Welcome back to San Diego as we visit SeaWorld for their nightly summer entertainment, Electric Ocean. Speaking of night, SeaWorld also announced something scary coming this fall. We’ll get to that in a little bit. But first, let’s take a look at the electrifying assortment of happenings at SeaWorld San Diego and a few complaints about poor guest experience.
Howl-O-Scream
Last week SeaWorld announced a new adult Halloween event that will lurk on the shores of Mission Bay. Howl-O-Scream has been a popular haunt-style event at other SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks. We’ve been a fan of the version at Busch Gardens Tampa Bay for years! Though, this is the first time Howl-O-Scream is making its way to the West Coast. That said, we think that Howl-O-Scream will be a great fit for San Diego. The event will feature 3 haunted houses, 7 scare zones, and 4 roaming monster hordes.
Curious about Howl-O-Scream at SeaWorld this year? We’ve got more info for you about the Halloween-time attraction in the article below.
Electric Ocean
SeaWorld is celebrating Electric Ocean this summer with a slew of entertainment to brighten the night. And while the evening event features an array of colors and lights, the decorations don’t make much sense during the day. There’s no real context given to them during daylight hours so the decorations don’t seem very impressive in comparison to their nighttime glow.
But at nightfall, the decorations around the park come to life.
Even the Light Tunnel near the front of the park becomes a part of the illumination around the park.
Static Shock
At the Nautilus Amphitheater, a new rock show debuted. Static Shock features a band that plays popular pop, rock, Latin, and R&B songs. They start their set daily at 4pm with shows taking place throughout the evening.
The daytime shows are a bit hard to sit through as the amphitheater is not shaded. But once night falls, the show really starts to rock!
Club Sea Glow
Club Sea Glow is located near Explorer Cafe. It’s an area that features a DJ and several dancers that keep the beat going into the night.
Club Sea Glow runs nightly from 5pm until Ignite Fireworks shows just before closing.
Ignite Fireworks Show
At the end of the night, SeaWorld launches a very brief firework show (called “Ignite”) in the sky of Mission Bay. Ignite runs just over 4 minutes and is a great endcap to a day at the park.
Laser Reef Light Show
The fun doesn’t end after fireworks. In fact, after the Ignite fireworks show, Explorer’s Reef (SeaWorld’s Entrance Plaza) hosts a laser light show as your exit the park for the night. This is one of the most fun parts of the Electric Ocean event.
The show lasts for about 40 minutes after park closing and is divided into two sections. The first part is with very upbeat music.
In the final 20 minutes, the music slows down after the park announcer gives a Good Night message.
More Coming Soon
In the coming weeks, SeaWorld has announced more entertainment will be added to the park. This includes SeaWorld’s Cirque Neon World show, additional acts to Club Sea Glow, and a return of their Marching Band. We’re looking forward to seeing the rest of the entertainment lineup soon!
Around the Park
Since the relaxing of most theme park restrictions on June 15th, SeaWorld San Diego has mostly returned to normal. The giant line of switchbacks in front of the park’s gate is now gone and most COVID-related signage has been removed from the park.
Guest ticket self-service kiosks have also returned.
SeaWorld has also removed theme park reservations from their website and guests are no longer being asked about them as they approach the front gate.
With Cirque Neon World opening in a few weeks, work over at the Bayside Amphitheater continues. But to our surprise, the entire stage structure has been removed. This has us wondering what SeaWorld has planned for the new show.
Over in the Ocean Explorer section of the park, the ill-fated Submarine Quest ride is being removed (the ride ran for just a few months before shutting down). This should free the area up for more entertainment space or additional attractions.
Over at Journey to Atlantis, refurbishment work continues on the attraction getting ready for guests. SeaWorld’s website lists the attraction as returning soon. A few weeks ago the entire plaza was completely off-limits.
As of last weekend, the water flume has been refilled and the attraction plaza has reopened to guests.
Meanwhile, Emperor, SeaWorld’s new dive coaster, continues to sit unopened. Guests might spot the coaster test running in the morning hours.
SeaWorld has quietly removed “Summer” from the Opening 2021 announcement on the park’s webpage which makes us worried that this project has slipped into a Fall opening. SeaWorld has not set a definitive date for when the is coaster opening yet so we will have to wait to see.
Meanwhile, Tidal Twister remains closed for refurb work.
The attraction ride area is in better shape than we have seen it in the last couple of months.
We did notice that one of the queue televisions was on even with the attraction still not operating.
Shipwreck Rapids returned a few weeks ago to splashing guests, but…
…has since closed for another refurbishment. That’s quite odd.
Over at Sesame Street: Bay of Play, several of the areas remain closed. For the time being, the ship in the middle of the bay remains closed. Throughout the day, some of the Sesame Street Gang come out to perform a dancing show.
As of this writing, all the net climbs remain closed.
The Air Bounce pad has reopened.
As well as the Toddler playmat.
As well as the spring walls.
Back along Mission Bay, the Riptide Rescue ride continues to be worked on. SeaWorld seems to have taken the entire thing apart in the last couple of weeks and its looks like it’s almost all back together.
One of the questions during my visits to the park is, “What the heck is happening over at Wild Arctic?” Currently, the animal exhibits are open but what about the motion simulator part?
Currently, SeaWorld sends guests through what would be the non-motion experience room without experiencing the film and straight into the animal exhibit. The entrances to the motion simulators have their doors closed with Minimum height requirement checks in place.
A notice is placed on both doors in view of guest areas saying that these areas are being used only by the Entertainment department.
Guest pass by those doors to enter the exhibit through the non-motion experience room.
After passing through the non-motion experience room, we can see the ride-vehicles exit hallways with ground markings still on the floor.
The last time I rode the attraction the film footage was very much showing its age. The San Diego version of Wild Arctic opened in 1997, while the film was originally produced for the Orlando version that opened in 1995. SeaWorld has announced that they currently do not have plans to reopen the attraction portion here in San Diego, but something tells me that the motion simulator hasn’t been sent to the attraction graveyard just yet. If SeaWorld was completely done with the attraction, then the safety signage would have been removed and all the hallways would likely been walled off.
At the center of the park, Sky Tower continues to remain closed for refurbishment.
We can see work continues on the underside of the cabin.
The construction walls around the tower have been removed as the lagoon under it has been refilled.
While SeaWorld has returned to “normal operation,” the indoor Aquariums have not. Although this was understandable while state restrictions were in place for indoor environments, the lack of reopening now just doesn’t make any sense. This applies both to the Freshwater Aquariums and the Aquaria: World of Fishes.
The banners in front of Aquaria look like they have been replaced recently.
It might sound like we are being very nit-picky about SeaWorld, but it’s a park I personally do care about. To see the park in this state makes me incredibly sad as I know the company can do better.
Unfortunately, numerous closed attractions and the long waits at food options have me questioning SeaWorld’s decision to drop park reservations as they clearly are NOT ready to handle increased volume of guests. It’s critical that SeaWorld focus on the guest experience if they are going to pretend they have returned to normal operation.
Something as simple as replacing aging signage, as seen below, or adding higher quality experiences, or frankly being upfront to guests about why all park experiences are not fully open would go a long way.
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Let’s Hear From You
That’s for this time from SeaWorld San Diego. What are your thoughts about Electric Ocean? Are you planning of coming to Howl-O-Screams this fall season? Have you had a recent positive or negative SeaWorld experience? Tell us in the comments section below.
