The Theme Park History of Journey To Atlantis (SeaWorld Orlando)

[Music] from the dense world's greatest mystery a city was lost now found new journey to atlantis' the ultimate adventure ride hello and welcome to theme park history the channel for everything to do with theme parks old and new big and small in today's episode we travel to the golden city of the sea and explore journey to atlantis' a water roller coaster that opened at SeaWorld Orlando on April 17 1998 this attraction was suggested by all these deep-sea divers so thank you to everyone for the comments as always if there's any attraction you would like us to cover in a future video leave a comment down below you never know your suggestion might be next month's video inspired by the famous tale of Atlantis no not the animated story the original story way before that thank you the attraction takes guests on a voyage to the lost city that has mysteriously emerged from the depths of the sea known as the first major thrill ride to open at SeaWorld Orlando the attraction was the first ever to combine a water ride and high speed rollercoaster elements in a reality bending mythical experience encountering spine-tingling thrills and to steep 60-foot drops the journey turns guests into the stars of their own Greek tragedy where they witnessed the rise and experienced the fall of the city of Atlantis [Applause] [Music] [Music] while the story of the legendary city that sank into the ocean in a single day and night dates all the way back thousands of years our story starts in 1973 in another legendary City Orlando Florida on December 15th of that year SeaWorld Orlando would officially open to the public unlike the Magic Kingdom which had opened two years prior the new theme park would have an emphasis on providing up close encounters with living sea creatures including sea lions sharks dolphins and orcas the park would quickly become a popular destination as it provided another place for tourists to visit besides the nearby Disney park in 1989 the orlando park along with the other locations in San Diego Cleveland and San Antonio would be sold to the anheuser-busch company and integrated into the Busch Entertainment Corporation better known as the Brewing Company behind such fears as Budweiser Bud Light and many more the organization was already in a theme park business for years as they've operated two theme parks Busch Gardens Tampa which opened in 1959 and Busch Gardens Williamsburg which opened in 1975 after the acquisition Bush had ambitious plans to transform the Orlando Park due in part to the theme park market becoming much more crowded and competitive with the openings of disney-mgm studios in 1989 and Universal Studios Florida in 1990 instead of focusing on just being a zoo and aquarium that featured a number of live shows Busch felt that in order to compete with other theme parks nearby SeaWorld Orlando would have to offer their own thrill rides as well the first ride to debut at the park would be Mission Bermuda Triangle emotion-based simulator which opened on May 22nd 1992 while the Star Tours clone was a moderate success Bush wasn't satisfied with just having a copy of a popular attraction from another park Bush began to draw a plans to create the parks first-ever thrill ride with an original story and a brand-new never-before-seen ride system an attraction the company believed would be just as good were even better than anything Universal where Disney had to offer when creating this new attraction developers asked guests who visited the park what ocean related theme and story would interest them guess overwhelmingly said they would be interested in one story in particular the legend of Atlantis the first written account of the legend came from the ancient Greek philosopher Plato who wrote about the island continent in the fourth century BC in his dialogues Plato describes a civilization which disappears into the greatest depths of the sea when it's suddenly destroyed by massive earthquakes and floods what became of the city has been the source of much intrigue and speculation for centuries keeping Atlantis's place in popular culture firmly intact on March 28 1997 SeaWorld Orlando would officially announce the tale of the lost continent would receive its very own attraction called Journey to Atlantis the attraction which would be the park's first thrill ride which featured dark ride and roller coaster elements spanning six acres and towering tall earth in a ten story building the attraction would be SeaWorld Orlando's largest and costly expansion to date with construction actually starting in 1996 for the ride system Mac rides would be hired to create a first of its kind brand new roller coaster model for the attraction known as the water coaster it combines roller coaster elements such as chain lift hills and steep drops with boat based attraction elements such as splashdown landings while the eight passenger boats float through certain parts of the attraction they are attached with wheels on the bottom and on the sides whenever they reach a rise drop or curve the boats wheels engage the rails becoming a roller coaster the water coasters track is nearly 1,000 feet long with five lift hills and 260 foot drops at angles of 60 and 55 degrees each of the boats weigh 1.2 tons were 2,400 pounds and the attraction uses over 116 thousand gallons of water for the dark ride portions of the attraction a blend of special effects called aqua illusion including LCD technology lasers holographic illusions and projections were installed nearly 24,000 fiber-optic lights illuminate the travels of the attractions protagonist Hermes and the scream of the siren is comprised from a combination of eight different animals including a lion a bear and a rattlesnake journey to atlantis' would officially open at SeaWorld Orlando on April 17 1998 while SeaWorld has never revealed how much the attraction cost to be built reports have suggested the price tag was anywhere between 40 to 50 million dollars located within the sea of legends area of the park the attraction takes place on Thera a quaint island off the coast of Greece where after eons the ancient city of Atlantis has risen from the ocean the phenomenon has drawn the attention of the media and has quickly become its own tourist attraction as guests make their way through the village overhead monitors telecast the event with one fisherman named star voz warning anyone planning to visit Atlantis to keep out as there are evil sirens who plan to use their seductive charm to trap them in the city forever ignoring the old man's advice guess eventually reached the loading area where they board their eight passenger boat once all guests are on board the boat departs into the villages streets at night before they make their way to Atlantis the guests are stopped by star voz seeing that the guests didn't heed his warning he offers them their only hope in surviving their trip a golden seahorse that transforms into the Greek god Hermes who is viewed as a patron of roads and travelers Hermes leads guests through a tunnel of