SeaWorld names that flying Arctic ride: Expedition Odyssey
SeaWorld Orlando’s next big ride will have an arctic theme, flying sensations, no artificial intelligence and go by the name Expedition Odyssey when it opens this spring.
The attraction’s name was revealed during a hard-hat tour of the construction site for members of the media Wednesday.
Expedition Odyssey will be a “flying theater” type of ride with seated passengers dangling in front of a curved screen that’s 50 feet in diameter. The images they’ll see will feature animals from the Arctic that were filmed during three two-week excursions spread over a year.
“We wanted to make sure that we truly captured everything that this incredible atmosphere has to offer,” said Conner Carr, corporate manager of rides and engineering for United Parks & Resorts, SeaWorld’s parent company.
It won’t be a computer-generated experience.
“Everything that guests will see during the ride experience is 100% real,” Carr said. “All of the animals, all of the landscapes, all of the adventure is truly real.”
The ride features two stacked rows of 15 seats that face the theater’s screen. While 30 passengers watch the 4.5-minute film, 30 more people are loaded into seats that are back-to-back with the rows aimed at the action. There’s soundproofing between the groups.
At the end of the ride, the entire seating mechanism swivels around for unloading one group and maneuvering the others toward the screen for the next presentation.
In addition, there’s an identical theater next door that operates independently.
“Not only are we showing you the Arctic, but we’re taking you there through multiple special effects – scent, mist, wind, light, in addition to a dynamic range of motion,” Carr said.
More than a dozen speakers are mounted beyond the big screen, and there are onboard speakers behind each rider, Carr said. There’s also a tower of subwoofers “that you will not just hear, you will feel on the ride, adding even more to that true immersion,” he said.
SeaWorld Orlando worked with Mack Rides, a German company, for the flying theater, which is a style called Airific. For the film, it worked with UK-based Mousetrap Media and Norway-based PolarX.
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Central Florida attractions with flying theater-style rides include Soarin’ at Epcot, Lego Movie Masters of Flight at Legoland Florida and Gateway: The Deep Space Launch Complex at Kennedy Space Center.
An exact date for the new ride’s opening has not been announced, although SeaWorld has narrowed it to spring of this year. Its height requirement will be 39 inches, in the family-friendly category with the 43-inch height requirement for Penguin Trek, a roller coaster that opened at SeaWorld last year.
Expedition Odyssey is taking over the building that housed Wild Arctic, a simulator ride that operated at SeaWorld from 1995 to 2020. It closed with the park during its pandemic shutdown and never reopened. The new dual theaters are a tight fit.
“The gondolas are as close as possible to the screen,” Carr said. “We are not showing you a film of the Arctic. We are taking you to the Arctic and immersing you in the Arctic.”
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As riders did after Wild Arctic, Expedition Odyssey passengers will exit into an animal exhibit. That space – as well as the following gift shop – is being refurbished. It will still feature beluga whales and walruses.
“We’re refreshing it,” said Jon Peterson, park president. “We’re going in and painting some things, taking some concrete and adjusting some areas that we believe we could take back a little bit and re-patch out a different way. … We’re also refreshing everything guests see.”
Before all that, the tanks were drained of 500,000 gallons of water and put into backstage basins. The animals also are behind the scenes during the process.
The contractors are working at an accelerated pace, Peterson said.
“The least amount of time to impact an animal is my goal. It’s the company’s goal,” he said.
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