeaWorld opens its doors to sirens and slaughterhouses in 2023's Howl-O-Scream, featuring 5 haunted mazes, multiple vignette areas, spooktacular cocktails, roaming haunts, environmental effects, and dark rides. Contained in the southern section of the park, SeaWorld has concocted a trail of screams and haunts worthy of adults and children alike. Honestly, it takes a brave child to deal with what we had to endure. Some of this is NOT for the faint of heart. SeaWorld claims "nowhere is safe!" - and that is true as actors dressed as monsters can startle you at every turn. That is, unless you don a magic blinking medallion (available for
$15 within the park) to guarantee a spook-free experience.
For those brave souls who wish to venture further, the park provided Five (Count-em!) Five themed mazes of jump scares, curated scenes, animatronic ghouls, sparking chainsaws, and more. Within the various themed encounters careful attention to detail was taken, making sure you were looking in the wrong place so that the live ghouls could get the drop on you.
For the extremely observant- there are no less than TWO hidden speakeasies nestled within the haunts (don't forget the password: "Gauntlet"). Fiendish, yet delicious cocktails were available inside including frighteningly authentic "blood bags" filled with what we hope was a cocktail and not the real thing! Collectable, color-changing skull mugs were also purchasable.
Along the dark, smokey paths between mazes were a motley assortment of various monsters to keep you on your toes. Also speckled throughout your adventure are themed "Vignettes" like mini-musicals to enjoy while eating, drinking or planning your next move:
Dark Coasters! What's scarier than a 14-story vertical drop? The turn after- in pitch blackness! When you can't see it coming, it's even scarier. The park offered three coasters of various fear levels to satisfy guests, Emperor, Arctic Rescue, and Electric Eel. A great way to end your visit to the creepiest seaside spectacle you've ever seen this side of the pacific! We were truly taken to another world that hardly seemed like the park we visited a few months earlier.
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