Review: SeaWorld San Diego answers critics with a slow and boring new Orca Encounter show
SeaWorld San Diego’s controversial new Orca Encounter offers a direct response to its critics with a less theatrical and more natural show that bills itself as the “world’s first live documentary.”
The marine theme park has struggled with how to present its marquee killer whale show ever since the 2013 release of the “Blackfish” documentary that was critical of SeaWorld’s treatment of the captive whales.
The main changes to the new show are mostly thematic and cosmetic.
The Shamu stadium stage has been transformed with a Pacific Northwest theme featuring natural rock work, faux trees and man-made waterfalls surrounding a 138-foot-wide high-definition infinity screen.
The 1.7-million gallon tank and the 5,500-seat Shamu stadium remain unchanged. Animal behaviorists continue to stand in the shallow water and touch the whales but don’t swim with the orcas. The kids in the splash zone still get soaked.
During a media preview on Wednesday, I found Orca Encounter to be boring, joyless and bogged down by scientific artifice. The show started slow and continued at a leisurely pace, with a heavy dependence on the giant video screen punctuated by all too infrequent appearances by actual orcas. Though there were moments of levity, all too often I felt like I was watching a somber yet beautifully filmed documentary on an impressive video screen rather than a live orca show. Orca Encounter treats the killer whales as a sideshow rather than the main attraction.
SeaWorld San Diego also launched the new Ocean Explorer themed land that looks nice from a thematic standpoint but is filled with an unimaginative collection of off-the-shelf kiddie rides.
Geared toward 4- to 8-year-olds, Ocean Explorer is located next to the Sesame Street Bay of Play kiddie land that caters to the same demographic.
The new land is filled with atmospheric volcanic rock and coral reef that adds to the ocean depths theme. Unfortunately, many of the new plants were trampled by toddlers on opening day in part because SeaWorld didn’t put up any fencing around the planters.
But none of those rides compared with the woeful Submarine Quest, which embodies everything that’s wrong with today’s newest cutting-edge theme park attractions. Submarine Quest combines a people-mover-style ride vehicle with a video game console and animated video screens. The new land’s centerpiece ride is basically a slow-moving transportation system that doesn’t take you anywhere and encourages you to ignore your surroundings. The lone dark-ride moment features a 25-foot-wide digital octopus that appears on a series of video screens.
The only ride in the new themed land worth waiting in line for was the Tentacle Twirl wave swing, which was fun and well themed.
Fortunately, there’s still hope for SeaWorld San Diego’s latest round of additions. The park is to introduce the Electric Ocean nighttime spectacular on June 17. And next year, the Electric Eel triple-launch looping roller coaster will be added to Ocean Explorer.
Still need more theme park news? Check out the Los Angeles Times Funland theme park blog on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram.
ALSO
8 unanswered questions about Disneyland’s Star Wars Land
Disneyland 2055: What the future may hold for the original Disney park
Disneyland 1955: ‘Walt’s Folly’ got off to a nightmare start
Get inspired to get away.
Explore California, the West and beyond with the weekly Escapes newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.