Radar is a weekly digest of theme park news and notions. It appears on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Mrs. Claus stirs things up

SeaWorld Orlando has sprinkled some new elements into its Christmas celebration, which is now underway on select evenings. Among the additions is “Mrs. Claus’ Magic Kitchen,” a stage show in Seaport Theater.

“You get a sneak peek into the culinary habits of the Clauses,” said John Minneci, manager for entertainment. In the story, “Mrs. Claus is getting all into social media. She wants to be the next TikTok trend.”

The plot involves her doing a video shoot on how to make the cookies that Santa loves most, he said.

“At the end, we learned a little lesson about how Mrs. Claus does her magic,” Minneci said.

It’s SeaWorld’s first holiday season with Pipeline, the roller coaster that opened this spring. The park is divided into “seas,” and the area around the ride has been designated Sea of Memories. The pathway is lined with trees decorated to represent different decades of holiday traditions, Minneci said.

“We took a lot of inspiration just from the ride itself,” he said. “The ride has a kind of retro vintage kind of vibe.”

Orlando theme parks: 10 things we’re thankful for in 2023

Among the holiday holdovers at SeaWorld are “O Wondrous Night,” “Elmo’s Christmas Wish Show,” a Christmas parade in Sesame Street Land, “Winter Wonderland On Ice,” the Sea of Trees display and the “Holiday Reflections” fireworks show.

The Christmas Market has moved into the Wild Arctic area.

“One thing that we really wanted to do this year was kind of elevate the theming of the seas that you see in the park. … Each one [sea] has a different theme based on the different holiday feeling, and it’s been like that for years,” Minneci said.

“What we wanted to do is really find ways that we could still enhance that and make sure that our guests know what those feelings are. So you’ll see a little bit more, you’ll see some signage, you’ll see some decor that kind of really helps tell the story of each land,” he said.

For dates and showtimes, go to SeaWorldOrlando.com or use the park’s official app.

Getting Very Merry

Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is back in full swing at Magic Kingdom. It’s a hot ticket again: 17 of the 29 nights have sold out already. And beware, every night was a sell-out in 2023.

Here are notes taken from opening night.

• Among the new offerings: A boy band called the Collective 5ive performs pop holiday songs on the Rockettower Plaza Stage in Tomorrowland. A three-piece country-western group called Reindeer Wranglers was in the streets of Frontierland. Most visibly, “Frozen Holiday Surprise” (Elsa, Anna, Kristoff, Olaf, castle projections) kicks off the event at the base of Cinderella Castle.

• Some attractions have mild holiday makeovers. A surprise: From the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, you get a red-and-green lit glance of Space Mountain and its rockin’ soundtrack. As we passed by, we got a look at the whole attraction in moody blue/black lighting.

• If you thought you’d be the only one there in pajamas, you’d be wrong headed. Folks have shifted into holiday dressing mode for the event, although we can probably agree that flannel in Florida is pushing the season.

• Things I had forgotten about in “Mickey’s Most Merriest Celebration”: Clarabelle cow doing her best Mariah Carey and making a cowbell joke, Daisy Duck’s song about texting, Mickey Mouse breaking into a version of the Carlton.

• Very Merry begins at 7 p.m., although ticketholders can enter at 4 p.m. There can be a rush at the turnstiles for the event and to get the required wristband. A workaround for annual passholders: Go in through “regular” gates (you’ll need reservations on Saturdays or Sundays still) and get banded inside.

Mr. Gold standard

Mr. Gold has moved into Legoland Florida. He’s a sought-after minifig that the Winter Haven theme park uses to encourage interaction between visitors and employees (a k a model citizens or MCs.)

“Every day, some of our team will have a Mr. Gold,” said Kelly Hornick, head of marketing and communication. “Some days, there’ll be multiples, you don’t know who has it. It could be me, it could be the park president, it could be the ride operator.

Mr. Gold has been a staple at Legoland California and is popular with annual passholders. But anyone can just ask a worker if they have Mr. Gold.

“If we have Mr. Gold, which is a pop badge with Mr. Gold on it, we’ll give it to the kid and then the family gets to go up to guest services and get some really awesome prizes,” Hornick said. “The prizes, honestly, will change throughout the days. … But they’ll always be something really fun and new for the kids and for the families to do.”

