Sea World’s indoor penguin exhibit reopened a few weeks ago as well as the rest of the Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin section of the park to go along with it. While the new Penguin Trek roller coaster is still not open, SeaWorld hopes to open it sometime this summer.
Penguin Exitibit is Back In Action
The most exciting part of this area reopening for me was entering the now reopened indoor Penguin Exhibit that I haven’t got to see in many years. I haven’t been in the above ground part of the exhibit since before the Covid-19 pandemic.
Not only is it so cute to see the penguins fluttering around and swimming incredibly fast, but it was great to be in a room that is more my temperature. They keep the enclosure at a freezing 32 degrees and it is nippy. Dare I say it was too cold for even me being from further up north.
The underwater exhibit is also still open. After entering the queue you enter several holding areas that insulate the building so they can cool it down to 32 degrees, including a holding are you will remeber from the old attraction Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin in the land.
New Food Offerings
The reopening of the Antarctic area has brought back Expitidion Cafe, but also an all new outdoor eatery South Pole sips. The land has been outfitted with a modern covering for outdoor seating and has a lot of addional open air indoor and air condditioned indoor dining space.
Most of the dining spaces was where I found some of my favorite theming elements in the area. It is outfitted with many Skis, other gear, and maps of Antarctica throughout.
In the area they are selling penguin souvener cups which I thought was a very cute touch. The price of the sipper was $15.99.
Here’s photos of the different food and beverage options at Expedition Cafe:
Additional food and beverage options at South Pole Sips:
Penguin Trek Opening Date Still Unknown
Last year, SeaWorld announced their new Penguin Trek family coaster. This ride, located in the Antarctica section of the park is replacing the dark ride previously located in the same location. This might leave you to question where the roller coaster is.
SeaWorld has decided to open the Antarctica land back up without the coaster while it continues to run through various testing. The final peice of track at the new coaster was layed in late January of this year, giving us some hope that this ride won’t be that far behind the land
In previous weeks and even days, the roller coaster has been seen testing and there have been plenty of posts on Twitter when people have seen it running. We did not see any testing in the early afternoon durring our visit to SeaWorld.
Antarctica Shopping Locations
Antarctica Empire of The Penguin is also home to 2 differnet shopping locations, one at the exit to the Penguin Exhibit and at the all new Glacial Collections store.
Inside the newly refurbished standalone shop it is a very nice and renovated space, and sells many of the various SeaWorld merchandise options you see around the park, but also much more Arctic themed merchandise as well.
The exit gift shop when I visited to the penguin exhibit, did feel very barren and did leave something to be desired. It is a warehouse design, and while I think that was the theme they were going for, I just don’t care for it.
How is the New Antarctica Empire of The Penguin?
Central Florida has been in need of a roller coaster park within the Disney-Universal bubble that is closer than Busch Gardens Tampa is. SeaWorld has been making steps in the right direction towards being the park to accomplish that goal and their lineup is begining to pack a considerable punch.
However there is two sides to every coin and I think this land highlights that completely, which is what SeaWorld used to be very good at in Orlando: mixing theming and fun in their parks. Every new ride they build I feel as though it is questionable as to weather or not that is a solid plan in the theme park environment where next year Universal is opening Epic universe less than 15 minutes down the road.
This land is a reskin of one of the older areas in their park that was packed with a lot of different theming. In adding a coaster to the area though, they took away the themed dark ride Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin which is not a good thing on its own. The ride is going to have less theming than the ride previously.
This area feels like the perfect balance to me of what was and what is now. The new theming elements are great, but if the infrastructure wasn’t there before, I question whether or not they would have added it in the first place. Every time they add something new to the park it has a lack of theming (Pipeline, Ice Breaker, etc.).
The question really becomes, does SeaWorld need to do more work on these rides when they open theme. Could they benefit from more thematic elements? Or is what they are doing enough to get a new guest or a returning annual passholder through the door? SeaWorld could stand to gain or lose a lot depending on which one they choose. It’s up to people’s wallets and pocketbooks to decide.
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