Our first visit to SeaWorld San Antonio
Next up on our road trip was SeaWorld San Antonio. Driving from the Dallas area to San Antonio took around four hours and we managed to visit the park on Monday 25th November.
SeaWorld Christmas Celebration, their seasonal holiday event runs from November 23rd until January 5th. This meant all of the shows had their Christmas overlay and the park was smothered in a ridiculous amount of Christmas lights. Over 9 million apparently.
Before we jump in with our trip report, how about we start with a little bit of history?
History of SeaWorld San Antonio
SeaWorld San Antonio opened on memorial weekend in May 1988. The park was the fourth park to open under the SeaWorld brand. Before we look at the Texas park lets have a quick look at where it all began.
SeaWorld San Diego was the first park to open in 1964 when four graduates of UCLA initially set out to build an underwater restaurant and marine life show. When this idea was scrapped they opened a park instead featuring a few dolphins, sea lions and shows. The park was deemed a success with over 400,000 people visiting in its first year.
The brand was looking to expand in the Midwest and settled on Aurora, Ohio as the second location for the next SeaWorld park. SeaWorld of Ohio, which was later known as SeaWorld Cleveland, opened in 1970 and features a very interesting history. The park was sold in 2001 where it became Six Flags World of Adventure and then Geauga Lake. More on this on a Expedition Extinct coming next year.
The Walt Disney World resort opened in 1971 in Orlando and with its location already being popular with tourists, the third SeaWorld park was planned. Opening in 1973 SeaWorld Orlando was the biggest SeaWorld park to date.
New owners…
1976 saw the SeaWorld company sold to the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ) Inc. The sale was for $46 million and the new owners looked to expand their park portfolio and extend the SeaWorld brand. They purchased Cypress Gardens in 1985 and opened Boardwalk and Baseball at the former Circus World location in Haines City, Florida in 1987.
The following year the new owners oversaw the construction of the fourth SeaWorld park in west San Antonio, Texas. Built for $170 million dollars the park opened on May 27th 1988. Originally named SeaWorld of Texas the park had 3.3 million visitors in its first year and was deemed a resounding success. At it’s opening it was deemed the largest educational marine-life theme park in the world.
Plans to build another Boardwalk and Baseball location at the San Antonio site were scrapped when HBJ sold it’s theme park assets to Anheuser-Busch in 1989. HBJ were heavily in debt and because of this sold the parks division to Busch for $1 billion dollars. Boardwalk and Baseball closed in 1990 and if you haven’t seen our video on it, check it out below.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJVciI-0xlM[/embedyt]
SeaWorld San Antonio
Back now to SeaWorld San Antonio. When the park opened it was the biggest SeaWorld park. It featured whale, dolphin, beluga whale and sea lion shows as well as walk through attractions. (The title of biggest SeaWorld park has gone back to Orlando with the ever expanding portfolio of rides and attractions.)
Even back in 1988 though, SeaWorld was prone to animal rights protests. Animal rights activists did not think Killer Whales should be kept in small pools and many photos can be found of opening day protests.
Ch Ch Changes
Under the new ownership changes were afoot within the park. Anheuser-Busch in 1991 decided to offer more than just marine shows and walk throughs in the park. 1991 saw the first rides at any SeaWorld park added to San Antonio, starting a trend of catering to more than just educational purposes . Two different water rides were added – The first was Rio Loco a river rapids added behind the large water ski stadium which still operates seasonally today. And Texas Splashdown which was a two drop log flume ride with a double dip last drop, which was located at the top of the park. Texas Splashdown closed on May 31st 2011 continuing the trend of traditional log flume rides disappearing slowly.
1992 saw the park continue to cater to more families by adding the children’s play area Shamu’s Happy Harbor with climbing frames and activities for kids.
1993 saw the opening of the Lost Lagoon water park. The area was included with park admission and featured slides and pool. This area would also close in 2011 in preparation for the opening of Aquatica. This separate ticket water park would take inspiration from Orlando’s Aquatica.
The next big change to the parks would come in 1997 with the first roller coaster at any SeaWorld park. The Great White. More on this coaster later though. The park would add another roller coaster in 1999 called the Steel Eel.
The new millennium..
Anheuser-Busch would remove some of the less popular attractions such as the Texas Walk. This walk through featured 18 bronze statues of notable Texans. The statues were donated to the city of San Antonio. Other attractions removed were Cypress Gardens West, Joplin Square, U.S Map Plaza and the Garden of the Flags.
