Emperor (roller coaster)

On January 5, 2019, SeaWorld San Diego announced that a new B&M dive coaster would be coming to the park. The ride was to be named “Mako”.[3]

Through the IAAPA, it was announced that “Mako” would be changed to Emperor. Instead of being themed to sharks, the ride would now be themed to (emperor) penguins.[4]

Emperor is the first floorless dive coaster in California, and the second overall in the state, after HangTime at Knott's Berry Farm. Emperor is located in the eastern area of SeaWorld San Diego, and just off the main walkway to the south of the Penguin Encounter 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.

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.[5]

Guests leave from the station and begin the 150 feet (46 m) lift hill climb and turn to its drop where it will hold riders for 3.5 to 4 seconds. It then drops riders 143 feet (44 m) at a 90 degree angle into its first inversion, a 123 feet (37 m) 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.[6] The ride time estimation of each cycle from leaving and returning to the station is approximately 1 minute and 10 seconds.