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SeaWorld Orlando announced details today for its new roller coaster, Manta (in SeaWorld artist's rendering at left) which park officials said will seamlessly take guests from the awe of encountering rays in underwater flight into the sensation of actually being one.
Swooping over water and sky, Manta will show riders underwater animal habitats, then soar them face-down aboard a manta-inspired flying coaster, donned in hues of dark purple, ultramarine blue, and cobalt.
SeaWorld also refined its word on the anticipated opening. It is to open in the summer 2009.
This morning's announcement provided the first details for the ride, SeaWorld Orlando's second major roller coaster, since officials first confirmed the ride in April. The ride has been conspicuously under construction in the northeast area of SeaWorld, near the park's main entrance, since January (as shown in construction photo (below at right)shot ealier this week from SeaWorld's Sky Tower.)
Manta is covering seven acres and will reach a height of 140 feet. It was designed by the Swiss coaster company, Bolliger & Mabillard. SeaWorld has declined to discuss the ride's pricetag.
The coaster vehicles were designed to give riders the sensation of gliding, swooping and diving up to nearly 60 mph, through four inversions on 3,359 feet of track, moving from sky to water -- so close at times that the Manta's wings apear to skim the waves (but don't; it will use water jets to create an illusion.)
The attraction is to begin when visitors enter a mythical village filled with artisan-created engravings and artwork that celebrate ray legend and lore. In the queue line, visitors will wind through caverns adorned with ray-inspired art in marble, jewels, and mosaics, all hand-created.
Whether visitors choose to ride the coaster or not, SeaWorld pledges that Manta still will offer an attraction. Floor-to-ceiling windows will provide encounters with 300 rays, as well as thousands of fish and other creatures native to oceans all over the world. Shark rays, spotted eagle rays, leopard rays, cownose rays, and oscillate river rays float past guests with fluidity and grace in a view new to SeaWorld. Elaborate lighting, sound and rushing waterfalls further will submerge guests into the experience.
p>Riders will travel face-down, in a horizontal position, underneath the belly of a coaster train shaped as a giant manta, with a wing span of 12 feet.
"This ride is uniquely SeaWorld," Dan Brown, vice president and general manager of SeaWorld Orlando, stated in a news release. "SeaWorld is famous for connecting guests with the sea and its amazing creatures, and Manta does this in a way that has never been done before, creating a true sense of oneness between human and animal.
"The sensation of Manta also will be like none other in the world - guests will be inspired by the grace and power of live rays, then feel as if they, themselves, are gliding through air and water," said Joseph Couceiro, chief marketing officer for SeaWorld's parent company, Busch Entertainment Corporation.