Today's paper has an interview with Brian Morrow, 35, the director of design and engineering at SeaWorld Orlando, Discovery Cove and Aquatica. Below is the full interview (the print version was shortened because of space limitations.)
Question: So how exactly does one manage to grow up to be a theme-park attraction designer?
Answer: Interesting, interesting question. When I was about nine, I started taking all my toys and reconfiguring them and deconstructing them and reconstructing them into little models of rides and stuff. So I always knew it was something of interest to me. I actually thought what I wanted to do was design roller coasters. Come to find out, what I really liked doing was designing guest experiences.
Q: What do you mean by that?
A: Well, the difference between the two is the coaster is one element of an experience. It is a large structural device that can create a lot of thrilling moments for guests and everyone. But outside of that there’s many layers of an attraction. Specifically here at SeaWorld Orlando, we like to have multi-dimensional experiences that are very large and considered mega-attractions like Manta is. So it goes way beyond just the steel for us. It’s actually getting well into the story elements and, of course, things that only SeaWorld can bring around, which is live animal habitats and our connection to nature.
Q: And when did you realize that for you it was more about ‘guest experiences’?
A: Don’t have a time stamp, but it was during my internship. I actually interned for a chain of theme parks all throughout college and that’s where I really realized the interest and the fun and the part that guests are really taking away. Watching guests and studying them throughout my internship, when I was working on some attraction designs, it was watching them and understanding that the ride is just part of it. It’s an important part of it, but it is part. That’s what makes theme parks what they are.
Q: Busch Entertainment has called Manta one of its biggest and most complex projects ever. What makes the project so unique?
A: Well, imagine building one of the most complex underwater animal habitats combined with a high-speed, thrilling roller coaster in the middle of an active theme park that never has a shut-down day. That’s a complicated project. We were really challenged to deliver on a very unique experience that is quintessential SeaWorld. And that is the seamless integration between an animal experience, an undersea experience, directly tied into a ride experience. And that was actually one of the biggest challenges, making sure that was seamless. If you sat in the room early on and said ’ray’ and ’coaster’ — they really have nothing to do with each other. So you’ve got to take a bunch of steps back and really dig into it. And once you see the final product, it’s very seamless. I think we were very successful at that. And the guests are going to really respond to that.
Q: You mentioned one challenge. Can you think of another you specific challenge you ran into?
A: Again, our biggest challenge is making sure that we are always bringing something unique to the marketplace. For our guests here that come to SeaWorld Orlando, they really are looking for something new when they do return, they’re looking for something different that they can’t experience anywhere else. There’s a lot of things out there to go experience and to do, and we want to make sure that we are providing a unique experience that’s quintessential to our equity and to our culture and what we want our guests to walk away with. So doing that is a huge challenge, making sure we don’t come off as — if you under-deliver on that, then for us the project is challenged. It’s not as good.
Q: What do you think will surprise people most about Manta?
A: I have two answers. I would have answered differently four weeks ago, but we started running the trains. Now that trains are running – of course, nobody’s on them yet, but guests can see them because we’ve located the ride almost in the center of the theme park – and the ride actually has some interactions with the guests that aren’t riding. It goes over and kind of below some of our walkways, so guests that are walking around the park actually have an interaction moment with those riders. And I didn’t expect there to be so much excitement related to the position of the ride. And that is the biggest key. When guest see that ride go, they can’t figure out how it’s doing it [flying an inverted position] — which is great to me. Just this morning, I was out there and there was a 10-year-old kid trying to figure it out. It’s great. That’s an indication that we are really bringing something unique to the marketplace. People haven’t seen this before. And it is so well tied into our animal experience here at SeaWorld Orlando. It’s just going to be great.
Q: What would you have said four weeks ago?
A: Four weeks ago, I would have thought the little elements. We have this great wing dip effect where the ride interacts with the water — guests haven’t got to see that yet because it’s behind a wall still — I thought those would have been really, really key elements. But I think it’s the overall attraction experience. I think we’re really delivering on it, because the guests now are walking around, they’re looking at these images we have around the construction site of our guests underneath the wings of a manta ray, and they’re putting it together with the ride above them. And they get it. They really are getting it.
Q: A few years ago, you worked on the team that recast the Wild Artic simulator ride into the Polar Express Experience for the holidays, which has become an annual shift. A lot of people looked at that — a temporary and quickly executed simulator makeover — as a model for future simulator attractions. How difficult was it to perform that makeover?
A: Here’s the good news. It’s difficult in only one aspect: In the timing that we had to produce that and install that production. It’s really considered a production; it’s more of an entertainment installation than a ride installation. Because it was what you said it was, a perfect scenic overlay and experience overlay — taking one brand and putting it onto our brand. It was really well executed. It wasn’t exorbitantly difficult because, at SeaWorld, we didn’t just pick a brand to fit there — we picked the best brand to fit there. It fit seamlessly with what we were doing already at Wild Arctic – the Polar Express and the Warner Bros., that group there. That wasn’t difficult. It flowed, it developed easily. I mean we watched the movie and grabbed scenes and we just kind of created that entire movie experience in a three-dimensional world. It blew the guests away. It blew us away. It blew Warner Bros. away. The productions folks at Warner Bros. were just stunned by what we had done. We micromanaged the size and diameter and the color of the springs in Santa’s sleigh. It was exact duplication of the movie. We figured out how to do it and the detail and the amount of effort that went into it was a lot of work. But we had a team here at the park that embraced it and really enjoyed the process. It became to all of us, it was our baby. And we really delivered. The first time guests walked through that, it was spellbinding. I got goosebumps every time I walked in the ride with the guests – you know, I kind of blend in with them and see how everything’s working and functioning – and guests are just looking around, they’re pointing at every single detail that we pulled from the movie product and we put into our ride product. And they got it.
Q: Do you remember the first ride you ever worked on?
A: Yes. I do. [Laughs].
Q: And?
A: It’s been torn down. [Laughs again]. Yeah, I watched it on a web cam. It was for a park in Texas that is no long in existence. That park was sold off, and I think there’s some sort of mall or something there now. The ride was called Dungeon Drop. It was a free-fall ride, based on a story narrative of Stonehenge and the power of that mythical, the lure of the Stonehenge genre.
Q: Since you’re an expert in this area, what’s your favorite ride or attraction? You can’t say Manta or Polar Express.
A: Oh, I wouldn’t have said either of those. [Pause] In North America, my favorite coaster? Sheikra. It is the most thrilling, smoothest, most beautifully executed coaster that I’ve ever been on. It delivers on everything that I enjoy on a ride. People enjoy roller coasters for many reasons: Some enjoy inversions, some enjoy the sheer fear of being high, there’s lots of emotions that run through people. It plays on individual phobias and subjective emotions of what scares them. What scares me, and what I enjoy, is height. I enjoy that moment of pause before the big drop .
Q: And what about worldwide?
A: Oh…[Long pause]. I don’t have a favorite worldwide. If I had to choose a big coaster or ride, it would probably still be Sheikra. I’ll stick with Sheikra. And I don’t want to say it because it’s one of ours, but it’s really good. And I’ve been on a lot of roller coasters.