It was the pass holder picnic at Sea World today so I dropped by the park for a couple of hours to enjoy some coaster riding, and then what turned out to be an excellent picnic. Plenty of great food and entertainment kept the pass holders happy for the duration. Mark Pauls gave the talk, and the only thing of note to come out of it was his statement ... “Infinity Falls will be opening in a few weeks” .... Hmmm ... we shall see. Walking by IF they were running the rafts with test dummies, so getting there after the pump replacement. Mark also mentioned he had ridden IF so it seems some ambassador testing is going on. After I’d had my fill, I wandered over and had a one on one with Mark. We had a great talk and the main points to come out of our chat were ....
1). No more VR on Kraken
2). The Shamu show will be changing but not to the extent as at San Diego. He didn’t say if it would be renamed to Orca Encounter.
3). Very unlikely the pass holder dining plan will return.
4). They had a very close safety call with the train at BGW, but the hope is they (trains at BGW & BGT) will be back up and running in October.
It was a fun day at SWO, and when they get the chance to do things for the pass holders they always seem to get it right.
Should be a fun time at the park with Halloween and Christmas just around the corner.
Ed ….. Sea World and Busch Gardens are my ‘home’ parks, and with the summer tourist madness over and done with, I’m looking forward to some nice quiet mid-week days at BGT ……. once the weather changes away from all this rain we have been getting.
I go into Sea World 2, maybe 3 times a week after work, for my exercise walks (much better than round the streets by my condo !!) so obviously I see everything that’s going on there. Now summer is over, it’s pretty quiet so I take a diversion to ride one or more of the coasters as I go by them. It frustrates me they keep running one train on Mako, but I’ll keep badgering them, and who knows one night when I go in they may be running 2 trains ?? I love Manta as well, the right back seat is the place to be. The ‘g’s’ thru that pretzel loop are amazing, but sadly these days my back reminds me I’m getting older, so the front seat is usually where I end up. Although it’s a great view in the front.
Interesting to see SFOG is your home park, as it’s on my list of parks to visit next year. I’m driving to Carowinds and then over to SFOG late August. It’s only open at weekends that time of year, so I may need to get the fast pass, but I’m really looking forward to visiting, what will be for me, a new park.
BGT is poised to make a 2019 attraction announcement tomorrow. Who knows if this will be the long-rumored hyper/giga coaster, or something else entirely.
Russell .... the land footprint seems too small for a hyper/giga as it's going in where the old tidal wave used to be. Most favored rumor on the BGT pass holder facebook page is a skyrocket II style coaster similar to the electric eel at SWSD. We are going to find out soon enough ... :)
Woo hoo .... Gwazi looks to be getting an RMC makeover for 2020 ... :)
For 2019 it's the as expected SRII called Tigris.
Things are looking good for BGT
The big blue wall is down around Infinity Falls ..... :). No news on when the ride will be open, but shouldn’t be too far away ??
Looks really nice. The Waterway grill is open, but the pass-holder lounge was closed.
On none Seaworld related news .... the Universal pedestrian bridge over Kirkman has arrived. 4 large sections were stored just south of Major, so that’s making good progress too.
Media day at Infinity Falls is October 4th, so hopefully the following weekend it will be open. They were testing with dummies again last night. The splash at the bottom of the slope just about gets to the bridge, but I don't think we are going to see a tidal wave type soaking like it used to be at BGT.
Kraken was officially 'unleashed' on Wednesday, so if you didn't get chance to try the VR, then it's game over.
The big blue wall that used to be around Infinity Falls is now around Dolphin Cove. Supposedly closed until December, while they clean out the pool.
I was at SWO tonight and the ride was running with employees riding and looked pretty much done, all the walls are down and the theming in the area is all complete. When walking by at first I thought it may have been soft opening but there was a chain and sign at the entrance saying it was opening soon.
Seaworld employees were the lucky ones today ... being able to ride Infinity Falls in the blistering Orlando heat. It was 92deg when I was in there at 4:30 and I wanted so much to get soaked and join those guys, but sadly there was no way I was going to get on. Where are my op buddies when I need them !!
