SeaWorld Orlando has filed an application to develop a potential 15-story, 504-room hotel adjacent to the park, according to FOX 35 Orlando.
What’s Happening:
- The documents filed with Orange County reveal that a 15-story, 504-room hotel is in development for SeaWorld Orlando near the intersection of International Drive and Central Florida Parkway.
- The nearly 30-acre project, with the codename "Starboard," would include a walkway to the theme park, conference center, ballroom, parking garage, fitness center, restaurant and rooftop bar and terrace, among other amenities, as seen in the site renderings.
- Renderings also show off a vast pool area that could include a lazy river.
- If built according to these plans, an entrance to the hotel from within SeaWorld Orlando would be built between the Nautilus Theater and Infinity Falls.
- This project would mark the first hotel built in any of the U.S. SeaWorld or Busch Gardens parks, as the company looks to further compete with Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando.
- During a recent earnings call, SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment CEO Marc Swanson doubled down on plans to build not just one, but two hotels within the next few years.
- "On the hotel front, we also continue to make progress on our plans. As we mentioned last quarter, we are refining our design, planning on our first hotels and we expect to begin opening in 2026. We identified two locations of the first two hotels and we'll be offering more details about these properties soon," Swanson said.
- He then added that the company plans to continue to open more hotels in the years following.
- "We have a unique opportunity to build highly compelling hotels that will integrate with our parks, allow us to capture profits from our guests that are currently staying at other properties, increase length of stay at our properties, offer more compelling vacation packages, upsell and cross-sell guests, increase loyalty and generate an attractive (return on investment)."
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