There are consolation prizes too.

“For those of us who aren’t lucky enough to be Mr. Gold for the day – even though we’ll get asked about 40 times a day now when we are around the park – we have more pot badges and fun things just to give the kids for being brave enough to talk to the grown-ups and take the time to chat with us,” Hornick said.

First look: Disney Jollywood Nights debuts at Hollywood Studios

Weekend outlook

• Island H2O Water Park’s new Holiday Nights show, featuring light presentations, live entertainment, family activities and a holiday market, starts Nov. 15 and continues on select nights through Dec. 31.

• The Dinos in Lights holiday show is now playing at Orlando Science Center through Jan. 9.

• The Santa Workshop Experience is now open at Icon Park. St. Nick is scheduled for appearances through Dec. 24.

• Gaylord Palms’ “ICE” exhibit based on “A Charlie Brown Christmas” begins Friday and runs daily through Jan. 3.

• Universal Orlando’s holiday celebration, including a parade and Grinchmas festivities, launches Friday and goes through Dec. 31.

• The movie for Saturday’s Beach Nights event at Aquatica water park is 2018’s “The Grinch.”

• At Walt Disney World, the new Disney Jollywood Nights event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is sold out for Saturday but tickets are available for Nov. 20. At Magic Kingdom, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party is sold out through Nov. 22 and at least seven other dates.

• The final day of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is Saturday.

What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com.

The design, as previously announced, is snowmobile-inspired.

“This is the lead car. It’s a snowmobile. You’re in Antarctica. And it’s all in the details upfront. The ski with a spring has nothing to do with the ride; it’s just a detail,” Rob McNicholas, vice president of operations at SeaWorld Orlando, said Tuesday during the annual gathering of the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions.

Penguin Trek’s car is an icy blue with tan, aqua and black accents. The rail for the ride will be white.

There will be a 42-inch height requirement for the ride, scheduled to open in the spring. The trains, which will seat 18 passengers apiece, will come with over-the-head lap restraints.

“The good thing is it’s very comfortable. You feel free up top, so you can kind of compare it to [fellow SeaWorld coaster] Mako in that regards,” McNicholas said.

“This is a grown-up coaster a kid can ride,” he said.

First look: Disney Jollywood Nights debuts at Hollywood Studios

Penguin Trek will be an indoor-outdoor coaster that repurposes the former Empire of the Penguin attraction at SeaWorld. It will top out at 43 mph and have a finale that includes actual penguins.

The car was on display at the booth for designer Bolliger & Mabillard, which was also responsible for the look of Pipeline, the surfboard-inspired coaster that debuted at SeaWorld Orlando earlier this year.

Other ride vehicles on display at IAAPA Expo include one that looks like a gravy boat for Good Gravy, a coaster opening at Holiday World in Indiana next year, and a Hot Wheels car for the Twin Mill Racer at Arizona’s upcoming Mattel Adventure Park.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Threads account: @dbevil. X account: @themeparks. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

We won’t go all pilgrim or canned cranberry on you. But here are 10 things, in no particular order, from Central Florida’s theme parks and attractions for which we’re grateful. Bring your own cornucopia.

• We’re glad that Epcot’s Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana attraction, which officially opened in October, hasn’t been too crowded or too deserted during our visits. Looking forward to more nearby additions in the near future.

• Anticipation grows for Disney Jollywood Nights, a new holiday event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that debuts Saturday. It sounds jazzy and, dare we say, adult? (Translation: Adult beverages.)

• It’s nice to see SeaWorld Orlando recycle its Turtle Trek, a film-in-the-round attraction, into an educational and conservation effort involving coral rescue. Also, manatees are nearby.

• Baby animals such as the sawfish pups at SeaWorld, crocodile hatchlings at Gatorland, young flamingos at Discovery Cove and cotton-top tamarin monkeys at Disney’s Animal Kingdom continue to delight.

• At Icon Park, we like looking up at the colorful light show on the Wheel and down at the families on the central lawn.

