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SEAWORLD TEXAS
San Antonio, Texas
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment
 Park News - (10/5/2024) SeaWorld San Antonio Replacing Sesame Street Bay Of Play for Rescue Jr. Land
(4/8/2024) New Coaster Track Arrives for 2025 Project
(12/10/2023) Aquatica at SeaWorld San Antonio Adding Something New plus a Catapult Falls Testing Update
Delayed To 2024 - Catapult Falls - (3/3/2024) Catch a video showing off a full POV ride experience on the new Catapult Falls at SeaWorld San Antonio below. Overall, and based entirely on the video footage I’ve seen thus far, this looks to be a great family ride addition to the park. The launch, while sure to be a surprise, does not appear to be ultra-intense, nor does the final drop which is trimmed by brakes. The overall benefit however is that this should be a nice ride with some unexpected thrills, but still suitable for the entire family to enjoy, without getting totally drenched.
Keep in mind that the park already has Journey To Atlantis, if it is a big-splash boat soaking ride you are looking for, as well as the Rio Loco rapids ride, so a nice family flume ride fits the bill for exactly what the park probably needed to add to their water-ride line-up.
(2/14/2024) SeaWorld San Antonio has some big news to share a few hours ago. At long last the park’s new Catapult Falls launched flume ride will be ready to open on March 2, 2024.
(12/10/2023) A video showing off a boat making a test drop down Catapult Falls was posted over the weekend to Facebook, which you can see in the post embedded below. Watching the test run, while empty, the boat just seemed to take the final plunge at a very leisurely pace, and no where near as fast and furious as one might expect from an attraction named Catapult Falls. Looking closer, I never realized just what these were from the construction photos over the summer until now, but the airtime hill at the end of the big drop is lined with magnetic trime brakes, causing the slowdown, which isn’t something I’ve eve noticed on any flume before.
Now Intamin does seem to have some trims at the very end of the drop on Chiapas at Phantasialand, but I don’t see any on the air-time hill itself like I’m seeing on Catapult Falls. While the boats testing are empty, and may very well just be testing as a lower speed at this point in time, this is definately a different experience when compared to the high-speed splashdowns that Mack Rides is known for from their previous work with the SeaWorld parks on the Journey To Atlantis rides and other popular flumes around the world.
Just something to keep an eye on as SeaWorld San Antonio prepares to put the finishing touches on their new ride.
(9/29/2023) SeaWorld San Antonio has re-confirmed that their new Catapult Falls launched flume ride is now set to open to guests in 2024. In addition to the unique “launch” element in mid-ride, the finale of the ride will feature a vertical lift to the top of the tallest flume drop in Texas.
(8/12/2023) Sad news from SeaWorld San Antonio, as the park has confirmed that their new Catapult Falls flume ride will now not be ready to open until 2024.
(7/16/2023) A post on Facebook shows that SeaWorld San Antonio is finally testing their new Catapult Falls flume ride. If all goes well, this is great news, as testing would be one of the last things needed before they can eventually open to the ride to the public.
(6/20/2023) Midway Mayhem has posted a construction update for Catapult Falls at SeaWorld San Antonio this week. According to the report there has been a lot of progress and they expect testing to begin very soon.
(3/20/23) A few pictures of the new Catapult Falls ride under construction at SeaWorld San Antonio were posted to IG over the weekend. As you can see below, it looks like they are pretty far along with the constrtuction so far.
(12/20/2022) A couple of great aerial construction photos of the new Catapult Falls going in at SeaWorld San Antonio have been posted to Twitter and embedded below. Looks like they are making quick progress on getting the flume poured.
(9/28/22) SeaWorld San Antonio confirmed their long rumored new flume ride for the 2023 season. The new ride will be called Catapult Falls and as rumored, this will be the world’s first “launched flume coaster” and they say it will be the only flume coaster with a vertical lift in North America.
Ummm… on that last title, I’ve got a protest a little bit, as Journey To Alantis at sister park, SeaWorld San Diego does feature a vertical / elevator style fill for that flume ride, though from an entirely different manufacturer. Ok… enough of that though, because Catapult Falls does look quite cool, as they also say that it will be the world’s steepest “flume coaster” with a 53º drop on the final hill.
