SeaWorld San Antonio
SeaWorld San Antonio is a marine mammal park, oceanarium and animal theme park in the Westover Hills District of San Antonio, Texas, on the city's west side. It is the largest of the three parks in the SeaWorld chain owned and operated by United Parks & Resorts. As North America's largest marine-life theme park, and one of the world's largest marine-life theme parks, it is focused on conservation, education and animal rescue. It is a member of the Alliance of Marine Mammal Parks and Aquariums and is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.
History
The park, initially called Sea World of Texas, was developed by Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich. Built for $170 million, it opened on May 27, 1988, and 75,000 people attended the opening. It had 3.3 million visitors in its first 12 months of operation, placing it among the Top 10 attractions in Texas. At the time of its debut, it was billed as "the largest educational, marine-life theme park in the world."On November 26, 1988, Kayla was the first orca born at the park. At the time of her death on January 28, 2019, she resided at SeaWorld Orlando.
In 1989, Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich sold its SeaWorld and Boardwalk and Baseball theme parks to Anheuser-Busch, Inc. Plans to build a second Boardwalk and Baseball park adjacent to Sea World San Antonio were abandoned.
Under Anheuser-Busch ownership, the park closed less popular attractions consisting of the Texas Walk, Cypress Gardens West, Joplin Square, U.S. Map Plaza, and the Garden of Flags and added its Budweiser Clydesdales to the park.
In 2008, Anheuser-Busch merged with InBev; soon after, in 2009, the newly merged company sold the SeaWorld parks to the Blackstone Group. In 2017, Blackstone sold its stake to China's Zhonghong Group.
In March 2016, SeaWorld Entertainment announced that the current generation of orcas at it parks would be the last. SeaWorld San Antonio currently houses 4 orcas. It was also announced that the theatrical orca shows would be phased out and replaced with more naturalistic Orca Encounters. SeaWorld San Antonio's Orca Encounter opened on February 22, 2020.
In 2024, Catapult Falls, the world's first launched flume ride, opened to the public. In the fall of 2024, SeaWorld San Antonio announced that they would retheme their Sesame Street Bay of Play area to SeaWorld Rescue Jr., a similar concept to the one at SeaWorld San Diego. On March 8th, 2025, SeaWorld Rescue Jr. area opened to guests, with new and rethemed rides such as Beach Rescue Racers, Ocean Quest Express, Tide Pool Tumble, Seabird Swing, and Ocean Rescue Carousel.
Attractions
Roller coasters and rides
Live entertainment and animal presentations
| # | Name | Opened | Description |
| 15 | Orca Stadium | 2020 | The home to the park's four orcas originally opened in 1988. The venue's current production is Orca Encounter since late February 2020. The venue housed theatrical orca shows until December 2019, including the former show One Ocean and the summer seasonal Shamu's Celebration: Light Up The Night and winter seasonal Shamu Christmas Miracles night shows. An educational show called Orcas: Up Close was also presented on select times. |
| 16 | Beluga Stadium | 1988 | The home to the park's beluga whales and Pacific white-sided dolphins with house shows with the whales and dolphins and formerly macaws and live acrobats called by the names of Viva and Azul until 2016 when they were replaced by an educational show named Ocean Discovery: Dolphins and Beluga Whales. |
| 17 | Sea Lion Stadium | 1988 | Hosts "Clyde and Seamore," a pair of California sea lions in the presentation Sea Lion & Otter Spotlight. Asian small-clawed otters also partake in the show. |
| 18 | Bayside Stadium | 1988 | Hosts water skiing stunt shows on the park's central lagoon as well as the preferential viewing area for the park's seasonal fireworks shows. |
| 19 | Nautilus Amphitheater | 1988 | An open-air theater used for different purposes and park shows including seasonal animal presentations and the main musical show for the park's premier Howl-O-Scream event Monster Stomp on Ripper Row. The theater also hosts stage musical O Wondrous Night during the park's Christmas Celebration event. |
| 20 | Sea Star Theatre | 2003 | Originally constructed as a 4-D theater that formerly showed R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse and Pirates 4D. The building was reconfigured as a conventional theater in 2013 and housed Pets Ahoy, a show which featured animals that have been rescued from local animal shelters. The show was cut in 2020 due to budget cuts affiliated with the loss of revenue due to COVID-19. The theater hosted the park's Sesame Street shows after reopening following the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2023, the theater debuted John Tartaglia's ImaginOcean, a glow-in-the-dark musical puppet show about fish. |
Animal inventory
Orcas
SeaWorld's orcas are housed in Shamu Theater, a geodesic dome, most of whom were born at SeaWorld except Kyuquot who was born at the defunct Sealand of the Pacific in Canada. There are currently 4 orcas, Takara, Sakari, Tuar and Kyuquot.Beluga whales
SeaWorld San Antonio has one of the most prolific beluga breeding programs in any zoological facility in the United States. Half of the belugas currently at the facility were born at the park and several belugas at other US facilities were originally born here.This park has also been selected the permanent home of a rescued Cook Inlet beluga named Tyonek who was deemed unreleasable due to his young age and lack of survival skills. They were chosen due to their diverse beluga population of experienced mothers and younger belugas close to his age, but surprisingly he ended up bonding with Betty, one of the park's Pacific white-sided dolphins.
As of 2024, SeaWorld San Antonio has 10 belugas.
Dolphins
SeaWorld has 16 bottlenose dolphins that live in two different areas of the park. Discovery Point is where most of the park's dolphins live, where they do interaction programs and are also on display via above water and underwater viewing areas. Zoological Support is a backstage area where five other dolphins live and where other animals could go for breeding purposes, specialized veterinary care, etc. Zoological Support is also the main rescue hub of the park and currently houses three rescued bottlenose dolphins. While most dolphins were born within the SeaWorld parks except Notchfin, 3 of these dolphins are also rescued dolphins that were deemed nonreleasable by the National Marine Fisheries Service.The park also has seven Pacific white-sided dolphins that live at Beluga Stadium. SeaWorld San Antonio is one of two zoological facilities in the United States that cares for Pacific white-sided dolphins.
Sea Lions, Seals, and Otters
In addition to the performing sea lions and otters, there is a large population of California sea lions and harbor seals living at this open air exhibit. Pinniped feeding opportunities are available for an additional fee. Unique to this SeaWorld is an exhibit for the park's Asian small-clawed and African spot-necked otters, while the other parks' freshwater otters can only be seen during shows.Sea Turtles
The newest animal exhibit in the park which opened in May 2019 featuring rescued loggerhead and green sea turtles that live with schools of marine fish. It also has a natural biofiltration system consisting of an adjacent salt marsh with bacteria in the plant roots that feed on animal waste.Penguins
SeaWorld San Antonio has about 250 penguins in their collection, and there are four total species, the king penguin, gentoo, chinstrap and the southern rockhopper. The penguin exhibit is a recreation of the Falkland Islands as all of the species cared for in the exhibit are found above Antarctica.
Aquatica San Antonio
Aquatica is a water park that was formerly a section of the park under the name, Lost Lagoon, which opened in 1993 and closed on September 5, 2011, to be replaced by Aquatica San Antonio, a separate gated water park based on the original Aquatica Orlando. Known as "Texas' Best Waterpark", the new park opened on Memorial Day weekend May 2012.Attendance
| 2009 | 2,600,000 |
| 2011 | 2,600,000 |
| 2012 | 2,678,000 |
| 2013 | Not listed |
| 2014 | Not listed |
| 2015 | Not listed |