• It’s exciting to peek — even through the airborne lens of others — at the ongoing construction of Epic Universe, the theme park slated to debut in 2025. (Other construction to watch: Penguin Trek, a roller coaster set to roll out in spring at SeaWorld, and Magic Kingdom’s transformation of Splash Mountain into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, scheduled to open in late 2024.)

• A trio of Hollywood Studios sites still bring top people-watching angles: Baseline Tap Room, a shady bench on Sunset Boulevard and all around the massive Millennium Falcon at Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

• We enjoy the mix of big brand-name stores alongside unique and rare establishments at Disney Springs and Universal CityWalk, not to mention the former’s Orange Garage.

• On days that we can’t just face heights or spills, we appreciate Islands of Adventure’s viewing areas for Jurassic World VelociCoaster and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure.

• E.T. Adventure at Universal Studios. That’s it. That’s the item. E.T. Adventure. Welcome home. You’ve arrived.

Pass the pumpkin pie. Then we’ll pretend we don’t see those Christmas trees for another week.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. Threads: @dbevil. X/Twitter: @themeparks. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

Theme Park Rangers Radar: Holidays on horizon, ‘N Sync at Epcot, cashless SeaWorld

Radar is a weekly account of spending and planning at Orlando’s attractions. It appears on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Today’s ticket

When Universal Orlando recently raised ticket prices on daily rates, I realized I had lost grip on how its rates really compared with Walt Disney World and SeaWorld Orlando on a day-to-day basis.

It’s kind of a trick question, thanks to variable pricing, in which the companies charge different rates depending on the day and sometimes the park in question. That’s not factoring in combo packages or discounts for multi-day tickets or Florida resident benefits or any add-ons such as express passes.

One pass that all the parks have is a one-day, one-park ticket. Just for grins, I charted the posted prices from their official websites.

Universal now says its one-day pass starts at $119 and peaks at $179, depending on the day. SeaWorld’s one-day ticket ranges from $84.99 to $119.99, but those are the online/advance prices, and the usual price (marked out in red on the site) appears to be $138.99 every day.

Disney’s site indicates that one-day ticket prices are “from $109.” But once you find a $109 day on the site – look for August and September weekdays – you’ll see $109 gets you admission only to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. For  instance, that’s the DAK price for Aug. 21, but on that day you’d pay $119 for Epcot, $129 for Disney’s Hollywood Studios and $134 for Magic Kingdom.

That day in August would cost $139 at Universal’s parks, Islands of Adventure or Universal Studios, and $138.99 at SeaWorld, though its advance purchase price is posted as $99.99.

It could be pricier, say, for snowbirds on Feb. 17. That’s when a one-day pass is $164 for Animal Kingdom, $179 for both Epcot and Hollywood Studios and $184 for Magic Kingdom. Universal parks are $169 that day, and SeaWorld is back with $138.99 or $114.99 in advance.

Granted, the one-day, one-park system isn’t the fairest barometer, but it is consistent across the parks. (A friend recently paraphrased my oft-used riff as “One day, one park is for … chumps.”)

But let’s make it worse: One-day, one-park tickets for use on Christmas Day.

Oh, the humanity. These are among the highest of the high-end single days to buy. This year, a Dec. 25 ticket will be $159 for Animal Kingdom, $179 for Hollywood Studios and Epcot, then $189 for Magic Kingdom. Both Universal parks will be $179. SeaWorld is posted at $99.99, a relative gift, for an advance purchase.

But wait’ll next year. Prices go up, according to the Disney website, for Christmas Day ‘24 … by $5 at only Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. Bean counters move in mysterious ways.

None of this is corporate wrongdoing, mind you. But the lesson could be you better click around.

Bonus notes:

• Disney’s $109 deals – aka DAK days – are in late August and 12 days in September. Its priciest stretch is Feb. 16-24 and then the tail-end of March.

• Universal’s lowest prices ($119 for a day) are Sept. 9-12. They hit their heights the last between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve. It levels off in summer. July is $154 every day except for two days when it’s $164.

• SeaWorld leans heavily into the day of the week factor in the new year. One-day tickets go for $114.99 on Saturdays in January, February, March, April, August, September and October. That goes up $5 on Saturdays in June and July.

