Weeks After Opening, Guests Tear apart Florida Theme Park's Newest Coaster

No matter how sparkly and new a ride is, the builders and designers cannot protect it from the elements like rain, wind, or hurricanes. But SeaWorld Orlando is realizing that the most challenging element to preserve its rides from is the guests.

Related: ‘This is so Slimy’ SeaWorld Accused of Gouging Guests and Stealing From Employees to Prop Up Its Failing Business

On July 7, SeaWorld Orlando opened its newest family roller coaster, Penguin Trek. The coaster takes guests through Antarctica on a snowmobile, ultimately ending in the penguin habitat. The new coaster is one of the few that only requires children to be 42 inches, making it perfect for the entire family.

SeaWorld’s website describes it as: 

This will be the coolest research mission you’ve ever joined! Prepare for Penguin Trek, an unforgettable family launch coaster adventure through the breathtaking vastness of Antarctica. Board your snowmobile and race along with your expedition team at up to 43 miles per hour, navigating twists and turns and narrowly escaping the crumbling hazards of an icy cavern.

Reach the end and you’ll make the ultimate discovery: a real penguin habitat! This new indoor/outdoor family ride is the most immersive addition to the Coaster Capital of Orlando, and with a height requirement of just 42”, it’s the perfect journey for families to share.

Related: The Battle for Central Florida Tourism Dollars is Ratcheting Up

However, guests have already vandalized the queue to the new coaster less than three weeks into its existence, causing thousands in damage to a ride that just recently opened.

Social media posts suggest that guests started peeling the paint off the walls in Penguin Trek’s waiting area. The damage extends through the entire stairwell to the entrance.

Guests reported that the Florida theme park had been damaged by young children who got bored while waiting and began peeling the paint off. Once the paints started to go, others joined in, causing the damage.

This is why we can’t have nice things. I don’t know of a solution, there probably isn’t one, to get guests to stop damaging walls like this.

Seeing all the paint on the floor, I have to assume a majority of this happened day of (taken last night at 8:30 pm) pic.twitter.com/qb9OBNEYt0

— Tharin White (@TharinWhite) July 24, 2024

While maintaining a queue entirely made of steel and outdoors would have been easier for SeaWorld Orlando Park, it would have ruined the experience for guests and deprived them of an air-conditioned waiting area to escape the hot Central Florida sun.

Earlier this year, SeaWorld CEO Mark Swanson met with SeaWorld Orlando investors to assure them that his theme park would have no attractions to draw in guests even after Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando had completed their big expansion projects.

Part of SeaWorld’s draw is its price. Tickets to SeaWorld are generally cheaper than those to Disney World and Universal Orlando Resort.

Since the end of the pandemic, SeaWorld Orlando has dramatically expanded its footprint, including adding the steepest rollercoaster in Florida and Penguin Trek. Swanson told investors that SeaWorld saw a two percent bump in attendance during the first quarter of this year due to these new additions, while his competitors, Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando, saw a decline in attendance.

However, people vandalizing the theme park’s new ride won’t help attendance at all. Hopefully, this will be fixed as soon as possible, and no one else will ruin the aesthetic for everyone else.

What is the worst thing you’ve seen someone do while waiting in line at a theme park?