It looked so wonderfully cooling, and yes people were getting soaked even with the water curtain shutting off as the rafts passed thru. I spoke to Dan from Midway Mayhem and he was optimistic it would get a soft opening this weekend, so we’ll wait and see. I’ll be back Monday night, so maybe I’ll get my soaking then.
Finally ..... according to Midway Mayhem, SeaWorld has announced Infinity Falls will open to one and all from 12pm on October 4th. With the heat we have here at the moment, it feels more like August so theoretically they made their (feel like)summer opening ... :)
"Soft Soft openings" from today thru to Oct 3rd. Guaranteed it won't be open Monday night when I go back !!!
Makorider...Appreciate the update. Look forward to seeing your review of this ride soon. I agree with what you shared in your response to my earlier post. Manta is an amazing ride, but I definitely prefer the 1st 4 rows. In my mid-50s and recognize my limitations when it comes to coasters. My adult daughter loves back rows and I will ride with her once or twice a day in that area. Not sure how Mako compares to our B&M Goliath, but back row is fun also (more floater air).
Glad you have a road trip to SFOG and Carowinds planned for next Aug. IMHO, Fury 325 alone is worth the trip to Carowinds. SFOG is something we take for granted, but the recent additions of Georgia twisted Cyclone and Justice League have raised our home park up a notch or two.
Ed ... I'm with you on the 'limitations' that my body reminds me about every time I go on a ride, but I've learnt to listen and that still allows me to have a great time no matter where I visit and what ride I go on. I'll always try a new ride no matter what, but after that the listening aspect has to kick in.
Seeing the way IF rocked and banged its way along the water course I'm a little wary of it to be honest, but I will try it the once. Although if that water curtain is on, I may pass. I don't mind getting soaked, but I do draw a line at getting absolutely drenched.
As you may have read in some of my other posts, my trip this year saw me riding SV only a week after Fury325 (both for the 1st time) and in my opinion 325 blows SV out of the water. It was good to see GTA still recognize F325 as the best steel coaster ... :) I can't wait to get back on it next year.
Parking was up to $25 tonight ... didn’t take them long to follow the big 2’s lead ... !!
Penny for your thoughts on the parking raise at SWO Mako?
Think this was a missed opportunity for them to get in good with Central Florida? Could this be necessary to keep their image up with the other parks?
@rumblemike ... it was inevitable that SWO would raise their parking fees, but myself, and other pass members at work, are disappointed they didn’t leave it a while longer, maybe into the new year. It didn’t seem necessary at this point in time, especially as their attendance is still very good even for late October. I have never seen so many people in the park during the last couple of hours of opening, as I have throughout this year.
Of course, as discussed many times in various posts, this isn’t going to deter the tourists from going ... after all what’s $3 these days in the big scheme of a $$$ vacation ??
Thanks for sharing Mako. I think you're right.
Makorider - the footbridge going to Universal is now up! It will be really nice to have for Kirkman traffic and pedestrians once ramp construction is completed!
The OBJ is reporting Sea World Entertainment is still on an upward track ... all very good news for the Busch Gardens and Sea World parks.
"The marine theme park operator's earnings and attendance for the third quarter of this year — as well as the year's first nine months — both are showing impressive growth. Revenue for the quarter ending Sept. 30 reached $483.2 million, up 10.4 percent from $437.7 million; and the year's first nine-month revenue was up 9.5 percent to $1.09 billion compared to $997.8 million for the same period last year. Also, attendance at the parks showed similar improvement of nearly 10 percent to 8.34 million guests for the quarter, and it was up 8.7 percent to 17.9 million visitors for the nine-month cycle."
Just an FYI: Marriott is about to begin construction on a big ass hotel on Westwood Boulevard -- less than a mile from SWO.
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Appreciate the Sea World updates. We are making plans to visit SWO and Aquatica for April Spring Break. I really want to catch the final Shamu shows before they change in 2019. Also excited that our 9 year old grandson is now tall enough to ride the big coasters at SWO with us. He loves the B&M Superman flying coaster at our home park, SFOG. So he will be blown away by Manta. thanks...