SeaWorld Orlando Announces Opening Date for Antarctica: May 24, 2013 – Hard Hat Tour Photos

Hi everyone!

We spent the afternoon getting a hard hat tour of the construction site for SeaWorld’s highly anticipated attraction, Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin and the “realm” of Antarctica, which Creative Director Brian Morrow calls the “biggest expansion in our history”. Morrow also announced the opening date for the attraction: May 24th, 2013. We have some photos and video to share from today!

The first two photos were taken from the Skytower of the building for Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin. It will be a themed “realm” (instead of the world “land”), which includes specialty dining and shopping. Morrow called it “a new world inside of SeaWorld”, and said that the area was developing rapidly.

Three more months!

Creative Director Brian Morrow talked with us about the attraction, and we had the opportunity to look at models and artwork. 

These two areas are part of one of the models – check out the two penguins – an adult and juvenile – that are part of the entrance to the Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin attraction. There will also be an underwater viewing gallery so that guests can see penguins “fly like superheroes”! Morrow said that penguins walk clumsily on land because they don’t need to be fast due to a lack of predators, but underwater they do need that speed.

We received our hard hats and headed outside.

Here are more photos from outside, many of these pictures are of penguins being carved in the rock. We were told that every species of penguin is here, and I looked online – there seem to be 17 species! Penguins are all over the world, and SeaWorld wanted to represent that. What I also found interesting was that these will be able to be touched, allowing those who are visually impaired (my father is blind) to be part of this experience – along with everyone else! 

 

Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin is just one reason to visit SeaWorld Orlando this year – and you can do it all with the SeaWorld Orlando Fun Card or Annual Pass!

 

 

The Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin attraction will be the first of it’s kind in the United States, and will include a trackless ride system. We can’t wait to check it out on May 24th, 2013!