New Roller Coaster at Sea World
SeaWorld Orlando’s New Mega-Attraction Opens Summer 2009It’s an immersive experience only SeaWorld could create.The journey begins the moment guests enter a village filled with artisan-created engravings and artwork that celebrate legends and lore of the ray. Anticipation builds as guests wind through caverns adorned with ray-inspired art in marble, jewels, and mosaics, all hand-created and left behind by artists who were moved to pay tribute to the beauty, grace and intrigue of these animals.
Inside this world, floor-to-ceiling windows create mesmerizing face-to-fin encounters with hundreds of rays, as well as thousands of fish and mysterious creatures native to oceans all over the world. Shark rays, spotted eagle rays, leopard rays and cow nose rays float past guests with fluidity and grace in a view entirely new to SeaWorld’s guests.
The Manta experience then evolves from seeing ... to being.
Boarding a coaster inspired by the largest and most powerful of the rays, guests will fly face-down in a horizontal position, attached to a giant, manta-shaped coaster train. With a wing span of 12 feet, the huge manta – with riders secured safely to its belly - will soar over SeaWorld in the most thrilling flying coaster ever created.
“This ride is uniquely SeaWorld,” said Dan Brown, Vice President and General Manager of SeaWorld Orlando. “We’re known for connecting guests with the sea and its amazing creatures. Only on Manta will you find out what it’s like to fly with a giant ray.”
“Imagine an experience that takes you from being surrounded by the grace and power of hundreds of live rays and thousands of exotic fish, to a flying coaster thrill ride where you glide, spin and soar like a giant manta, the biggest ray of all,” said Joseph Couceiro, Chief Marketing Officer for SeaWorld’s parent company, Busch Entertainment Corporation. Manta is scheduled to open at SeaWorld Orlando Memorial Day Weekend 2009.