New math: Six Flags + Cedar Fair

Six Flags and Cedar Fair, two major theme park companies, have agreed in principle to a merger deal. It’s pending approval by Six Flags shareholders, but it could be complete next year. The resulting company could operate 27 theme parks and 15 water parks in 15 states.

But not Florida. The closest attractions to Orlando would be Carowinds in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Six Flags Over Georgia near Atlanta. So the merger won’t directly mess with Orlando.

“This isn’t going to affect Disney and Universal that much immediately,” said Dennis Speigel of International Theme Park Services.

“But you’re taking and you’re homogenizing the two largest regional operators, which are 42 parks,” he said. “If it’s properly executed and well-marketed, you could see where the season- pass programs and the cross-pollination of promotions could create longer and more staycations in their areas in those markets.”

A stay-away-cation from Florida?

“That’s not going to pull away millions and millions of visitors,” Speigel said. “But, you know, it could definitely have an impact.”

Save the dates

• Epcot International Festival of the Arts will be Jan. 12-Feb. 19 and will again feature the Disney on Broadway Concert Series.

• Universal Orlando says dates for its Mardi Gras celebration at Universal Studios theme park are set for Feb. 3-April 7. The parade will be nightly, and there will be big-stage concerts on select nights.

Weekend outlook

• Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Celebration, the after-hours, extra-ticket event at Magic Kingdom, begins Thursday. Activities include “Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmastime Parade,” a seasonal stage show at Cinderella Castle, “Minnie’s Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks Show,” dance parties and character meet-and-greets.

• Disney Jollywood Nights, a new after-hours, extra-ticket event at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, kicks off Saturday. Festivities include “Disney Holidays in Hollywood” stage show (Kermit/Piggy alert), a “Nightmare Before Christmas” singalong, “Jingle Bell, Jingle Bam” nighttime spectacular plus “swanky” venues with themed holiday music.

• SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration – with Sea of Trees, stage shows, Sesame Street Land parade, storytelling, “Holiday Reflections” fireworks – starts Friday.

• Aquatica’s Beach Nights movie is “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” this Saturday.

• Orlando Science Center’s $12 Day, featuring $12 admission, is Sunday.

• It’s the penultimate weekend for the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival. The final performers for its Eat to the Beat concert are Big Bad Voodoo Daddy on Friday and Saturday and 38 Special on Sunday and Monday.

What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com.

Radar is a weekly compilation of theme park news and nosiness. It publishes on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Browsers

A recent walkthrough of the Animal Nutrition Center behind Disney’s Animal Kingdom included a detour through the browse cooler.

Browse – meaning leafy plants – is actually grown on Walt Disney World property specifically to feed to the park’s animals. The cooler has different species depending on the time of year, explained Shannon Livingston, an animal nutritionist at Disney World.

“We use a lot of cactus pads for our tortoises. … especially our Galapagos tortoises love their cactus pads,” she said, although right before Halloween we learned the Galapagos gang could go for a big pumpkin too.

Disney has a hydroponic machine for barley plants, which appeal to primates plus zebras, rhinos and others, Livingston said. Porcupines and anteaters like to shred banana-tree logs, okapi and giraffes like Japanese blueberry and Disney grows elephant grass for elephants, she said.

The company found another audience for elephant grass through their work with GRACE – the Gorilla Rehabilitation and Conservation Education center in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“They have that growing naturally there, and their gorillas loved it. So we started offering it to our gorillas and our gorillas love it,” Livingston said.

Behind ‘Behind the Attraction’

The second season of “Behind the Attraction” is now streaming on Disney+. There are episodes that concentrate on Epcot, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, nighttime spectaculars, theme park food and Indiana Jones Adventure.

Potential theme park topics might seem endless, but director/executive producer Brian Volk-Weiss said he looks for broad appeal, passion and current operation worldwide.

“What I always like to say is, we don’t want to cover anything that doesn’t have a constituency,” he said. “There are many things not just on this show, but on many shows, like where it’s like, ‘Oh, my God, I’m so excited about this.’ But then it’s like, well, there’s 8 billion humans, and I think 5,000 of us care about this. Maybe we shouldn’t spend millions of dollars covering this topic.”

