SeaWorld and Disney are the first of many theme parks to offer a more exclusive, personalized adventure for visitors, at a premium price.
In pockets throughout the forests and savannahs of Disney's Animal Kingdom, designers are crafting an experience unlike any other to be found in the theme park.
Among them, a three-hour African jungle trek in which small groups will pick their way through wooded overgrowth, peer over a cliff at a pool of hippos, cross a rickety bridge above Nile crocodiles, and dine in a safari-style camp where the gazelles are nearly close enough to touch.
But the experience won't come cheap. Disney, which began accepting reservations back in October for tours that will begin in January, eventually plans to charge $189 a person for the tours, on top of the basic park admission.
Disney's Wild Africa Trek is among the latest projects to sprout from an industrywide effort by theme parks to develop attractions for guests who want intimate, personalized experiences, and are willing to pay a premium for them.
SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment detailed plans to build a new tropical reef in Discovery Cove, itself a boutique experience with daily admission capped at just over 1,000 people and base ticket prices starting at $129. One of the new reef's features: An underwater tour, limited to six people at a time, that will cost an additional $59 a person.
SeaWorld has worked with a California dive-equipment company called Sub Sea Systems to develop SeaVenture, the dive experience expected to debut in June at Discovery Cove.
Guests will don dive helmets attached to air hoses and descend a ladder into about 12 feet of water. Once submerged, they'll follow a themed path that takes them through schools of fish and rays and past venomous lion fish. They will be able to touch starfish and sea urchins and watch sharks through 21-foot-long panoramic windows. "It's sort of like a dark ride, but underwater," said Stewart Clark, the SeaWorld vice resident in charge of Discovery Cove. SeaWorld expects strong demand for the experience, he said. "Right now, based on the level of interest, it would be sold out in about three minutes every day."
Disney's Wild Africa Trek, meanwhile, is designed to replicate an authentic African bush walk. Guests in groups no larger than 12, led by two Disney guides will have to twist and bend their way through a jungle landscape that has matured during the 15 years since it was first planted as part of the prep work for Disney's Animal Kingdom.
Workers are installing safety cables at various points along the track so that guests can be clipped into safety harnesses. That will allow them to inch up to the edge of an 8-foot-high cliff overlooking a hippo pool, and then cross a pair of rickety suspension bridges, including a 180-foot span stretched above a ravine filled with Nile crocodiles.There will be plenty of pampering, too. The bush walk will be followed by a leisurely savannah drive that ends at an open-air overlook, where the guides will serve hors d'oeuvres. Disney guides will take pictures throughout the tour, which will be included in the package price.
Disney is doing relatively little construction for Wild Africa Trek. The more extensive work involves training, both for the tour guides and the animals. During a recent preview of the experience, an animal trainer squatted by a ledge and tossed chunks of watermelons to a pair of 4,000-pound hippos, conditioning the animals to appear and look up whenever a group of people shows up.
Information from - www.dapsmagic.com
What do you think about these new 'experiances'. Will you pay the premium?