…and I had no idea until I visited and saw it on some banners.
60th anniversary is a bit of a cheat. While the original SeaWorld in San Diego did open in 1964 (making the SeaWorld brand 60 years old), the Orlando park did not open until 1973. Happy 51st anniversary, SeaWorld Orlando!
I suppose this is similar to how Walt Disney World celebrated “100 years” in 2001, based on the birth year of Walt Disney, then later celebrated the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World.
You will notice that, unlike the SeaWorld of the past, this SeaWorld does not seem to promote its animal shows at all — just roller coasters and their water/flume ride. More on this later…
There were some photo signs around the park with specific dates, such as this one about their Sky Tower, which I assume opened in 1975.
There were several others I spotted, but the one I think I liked the most was about their classic water ski show. I remember watching some version of that in the pre-Epcot era of Orlando:
In front of Seafire Grill (well, outside the bar area for it) was this photo, which I suppose is showing what that building used to look like. I have no memories of it from my childhood visits, but it certainly gave me tiki vibes.
There were even tributes to the more recent history of the park during its years under Anheuser-Busch ownership. Though this sign made me sad, because it reminded me I have to pay for beer at this park now.
Speaking of adult beverages, of course there was a specialty drink with a special souvenir cup.
The blue clam shell looking thing on the top of the straw was some kind of dissolving glitter thing that made the cocktail sparkle.
I expect there was more going on throughout the park, but those were the main things I noticed. Unlike Disney, SeaWorld is not set up to have anniversary parades and fireworks and such. I bet their 60th anniversary doesn’t even last 18 months 😉
But I digress… A quick recap of the history of SeaWorld, taken from the always-accurate Wikipedia entry:
- 1964 – SeaWorld San Diego opens.
- 1973 – SeaWorld Orlando opens.
- 1976 – SeaWorld parks sold to Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. (I know nothing of this, but apparently HBJ owned Cypress Gardens near Orlando which I knew of, but never visited before it closed.)
- 1978 – SeaWorld San Antonio opens. I grew up in Texas and never visited this park. I did, however, visit the very first Six Flags over Texas near Dallas, and frequented my local Houston park, Astroworld, which became owned by Six Flags.
- 1987 – There was a hostile takeover attempt!
- 1989 – SeaWorld sold to Anheuser-Busch, maker of Budweiser. Because, reasons. (Busch Gardens and many smaller complexes were operated by the beer company. In Houston, there was a small and short-lived Busch park, though I only remember us visiting it to see a trained bird show. The park side may have been gone by then.)
- 2008 – Anheuser-Busch sold to Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev.
- 2009 – InBev, who was not in the entertainment business, sold the parks to Blackstone Group. They renamed to SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment.
- 2024 – Then they renamed to United Parks & Resorts Inc.
Which brings us to today where it seems clear the park is moving away from the SeaWorld branding by removing it from the company name, and deemphasizing animal shows in their 60th marketing.
With all the roller coasters the park has been adding — two have opened since I returned to visiting the park in 2020 — I am going to randomly predict that the future of SeaWorld will be a different name, and the removal of the “trained animal shows.” We have already learned that the orcas will not be replaced, so that will leave only the Sea Lion and Otter show and the Dolphin Encounter show.
Perhaps after a few more roller coasters, it will simply be a water-themed coaster park where all the rides feature aquariums and are named after sea life.
We shall sea. Until then, you can browse thousands of my SeaWorld photos taken during my digital camera-era visits:
http://us-sw.disneyfans.com/SeaWorldOrlando/index.html
I will have a bunch more from 2024 added as soon as I have time to sort them and regenerate/upload the gallery.
To be continued…