They did however offer the much pleasing area to the adults, free beer hospitality house and the signature Clydesdale Horses to the front of the park.
2004 saw the addition of the kiddies roller coaster the Shamu Express. The coaster manufactured by Zierer would later be re-themed to Sesame Street in 2019 and renamed Super Grover’s Box Car Derby. The cars used to resemble park mascot Shamu.
2007 saw the last coaster(water coaster at a push)/water ride added to the park for over 10 years. The third version of Journey to Atlantis. This ride was slightly different to it’s Mack manufactured counterparts at San Diego and Orlando in that it was a SuperSlash model and not a water coaster. It was the first of it’s kind to open in the USA and only the second in the world.
2008 saw Anheuser-Busch merge with InBev, which led to the SeaWorld parks division being sold to the Blackstone Group.
The final major change was in 2011. The death of a trainer in Orlando would see the removal of all trainers from the water of the Shamu show and leading to the debut of show “One Ocean“.
So lets get on with our trip report.
Trip Report
We visited SeaWorld on a Monday hoping that the park would be quiet even during Thanksgiving week. We were certainly not disappointed. Park hours were 1 pm until 9 pm and it was the only Monday opening of the month. Lucky us.
(Having only been to the Orlando SeaWorld many many times it was hard not to compare the two so you’ll see that reflected into my thoughts below.)
With our SeaWorld Orlando platinum pass, park entry and parking were also free. (One thing to note parking was a bit of a free for all with no parking attendants. Even though we had preferred parking included with our pass, we were not sure where to go and parked in regular.)
Right now there is a deal on for a platinum annual pass for SeaWorld San Antonio for 25% off bringing the price down to $145 dollars. This gives you entry to 11 out of 12 SeaWorld owned parks including Orlando and Busch Gardens. The perks you get will be for SeaWorld San Antonio so just remember that if you wonder why its $200 dollars cheaper than buying the same annual pass for Orlando.
Click here if you want one of those annual passes for San Antonio.
Check out here for the Orlando version.
Once through security at the park you enter a three way hub with some shops, food outlets and the entrances to Aquatica, SeaWorld and Discovery Point.
Discovery Point’s dolphin viewing area is included with park admission however the shark tour and dolphin swim are all up charges.
Aquatica is closed for the season operating March through September.
Plan of Action
After getting through the turnstiles for SeaWorld it was time to plan the day with the very large SeaWorld map. With the Christmas event on all the shows had been transformed to their festive overlays who had remarkably similar names to their Orlando counter parts. I was hoping that each show would hopefully offer something different to what I was used too. The plan was to see the earlier shows and hit the rides later on when the sun was going down.
One thing to note about San Antonio is how nice it must be for families to have the Sesame Street land at the front park and not tucked all the way at the back like Orlando.
So what is the first thing to do when visiting a new park for the first time? Rides? Food? Explore? No, first up for us was the 1:30 pm showing of Pets Ahoy Christmas in the Sea Star Theater.
This show was the same as last years Orlando one. It’s the normal base show but added Christmas decorations and songs.(Orlando has a new Pets Ahoy and Clyde and Seamore show this year) However here we noticed that some of the smaller animals wear Christmas jumpers in this version and that means it is immediately 5 times better. Pets Ahoy has been at the park since 2013. It is a replica of Orlando’s version, hoping to teach guests about visiting animal shelters for adoption. It uses mainly adopted animals throughout the show. Pets Ahoy was the vision of SeaWorld animal trainer Joel Slaven who has over thirty years of animal positive reinforcement training. Joel even trained the animals in the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective one of my favorites.
Sprinting for Belugas
Next up for us was a sprint to the Beluga Stadium to see the 2 pm show of A Beluga Christmas. This show was the only notable difference between Orlando and San Antonio. I had heard of the highly acrobatic and high energy Azul show that used to operate in this huge stadium and was a little underwhelmed with A Beluga Christmas.
It is a nice show with some Christmas music and very quick cameos of pacific white-sided dolphins. (who I think should of had a bigger part)
The show is very reminiscent of the dolphin days show in Orlando with less birds but more showcasing the beauty of beluga whales.
Miracles
We had a little bit of a wait before the next show which was the 3 pm Shamu Christmas Miracles – We had a fair inkling that this would be the same show as Orlando but thought we would give it a watch anyway. This gave us some time to explore the area of the park between Journey to Atlantis and Rio Loco. A new turtle reef area opened in May 2019 featuring two flat rides and a sneak peak at the new wooden coaster for 2020 the Texas Stingray are all located between the two water rides.
