SeaWorld Orlando 2020 Roller Coaster Predictions

It’s Time to “Break the Ice”

About a week ago SeaWorld Orlando announced that it would be receiving a new roller coaster in 2020. This didn’t come as too big of a surprise, since rumors of a new coaster had been brewing for a while, but it was still really nice to see them announce something this early. The park hasn’t received a new coaster since 2016 with Mako, a B&M hyper coaster, so this will be a much welcomed addition.

Also, Busch Gardens Tampa announced a while back that they would be receiving a record breaking RMC coaster in 2020. That means the SeaWorld chain will be adding two coasters to their Florida parks in 2020…which is insane.

However, unlike the new Busch Gardens coaster, SeaWorld has chosen to stay relatively quiet about the Orlando park’s 2020 attraction. They released a 23 second teaser trailer on their website that revealed next to nothing about the coaster. It definitely got the theme park community excited…but it also left everyone totally clueless.

In this post, I’m simply going to analyze and speculate what little information we have in order to come up with a loose (and probably farfetched) prediction. If I’m wrong, oh well. That’s part of the fun.

Prediction

For starters, I think the easiest thing to deduce is that SeaWorld’s new coaster is going to have an Arctic theme. The short trailer features various shots of arctic-related things such as weaving around snowy mountains and diving off cliffs into freezing water. Whatever the ride is, it will surely resemble the Arctic in some way.

In addition to these camera shots, we also got two bits of text. These captions say “plunging thrills” and “predatory heights”. There is also the hashtag “breaktheice” that is being used to promote the ride . These three pieces of text and arctic video clips are the only things we have to make a prediction on…

I’ll be honest, when I first saw the trailer I immediately jumped to the thought of them getting a record-breaking B&M dive coaster. After all, the SeaWorld chain does have a history with those types of rides, and the word “plunging” definitely makes me think of a dive coaster. However, there are some holes in this prediction, I’d say. For one, Busch Gardens Tampa already has a dive coaster. What would be the point of having two of the same rides two hours away from each other? Also, SeaWorld San Diego is getting a dive coaster in 2020, so I feel like it would just be off-putting for them to release two of the same coaster to their parks in the same year. I’m sure the SeaWorld company wants their coasters to feel somewhat unique.

So, if it’s not a dive coaster, what is it? Well, I think the words “plunging” and “heights” kind of eliminate the possibility of any low-to-the-ground, twister-based coaster like Maverick at Cedar Point or Copperhead Strike at Carowinds. I think SeaWorld will be sticking to a tall coaster with a large drop for this one. Something that will really add to their skyline. However, I don’t think they’ll make it taller than the Hybrid coaster coming to Busch Gardens, in order to avoid any pointless competition between the two parks.

I also think it is possible that SeaWorld will be working with Intamin to build this new coaster, since they are the only theme park company to work with them in recent years (they built Wave Res

With all that said, here’s my prediction: SeaWorld Orlando will add an Intamin launch coaster similar to something like Xcelerator at Knott’s Berry Farm or Stormchaser at Hersheypark. Unlike these two coasters though, I think SeaWorld’s coaster will be a longer ride. It will feature various inversions and a large top hat with a vertical “plunge” down to the ground.

Finally, my most “out-there” prediction for the ride is that the launch will take place indoors in an “ice cave”. As you launch, projection mapping on the walls make it seem like the ice is breaking on either side of you (hence #breaktheice). As you reach the end of the tunnel, an “ice” door slides open right before you hit it (similar to Test Track at Epcot) and you launch to the outside into the rest of the ride.

Those are my loose predictions for SeaWorld’s 2020 addition. Again, these might be partially or completely wrong, and that’s okay! It’s all just good fun. If anyone has any different predictions, I’d love to hear them in the comments. In the meantime, we’ll keep the site updated with any further news about this new coaster.

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