ORLANDO, Fla. – SeaWorld Orlando has filed a series of building permits for a new attraction.
- SeaWorld files permits for "Attraction 2020" project
- Project calls for main attraction building, lockers, and queue
- Permit appears to be related to plans leaked last year
The permits filed earlier this week with Orange County are for a project titled "Attraction 2020" and call for a main attraction building, lockers, a shade structure, and a queue.
All the permits, with the exception of the one for the queue, list the work as "new construction."
Beyond that, not many details are included in the project permits.
Although SeaWorld hasn't officially announced a new 2020 attraction for its Orlando theme park, images leaked last year suggest a new roller coaster may be on the way.
The images came from an internal company presentation, a SeaWorld spokesperson confirmed with Spectrum News 13 at the time. One of the slides titled "SWO 2020" revealed plans for a launch coaster at the Orlando park. The coaster, tentatively set for a May 2020 debut, would have airtime, banked turns, inversions, and possibly reach speeds of 55 mph.
Within the batch of leaked images, another slide showed plans for a "high-thrill hybrid wooden coaster" for Busch Gardens Tampa Bay. Since then, Busch Gardens has revealed that it would be opening the world's fastest and steepest wood/steel hybrid coaster at its park in 2020. Busch Gardens also revealed the new coaster would replace "Gwazi."
SeaWorld previously said that opening new attractions at its parks was part of its new strategy. Just this year alone, the company will open a Sesame Street-themed land in Orlando and a multi-launch coaster called Tigris in Tampa.
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