The history of Sea World Orlando really began with four UCLA graduates, led by Milton Shedd, who were thinking of opening an underwater restaurant and marine wildlife show back in the early 1960’s. When that concept proved to be too difficult, they decided instead to open a marine park. In March of 1964, in the city of San Diego, they opened the first Sea World park with only six attractions. These included a few dolphins, a couple of sea lions and other scattered marine life, spread over a 22 acre area. Despite these humble beginnings, the park proved to be a success, admitting over 400,000 people through its gates in the first year.

Thinking that they could be more successful if they were more centrally located, the four grads decided to expand, building a second Sea World park in an area just south of Cleveland, Ohio. More varieties of marine life were added to the parks as well as a killer whale which made its first appearance at the San Diego park. Although the cold winter months made it so the Ohio park could only be open from the middle of May to the middle of September, visitors came from all over Ohio and the surrounding states to visit the theme park, making it a successful venture as well. (This park was eventually sold in 2001 to Six Flags where it was combined with their existing amusement park. It was subsequently sold to the company that owns the Cedar Point amusement park and ultimately closed by them.)

After seeing the huge crowds that Walt Disney World was attracting in the Orlando vacation area, they decided in 1973 to open their third park just a few miles away from Disney’s successful theme park. Sea World Orlando proved to be their most successful venture yet, as Orlando was quickly becoming the most popular travel destination in the world.

In 1976, the four original owners decided to cash in, selling the three Sea World parks to book publisher Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. In addition to the three Sea World theme parks, the company known primarily for schoolbook publishing also acquired two other Orlando vacation area attractions - Boardwalk and Baseball and Cypress Gardens. After opening a fourth Sea World park in Texas in 1988, the financial burden and exhaustive task of caring for the wildlife became too much of a burden on the company. In order to avoid bankruptcy, they sold the entire six parks to the Anheuser-Busch brewing company shortly after opening the Texas Sea World.

Anheuser-Busch did not want two of the parks included in the deal, so they closed Boardwalk and Baseball and sold the Cypress Gardens park shortly thereafter. Long committed to the preservation of wildlife, Anheuser-Busch immediately sunk millions of dollars into the rejuvenation of the Sea World parks. Today, the brewery company continues to invest more money into the three remaining Sea World parks as well as the Busch Gardens animal wildlife parks that it owns.

Orlando now is home to the most visited of the Sea World parks and continues to add more attractions and shows. Known for its exciting and informative shows, interesting interactive exhibits and now a handful of thrill rides, Sea World Orlando continues to be a favorite of audiences of all ages who flock to the exciting attraction. Less than a twenty minute drive from most of the Orlando vacation area, Sea World Orlando is located directly between the Universal Orlando and Walt Disney World theme parks.

Click on the navigation bar at the top, left and start exploring the many outstanding attractions that this wonderful Orlando theme park has to offer. After exploring the Sea World portion of the web site, you might want to check out Sea World Orlando’s web site about it’s sister park; Discovery Cove, also in the Orlando vacation area.
 

Fish School

• On some pages of the Sea World Orlando portion of this web site, you may see this section which will point out tips, interesting facts or inside secrets about marine life or the Sea World park, itself. For instance, all Sea World parks have a killer whale name Shamu. This was the name that was given to the original female orca acquired by the San Diego Sea World. Since then, all of the adult killer whales that appear in the Sea World parks have been called Shamu. They do have their own real names, however. At Sea World Orlando, there are eight killer whales at this time. Their real names are Katina, Kalina, Tilikum, Taima, Takara, Taku, Ikaika and Trua.