Risen ruins

The king of all nautical fables must be the story of Atlantis. Often described as “the Lost Continent,” Atlantis is a legendary landmass whose existence and mythology traces back even to the oral traditions of Plato roundabout 400 B.C. For thousands of years, tales of the submerged city dragged into the murky depths of the Atlantic Ocean have inspired archaeologists, philosophers, treasure hunters, and explorers. In fact, the Atlantic Ocean's Greek name –  Ἀτλαντικῷ πελάγει – literally means Sea of Atlantis.

Storytellers, philosophers, and dreamers imagine Atlantis as a supercontinent of unfathomably advanced technologies; an entire lost civilization of ancient treasure, and the unthinkable knowledge of generations, all consumed by the sea when the city fell out of favor with the gods.

Atlantis has become an embedded in pop culture as can be, inspiring novels, films, and stories. The ruins of Atlantis are even a stop for Captain Nemo in Jules Verne’s 1872 novel 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (and the Disney fan favorite attraction it inspired, the Lost Legend: 20,000 Leagues – Submarine Voyage). 

Despite the story of Atlantis echoing through thousands of years of history, in an unusual case of parallel evolution, Disney, Universal, and SeaWorld all seem to have stumbled upon the legend's potential fit with a theme park attraction at approximately the same time, just before the dawn of the New Millennium! Between 1998 and 1999 alone, three Atlantis-themed attractions were planned.

• For Disney, it was via Disneyland's own, original Submarine Voyage, which had been unceremoniously decomissioned in 1998. There, Imagineers planned to give the treasured classic a new lease on life by way of a character infusion. The proposed ride – Submarine Voyage: Atlantis Expedition – was predicated on the anticipated success of Disney's 2001 sci-fi animated film Atlantis: The Lost Empire. (Unfortunately, Atlantis didn't land at the box office, leaving the subs sunk until Finding Nemo came around.)

• Meanwhile, Universal planned to bring Atlantis to life in a surprising new way. Their ambitious plans for a second theme park in Orlando dispensed entirely with movies or seeing "behind the scenes" in favor of showing their own commitment to Disney-quality storytelling and theming. Their new park, Universal's Islands of Adventure, would be a collection of stories, comics, fables, and myths drawn not from the screen, but from literature. One of the park's islands would be the original, mythic Lost Legend: The Lost Continent – a land themed in part to stories of the risen Atlantis, with a special effects walkthrough called... Journey to Atlantis.

Image: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

• For SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Entertainment contracted with Mack Rides to build a custom flume ride that would weave through a 10-story tall showbuilding designed to look like the ancient city risen anew along the white sand shores of Greece. Spanning 6-acres, this appropriately monumental and iconic attraction appeared poised to be SeaWorld's marketing coup, catapulting the park to a major player in Orlando. 

There was just one problem: the SeaWorld team was apparently struggling to figure out a name for the attraction that would be simple enough to remember, epic enough to matter, and strong enough to advertise its mythic setting. Even as SeaWorld polled guests on lackluster names for the attraction, they glanced sideways toward the name they really liked... yep – "Journey to Atlantis," which had already been trademarked by Universal.

As the story goes, SeaWorld wanted the name "Journey to Atlantis" badly... so much so that they were willing to fight for it. Allegedly, SeaWorld contacted Universal, legally objecting to the name of their new park by suggesting that Islands of Adventure was too close to Busch Gardens' Tampa waterpark, Adventure Isle. The only way SeaWorld would drop the case? If Universal agreed to hand over the name "Journey to Atlantis."

It worked. In exchange for SeaWorld dropping its challenge against "Islands of Adventure," they opted to change the name of their special effects extravaganza in the Lost Continent, yielding the Declassified Disaster: Poseidon's Fury. And just like that, SeaWorld finally had the name it needed to put its new attraction on the market in a big way.

A pinnacle of the reinvention of SeaWorld, it was time for Atlantis to rise... 

SeaWorld Adventure Park

Click and expand for a more detailed view. Image: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

The year is 1998. Just down the road, Walt Disney World has seen a radical expansion… its unprecedented fourth theme park has opened, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom has set a new precedent for theme parks… Photorealistic, detailed beyond compare, and sufficiently wild, the animal-oriented park is a must-visit.

But up the street, SeaWorld is determined to be a must-visit, too, and their coup is – oddly enough – the opposite of Animal Kingdom’s.  While Disney’s new park soaks up the zoological limelight, SeaWorld has left animals behind for the first time in a long time with its new additions…

As you approach the park, you’ll notice a brand-new, 12-acre entrance. Magic Kingdom has Main Street; the Disney-MGM Studios has Hollywood Blvd. And SeaWorld Orlando has a brand new harbor, with the gentle waves of a bright blue bay lapping against a boardwalk with docked ships and ceramic sea creatures setting a immersive tone. That’s on purpose.

So is the park’s new branding: SeaWorld Adventure Park.

Image: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

That’s intentional. Busch Entertainment wants to make it clear that this is more than a zoo; it’s an adventure. Sure, you’ll see animals. But you’ll see them among thrill rides, simulators, water rides, and more. A day at SeaWorld Adventure Park is imaginative, transformative, and transportive, whisking you into the magic, mystery, and majesty of the oceans and the legends it inspires.

And speaking of which, the destination today has to be the park’s newest ride; a real competitor to Disney and Universal’s efforts…

Risen Ruins

Image: SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment

Your first sight of Journey to Atlantis is the kind of experience that may temporarily take your breath away. The truth is, Atlantis is unimaginably beautiful. The towering, palatial temple is gorgeous, with sandstone turrets and aqueducts, oxidized copper domes, sea-blue tiled roofs, and jagged oceanic rocks bursting from within. The building’s bridges and arches are covered in frescoes, murals, and hieroglyphics that betray some distant relationship with Greece’s Knossos temple.

Water-carved rocks and sandbars with palms jut from the crystal clear waters before the temple, where a distant, hazy mist hovers as if from recent geothermal activity. A Greek fishing village set precariously along the water’s edge will serve as the queue. But weaving through these gleaming white villas based on the Greek isle of Thera, the dripping temple set among bubbling, gushing, trembling waters is a sight… This is a structure that tells a story.

If only the ride could do the same…

Image: Jeremy Thompson, Flickr (license)

A gleaming news van parked outside the village seems to indicate that we’ve walked into a live story, and indeed, throughout the queue we see reports of the miraculous temple’s emergence from the depths as scientists, historians, and locals are at a loss. One person who seems acutely aware of what’s going on is a local fisherman named Stavros. The old man has a simple word of advice: “Keep out.” Something decidedly sinister lurks within the ancient city, and we’d best stay far away.

But where’s the fun in that? As our walk through the Greek fishing village leads closer and closer to the leaking city, our departure point comes into view: an old fish market where boats await our arrival... Our tour of Atlantis begins in those rickety old Greek fishing boats seating eight, side-by-side in four rows. At once, the boat drifts from the dock of Thanos and enters into the village’s streets at night...