The series features archival footage and comments from many Imagineers. For the second season, folks were less tight-lipped because they had seen episodes from the first year.

“Season two, there were moments where Imagineers would be, like, ‘Look at this.’ And I’m, like, ‘Are you sure we can film this? … I don’t want you to get in trouble,’” Volk-Weiss said.

But dreams of outtakes and a blooper reel emerging from the project are unlikely, he said.

“Needless to say, I saw and heard things that, oh my God, do I want to talk about right now,” Volk-Weiss said. “But I also want the third season. Believe it or not, so I’m going to keep my mouth shut.”

Inch by inch

During a recent preview of Penguin Trek, a roller coaster set to debut at SeaWorld Orlando in the spring, there was an emphasis on its 42-inch height requirement and how that makes it such a family-friendly option. SeaWorld’s website currently lists it under the category of “family thrill.”

It’s difficult to argue the need for that size of ride at SeaWorld. Its Pipeline coaster, which opened this spring, has a big-boy 54-inch requirement, just like sister coasters Mako, Manta and Kraken.

Other SeaWorld 42-inchers are Infinity Falls and Journey to Atlantis.

There are a lot of factors at play here, including the design of ride vehicles and the maneuvers required. But I was still pleasantly surprised to consider the fear factor of other Central Florida rides with a 42-inch requirement.

Those include Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind; Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts and Men in Black Alien Attack at Universal Studios; and Popeye & Bluto’s Bilge-Rat Barges and Jurassic Park River Adventure at Islands of Adventure.

Quick! What’s the other 54-inches-required ride in Orlando? (Answer forthcoming).

But first, the 48-inch family includes SeaWorld’s Ice Breaker; IOA’s Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure; Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios; Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios; and Tron Lightcycle / Run, which debuted at Magic Kingdom this year.

OK, back up to the top of the list. The only non-SeaWorld attraction in town with a 54-inch height requirement is Incredible Hulk coaster at Islands of Adventure. Perhaps more surprising is the neighboring Doctor Doom’s Fearfall – not a coaster – which is listed at a 52-inch requirement, followed by nearby Jurassic World VelociCoaster at 51. Within sight is fellow 51 family member Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit at Universal Studios park.

Weekend outlook

• Halloween is hanging around for a little longer. Universal’s Halloween Horror Nights runs nightly through Saturday. The final Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom is Wednesday, but it’s sold out.

• Eat to the Beat concerts, the musical segment of the Epcot International Food & Wine Festival, feature We the Kings on Friday and Saturday, followed by Sheila E. on Sunday and Monday.

• The final day to go to Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon water park for a while will be Sunday. On Monday, Blizzard Beach reopens.

• Aquatica water park’s Beach Night movie on Saturday evening is “The Muppet Christmas Carol.”

• SeaWorld Orlando’s Inside Look programming, including behind-the-scenes peeks at aquariums, animal care and coral reef areas, is set for Saturday and Sunday.

• Orange County Regional History Center Lunch & Learn’s next topic is “Iconic Orlando: Exploring the Stories Behind Downtown Landmarks.”  The session starts at noon.

What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com

The activities, included with regular park admission, will give glimpses of several areas that are rarely available to visitors, including aquariums, pools, food prep and the SeaWorld Rescue Center. Also included is the Family Activity Zone for games, crafts and activities and Water Works, which deals with life support systems.

New presentations will cover at-risk Florida corals and animals inside the Shark Encounter attraction, including updates on the smalltooth sawfish pups born at SeaWorld Orlando in July.  A presentation will talk about young male hammerhead sharks — named Dutch and Dillion — that came to SeaWorld this year.

Surprise delivery: 3 endangered sawfish born at SeaWorld Orlando

“Inside Look showcases the hard work our animal-care specialists do behind the scenes and educates future generations about how they can help protect endangered species and marine habitats, inspiring a long-lasting commitment to protect these incredible creatures,” park president Jon Peterson said in a news release.

The marine-mammal care session will look at the dolphin pod and the day-to-day care of those animals. The aquarium experience will explore (from dry land) the Manta Aquarium and Shark Encounter. Another session examines Pacific Point Preserve and its California sea lion and harbor seals.

Visitors also will go inside Wild Arctic for beluga whales and harbor seals and get backstage access to Orca Encounter.