Journey to Atlantis was closed for the season, opening again in Spring 2020. It was covered in what could only be described as a “tonne” of Christmas lights. Scroll down to see what this area looks like at night.
If you haven’t been to the park before it is similar to Orlando with a large lagoon in the middle. There is a Bayside stadium which used to feature a jet ski show but seemed to not be in use.
Texas Stingray
Next up on the walk round the lagoon was a view of the Texas Stingray. Coming in Spring 2020. The tallest, fasted and longest coaster in Texas looked to be almost complete.
The ride will feature a 100 foot drop, 16 airtime hills and reach speeds of 55 mph. The total track length will be 3379 feet and feature a 100 foot tunnel with over a 2 minute long ride time. The ride is manufactured by Great Coasters International (CGI) and is the second ride from the company to feature at a SeaWorld owned park. Busch Gardens Williamsburg features a wooden coaster called InvadR with the Texas Stingray being described as that rides larger cousin.
The ride will become only the third wooden coaster now operating in Texas beating the Boardwalk Bullet at the Kemah Amusement park near Houston for its tallest, fastest and longest titles.
Texas Stingray Construction
Below are a few photos of the construction progress. Construction seemed to be at full speed on the station while we were in the area.
Turtle Reef
Turtle Reef is the new area that opened in May of 2019. It is directly across from the Texas Stingray construction and features a large turtle aquarium and two rides. Riptide Rescue and Sea Swinger. These two family friendly flat rides are supposed to offer a mild thrill element. I’ll give you my thoughts on Sea Swinger later….
Christmas Market
Heading towards Rio Loco is the Tunnel of Light and Christmas Market. This area features snow flurries, small stalls, the chance to meet Texas Santa and reindeer! We didn’t meet Santa but really did appreciate this version of him. He had a pretty consistent queue all day.
We had some time for some food before Shamu so grabbed a turkey burger and loaded mash potato at Rio Grille overlooking Rio Loco. The turkey burger was cooked fresh and was pretty tasty.
Rio Loco was also closed for the season opening back up again in Spring 2020. The river rapids opened back in 1991 and is the oldest ride still operating in the park. The ride will get you soaking wet and feature some very long waits in the summer.
It was about time to check out Miracles so we headed back to watch the 3.30 pm show. The show was very similar to the Orlando version with a slightly different ending. Instead of the Saxophone man and the solo singer we get a 4 person choir finale. The show is high energy and probably my favorite along with Light up the night, the electric ocean summer special.
It’s worth noting the different pool layout here which did offer a great view regardless of where you sat.
With most of the shows down, it was time to tackle some rides. Well three rides to be exact.
Ride Time
First up is B & M inverted coaster The Great White.
Opening back in 1997 this was the first inverted ride in Texas and first roller coaster at any SeaWorld park. Featuring an almost identical ride layout to Batman: The Ride at Six Flags parks, this version features 150 foot less of track and an 8th row on the train. The fewer feet supposedly gives riders a more intense experience due to less time to recuperate before inversions. The Great White also is lower to the ground than it’s Six Flag cousins offering more “leg chopper” moments.
The rides queue used to feature a shark aquarium but this was closed and moved to the front of the park at Discovery Point.
The ride had no wait even though only 1 train was running. We of course chose to sit in the 8th row. I actually much preferred this version to the Batman at Six Flags over Texas. It felt smoother even though it was more intense. A good fun first ride of the day.
Just next to The Great White was the opportunity to dine with Santa and Mrs Claus with an all you can eat Christmas Buffet.
Located across from this was Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster
Rescue those turtles
Wave Breaker opened in June of 2017 for $18 million. This Intamin launched coaster would be the first in the USA with cars designed as Jet Skis. This two launch ride would mostly be built over the lake to resemble racing around on a Jet Ski rescuing an animal. The ride reaches top speeds of 44 mph and a height of 60 foot.
The ride was the first coaster added to the park since 2004 when the Shamu Express opened.
This ride also featured a minimal wait which was a nice trend for the day. We managed to ride it a few times throughout the day. After leaving the station the ride enters a tunnel with screens assigning an animal that you will be rescuing on your mission. We got the dolphin and the turtle versions. After this a rather slow 5 second countdown begins before the first launch. The ride is a fun with some good essence of speed. It invokes a similar feel to Hagrids at Islands of Adventure with its ride car and boost sections but not as fast. Wave Breaker was a much needed addition to the park and one that is very enjoyable.
