Theme Park Rangers Radar: Aquatica addition, Titanic tea, Legoland rebuilding
Theme Park Rangers Radar heads into the summer season with a splashy new kiddie area at Aquatica, refreshing teatime at Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition on International Drive and checks in on MiniLand reconstruction at Legoland Florida.
Radar is a weekly glimpse at what’s hot and happening at Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions. It publishes on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.
Aquatica kid stuff
Aquatica, SeaWorld’s water park, has opened a revamped children’s area that is now known as Turi’s Kid Cove. A notable addition is Tamariki Twirl, a sort of pint-sized version of KareKare Curl.
On the new slide, a two-person raft goes down a hill, then up a small ramp. When gravity takes over, it slides down and to the left before dumping into the main pool of Kid Cove.
It’s short and sweet, designed to give little ones a bit of a thrill. The slide doesn’t go too high or too fast, and the splashdown is in water that’s 24 inches deep.
There are rules, many of them about height. On Tamariki Twirl, riders under 42 inches tall, must ride with a “supervising companion.” The max height is 54 inches, unless you’re acting as the aforementioned companion. And no, the 54+ crowd can’t go as a single rider.
An individual cannot weigh more than 300 pounds, and the combined weight of riders cannot exceed 400 pounds.
The revamped section, previously known as Kata’s Kookaburra Cove, still has a gradual approach to its pool, where there are floats and water features spraying from above. The shriek factor is lower than at the Walkabout Waters, a multilevel playground that dramatically dumps water from above.
At Turi’s Kid Cove, there are a succession of small slides that can build up to more challenging attractions as little ones age or get more brave. Who wouldn’t want to face slides called Slippity Dippity and Zippity Zappity?
Aquatica is marking its 15th anniversary this year. Its latest attraction additions were RipTide Race in 2021 and Reef Plunge, a slide that travels through the Commerson’s dolphin habitat, in 2022. Last year, the park added 1,000 new seats as well as premium loungers at KareKare Curl and renovated Banana Beach Cookout restaurant.
The water park is planning special activities (“Aloha to Summer”) on Saturdays and Sundays in June. They will include a dance party (11 a.m.-4 p.m.) and contests for kids at the wave pool (4 p.m.-6 p.m.). New treats and drinks are being introduced and a new playlist – including music from the original Aquatica soundtrack – will be heard throughout the attraction.
Titanic tea / time machine
Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition, an International Drive attraction, has introduced an experience that sounds so civilized. I mean, cucumber sandwiches, scones and macarons are involved.
The International Drive attraction has added Titanic Teatime Experience at 3 p.m. on Sundays. The event follows in the footsteps of the exhibition’s dinner galas, which includes interaction with actors portraying Titanic passengers.
“The feedback we’ve received thus far has been really, really positive. We’ve had people fly in from other cities to attend Teatime. We had people come in from Chicago when they heard that we were launching this because they were such fans of the dinner gala,” said Wendy Perez, marketing and communications director for E/M Group, which has operated exhibitions in more than 30 countries.
Teatime Experience includes a scripted show involving women who were traveling first class, folks such as John Jacob Astor’s new bride Madeleine and Lady Rothschild, Perez said.
“They’re talking, and they’re gossiping,” she said. “It’s a show.”
The attraction doesn’t have a firm dress code for teamtime, but it aims to keep things nice.
“Teatime is known for being very proper, and so we just want to kind of keep it in that line,” Perez said.
The price for the two-hour event is $54.95 ($49.95 for ages 7-11). That includes admission to the Titanic exhibit, which features hundreds of artifacts and historical items, room re-creations and an actual 2-ton section of the ship’s hull.
For more information, go to titanicorlando.com.
Remaking MiniLand
Legoland Florida is making progress on rebuilding the MiniLand USA section of the park, brick by brick. The project was announced in 2021. It’s not an overnight transition. It has been planned out in clusters.
Miniature world rises at Legoland
Finished is the Las Vegas area, and much of the San Francisco/Los Angeles section is new. The Winter Haven attraction’s MiniLand also includes New York City, Washington, D.C., and several Florida locations, including Daytona International Speedway, Kennedy Space Center and South Beach. There are 33 million bricks required to construct MiniLand.
The changeover is most apparent when old and new sections are side-by-side. The Florida sun beat down on the figures for about a decade, causing white blocks to go yellow and dark ones to cook themselves. In 2021, Legoland added a large tent-inspired shade structure over MiniLand, which helps protect the figures and allows visitors to spend more time looking at the Lego landscape.
Weekend outlook
• Plain White T’s (“Hey There, Delilah”) are set for a four-day engagement during Garden Rocks, part of the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. They’ll be at America Gardens Theater starting Friday.
• SeaWorld Orlando’s Summer Spectacular event is underway, and that now includes a new show at Nautilus Theater called “Surf Holiday.” The site indicates dancing, singing and a conservation story. It happens multiple times Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
• The Orange County Regional History Center’s next Lunch & Learn is called “The Orlando Who?” The session, set for noon on Friday, looks at former sports teams based in Central Florida. Cost is $5 for non-members ($14 with lunch).
What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com.
