Theme park attractions don't disappear. They just fall from favor, then emerge years later reformulated and touted as the next big thing.
Consider Sea World. The Orlando park revives three onetime regulars in flashy new wrapping in July:
- The pearl diving show returns after an 18-year hiatus. Only this time it will have a Mediterranean islands theme rather than a Japanese one. They're even talking about teaching the divers to "toe-walk" a rope that holds their bucket. The old pearl diving lagoon, staffed by divers who retrieve oysters patrons buy, made way for the park's Penguin Encounter in 1987. This time it's on the park's new lakefront restaurant district.
- Two years after Sea World dropped its popular water skiing show, it returns as part of Fusion, a high-energy water show featuring stunt kites, jet skis and bird flights.
- The park has upgraded its Monsters, Myths and Legends show from several years ago with a version called Mistify. This one projects moving film images on fountain mist, rather than using laser beams.
"This will be much different than the old show," said Dave Goodman, the park's vice president of entertainment.
Indeed, the new show includes 60- and 100-foot water columns, fireworks and flames that have been chemically treated to burn pink, green or blue.
Who knows what's next? Maybe Walt Disney World will finally do something with the space that held 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, an attraction that closed in the mid 1990s.
