SUPER LATE POST ON JOURNEY TO ATLANTIS

You know the story of Atlantis, right? Many moons ago, there was a beautiful island called Atlantis. It was host to a technologically advanced, Utopian civilization. The island itself contained gold, silver, other precious metals and rare, exotic wildlife. Unfortunately, a series of catastrophic volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and other natural disasters destroyed the civilization, ripped the island to shreds and the once mighty Atlantis sank deep below the waves. Many people over the centuries have been captivated by this fascinating and intriguing tale. Then, in 1998 the mythical island resurfaced in...of all places, Seaworld Orlando. Brave travelers and tourists could board a small boat for an adventure through the lost city, a fun ride with beauty, intrigue, and scares. Unfortunately, this seabound voyage was fated to experience a similar, tragic fate to its mythological source material.

I don't know why I'm just finding out about this now. I am an enormous theme park nerd, so shame on me. Either way, In March of 2017, one of Seaworld Orlando's flagship attractions was stripped down to the bone and displayed in all it's naked shame. All of the effects, narration, and characters were removed from the ride leaving adventurers an awkward, boring, dull but scenic cruise through what was once a damned cool thrill ride. The original plot involved an evil siren named Allura, the mythical god Hermes, an old fisherman named Stavros, and a boatload of hapless adventurers who wish to explore the mythical city and instead sail right into the clutches of Allura. 

I've only been on the original Journey To Atlantis once, and I have vague, happy memories of the experience. It was clearly trying to be the next Splash Mountain, and while it never fully succeeded it was certainly a fun, thrilling, different adventure with one cool story we are sucked into. From what I understand, the numerous effects never were functional in the way they were meant to be, the plot of the ride wasn't super well-fleshed out (I remember the bare basics, for the full plot I had to look it up online), and apparently numerous parents complained that the ride was too scary for their kids. Either way, due to cost-cutting measures or complaints from parents, Journey To Atlantis has become a shade of its former self. It's absolutely unacceptable to remove the plot and story of Journey To Atlantis and think it's a good decision. While fans definitely complained, it's now been around 2 years and Atlantis remains stripped and naked, leaving the future of this once great ride uncertain.

I've been meaning to re-visit Seaworld so I could try out it's coasters, but after hearing this I'm seriously rethinking this. Why would I visit a  park that refuses to treat its classic attractions with a modicum of respect and dignity. Journey To Atlantis revitalized Seaworld Orlando, and I think it's safe to say that without that attraction, Seaworld never would have been able to build it's numerous other modern offerings. If you're going to do Atlantis dirty like that, why not just tear the whole thing down. Unfortunately, that would be a better fate than just letting it sit there with all its lights off (metaphorically speaking) .

Either way, if I ever do visit Seaworld again and decide to journey through Atlantis, my boat will be sailing on an ocean of tears. Until Seaworld fixes this awful, inexcusable mess they've created, I say they don't deserve to  ever be mentioned in the same sentence as Universal and Disney.