Cancelled Shamu Stadium Overhaul?

Mr Disney

Active Member
Original Poster
In the Parks
Yes
Hey everyone!
I heard from a (less than reliable) source that the overhaul for Shamu Stadium has been postponed or cancelled. Can anyone confirm?
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
At last this change is coming...


Given that this is an overnight change, I'm curious how different it will actually be.

Will people still sit in the stadium? Or is the current dining room space becoming a walk-through viewing area?
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
The stage updates were definitely planned for Orlando because they were advertised before One Ocean. In my opinion, if they weren’t going to step with both feet, they should’ve just stuck with One Ocean.

The show as a whole in Orlando is very different from the one in San Diego, beyond just the lack of stage changes. It’s a little less of a departure from what came before.

Video of the new show is up on YouTube and it looks mostly the same, just doesn't have the cheesey One Ocean theme song.
It actually does have the theme song, sung by a male voice with altered instrumentals. The San Diego version doesn’t have it though.
 

Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
The stage updates were definitely planned for Orlando because they were advertised before One Ocean. In my opinion, if they weren’t going to step with both feet, they should’ve just stuck with One Ocean.

Superficial changes to pacify the critics and be able to sell something "new"?

I agree the changes are not substantial enough to justify the re-branding.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
Superficial changes to pacify the critics and be able to sell something "new"?

I agree the changes are not substantial enough to justify the re-branding.

In the beginning of the show:
“You’ll experience a variety of natural orca behaviors during Orca Encounter today.”

Halfway through:
“Alright we’re gonna play a game of Simon Says.”

Yeah, they knew PETA and their supporters mainly focus on San Diego, and aren’t paying as much attention to a supposedly cloned version of the show across the country 3 years later. Plus PETA has lost some momentum, and SeaWorld attendance has been on the rise since 2018. So all in all they probably figured they could get away with less. I liked One Ocean, so I’ll admit I have mixed feelings about them being cheap here, but it’s definitely a somewhat messy combination of two distinct ideas.
 
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No Name

Well-Known Member
In my opinion the more unfortunate decision was replacing Blue Horizons with Dolphin Days back in 2017. The Blue Horizons music was stellar.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
Orca Encounter is trillions of times better than the trash known as One Ocean. Thank god that snoozefest is gone.

One Ocean was a gift from heaven. Anyway my point in the sentence you quoted is simply that the new show in Orlando is neither Orca Encounter nor One Ocean. I’m sure you’d rather San Diego’s full Orca Encounter, I’d rather One Ocean, and while the new show in Orlando has a taste of both, it doesn’t do wonders for either of us.


Blue Horizons was amazing, if not better than One Ocean. I'll always love the killer whale shows the most but BH was really special and memorable. I pulled out my DVD the other day lol (boring times, man). I always thought they could have done something like it at Shamu Stadium - share the focus with live performers and other theatrics alongside the whales. BH ran about 23 minutes and overall the animals only performing for a few minutes of it. If BH played a few times a day, the animals really didn't perform that much at all.

I listen to the album on Spotify a lot. SeaWorld is good about putting their music up.

Out of curiosity, do the animals at animal kingdom entertain people? I'm confused.

The difference is obviously the fact that they’re doing tricks.

In my opinion, animals in captivity doesn’t bode well for the long future. I don’t think Animal Kingdom as it stands today will be acceptable hundreds of years from now. But obviously the biggest target is first and that’s orcas doing tricks.
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
I think the real difference is that most people watched Blackfish thinking it's a documentary not realizing it's actually a biased, one-sided film that was made to make people protest SeaWorld. A lot of people took the information as gospel and didn't look into it (there are some truths and some non-truths/exaggerations). They dramatized a lot in the film which of course made SeaWorld look more scandalous.

A lot of the same people that now hate on SeaWorld bc of Blackfish don't ever mention the Miami Seaquarium, the other facilities around the world holding orcas, or the recent Russia/China captures bc they simply don't care enough about the actual issue. They aren't actual activists - they just fell for a biased film that told them what to think.

Also, we don't have a high profile documentary for any other captive animal. There are plenty of other large, intelligent animals that are treated way worse than the killer whales at SeaWorld that those people don't care are in captivity. A lot of the same people that refuse to go to SeaWorld now still buy tickets to their local zoo or Animal Kingdom. You can't be a selective advocate.
I agree. I thought Tiger Joe on Netflix was about tigers in captivity. It was nothing more than a glorified drama With Carol Baskin doing the exact same thing.
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
Yeah they definitely combed over the real issue which was that Joe was treated those animals terribly. Everyone is glorifying him right now because he was so outlandish and entertaining but the underlying problem is that he's an animal abuser.

Carol Baskin is no better. Actually everyone in the documentary was horrible. But that only scratches the surface about animal abuse in the United States.
 

RobWDW1971

Well-Known Member
I think the real difference is that most people watched Blackfish thinking it's a documentary not realizing it's actually a biased, one-sided film that was made to make people protest SeaWorld. A lot of people took the information as gospel and didn't look into it (there are some truths and some non-truths/exaggerations). They dramatized a lot in the film which of course made SeaWorld look more scandalous.

A lot of the same people that now hate on SeaWorld bc of Blackfish don't ever mention the Miami Seaquarium, the other facilities around the world holding orcas, or the recent Russia/China captures bc they simply don't care enough about the actual issue. They aren't actual activists - they just fell for a biased film that told them what to think.

Also, we don't have a high profile documentary for any other captive animal. There are plenty of other large, intelligent animals that are treated way worse than the killer whales at SeaWorld that those people don't care are in captivity. A lot of the same people that refuse to go to SeaWorld now still buy tickets to their local zoo or Animal Kingdom. You can't be a selective advocate.
Agree completely. Close them all. Animal Kingdom is a hypocritical disgrace.
 

disney4life2008

Well-Known Member
Agree completely. Close them all. Animal Kingdom is a hypocritical disgrace.

LOL I wouldn't go that far. I think animal kingdom does a great job of protecting its animals. But the larger discussion of animal captivity is important. To that point, I am positive someone has attempted to do an expose on animal kingdom and has succeeded but Disney lawyers has quietly settled to keep their mouths shut.
 

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