Tickets for the orca encounter and the marine-mammal care areas must be reserved in person and will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis. Tour locations will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For tickets and more information, go to seaworldorlando.com.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

The coaster is under construction and scheduled to open in spring of 2024.

“We really wanted to reinforce the overall narrative that our guests are adventurers on a mission in search of a penguin colony. So what better way to go find the penguins is to jump on your own sleek snowmobile?” said Jeff Hornick, vice president of attraction design and development for SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment. “So we took this futuristic slant on what a snowmobile may look like in the next five or 10 years.”

Also playing into the design was the target audience. SeaWorld bills Penguin Trek as a family launch coaster with a height restriction of 42 inches for riders. The design company is Bolliger & Mabillard, based in Switzerland.

“We partnered with B&M to be able to develop the overall ergonomics. We really wanted to deliver a new attraction that hits that 42-inch height requirement,” Hornick said. “We spent a number of times sending our team over there to work hand-in-hand with them as we were developing the seats, the restraint system, to make sure not only is it safe — that’s paramount —  but also that it’s comfortable.”

The design provides a desirable “view cone” for younger passengers, he said.

“The thinking is that this attraction has a dark ride section as well as outdoor sections. We wanted to make sure that everybody gets unparalleled views as they’re going through them,” Hornick said.

Jawlene eating, adjusting to her new life at Gatorland

A segment of the Penguin Trek rail was displayed for the announcement for members of the media. The coloring was white, but as it curved near the end, it was black, indicating an inside stretch of the ride.

“This is actually our brake run for the ride as you’re transitioning back into the building,” Hornick said.

The new coaster is making use of building and surrounding areas for the Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin attraction, which debuted in 2013 but never reopened after the pandemic shutdown of 2020. Visitors can still see penguins in their icy habitat there.

“There are challenges that come with building a brand-new attraction within an existing site. There are operational challenges, there are utility challenges, trying to utilize existing buildings,” said Jonathan Smith, corporate vice president of engineering.

“We’re using an existing building for our inside show experience queue,” he said. “That’s very important for the entire experience. It’s great when you can actually wait in line inside a building that’s air-conditioned, teaching you about what you’re about to uncover on your expedition.”

SeaWorld emphasized the family adventure element of the attraction.

“It’s not just a roller coaster. It’s an experience the entire family can do together,” Smith said.

“The story is that you’re really on a hunt. You’re looking to research and explore penguin colonies. You’re trying to find these penguins that flourish in some of the harshest conditions in the entire world,” he said. “You’re trying to find these penguins to capture them, get pictures, photos, and then you’ve got to be off.”

The coaster will top out at 43 mph. Its track will be 3,020 feet long. There will be two launches along the indoor-outdoor course.  Hornick described the intensity level as being between sister SeaWorld coasters Super Grover’s Box Car Derby in Sesame Street Land and Ice Breaker, which opened in 2022.

The new ride’s finale will include the penguin habitat.

“This experience will culminate with a trek on foot through the heart of SeaWorld’s own penguin habitat, where you’ll be face-to-beak with the real penguin colony,” Hornick said. Non-riders will still be able to see the penguins as well, he said.

Disney+ series returns with behind the scenes at Epcot episode

Penguin Trek will be the third coaster to open in three years at SeaWorld Orlando, following on the heels of Ice Breaker and Pipeline the Surf Coaster, which debuted in May. Busch Gardens Tampa Bay, SeaWorld’s sister park, plans to open Phoenix Rising in the spring.

The Orlando project is the only announced coaster currently under construction in Central Florida, although there are unidentified projects going up for Epic Universe, the third park scheduled to open in 2025.  Walt Disney World opened Tron Lightcycle / Run at Magic Kingdom this year and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot last year.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

The scheduled Beach Nights movie lineup includes:

• Oct. 28: “Hocus Pocus”
• Nov. 4: “The Muppet Christmas Carol”
• Nov. 11: “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”
• Nov. 18: “The Grinch” (2018)
• Nov. 25: “The Polar Express”
• Dec. 2: “Elf”
• Dec. 9: “The Santa Clause”
• Dec. 16: “The Polar Express”
• Dec. 23: “Elf”

Visitors are encouraged to bring a towel or grab a lounge chair to enjoy the experience. Popcorn, hot chocolate, specialty cocktails and other food and beverages will be available for purchase at Kura’s Beachside Panini and Motu’s Beach Bar.

