Emperor is a

Bolliger & Mabillard Bolliger & Mabillard, officially Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers, Inc. and often abbreviated B&M, is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by engineers Walter Bolliger and Cl ...

Dive Coaster The Dive Coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and engineered by Bolliger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers. T ...

SeaWorld SeaWorld is an American theme park chain with headquarters in Orlando, Florida. It is a proprietor of marine mammal parks, oceanariums, animal theme parks, and rehabilitation centers owned by United Parks & Resorts. The parks host shows st ...

San Diego, California San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, plans for opening the coaster were pushed back to 2021, before a final opening date of March 12, 2022 was announced.

History

On January 5, 2019, SeaWorld San Diego announced that a new B&M

dive coaster The Dive Coaster is a steel roller coaster model developed and engineered by Bolliger & Mabillard. The design features one or more near-vertical drops that are approximately 90 degrees, which provide a moment of free-falling for passengers. T ...

would be coming to the park. The ride was to be named “Mako”. Through the

IAAPA The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) represents over 6,000 amusement-industry members in more than 100 countries worldwide and operates several global attractions-industry trade shows. Its annual IAAPA Expo in ...

, it was announced that “Mako” would be changed to Emperor. Instead of being themed to

sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch cartilaginous fish characterized by a ribless endoskeleton, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits on each side, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the ...

, the ride would now be themed to (emperor)

penguins Penguins are a group of aquatic flightless birds from the family Spheniscidae () of the order Sphenisciformes (). They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere. Only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is equatorial, with a sm ...

. Emperor is the first ''floorless'' dive coaster in California, and the second overall dive coaster in the state, after HangTime at

Knott's Berry Farm Knott's Berry Farm is a amusement park in Buena Park, California, United States, owned and operated by Six Flags. In March 2015, it was ranked as the List of amusement park rankings#North America, twelfth-most-visited theme park in North Ameri ...

. Emperor is located in the eastern area of SeaWorld San Diego, and just off the main walkway to the south of the

Penguin Encounter Penguin Encounter is an animal exhibit at the Sea World (Australia), Sea World amusement park, theme park on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Gold Coast, Australia, featuring King penguin, king and Gentoo penguin, gentoo penguins. History On 24 M ...

exhibit. There has been no announcement of plans to incorporate penguins into a new space nearer to the roller coaster. The queue and ride pavilion to Emperor are accessible via pathways that would normally bring you to

Journey to Atlantis Journey to Atlantis is the name shared by three Water Coasters located at SeaWorld theme parks. These attractions, while different from one another, tell a similar story of a trip to the mythical land of Atlantis. Each one combines roller coas ...

. On August 25, 2021, SeaWorld announced that Emperor would open sometime in March 2022. On January 20, 2022, SeaWorld announced that Emperor would open on March 12, 2022.

Track layout

Guests leave from the station and begin the lift hill climb and turn to its drop where it will hold riders for 3.5 to 4 seconds. It then drops riders at a 90-degree angle into its first inversion, a immelmann which goes over the drop and then flows into its 2nd inversion, a hard over banked turn that turns riders upside down as they go into another element which can be classified as an inversion but will not entirely invert riders, this element flows into the last element of the ride which is a corkscrew which then leads into a turn and then into a ramp to the station where the train repeats this cycle over again. The ride time estimation of each cycle from leaving and returning to the station is approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds.

References

SeaWorld San Diego Roller coasters introduced in 2022 Roller coasters in California Dive Coasters manufactured by Bolliger & Mabillard Roller coasters operated by United Parks & Resorts {{amusement-ride-stub