Theme park and attraction news, rumors and videos.
With most theme parks reopen from the COVID shutdown, everyone is getting used to new social distancing and mask mandates. The big name parks are always in the spotlight when it comes to showcasing their new safety requirements and how they’re handled, but one park that often gets overlooked is SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove. We were invited to the park to see how they’ve changed their experiences to better suit the times.
Walt Conti and Roger Holzberg, former creative director and vice president for Walt Disney Imagineering — together with the team at special effects company Edge Innovations — have created a robotic dolphin that could potentially replace the real thing in aquariums and theme parks.
The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Food & Wine Classic will return for its ninth year Oct. 26 to 28. This three day events allows guests to enjoy more than 90 food and beverage stations, 10 seminars and five themed areas.
Following the success of 2011’s “Dolphin Tale” movie, filming for its sequel, “Dolphin Tale 2” will begin this fall in Clearwater, Fla. [Read more…]
SeaWorld’s animal rescue team traveled to Three Sisters Island, in Volusia County, Florida yesterday afternoon to rescue a stranded newborn dolphin calf. The calf was found stranded in shallow waters under a mangrove. [Read more…]
We were recently invited to spend a day at Discovery Cove and readily took them up on the offer. I’d been to the park once before to cover it for our Spring 2010 issue, but I’d never been there as a guest. It was a great day of swimming, relaxing, eating and animal interactions. [Read more…]
By Andy Guinigundo
At Sea World San Diego, there are not many shows that have had as long a run as Dolphin Discovery’s 13 years. That run comes to an end this weekend when the final show will be preformed. After that, Dolphin Discovery will transform into Blue Horizons. Visitors to SeaWorld Orlando have already had the opportunity to see Blue Horizons since 2005. The show will feature the energetic bottle-nose dolphin, pilot whales, exotic birds and acrobatic performers of the human variety.
Construction on the new set, designed by Broadway set designer Stanley Meyer, will begin soon. Meyer designed the set for the Beauty and the Beast musical. A special interim dolphin show will be presented in Shamu Stadium beginning in November. Visitors to SeaWorld San Diego can experience the new show beginning in May 2010.
Just a few weeks ago, I reported that Nickelodeon is partnering with The City of New Orleans and Southern Star Amusement to open its first stand-alone outdoor Nickelodeon theme park at the site of the old Six Flags New Orleans. While Nick will grow in this regard, they will be ending their licensing agreement with five Cedar Fair parks. This includes Kings Island near Cincinnati that has been voted the “Best Kid’s Area” by Amusement Today with their Nickelodeon Universe from 2001-08. The other parks include: Canada’s Wonderland near Toronto, Kings Dominion in Virginia, Carowinds in North Carolina, and California’s Great America.
Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the rest of the Peanuts gang will replace Nickelodeon. The kids areas in each of these parks will undergo “re-branding” which will include new shows and in some cases, new rides. Don Helbig of Kings Island said all of the names for the rides within Planet Snoopy will be announced during the off season. Six Cedar Fair parks already have Peanuts-themed kids areas.
• Andy Guinigundo is the author of the Out of The Loop column in “Orlando Attractions Magazine”. He lives in Cincinnati, Ohio with his wife and three daughters. He grew up frequenting theme parks around Ohio and making trips to Orlando with his family. While for most of the year, he’s out of the Orlando loop, he tries to visit Florida at least once a year.