For tickets and more information, go to aquatica.com.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

Radar is a weekly roundup of notes and nibbles from Orlando’s attractions. It appears on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays.

Believe it book

The latest “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” book is on shelves, its 20th annual collection of oddities. Of course, Floridians are in the mix as well as shout-outs to new attractions from Orlando-based Ripley Entertainment.

The theme of the publication is “Level Up,” and the idea is to “gamify” the book and make a little bit more modern, said Sabrina Sieck, director of creative solutions at Ripley.

“We added a feature where users can kind of level up their reading experience,” she said. They “scan to play different challenges and many games and interactives throughout the book, pushing themselves to read those stories, understand those stories, dive a bit deeper in them and kind of earn their own level-up badge.”

The hardback version remains true to its format with hundreds of items that range from a sentence to a two-page spread. The Ripley books typically have between 1,700 and 3,000 stores, Sieck said.

Among the items in the latest 256-page edition are cakes that look like cartoon drawings by Australian baker Tegan “Tigga Mac” MacCormack; “pinkest person in the world” Kitten Kay Sera; and blind professional skateboarder Justin Bishop.

And then there’s Allen Pan, who invented an apparatus that enables snakes to walk. (Think long, clear tube with short, robotic, lizard-like legs.)

“It just felt so Ripley’s that we invited him to Ripley’s warehouse here in Orlando to check everything out, meet our art department,” Sieck said. “And he was really into our medieval torture devices, because he wanted to see if he could create one himself.”

Central Floridians in the new book include Orlando’s Christina Wong, who makes crowns out of bones; Kristin Lammert of Oviedo, whose three daughters were all born in Aug. 25, but in different years; Wave Asian Bistro of Mount Dora, which creates sushi in unexpected shapes (like tacos, doughnuts and “Mandalorian” character Grogu); the longstanding 50-foot-tall Monument of States in Kissimmee; and Orlando’s Rod Price, who was part of a four-person team that rowed the length of the Mississippi River in less than 18 days.

The book also features a spread about the new Out of This World gallery at the Ripley’s attraction on Orlando’s International Drive. The space includes Buzz Aldrin’s jumpsuit, Apollo 11 moonwalk tapes and a meteorite found in Nantan, China. Also spotlighted are new attractions including Selfie Studios in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada, and Mirror Maze on I-Drive plus Kieran Castano, the latest Ripley cartoonist and a Central Floridian.

The book itself is produced out of Ripley’s Orlando headquarters and is a yearlong endeavor.

“It is a continuous process,” Sieck said. “Once it goes to the printer, we breathe for about a week and then jump right back into research.”

Who’s the boss, man?

Gatorland has some Easter eggs this Halloween. The first room inside the Monster Museum portion of Gatorland’s Gators, Ghosts and Goblins event is a take-off on pop-up Halloween stores. Among the items are prepackaged costumes for the masses.

Among the options for “purchase” is the Boss Man costume, but isn’t that a photo of Mark McHugh, president and CEO of Gatorland, on the packaging? Of course it is. McHugh is frequently referred to as “Boss Man” on the attraction’s online videos.

The bag says it comes with hat, adventure gear and “forehead vein prosthetic.” A sense of humor helps when working at Gatorland. Several other employees were featured this way (including crazy cat lady) as well as on wanted posters in the ghost town section of the park.

2-sentence updates

• We have a name for Universal’s unnerving year-round Las Vegas project that was announced in January. It shall be called Universal Horror Unleashed.

• Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has unveiled the Kennedy Entry Experience. It features six-minute video on a 3,000-square-foot video display that tells the story of NASA.

• Dollywood, located in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, plans to open the Dolly Parton Experience next year. It will be a multi-building exhibit about the singer/songwriter/theme park operator’s career.

Weekend outlook

• Epcot International Food & Wine Festival continues, and upcoming Eat to the Beat concerts will feature Taylor Dayne (Friday, Saturday) and Billy Ocean (Sunday, Monday).

