Product innovation
SeaWorld's Manta flies into San Diego
SeaWorld in San Diego, California, is to unveil its new launch coaster - called 'Manta' - in 2012.
Construction is scheduled to start shortly on a similar version of a ride which has been open at the park's sister site in Orlando since 2009.
As at the Florida park, San Diego's new attraction replicates the sensation of actually being a ray, with riders travelling aboard manta-shaped cars which take them both flying above the park and skimming the surface of the 'sea'.
Passengers will start the ride enclosed in a launch tunnel, surrounded by larger-than-life images of rays projected on a 270˚ screen.
Once into the open, the cars will take visitors flying and diving through more than a dozen twists and turns.
As part of the development, Forbidden Reef, an existing SeaWorld attraction where guests can feed and touch bat rays, will be incorporated into Manta and receive a revamp.
Manta - designed by German rides company, MACK, creator of the park's existing 'Journey to Atlantis' ride - will be located just north of Rocky Point Preserve.
Image: Manta at SeaWorld, Orlando, US