Journey to Atlantis Is Now the Only Ride on SeaWorld Orlando's Rides Page With Posted Hours, and They End Before the Park Does

SeaWorld Orlando is open until 9pm tonight. Journey to Atlantis is posted to close at 4pm.

That is not a guess. It is printed on the ride's card on SeaWorld's own rides page, in two short lines added to the end of the description: "Weekdays 11am to 4pm" and "Weekends 11am to 5pm."

Journey to Atlantis running at SeaWorld Orlando. Publicity image: SeaWorld Orlando

One card out of twenty one

We pulled the rides page and read all twenty one cards on it. Journey to Atlantis is the only one carrying any operating hours at all.

Every other listing there, including Mako, Manta, Kraken, Ice Breaker, Pipeline, Infinity Falls, Penguin Trek, Expedition Odyssey: Fire & Ice, the eight Sesame Street Land listings, the Flamingo Paddle Boats and the Sky Tower, carries a description and in some cases a height requirement, and nothing about when it opens or closes.

Where it sits: the two lines are inside the card's description text, after the 42 inch minimum height line, rather than in a separate hours field. The card format does not appear to have one. Ten of the twenty one cards write a height requirement into that same description text, and the Flamingo Paddle Boats and Sky Tower cards append their additional fees notes the same way, so the placement is consistent with how that page handles practical details.

How big the gap is

SeaWorld's published park hours calendar gives the comparison. Today, Friday September 4, the park runs 9:30am to 9pm, which is eleven and a half hours. The ride's window is five of them.

Saturday September 5 the park is open 9am to 9pm, twelve hours, and the ride's 11am to 5pm weekend window covers exactly half of it. On the shorter weekdays later this month, such as Tuesday September 8 at 9:30am to 7pm, the ride still covers only five hours of a nine and a half hour day.

The ride's return channel, with a boat coming down the drop behind it. Publicity image: SeaWorld Orlando

What it means for Quick Queue

This is where the difference between the two pages matters most to a guest planning a day.

Journey to Atlantis is listed as a participating ride on Quick Queue Unlimited, alongside Mako, Manta, Kraken, Ice Breaker, Infinity Falls and Pipeline. It is also on the nine ride list for Reserved Seating + Quick Queue Unlimited PLUS and on the eight ride list for Year-Round Quick Queue. None of the three products' terms mention that the ride is posted to close at 4pm on weekdays or 5pm on weekends.

On the posted schedule, a guest who buys Quick Queue Unlimited and arrives in the evening would reach one of the seven rides on that list after it has closed for the day. All three Quick Queue products carry a general line asking guests to "check ride and park operating hours before visit." The hours are on the rides page. They are not on the ride's own page.

The splashdown, head on. Publicity image: SeaWorld Orlando

Not a Howl-O-Scream ride either

Howl-O-Scream runs select nights from September 11 through October 31. The event's haunted attractions page names four rides that "will operate throughout the night": Mako, Expedition Odyssey: Fire & Ice, Ice Breaker and Pipeline. The main Howl-O-Scream FAQ gives a different, open ended answer, saying some rides will be open "including Ice Breaker, Mako, Pipeline: The Surf Coaster, and Infinity Falls," weather permitting. Journey to Atlantis is on neither list.

Howl-O-Scream starts at 7pm, with gates at 6:30pm, so on the posted schedule Journey to Atlantis closes two to three hours before the event begins. On the event dates we checked, the park's daytime operation also ends at 6pm or 7pm, so the gap on those nights is much smaller than it is today.

What SeaWorld has not said

We found no press release and no note on the ride page, and SeaWorld has not published a reason. Whether this is seasonal, staffing related, weather related, tied to work on the ride, or something else, the company has not said, and we are not going to invent a reason for it.

Reduced hours on a water ride heading into fall would not be surprising on its own. What stands out is where the information sits: on one card out of twenty one on the rides index, and, of the SeaWorld pages we checked, nowhere else. It is not on the ride's own page, and it is not in the three Quick Queue listings that include the ride.

Sources

• SeaWorld Orlando, Rides and Attractions
• SeaWorld Orlando, Journey to Atlantis
• SeaWorld Orlando, Theme Park Hours
• SeaWorld Orlando, Quick Queue and Reserved Seating
• SeaWorld Orlando, Howl-O-Scream Haunted Attractions
• SeaWorld Orlando, Howl-O-Scream

Image credits: all photographs are SeaWorld Orlando publicity images of Journey to Atlantis in operation, and do not document the hours described above.