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SeaWorld is a chain of marine parks in the United States featuring a wide variety of sea life on display, and just so happens to be the largest of its kind in the world.
The first of the parks was founded in 1964, by Milton C. Shedd, Ken Norris, David Demott, and George Millay. Despite its small size at the time, it was a huge success; prompting the construction of further parks. The company would then go on to be traded amongst several conglomerates, the first being Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., who bought the parks in 1976 but eventually sold them to the Anheuser-Busch company (who at the time also owned the Busch Gardens parks) in 1989. It would not be until 20 years later that AB InBev would go on to sell the parks to the Blackstone Group, who took the company public in 2012 as SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc.
In 2013 the documentary Blackfish exposed myriad serious ethical, moral, practical, animal welfare and safety issues with SeaWorld's keeping of large marine animals in captivity, their treatment and their living conditions, leading to a serious public relations problem for the organisation and a large downturn in visitor numbers. The company is making strenuous efforts to overcome this by re-focusing on conservation rather than entertainment, but only time will tell if this will be effective.
The marine park chain's four locations include:
- SeaWorld San Diego: The first one to open. It opened in San Diego on March 21, 1964, offering a sealife alternative to the more famous San Diego Zoo.
- SeaWorld Orlando: The third one to open, and perhaps the most famous one. Opened its gates in Orlando on December 15, 1973, in an attempt to capitalize off of the same great success Disney has had in that area.
- Discovery Cove: A spin-off "boutique park" that offers guests an even closer look at the animals, including the opportunity to swim with dolphins. It opened on July 1, 2000.
- SeaWorld San Antonio: The next one to open. It first came about in San Antonio on May 27, 1988.
- Discovery Point: A "boutique park" that's more-or-less the same thing as Discovery Cove. It opened on May 21, 2016.
- SeaWorld Abu Dhabi: The newest park, and first to open internationally, as well as the first to not feature orcas. Located on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, it opened May 23, 2023.
The chain formerly ran a location in Aurora, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. It was the chain's second park, opening in 1970 next to regional amusement park Geauga Lake. Geauga Lake became Six Flags Ohio in 2000. The next year, Six Flags purchased Sea World Ohio and combined both parks into the massive Six Flags Worlds of Adventure.
SeaWorld provides examples of:
- Adaptation Distillation: The park's former seasonal The Polar Express Experience is this, as since it is a five-or-so minute simulator ride, it cuts out most of the character interactions and sub-plots of the movie, leaving in only the most memorable bits. Said bits are the boy being picked up by the train, the conductor, the plummet down Glacier Gulch, and the boy meeting Santa Claus, thus truly believing in him. The simplification of the movie does incidentally make the ride more closer to the original book, however.
- Alliterative Title:
- Alligator Alley
- Jazzy Jellies
- One Ocean
- Pacific Point Preserve
- Pelican Preserve
- Riptide Rescue
- Sea Swinger
- Turtle Trek
- Electric Eel
- Tidal Twister
- Atlantis: Journey to Atlantis is a water coaster set in, well, Atlantis.
- Ball-Balancing Seal: Such feats were common in SeaWorld facilities. A good example of this is in San Diego, which had a show called "Sea Lions Live" where a sea lion would balance a ball on its nose.
- The Bermuda Triangle: The former simulator, Mission: Bermuda Triangle was based entirely around the location.
- Christmas Special: The parks hold multiple festivities around December, including many holiday shows and activities. Beginning in 2014 note , characters from Rankin/Bass' Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (such as Rudolph, Clarice, Bumble, Yukon Cornelius, and Sam the Snowman) would be meetable with guests at a small area dedicated to the special called "Christmas Town".
- Derelict Graveyard: San Diego's Shipwreck Rapids is naturally themed around a graveyard of marooned ships.
- Dream Episode:
- The former "Blue Horizons" dolphin show is supposed to take place in a little girl's dream. It even opened with the trainer playing the little girl in a pink nightgown that would turn into a wet-suit so she could dive in and swim with the dolphins.
- Likewise the former nighttime show "Mistify" was all in the dream of a little boy searching the ocean for Shamu.
- Enemy Mine: Despite being competitors with them, the SeaWorld parks hold a close affiliation with Universal Studios and often feature a lot of joint ticket deals with them, as a way of mutually strengthening each other against the Disney Theme Parks.
- Halloween Special: During September and October, the parks have the family friendly Halloween Spooktacular event. They also run the way more darker and adult Howl-O-Scream event at night.
- High School: The plot of Clyde & Seamore's Sea Lion High is about the title characters attending the school and having to pass their classes in order to earn scholarships to Ocean University.
- If It Swims, It Flies: In the Wild Arctic simulator, the "helicopter" the guests ride in is shown as also being submersible, as at one point it dives into the Arctic Ocean to get a view of some narwhals.
- Kraken and Leviathan: The Kraken coaster is based around the titular creature, taking place in its lair, where it has been locked up by the Poseidon.
- Legacy Character: Shamu.
- Leitmotif: Aquatica has not one, but seven
songs featuring the waterpark's theme song, Bright New World. - Lighthouse Point: The setting of the former R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse 4-D attraction.
- Mascot: Shamu the orca whale has served this role since the brand's inception.
- Name and Name: Both Clyde & Seamore's Sea Lion High and Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island shows.
- Non-Human Sidekick: In the Clyde & Seamore shows, Seamore is Clyde's sea lion sidekick. O.P. Otter is a sidekick to both of the sea lions.
- One-Word Title:
- Mako
- Manta
- Kraken
- Emperor
- Our Monsters Are Different: Kraken used to be themed to eels instead of a giant squid. When the ride was renovated in 2017, it ended up being themed to an actual kraken.
- Pirate: Pirates were featured in two former attractions: Pirates 4-D and Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island.
- Portmantitle: The park's title, SeaWorld.
- Recycled Soundtrack:
- Orlando's Journey to Atlantis used music from Beetlejuice in the first outdoor scene.
- Nowadays, the ride uses the soundtrack from A'lure: The Call of the Ocean, a show that used to be in the park.
- Nowadays, the ride uses the
- One of the launch sequences for Manta Madnessnote at Seaworld San Diego uses one of the songs played on the lift hill of Mako
- Some of the Sesame Street character shows borrow songs from the
Sesame Street Live tours. It helps that SeaWorld often hires their producer VStar Entertainment to create said shows.
- Orlando's Journey to Atlantis used music from Beetlejuice in the first outdoor scene.
- The Rival: To many parks, most notably the San Diego Zoo and the Disney Theme Parks.
- Scenery Porn: Evident mostly in the Waterfront and Antarctica areas of the Orlando park.
- Self-Deprecation: The show, Sea Lions TONITE, pokes fun at many of the park's other shows and attractions.
- Shark Tunnel: Arguably the Ur-Example, the Shark Encounter exhibit was one of the first instances of this.
- Sirens Are Mermaids: Allura, the former villainess of Orlando's Journey to Atlantis, is a mermaid/siren that at first appears friendly, only to reveal her true self very quickly.
- Tagline: "Where Imagination Meets Nature"
- Threatening Shark:
- The Shark Encounter exhibit used to play this up, as it was originally titled Terrors of the Deep.
- Alluded to with the Mako roller coaster, which is an intense thrill ride themed around the Mako shark.
- Water Guns and Balloons: In front of Journey to Atlantis are a group of water guns that guests can use to shoot water at the people riding.
- Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: In the Orlando version of Journey to Atlantisnote , after going down the ride's biggest drop, you are made to think that you have escaped the ride's villainous sea witch...only for you to be taken back into the building for a final encounter with her, resulting in the brief roller coaster portion of the attraction.
