SeaWorld San Diego 2020 - Emperor: B&M Dive Coaster

Well this was a surprise. SeaWorld San Diego announced in press conference a new B&M Dive coaster called Mako.







It will feature floorless trains and will be the tallest, fastest and longest dive coaster in California. Not many stats are know at the moment but it does have a confirmed height of 153ft with a drop of 143ft, making this the tallest coaster in the park by 3 feet.

This means that this will be SeaWorld San Diego's 3rd coaster in 3 years (after Electric Ell and Tidal Twister) and, if the rumours are to be believed about the other parks for 2020, the entire SeaWorld/Busch Gardens chain will be receiving coasters for 2020.

Certainly exciting times for SeaWorld San Diego.

Source: https://behindthethrills.com/2019/01/se ... nd-beyond/

Cool! I think this is great! I still think the skywarp is stupid.

Clearer artwork, as well as full details:

SeaWorld San Diego announces ???Mako??? dive coaster for 2020

SeaWorld San Diego has announced ???Mako,??? a brand-new dive coaster to open as its new attraction for 2020.

The new coaster will be the tallest, fastest, and longest dive coaster in California, as well as the only floorless dive coaster in the entire state.

Aboard Mako, guests will climb to 153 feet in the air as their feet dangle, suspended on a 45-degree angle before plunging down a 143-foot facedown vertical drop at more than 60 miles per hour. Riders will also experience inversions, a barrel roll, an Immelmann loop, a hammerhead turn, and a flat spin as they travel along the near 2,500 feet of coaster track.

Mako???s conservation element will focus on shark awareness and conservation, and will feature a partnership with a shark conservation organization.

The coaster will be located adjacent to Journey to Atlantis in the southeast corner of the park; the future ride area is currently a parking lot. Mako will be built by manufacturers Bollinger & Mabillard, based in Switzerland.

Sources:

https://twitter.com/ClydeSeaWorldSD

https://attractionsmagazine.com/seaworl ... o-coaster/

This wont be the best B&M Dive, but it will be the best coaster in the park. Now all they need is a proper kids coaster (Zierer Force 0) and they???ll be elite.

Dive coasters are definitely fun and really attract crowds, so I'm curious to see how this Mako will turn out.
I'm also really curious to see which train size it's gonna use, another 8-seater or the first 6-seater in North America?

[Dirk_Ermen]

Looks like San Diego finally will get some proper ride expansion. On my latest visit in 2016 it still felt very small.

RCT3andNL2stuff wrote:

Dive coasters are definitely fun and really attract crowds, so I'm curious to see how this Mako will turn out.
I'm also really curious to see which train size it's gonna use, another 8-seater or the first 6-seater in North America?

The hot rumor right now is that it will be the first D6 (6 seater) in North America. Fun fact, all European divecoasters are D6???s.

Oblivion says hello from Europe

dcs221 wrote:

Oblivion says hello from Europe

Aw heck, I forgot about the first dive of all...

I think the three coasters together will finally be enough to get me back to SWSD for the first time in almost 20 years. I live 2 hours away and I still haven't ridden Manta or Electric Eel yet!

Aerial view of the proposed layout of Mako:



Source: https://behindthethrills.com/2019/01/ne ... san-diego/

[Dirk_Ermen]

Kw6sTheater wrote:

RCT3andNL2stuff wrote:

Dive coasters are definitely fun and really attract crowds, so I'm curious to see how this Mako will turn out.
I'm also really curious to see which train size it's gonna use, another 8-seater or the first 6-seater in North America?

The hot rumor right now is that it will be the first D6 (6 seater) in North America. Fun fact, all European divecoasters are D6???s.

I think all the big dive coasters have at least 8 seaters right? I can't recall anything above 150ft that uses the 6 seaters.

[mkingy]

Clearance envelope suggests 6-seater to me - which does seem a little odd considering the size.

Some more plans for Mako, includling a rendering of how it will look among the skyline:





You can check out the full presentation of Mako here: https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/ ... _17_19.pdf

Biting my own tongue again. I was not impressed when they initially announced--especially because of the name. But the layout is really cool. I like these modern dive coasters with a wider variety of elements. This looks like it'll be consistent fun from start to finish.

The B&M mini-divers get better and better with each model. They have come such a long way since Krake. Valkyria and this have such good substance.

Oh and the layout got leaked. Has 3 inversions??? immelmann, barrel roll and ???flat spin??? (corkscrew) all in that order.

[mkingy]

Kw6sTheater wrote:

Oh and the layout got leaked. Has 3 inversions??? immelmann, barrel roll and ???flat spin??? (corkscrew) all in that order.

Yes it's posted above

This is looking very similar to Valkyria in a lot of ways, which is not a bad thing at all. While not likely to be among B&M's best creations, it should still be a very good ride and well worth returning to SWSD to check out.

Mako has been given the green light:

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/bu ... uncil-says

Cool!

Groundwork has begun on SeaWorld San Diego's B&M Dive Coaster:







Also, apparently, this is not going to be called Mako after all, probably for the best.

Source: https://behindthethrills.com/2019/08/se ... e-coaster/

Track has arrived for SeaWorld San Diego's B&M Dive Coaster:

SeaWorld San Diego's B&M Dive Coaster has gone vertical:



It was also just announced at IAAPA that this coaster will actually be called Emperor.

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters ... oaster_is/

Emperor's lift hill is now going into place:



Also, the park a while back released a video which shows an animation for Emperor:



Meanwhile...: seaworld-san-diego-2021-another-new-coaster-t42439.html

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/rollercoasters ... inent_its/