Get a first look

at SeaWorld’s Kraken Unleashed and check out a picture of the first baby Walrus born at the Orlando theme park.

Do not adjust your headset. SeaWorld Orlando is re-releasing its Kraken roller coaster into the world of virtual reality.

Select annual passholders of the theme park previewed the overlay of the thrill ride — now dubbed Kraken Unleashed — Tuesday afternoon. All seats are equipped with headgear that provides visuals and audio for a new digital undersea journey, although it follows the original steel track of Kraken, which opened 17 years ago.

The rethemed ride opens to the public Friday.

Here’s how the new Unleashed version unfolds:

Seated passengers pull shoulder restraints down over their heads and lock them into position. Virtualreality equipment is strapped onto the crossbar. Riders are told to place the headset on the back of their heads first, placing the incorporated speakers solidly over the ears. Then they must adjust the attached mask over the eyes — the look resembles what hotshot snow skiers might wear — and adjust it to fit snugly (some might say “tightly”) across the face.

Passengers are almost entirely immersed into a new environment at this point. Now, the sights and sounds of an undersea laboratory are ahead in a virtual scene that has a similar blueprint to the real-life loading station. Riders can look around — and up and down — at this fresh setting while waiting for other Kraken heads to be adjusted by ride operators.

Without warning, passengers moved forward, out of both the real-life station and the virtual scene. (I didn’t sense the floor falling away, as is normal when Kraken takes off, but it did.)

The ride begins with a lowriding curve, twisting back toward the lift hill. According to the view from the headsets, we are now into deep waters with an assortment of fishes and alongside small submarine-like vessels. Our upward drift corresponds with the real-life ascent to the top of Kraken’s 149-foot-tall hill. We are floating toward the light.

After that, well, it’s a highspeed, bubbly blur. We see scads of undersea life as we ride the rails through seven inversions, which, remember, are the same as before this makeover, which started in April.

Visually speaking, the experience is drastically different though. Under Kraken Classic, you might get the chance to see which direction you might turn next. With Kraken Unleashed, it’s a guessing game. You’re left to the whimsy of the virtual-reality designers as you zip past sealife. It goes by in a blurry hurry.

I’m told there are bonus sights if you look around and not just straight ahead at the action. Good luck with that