• Science Night Dead, the Halloween-y adults-only event at Orlando Science Center is Saturday.

• Admission to Orange County Regional History Center is free between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Saturday in conjunction with Come Out With Pride festivities.

• Nelly performs at Mango’s Live on International Drive on Friday.

• Halloween events roll on at Universal Studios, Magic Kingdom, SeaWorld Orlando, Gatorland, Legoland Florida, Fun Spot, Pirates Dinner Adventure and elsewhere.

What’s on your radar? Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com.

SeaWorld’s aquarium is the only one in the U.S. to house the endangered species and the second one in the world to host a successful birth. The mother has lived at SeaWorld since at least 1988; she and a male are residents of the park’s Shark Encounter aquarium.

“This is a monumental event for us and for all zoos and aquariums,” said Becki Orze, one of the zoological specialists of that habitat.

The pregnancy was discovered during a routine exam’s ultrasound. It came out of nowhere, officials said.

“We actually, at times, speculated maybe she was too old to give birth,” Orze said.

“Just the fact that she carried a pregnancy to term successfully at a minimum age of her early 30s is a fascinating piece of information that we didn’t have before this event,” she said. “And by we, I mean the entire sawfish nerd science community.”

SeaWorld kept a lid on the births until Tuesday during annual passholder events tied to International Sawfish Day. Smalltooth sawfish have been listed on the Endangered Species Act for 20 years. These days, they are found primarily in the Bahamas, Cuba and around Florida.

There are five species of sawfish around the world, all endangered.

“It looks like a hedge trimmer on the front. It’s a stingray in the middle. And it’s a shark at the back end. If you mix them all together, then you get a sawfish,” explained Adam Brame, sawfish recovery coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The prominent front end – aka the rostrum – typically contains between 20 and 29 unpaired teeth, he said, though they are covered in gelatin at birth, protecting the mother.

About a week before the births, SeaWorld moved the mother to its Aquarium Health Center “so that she could give birth in a quiet and protected environment that was safe, comfortable for her and her pups,” Orze said.

Mom and pups are kept isolated from one another, which is not a departure from their newborn behaviors in the wild. SeaWorld is monitoring their weight, length, diet and vital stats.

“This is why so many of us got into this career, to be able to work with people who work in the field and see those parallels between managing wild populations, our free-ranging populations, and those under managed care,” said Dr. Dana Lindemann, a SeaWorld Orlando veterinarian.

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The pups have doubled in weight since birth. Full-grown smalltooth sawfish typically grow to be about 11 to 12 feet long. (The record is 16 feet, Brame said). Their mom is a little longer than 11 feet and weighs 385 pounds.

The experts are studying why, after all these years, a pregnancy occurred.

“We’re all learning every day, both in the field and in managed care,” Lindemann said. “It’s possible that females may be able to source for a prolonged period of time. I think four years may be the limit that we’re aware of, but we just don’t know.”

Changes in the Shark Encounter environment, including LEDs and tank filtration, may have played roles.

“We did also bump up the temperature a few years ago, which could definitely be part of it,” Orze said. “Perhaps they appreciate a little bit warmer water.”

The future of the new arrivals is to be determined. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which maintains the Species Survival Plan, may pair them with sawfish born at an aquarium several years ago in the Bahamas.

“There’s a lot of genetics involved, planning involved, but the goal would be an add to the genetic diversity of this group here,” said Jim Kinsler, SeaWorld’s lead curator of zoological operations.

The mom and offspring are not currently in a tank that can be seen by SeaWorld visitors.

“Right now at the health center, we have an environment where we can really closely monitor how much each individual is eating, which is really important because we are learning so much right now. We want to make sure that they’re gaining weight and growing appropriately,” Lindemann said.

A public-facing viewing will happen, eventually, Kinsler told Tuesday’s audience.

“I can promise you if you continue to be a passholder for just a few more months … It’ll happen,” he said.

Email me at dbevil@orlandosentinel.com. My Threads account is @dbevil. You can subscribe to the Theme Park Rangers newsletter at orlandosentinel.com/newsletters.

Orlando Science Center rolling out Halloween events