BarryHom
DIS Legend
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- Aug 20, 1999
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Here's what the Orlando Sentinel reports:
SeaWorld Orlando, hoping to generate extra business by ending each day with a bang, is going to test a nighttime display of fireworks and lasers around its central lagoon this summer.
The nightly Mistify show at the park's new Waterfront area is SeaWorld's most ambitious attempt yet at a day-ending finale, meant to rival similar displays at rival theme parks.
The 20-minute show -- which park officials said Tuesday will feature proprietary pyrotechnics, laser projections and other special effects -- will open in early July and continue nightly through Labor Day. SeaWorld officials will then evaluate the show and decide whether to make it permanent.
A daily finale is one way for a theme park to attract more visitors and to keep them in the park longer into the evening, eating and shopping. SeaWorld has been searching for the right nighttime show for the past three years, said Dave Goodman, the park's vice president of entertainment.
"I can't tell you how many concepts we went through before we finally landed on an idea that we were all comfortable with," Goodman said.
Also new this summer: a restaurant called the Spice Mill and a retail outlet called the Pearl Diving Lagoon and Shop. Both are additions to the Waterfront complex of eateries and stores, which opened last May. The pearl-diving shop will include an above-ground "lagoon" with a glass wall.
SeaWorld is also bringing back daily daytime entertainment to its Bayside Stadium, which has gone mostly unused since the park canceled its longtime water-skiing show in 2002. The new show, "Fusion," will be an updated version of the old water show, with watercraft, wake boarding and high-dive stunts, Goodman said.
SeaWorld is also adding a nighttime comedy show at its Sea Lion and Otter Stadium featuring its popular Clyde and Seamore team of sea lions.
But Mistify will be the park's main new attraction. The show will tell the story of a young child as he imagines life under the sea. Part of the show's inspiration came from SeaWorld trainers' memories of visiting the park as children, Goodman said.
The show will be visible from any location around the park's large, central lake, including outdoor tables at the Spice Mill. Special effects will include fireworks, 100-foot-high fountains of water, a laser show displayed on an 80-by-80-foot backdrop of mist, and a new type of effect that Goodman referred to as "underwater fireworks."
Nighttime finales are daily staples at some Orlando theme parks but have come and gone from others.
Walt Disney World's Epcot features a nightly laser-and-fireworks show over its central lagoon called Illuminations: Reflections of the Earth. And Disney's Magic Kingdom has a musical fireworks display called Wishes Nighttime Spectacular.
Universal Studios closed its long-running Dynamite Nights Stunt Spectacular, an evening water show on its central lagoon, in February 2000. But both Universal Studios and its sister park, Islands of Adventure, end the day with fireworks displays at various times during the year or stage nighttime events such as Halloween Horror Nights and Mardi Gras.
SeaWorld Orlando, hoping to generate extra business by ending each day with a bang, is going to test a nighttime display of fireworks and lasers around its central lagoon this summer.
The nightly Mistify show at the park's new Waterfront area is SeaWorld's most ambitious attempt yet at a day-ending finale, meant to rival similar displays at rival theme parks.
The 20-minute show -- which park officials said Tuesday will feature proprietary pyrotechnics, laser projections and other special effects -- will open in early July and continue nightly through Labor Day. SeaWorld officials will then evaluate the show and decide whether to make it permanent.
A daily finale is one way for a theme park to attract more visitors and to keep them in the park longer into the evening, eating and shopping. SeaWorld has been searching for the right nighttime show for the past three years, said Dave Goodman, the park's vice president of entertainment.
"I can't tell you how many concepts we went through before we finally landed on an idea that we were all comfortable with," Goodman said.
Also new this summer: a restaurant called the Spice Mill and a retail outlet called the Pearl Diving Lagoon and Shop. Both are additions to the Waterfront complex of eateries and stores, which opened last May. The pearl-diving shop will include an above-ground "lagoon" with a glass wall.
SeaWorld is also bringing back daily daytime entertainment to its Bayside Stadium, which has gone mostly unused since the park canceled its longtime water-skiing show in 2002. The new show, "Fusion," will be an updated version of the old water show, with watercraft, wake boarding and high-dive stunts, Goodman said.
SeaWorld is also adding a nighttime comedy show at its Sea Lion and Otter Stadium featuring its popular Clyde and Seamore team of sea lions.
But Mistify will be the park's main new attraction. The show will tell the story of a young child as he imagines life under the sea. Part of the show's inspiration came from SeaWorld trainers' memories of visiting the park as children, Goodman said.
The show will be visible from any location around the park's large, central lake, including outdoor tables at the Spice Mill. Special effects will include fireworks, 100-foot-high fountains of water, a laser show displayed on an 80-by-80-foot backdrop of mist, and a new type of effect that Goodman referred to as "underwater fireworks."
Nighttime finales are daily staples at some Orlando theme parks but have come and gone from others.
Walt Disney World's Epcot features a nightly laser-and-fireworks show over its central lagoon called Illuminations: Reflections of the Earth. And Disney's Magic Kingdom has a musical fireworks display called Wishes Nighttime Spectacular.
Universal Studios closed its long-running Dynamite Nights Stunt Spectacular, an evening water show on its central lagoon, in February 2000. But both Universal Studios and its sister park, Islands of Adventure, end the day with fireworks displays at various times during the year or stage nighttime events such as Halloween Horror Nights and Mardi Gras.