Before that you, guests will get to experience the unique launch sensation of this new Intamin creation. From the look of the animation, it almost appears as if the flume will be launched via a high-speed conveyor-belt. Sort of like climbing onto a tread-mill from hell, it will launch the boats at 30 feet per second right into a small airtime hill and then down the other side into a quick splash pool before circling back towards the vertical lift and final drop.
(9/11/22) I think Intamin just revealed exactly what they have planned for the new flume ride planned for SeaWorld San Antonio just ahead of the IAAPA Expo Europe 2022 that starts on Monday. Intamin’s YouTube channel just uploaded a short 23-second video called “Intamin Flume Rides: Booster” that shows a flume boat get pulled up onto what looks like a launch track. A countdown begins…3… 2… 1… and then fade to white, with the words “Now Available FLUME BOOSTER” along with the sounds of a revving engine in the background.
While clearly this is just a teaser… I’m expecting that we’ll see more of this new technology in the near future, likely to be revealed by SeaWorld themselves with this new ride announcement.
If you’ve looked at the coverage of the leaked plans for the upcoming SeaWorld San Antonio flume ride, the speculation based on the plans is that the flume ride’s layout did indeed look like it was intended to feature some kind of yet-to-be-seen launch system (or Flume Booster) to shoot the boats down a flat section of track and then up and over a coaster like hill before dropping down into a flume-style drop on the other side.
(4/3/22) New plans for an awesome new attraction planned for SeaWorld San Antonio in 2023 have been posted to ParkFans this week. From the look of things, this is a new flume ride which is being put in a fitting location to the left of Great White where the park’s old Texas Splashdown log ride used to sit.
While my first impression on the plans, and based on previous company history, I was thinking this was a Mack Rides flume. However, according to the ParkFans reports, they believe the new ride to be from Intamin, so maybe they saw Intamin’s name somewhere in the documentation they had access to.
The plans for this flume show off something else of interest. After the boats dispatch from the station and travel along a slow river course for a time before the boats appear to leave the water and enter onto a straight section of track of some kind. While this could just be a traditional lift hill, the plans almost look like this section remains at ground level and then goes up a hill after it ends that travels over an existing section of the flume, and then down a drop on the other side into a splashdown area. The thought from ParkFans, which I can agree with, is that this may actually be a “launch” track that will launch the riders up and over a small hill. While I can’t recall Intamin ever making a launch’s flume ride before, I know Mack Rides actually has been doing this very thing for their new PowerSplash rides. Intamin is well versed in launch technology for their coasters however, so it wouldn’t be hard to believe that they might be ready to add it to their flume rides as well.
After this first drop and splash the boats will make a u-turn and head towards what is clearly some kind of vertical / elevator style lift system that will raise the boats to the top of the second drop. This second drop appears to be a sort of a coaster style drop that will go below the waterline and then rise-up for a little airtime hill before dropping again to the final splashdown. This is something you will see in many flume rides from both companies, such as Ripsaw Falls at Universal’s Islands of Adventure (Mack) and the incredible looking Chiapas at Phantasialand (Intamin). Meanwhile both companies are well versed in elevator style lift systems for their water rides, and I will admit that the plans for this look more like the new style single Intamin lifts than the Mack style enclosed lifts.
Regardless, I do love a good flume ride, and guests at the Texas parks can always use another way to cool down on those hot summer days, so this will be an excellent addition no matter who makes it.
2024 - Tikitapu Splash at Aquatica - (12/10/2023) SeaWorld San Antonio has teased that a new attraction called Tikitapu Splash will be coming to their Aquatica waterpark. According to the article at MySanAntonio.com the attraction appears to be a medium sized water fortress featuring four small waterslides, and three giant water buckets that will drop onto the guests, along with 104 interactive water/spray elements. Look for it to be installed next to Whanau Waters.
2025 - New Family Coaster / Rescue Jr. - (10/5/2024) SeaWorld San Antonio has confirmed that the park’s former Sesame Street Bay of Play area is now closed and will be transformed into a “SeaWorld Rescue Jr.” themed attraction area. This will include the new Beach Rescue Racer roller coaster from Zierer, the Seabird Swing (wave swinger), and Ocean Quest Express (kiddie train ride) as well as the Tide Pool Tumble water play area.
