Do you miss Sea World?

It is kind of sad that Sea World is no longer. I only went there once as Sea World but it was a nice place. I did like the idea of combining the two parks but obviously it did not work out. I don't fault CF for not wanting to get into the animal park however. I just wish SW fans had a similar park in the area.

I liked Sea World as well, and I wish they would atleast add one animal attraction back to Geauga Lake but it probably won't happen.

I've always liked the Sea World side. When Six Flags took over it was the cleaness side of the park. Walking/driving through the area this past summer was sort of depressing seeing it not being used and all the landscape all grown up.

Dont be mad at SF pr CF, Busch wanted out of the market...

I do miss it, i spent many a child and teen summer day there. Oh well, Im excited for the future.

I have many great childhood memories of Sea World! Does anyone remember the giant pirate ship with nets that you could crawl in and shoot water guns at people?

I miss that I will not be able to take my daughter to Sea World. I was able to go to SFWoA a few times and see the Shouka show. I will never forget how excited my daughter was during the show. Had a lot of nice memories there, sad to see the pics of the whale stadium being demolished.

Busch had a hard enough time making ends meet as its own gate. Why Six Flags ever decided combining them was a good idea I'll never know. As a two-park operation, it had a chance at least.

Sic Flags, in my opinion, combined the two parks because that first season Busch took all (or most) of the animals and there wasn't that star attraction to draw people to the park. Imagine Cedar Fair selling Cedar Point off to someone else but taking all the coasters with them when they go.

But, I don't think that was the right thing for Six Flags to do. They should have kept the Sea World side closed that first year instead of rushing into things and then got their ducks in a row (or whales and dolphins in this case) to open up the next season. Sure, it would have cost them money in the short term but it might have kept them in business in the long term.

Caroline,

Do you mean the climbing nets? Those are still there.

No, not those. It was this giant pirate ship that you went into. It had some narrow net paths you could climb to get up into it and these water cannons that shot out water at people walking by it. I don't remember where in Sea World it was, but I remember it was one of my favorite attractions there.

I think I might know what he's talking about.

I was at Sea World Ohio during it's last year. I loved that place. However, it didn't come close to matching the Orlando park.

Caroline said:
It was this giant pirate ship that you went into.

I also can remember the "port holes" on the ship that could hide in.

Does anyone know of or have any pics of it? I'm glad I'm not the only person that remembers it.

Not to rain on the SWO love fest, but i don't miss it one bit.

Clearly SFI should have kept it closed until it was a viable gate on its own (which is what SFI stated their plan was when they bought the park initially). However, as we all know now, SFI couldn't just drop however many million into an investment and let it sit idle for any amount of time.

In the end it was a losing battle. BEC was struggling and they know how to run a marine park.

Sea World? What was that? :)

gener, Six Flags couldn't just close the park down when they bought it. Busch DIDN'T take most of the animals away; they took the whales away and left many of the other animals behind. Animals that needed to be looked after, meaning that the park would still have significant operating expenses whether it was open or not. So they might as well have opened it up.

--Dave Althoff, Jr.

They did leave the birds and other secondary marine animals, however the whales and performance dolphins were not left behind. I guess SFI should have thought about the viability of a marine park without a whale before commiting the cash. In fact SFI should have thought about the whole deal before commiting the cash. They would have been better off not receiving any animals in the purchase like CF did. Or be willing to write off a season or two (also like CF) because a purchase like that one should have been one for the long term. Unlike a coaster, buying out your rival isn't something measured by traditional amusement park ROI ratings.

The merger should go down as the biggest debacle in industry history. From begining to end, every aspect was botched and riddled with bad decisions. *** Edited 12/20/2004 12:33:18 AM UTC by gener***

I think once or twice in a lifetime at sea world is enough for anyone, I mean how many times can you see those shows.

"The merger should go down as the biggest debacle in industry history. From begining to end, every aspect was botched and riddled with bad decisions."

Nicely said, it's also the biggest dissapointment of all time. If done correctly SWOA could have been one of the greatest amusement properties of all time. Its sad really, Six Flags blew it.

One other thing came to my mind today when i was thinking about RideMan's last line:

"So they might as well have opened it up."

I think that is exactly the attitude the company took, and it hurt them in the end. They opened a park that wasn't ready to operate, didn't have all its attractions, and became a drain on the proftable portion of the park. The gate price was raised promising more and didn't deliver GLP and SWO for one low price as advetised. The declining show times and open units on the marine side show the underwhelment (is that a word?) the guest felt. In the end, the operation of a half-***ed park not only hurt the rep of Worlds of Adventure but also the comany's reputation in the market.

gener said:
I guess SFI should have thought about the viability of a marine park without a whale before commiting the cash.

Actually, they did. In fact, I seem to recall that they hoped to open with two whales. Perhaps they didn't anticipate the red tape and nonsense that would prevent it from happening.