Major Busch Announcement at SeaWorld 2/28

[coasterphil]

They are really pouring money into Dubai.

 

[nanna]

sounds good so far

 

[coasterphil]

Their island looks absolutely ridiculous.

 

[TravisMT81]

UPDATE (11:07 a.m.): Jim Atchison, Busch Entertainment Corp.'s president, just confirmed it: The company will build four parks in Dubai. An updated story is below:

SeaWorld Orlando-owner Busch Entertainment Corp. announced this morning that it will build a mammoth new resort in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates city that is rapidly emerging as one of Orlando’s biggest rivals on the global tourism stage.

Busch and UAE-based developer Nakheel will together build a SeaWorld, Busch Gardens, Discovery Cove and Aquatica water park on a man-made island in Dubai. The resort will also include hotels, spas, shops and restaurants.

Busch Entertainment President Jim Atchison made the announcement this morning during a ceremony at Shamu’s Stadium at SeaWorld.

“Dubai offers at true global stage for our brands,” Atchison said, adding that Dubai “looks a lot like Orlando” before it blossomed into perhaps the best-known family-vacation destination in the world.

Busch follows Universal Parks & Resorts, which announced last spring that it will build a resort called "Universal Studios Dubailand." The resort, which will be comparable in size to Universal Studios Orlando, is expected to open by 2010. Universal hopes it will ultimately draw 5 million visitors a year.

-- Scott Powers and Jason Garcia

 

[coasterphil]

So much for domestic announcements.

 

[sknydave]

boo-urns

 

[crazydaveh]

I've been told that they will make the SW expansion announcement at or after the Aquatica grand opening media day. If you think about it, this puts SW in the media a lot more than doing it all on one day, like today.

Yes, we'd love to know that the Sting Ray Flyer Rumor will be coming, but we'll just have to wait on it.

 

[NoVa Mom]

What a bummer. That was SOOOOO Boring to most of us Budweiser drinking Americans!:snore::snore::snore::snore::snore: I wanted cool new zooming coasters! Or free tix somewhere! I am going to go take a nap I am so excited!:snore::snore:

 

[brkgnews]

Maybe they'll start serving dolphin at their restaurants...

"You can't eat dolphin! They're intelligent creatures!"

"Not this one, he wasted all of his money on lottery tickets."

I prefer:

Kyle: "Dude, dolphins are intelligent and friendly creatures."
Cartman: "Intelligent and friendly on rye bread with some mayonaise."

boo-urns

:ROFLOL: Well-played, sknydave, well-played. *golf clap*


I'll reiterate my previous (in another thread) "meh."

 

[Figment1986]

lunch was delicious...

and the execs are so nice for web to stop for an interview...

Hmm... not suprised about the no coaster news... that might be better used at Aquatica grand opening in april... and jungala opening if BGT does get a hyper for its 50th..

 

[kcnole]

For those of us in the US, that's one of the most boring major announcements I've ever heard. As I said at IOACentral, there's way too much money being poured into Dubai. I think it can definitely be a good tourist area, but I don't see how its going to be able to sustain the amount of parks they're trying to put in there. Not just Busch but all the other parks building out there as well.

 

[Figment1986]

For those of us in the US, that's one of the most boring major announcements I've ever heard. As I said at IOACentral, there's way too much money being poured into Dubai. I think it can definitely be a good tourist area, but I don't see how its going to be able to sustain the amount of parks they're trying to put in there. Not just Busch but all the other parks building out there as well.

press release said the other company was paying for the park... Busch just gets to run it and come up with the creative stuff..

 

[Figment1986]

Here is a short version of the video I made of the announcement...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-1338472430909477637&hl=en

Basically condensed the announceent then kept the rest... original video is about 30 mins long.

 

[Mr.EPCOT]

Dubai is getting all of the good stuff, it's starting to annoy the heck out of me!

 

[OmegaKnight]

Sea World still hasn't announced what is going behind the construction wall that is currently up in the park as soon as you enter. Its a huge area.

 

[Mr.EPCOT]

Sea World still hasn't announced what is going behind the construction wall that is currently up in the park as soon as you enter. Its a huge area.

Word on the street is that it has to do with slight rearranging of the park to accomodate the new roller coaster.