[ad_1]
This is what a SeaWorld theme park should be.
Nearly 50 years later, four UCLA graduates decide to open an aquarium in San Diego They plan to open an underwater restaurant with an ocean show After the failure, Miral’s Yas Island commissioned a theme park to live up to the promise of the SeaWorld name.
Forget everything you knew when you visited SeaWorld’s Americana theme park. On the surface, the new SeaWorld Abu Dhabi has more DNA with Tokyo DisneySea than its older SeaWorld siblings. Built within sight of Warner Bros. World and on the other side of Yas Mall adjacent to Ferrari World, the 1.97 million-square-foot indoor park includes a kids’ area called MicroOcean that feels like King Triton An upgraded version of One Kingdom. There’s even a jellyfish-themed hanging tower for kids.
Looking up at the ceiling in MicroOcean
But that’s little more than child’s play next to SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, where visitors are encouraged to join its special group called SEA by playing interactive games throughout the park. Well, “Scientists, Explorers, and Adventurers” here, not Disney’s “Society of Explorers and Adventurers.” But I think SeaWorld should thank Ron DeSantis for keeping Disney’s legal team distracted these days.
That said, if you’re in the themed entertainment business and looking for inspiration from any park in the world, look no further than Tokyo DisneySea, the latest winner of our Theme Park Insider Awards, named World’s Best theme park. But the heart of the ocean is far below its surface, so let’s not get stuck on that level. On a deeper level, the only thing this park replicates is an old-fashioned SeaWorld park, where the animals are the attraction and rescuing them is the story.
Let’s talk about getting down to the surface – because you need to really do that at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi. It’s a multi-level park divided into eight themed “realms” that represent the aquatic environments around the planet, with plenty of opportunities to go up and down the levels and view the park’s tens of thousands of animals from different vantage points. Endless Ocean Kingdom is advertised, with seemingly endless paths and the option to view the aquarium more than 20 meters deep – the park is billed as the world’s largest single-tank aquarium.
Our walkthrough video times:
When visitors walk through the gates of Sea World Abu Dhabi, they are first taken through a series of escalators that take them to the park’s third level, from where they can embark on a journey into the park’s eight realms. The first will be Abu Dhabi Seas, a tribute to the legacy of fishing and pearl diving, which have sustained the people of the UAE long before oil helped drive the region’s economic prosperity.
Dugong is the mascot of the park
Designed with a hub-and-spoke system, this next-generation SeaWorld park bucks SeaWorld tradition. Just beyond the ocean in Abu Dhabi is the hub, the stunning kingdom of the sea. A giant screen wraps around this hub, playing a continuous loop of ocean scenes filmed in 8K. SeaWorld graced the production with daily One Epic Ocean spectacle, which also added small drone shows. At the beginning of today’s grand opening ceremony, you can see One Epic Ocean.
From One Ocean at the center of the park, visitors can access other areas of the park, including Polar Ocean – Arctic, Polar Ocean – Antarctica (not open during our preview period), Pacific Northwest themed Landing Point, and Tropical Ocean. The last two feature the park’s two big “demos,” next-gen versions of SeaWorld’s sea lion and dolphin shows.
Let’s send the outdoor, nondescript concrete stadium with aluminum benches to sleep with the proverbial fish. Miral and its design team provided suitable homes for these pieces, although the Rocky Point auditorium is the more comfortable and inviting of the two.Both shows try to send some somewhat contradictory social messages (follow the rules and respect ocean conservation laws…but get creative too!), but I feel like I’m longing for the slightly less dramatic one that SeaWorld San Diego adopts style of Orca EncounterStripping away the drama and portraying what animals do is not tricks but natural behaviour, animals are doing more for their own wellbeing than for our entertainment.
Speaking of orcas, you won’t find them at SeaWorld Abu Dhabi, they can only be found on the walls of some kingdoms as a decorative element.