One thing to note is the quite restrictive lap bar as a result it wont accommodate some guests. We saw two riders that had to leave who were not large guests by any means. Even myself being over 6 foot the lap bar was quite uncomfortable on my legs.
Steel Eel
Our final coaster of the night would be Steel Eel. Or so we thought. The coaster had been down for most of the day and operators had no idea when it would be back up. We checked throughout the evening but no activity was happening on the ride. I’d only notice it running once just after 1 pm when the park opened. Disappointing to say the least.
The ride is a 150 foot steel out and back custom roller coaster built by D.H Morgan Manufacturing. It is 1 of 9 coasters built by the company with all 9 still operating today. D.H Morgan was the son of Arrow Development co-founder Ed Morgan.
It reaches speeds of 65 mph hitting 3.5gs from its 150 foot drop during its 1 minute 40 second run time. The yellow ride track and purple supports stand out on the SeaWorld San Antonio skyline.
We would have to come back to experience the ride though because it was closed the entire day.
Final show
Just before the sun disappeared we did manage to see the final Clyde and Seamore’s Count Down to Christmas. The sea lion show is the same as the old Orlando one, with the rhyming Christmas Elf. The show gets the Sea Lions ready for Christmas with a series of tasks such as decorating and Christmas shopping. It’s a fun show that the audience seemed to really enjoy. Top marks go to the Mime here as well. He really got the crowd warmed up nicely.
Final ride of the night
With Steel Eel, Rio Loco and Journey to Atlantis all closed our final ride of the day came on something a little unexpected. Sea Swinger.
Located in Turtle Reef, Sea Swinger is a small rotating swing ride that feels a little temporary even though it is new.
Not the biggest swing by any means but it’s small demeanor is why it made me feel a little uneasy. The rides retractable metal floor slides out giving the swing some more space to maneuver. However myself with some fairly long legs still couldn’t ride without lifting my feet up each swing. I’m sure there was plenty of room but heck it was a little scary.
Riptide Rescue is located just next door. The three armed spinning ride, hurls riders through the air at surprising speed and intensity. A similar ride with the same name operates at SeaWorld San Diego. We skipped on the ride this time because the Sea Swinger took it out of me. (Not even joking)
That covers all the rides and shows on offer at SeaWorld San Antonio but how about the Christmas element of the event?
Christmas Celebration
The park is transformed at night with over 9,000,000 Christmas lights. As you would expect it looks stunning. There are multiple offerings for all the family with Rudolph meet and greets, visits with Santa and sing along shows. As well as this there is all the transformed regular shows for Christmas. At the end of the evening is the new Sesame Street Christmas parade. Quite a lot of things on offer for an event included with park admission.
The Orlando event is one of my favorites of the year with decent food, drinks and festive shows.
As we visited on a Monday many of the stalls were not operating, the Biergarten was closed and a few other things. I didn’t notice a sampling lanyard being sold like the Orlando version but because it was a Monday it may have been the reason we didn’t.
Below are a few photos of the park at night ending with the Sesame Street Parade.
There is plenty on offer for everyone and it really is a beautiful park.
The final show we saw was a small portion of the Sesame Street Christmas Parade. The show is new for this year here and at Orlando. It is the normal parade floats and some extra costumes to the normal day time show. When the characters leave the floats a new Christmas song is played that they dance to. Parents and kids seemed to love it. A great addition to the park.
Final thoughts
Finally at this point we decided it would be best to head out due to the parade finishing shortly. I really did enjoy my day at the park even if most of the shows felt a little to familiar to me.
The rides that were open were fun but it was a little disappointing I was not able to ride Steel Eel. The park is large, clean and very pretty at night. It probably helped that the crowds were low on this Monday. It was great to visit my second SeaWorld park, although, I still think Orlando remains my favorite. Mainly because of Mako though.
The Christmas Celebration is a brilliant festive event. The 9 million lights are no joke and really must be seen. It will be nice to visit the park next year during the Summer when The Texas Stingray is open as well as the water rides.
Hope you enjoyed our SeaWorld San Antonio trip report. Have you been to the park? What are your thoughts?
Keep an eye out for our final road trip report from Six Flags Fiesta Texas coming next week.
