SeaWorld Orlando

SeaWorld Orlando is a theme park and marine zoo located in the city of Orlando, in the state of Florida. SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment is the company that owns and operates the park. Together with its neighbors Discovery Cove and Aquatica, it forms SeaWorld Parks and Resorts Orlando, a multi-park entertainment complex that includes the three theme parks and a number of hotel accommodations. In 2018, SeaWorld Orlando had an estimated 4.594 million visitors, placing it in the top ten of the most frequented amusement parks in the United States of America.

SeaWorld Orlando opened its doors on December 15, 1973, just two years after the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort. It was the third park in the SeaWorld group to open. As a result, Central Florida became a popular vacation destination with multiple theme parks. After being purchased by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich in 1976, SeaWorld was sold to Anheuser-Busch, the company that owns Busch Gardens, in 1989.

Having more expertise with theme parks, Busch approached the development of SeaWorld in a competitive and aggressive manner, transitioning the park from a show-based to a ride-based environment. Mission: Bermuda Triangle, a simulator ride that opened in 1987, was the park’s first entry into the wave of simulator rides that began with Disneyland (later rethemed into Wild Arctic).

Journey to Atlantis, the nation’s first hybrid roller coaster and flume ride, opened its doors in 1997 at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The Kraken, a floorless roller coaster built by Bolliger & Mabillard, was added to the park in the year 2000. Upon its introduction to the park in 2009, the flying coaster Manta received a Theme Park Insider Award for best new attraction.

SeaWorld Orlando consists of two sister parks that are connected by a bridge. In the year 2000, Discovery Cove debuted. The following year, the water park Aquatica debuted. Because of the purchase of Anheuser-Busch by Belgian brewer InBev in 2008, Busch’s theme parks were sold to a private equity firm the following year.

When one of the orca whales, Tilikum, was performing a brief act during “Dine with Shamu” on February 24, 2010, he pulled trainer Dawn Brancheau into the sea, where she drowned. An autopsy found that Brancheau’s death was caused by blunt force trauma and drowning; among her injuries were the removal of her scalp and the amputation of her left arm below the shoulder.

Following the death of an animal trainer at SeaWorld of Florida LLC in February 2010, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the United States Department of Labor cited the company for three safety violations in August 2010. Initially, SeaWorld was compelled to maintain a barrier between its trainers and the whales during presentations, which cost them a total of $75,000 in penalties.