You also won’t find the plethora of roller coasters and thrill rides that SeaWorld has added to its U.S. parks in recent years.If you haven’t read it, please see my Interview with Miral CEO Mohamed Al Zaabi, who told me that Abu Dhabi Parks will continue to focus on animals and habitats rather than thrill rides. Miral, which has reportedly spent more than $1 billion on the park, clearly has the financial muscle to do what it wants, rather than having to chase short-term market whims. I’ll get to that later.
But SeaWorld Abu Dhabi has some rides, including MicroOcean’s range of Zamperla rides for kids, most notably the Eel Racer kids roller coaster.
The park’s massive roller coaster is SeaWorld’s third Manta, this time built by Intamin.
The Manta sits beneath the tropical ocean and is loaded indoors, continuing the Yas Island practice established at Ferrari World. Once loaded, when you launch outside, the doors on the rails open and the heat hits you before airtime. But that air time – and hang time – did come, making this Manta feel more like an RMC than anything I’ve ridden from an Intamin lately. There are four inversions during this dynamic two-minute journey, the last of which reminded me of the extended hang time of the Jurassic World VelociCoaster. Note also the sides of this Manta, which can play a role in the lower back of anyone thin enough to slide into these roomy bucket seats. Still, I prefer Walt Disney World’s Manta to TRON and SeaWorld’s Pipeline, making it my top pick for the best new coaster so far this year.
The second major attraction, Intamin’s Hypersphere 360, is not available during the preview period.
If you watched my hike video above (watch it!), you may have noticed that it runs for almost an hour. I also feel rushed. Obviously, if you spend any time viewing the animals or attempting any interaction next to the exhibits, you’ll need at least a few hours to get around this park. Tickets start at AED 375 (US$ 102), but prices drop rapidly per day with multi-park and annual passes.Yas Island also offers discounted airfare if you show your Etihad boarding pass, our travel partners have Discounts on Yas Island Theme Park Ticketsalso.
Sea World Abu Dhabi is a visually beautiful park. It is an inviting space that inspires the spirit of exploration that the park is designed to foster. Well, at least for me. I grew up in love with the old Sea World parks because they were the only places I could ever hope to see real life otters, dolphins and sharks up close. Sorry, videos are not an adequate substitute for a real life experience.as i Reply in 2011“If you want to inspire people to take action to protect orcas, you have to get orcas splashed in their faces.”
Emotion drives action. Unfortunately, the emotion that too many people feel right now when they think about the future is hopelessness. Young people grow up pessimistic about the future of the world. This makes SeaWorld’s message difficult to accept. Who cares about animals when the whole planet is dying? Let’s get this mess out of the way and go see another sci-fi or superhero movie, or take another IP-based attraction.
These are the reasons why SeaWorld keeps buying roller coasters. SeaWorld is no longer owned by Anheuser-Busch and must chase the market. Companies now lack the resources to change the market.
Millar is different. With the support of the Abu Dhabi government, Miral is in a position to create the kind of park that SeaWorld fans can only dream of. Let us not lose sight of the irony that the suffering at the heart of all the problems facing animals in the Arabian Gulf and beyond today is global warming – caused, of course, in large part by the depletion of oil in Abu Dhabi and Its neighbors are so rich.
But let’s also not lose sight of that SeaWorld Abu Dhabi symbolizes that Abu Dhabi’s leadership understands this. Yas Island exists because Abu Dhabi is trying to diversify its economy beyond oil and into tourism. It also reminds or informs tourists that the Emiratis existed and depended on the sea long before there was oil. No amount of money will protect any of us if the planet dies. Out there is an ocean, and we all depend on it to survive—whether rich or poor, animals or humans.
Of course, this is not an interesting idea. But it is necessary. The creative skills of those well-trained and talented people who can make us happy also allow them to challenge us. Then, inform our understanding and inspire us to act.
With all the problems facing our world on land and sea, we need people to stand up and do it – in books and blog posts, in videos and films, in theater and music, and in museums and theme parks. I don’t know if Sea World Abu Dhabi will have a positive impact on the outlook of this world with its exhibits and attractions. But I’m grateful whenever a creator tries to make something positive happen.
* * *
For more theme park news and to support Robert’s writing, sign up Theme Park Insider’s weekly newsletter.
reply(0)
[ad_2]
Source link