SeaWorld San Diego

Visited: December 4, 2022

Attending: Just Brian

This visit was the definition of a fly-by. I was in San Diego for a Marketing department off-site meeting, which was slated for all of two days, barely worth it. However, I went out a day early, anticipating team activities that didn’t really happen. I had originally hoped to take some of my team to Magic Mountain or Knotts, but I couldn’t make the logistics work. So I found myself on Sunday evening with not much to do. SeaWorld was open for another two hours, so I figured I could sweep up the credits and bail. I wasn’t expecting very much, and mostly I was right, but it was a little better than my low expectations.

Emperor

Emperor was my primary interest at SeaWorld, which indicates how little I was expecting, because dive coasters are far from my favorite. But I’d heard good things about this one, and I was curious. I knew that SWSD hadn’t been designed with coasters in mind, and didn’t have a ton of space to work with, so they’re kind of awkwardly placed. I’m also pretty sure the park wasn’t designed for operations after dark, because although there weren’t dark areas as such, the paths seemed a bit tricky to navigate, and it wasn’t always clear where to go next. Without the app on my phone, I’d have had a hard time finding the ride.

Unfortunately, the app let me down in a different respect. Before I’d arrived at the park, the app showed a wait time of 10 minutes. When I got there, the sign on the ride said 35, which was more accurate. I was surrounded by teenagers having remarkably inane conversation, but that’s the price I pay. I got the back row, outside right seat, which seemed like a very good choice. Emperor is shorter than Valravn or Griffon, the other two dive coasters I’ve done, but 50 feet doesn’t make a ton of difference when you’re hanging. However, sitting in the back row does make a difference, because you’re not really hanging, just waiting. I got a nice pop of air going over the drop, but it’s very brief. The rest of the ride is pretty good, for a dive coaster. There’s no mid-course, and therefore no second drop, but there is a variety of elements. The footprint is still pretty small, and there’s nothing else around, so I think this might be the rare ride that isn’t better after dark. I wouldn’t have minded a second ride to appreciate the second part of the ride more, but not with the ops running like they were that night.

Manta

Next I headed all the way over to the other side of the park…getting lost a couple of times, and having to use the map, which was dangerous as my phone battery was very low. Eventually I found the entrance, got in the queue, and walked, and walked, and walked almost to the station. The amount of queue for this ride is kind of ridiculous. None of it is cattle-chutes, so it’s not quite as bad as it looks, but I can imagine the line being a couple of hours, especially when it was new.

Anyway, I had no idea what to expect of Manta, other than it was probably a launch coaster, because I couldn’t see a lift hill. The queue and station were gorgeously decorated, mostly with pictures of mantas, but I like mantas, so it’s all good. I snagged the last row and waited to see what happened. What happened was we rolled out into a tunnel with a video display wrapped around it. I imagine it normally shows images of waves or mantas or something, but because it was Christmas, it was showing a variety of colored lights and had “The Wizard in Winter” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra playing. I’ve heard that used on a coaster before, at Knotts, but I wasn’t expecting it at SeaWorld, for some reason. The launch was a standard Mack launch, nothing too intense. The rest of the ride was rather fitting to the theme – low to the ground, lots of swooping, and a couple of directional changes that Intamin could appreciate, if not be impressed by. On the whole, it was much better than I’d anticipated, but then again, I hadn’t really anticipated anything. I’d be happy to ride it multiple times, except I didn’t really have time for that. While it’s not a kiddie coaster, it’s definitely on the milder side, and I probably would have been disappointed if I’d waited a couple of hours for it.

Now for the things I didn’t ride: * Electric Eel was closed for annual maintenance, which I knew before arriving at the park, although not before the trip itself. So I still haven’t ridden a Sky Rocket II. * Journey to Atlantis is a water coaster, and I really didn’t feel like getting wet. San Diego may be temperate, but at night in December is pushing things. * Tidal Twister isn’t a coaster. I saw it, and it was running, but looking at it briefly didn’t convince me that it’s really a credit. If it had been a walk-on, I might have gone for it, but I was on my way out of the park at that point.