stars and into a glowing coral reef where they pass by a statue of a mermaid all of a sudden the statue begins to glow and a mermaid appears named Elora Elora welcomes two guests telling them not to be afraid and to come closer so she can reveal the magic of Atlantis Hermes leads the boat into the city which is barren and desolate of life guests pass by a stone statue of a woman pouring of oz of water into the canal and as they get closer the face of the statue comes alive as it turns into a Lora who's laughing joyfully until it deepens and distorts as her face turns to water running down the statue the boat passes by the center of the city where numerous fountains shoot streams of water all around the guests as Hermes is trying to lead the boat out of the city the guests once again encounter Elora who appears from one of the fountains annoyed the guests have been rejecting her advances her eyes begin the glow green and snake-like tentacles sprout from her head revealing she's been a siren the whole time Alaura now appears above the guests attempting to send them to their watery grave but are able to escape unharmed at the last moment the boat travels up a lift hill where the sirens green eyes stared down at the guests as the boat reaches the top of the hill Elora laughs as the two doors open revealing instead of a massive drum another passageway outside the temple the boat climbs another lift hill while the theme from the film Beetlejuice plays at the top of the hill the boat rounds a corner where water cannons spray the guests before it reactors the temple and goes down a 60-foot drop at 50 miles per hour straight into the lagoon before guests have the chance to exit the attraction alura's wicked cackle echoes through the air as she tells them leaving so soon I think not somehow drawing the boat back towards the temple the boat climbs a lift hill and back into the city to a claustrophobic dark shrine dedicated to a Laura full of flickering candles decaying murals and tattered sails a horrible shriek begins to rise in pitch as Elora yells that the guest will finally be hers Hermes appears in the nick of time redirecting the guests out of the shrine before they are trapped in atlantis forever Elora lets loose one final scream as the boat plummets down the Wrights finale another 60-foot drop swooping to the left banking hard surging to the right rising up and blasting out into the lagoon behind the temple the boat returns to the loading area where guests on board exit the attraction and enter the golden seahorse gift shop where merchandise from the attraction is sold nearby is the jewels of the sea aquarium a circular room full of sharks stingrays glowing jellyfish and other fish guests can view in every direction including beneath their feet and above their heads the five minute 56 second attraction has been met with mixed reactions from guests as many have praised the attractions theming and thrill portions of the water coaster but have criticized the poor storytelling along with many of the special effects throughout not working properly that being said journey to atlantis' is still a popular attraction with guests as the part water ride heart roller coaster is unlike anything else the park offers even though the lost city of Atlantis had risen in Orlando that wouldn't stopped the city from miraculously appearing at other SeaWorld parks as well because of the contract between SeaWorld and Mack rides two more journey to atlantis' attractions would be built the first opening at SeaWorld San Diego on May 29 2004 and the second opening at SeaWorld San Antonio on May 11 2007 while all three water coaster attractions share the same name that is where the similarities end the San Diego and San Antonio versions eliminate the storytelling theming and dark ride elements Orlando has San Diego offers a much larger roller coaster ride than Florida featuring a 70 foot 270 degree curve dropped finale while San Antonio resembles more of a traditional shoot the chutes ride with two turntables that allows guests a 360 degree view of the park while the Orlando version would remain the same without any major alterations since opening this would all change in 2017 after its annual winter refurbishment the attraction would reopen with a major surprise for guests instead of fixing the special effects syncing the audio tracks and giving Atlantis a new coat of paint the rides story would be completely removed to turn it into a more family-friendly experience while no changes were made to the ride track the effects of both Elora and Hermes have been completely turned off including the large Elora figure guests encounter whose eyes no longer glow and just sits in the darkness another change was the removal of the musical score including the Beetlejuice theme and any sound effects that narrated the rides story replacing it with the continuous loop of soothing ambient relaxing music from the allure called the ocean show reception to the changes made to the attract have been met with overwhelmingly negative feedback from guests as while the story was hard to follow to begin with without it the ride is now nothing more than a sightseeing tour with two drops along the way with the removal of the rides story and special effects it's been speculated that it might only be a matter of time before the city of Atlantis once again sinks to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean [Music] even though journey to atlantis' is now a shadow of its former self the attraction to impact on SeaWorld Orlando is not to be overlooked because of the initial success of the water coaster when it opened in 1998 the park would continue to invest in creating ambitious thrill rides including the floorless roller coaster kraken in 2000 the flying roller coaster Manta in 2009 and the hyper coaster Mako in 2016 while it might now be lacking any type of story the mix of a classic dark ride log flume and roller coaster all in one still makes journey to atlantis' a trip worth taking so that is a theme park history of Journey to Atlantis as always thank you for watching the video and supporting the channel don't forget to like this video subscribe to the channel if there's any attraction you would like us to cover in a future video leave a comment down below once again thank you for watching and until next time remember if someone approaches you about a free tour of a city thousands of years old that rose from the bottom of the ocean they're probably just trying to sell you a timeshare

Channel: Theme Park History

Views: 249,916

Keywords: Theme Park History, Journey to Atlantis, Seaworld Orlando, Seaworld San Diego, Seaworld San Antonio, Journey to Atlantis Seaworld Orlando, Journey to Atlantis Seaworld San Diego, Journey to Atlantis Seaworld San Antonio, Journey to Atlantis Ride, Journey to Atlantis Ride Seaworld Orlando, Journey to Atlantis Ride Orlando, Journey to Atlantis Orlando, Journey to Atlantis History, Theme Park History Journey to Atlantis

Id: K2L6bFTtZ2I

Length: 16min 32sec (992 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 16 2019