What isn’t mentioned on the official website is the existing Super Grover’s Box Car Derby coaster (formerly Shamu Express), which was also from Zierer. Since they aren’t mentioning it at all and it takes up a good portion of the land where SeaWorld Rescue Jr. will be located, I would assume that the old coaster is being retired or perhaps moved to another park in the chain.
The official park site also lists the attractions: Elmo’s Dolphin Dive and Big Bird’s Spinning Reef as also being closed at the moment, so as they were not mentioned in the list of Rescue Jr. attractions, I’m also assuming these small flat rides may also be removed or relocated elsewhere.
The one interesting thing that has gone unmentioned is that this move seems to serve as a complete removal of the Sesame Street brand from the park, meanwhile SeaWorld Orlando and the two Busch Gardens parks each have dedicated Sesame Street themed kids areas. The last time we saw this happen was at the San Diego park where that park’s Sesame Street Bay of Play area was also rethemed as a more generic “SeaWorld Rescue Jr.” kids play area in 2023, following the opening of the dedicated Sesame Place San Diego park the year prior in Spring 2022.
At the time, United Parks & Resorts, formerly SeaWorld Entertainment, said they would be exploring further opportunities to take advantage of the valuable Sesame Street branding, which makes me wonder if this is just a temporary retirement of the Sesame branding in the Texas park ahead of a possible future launch of a new dedicated Sesame branded area, or quite possibly, a concept of a third Sesame Place stand-alone park could also be something in the works.
After all, we’re now seeing the Dallas area being expanded with two small mini-parks coming in the next couple years: Peppa Pig Theme Park and Universal Kids Resort. So it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for United Parks & Resorts to look into adding their own dedicated mini kids park in San Antonio. If they did it as something totally different, possibly as a large themed indoor park with some outdoor attractions as well, it could be something that could be quite enjoyable for families with small children to visit all year round, avoiding the summer heat-wave months.
(7/21/2024) Something big is in the works for SeaWorld San Antonio for 2025. According to a local news report the park is working on a 146,000 sqft mystery project said to be worth $6 million for next season. While the project description is now vague, they say that a cached version they found had previously used the project name, “Rescue Jr. 2025”.
Construction is set to begin on August 19th, and if that “Rescue Jr.” name sounds familiar, the San Diego park renovated their old Shamu’s Happy Harbor play area into a Rescue Jr. themed area by adding a splash pad and a couple of flat rides in the process.
Many of the same features of the San Diego park’s Rescue Jr. area are already present in the San Antonio park’s current Sesame Street Bay of Play area, which was also once known as Shamu’s Happy Harbor, so periodic renovations to update the kids area are not uncommon. This is likely yet another planned update to bring the park’s kids area back up to speed with the chain’s current offerings, along with a new junior coaster, though it is interesting to note that this would also remove the Sesame Street characters from the park if they go with the same Rescue Jr. theming as San Diego, but open up the opportunity to build something new with the IP in the near future.
United Parks & Resorts use of the Sesame Street brands has changed in the past few years, with the Orlando park opting to update their own former Shamu’s Happy Harbor area into a full blown Sesame Street Land themed area. Meanwhile the San Diego park opted out of using Sesame, and instead transformed their former Aquatica waterpark into an official Sesame Place theme park in 2022. So how the San Antonio property chooses to move forward with the brand remains to be seen, but they clearly have some options.
(4/7/2024) It appears that SeaWorld San Antonio is planning to add yet another roller coaster for the 2025 season. Guests visiting the park have spotted a growing collection of light blue coaster track and darker blue support pieces stacked up along a backstage road. Various sources have identified the tracks tyle as being a Zierer “Force” line of family coasters. Popular around the world, very few have made their way into North American theme parks, though ironically SeaWorld San Antonio actually already has one of the smaller models that serves as the park’s Super Grover’s Box Car Derby coaster, which was formerly known as the Shamu Express when it first opened in 2004.
One the biggest installation of a Zierer Force style coaster is coming to the UK this season as a pair of racing/shuttle coasters at Legoland Windsor to be called Minifigure Speedway. I’m not saying that Texas is getting a clone by any means, only that the hardware could represent something much bigger and different than what the park already has with the Grover coaster.
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