Anyone been to SeaWorld Orlando lately?

[Barb D]

We are thinking we want to go here next Summer and I got sticker shock. Its $51 a piece to go here. I know we will get discounts from that.

So can anyone help me with this park?

Whats the thing to see and do? How about preschoolers in tow. (I read they have a place to play but 3 and 6 months are probably to young for this?) My husband and I arent afraid to play with them if were allowed (A benefit of being a young grandparent) We have been through our share of McDonalds tubes and slides.

Anyway can I get others experiences with Sea World? I hear it has a great big roller coaster I have yet to ride.

Barb

[ddoll]

Barb, I may not be the best person to offer a view on Seaworld, as we vowed to cross it off our list after this June's trip there. Of course, we live in New England where there are lots of aquariums and such, so the viewing of sealife parts of the park didn't hold high interest for us.

After our first time there in 2000, we put it on the "been there, done that" list. But my teen boys, who are thrill ride enthusiasts, both voted Seaworld as their choice for our extra day. The Kraaken rollercoaster truly is a great coaster, and was their only reason for wanting to go.

The thing about this park is, it's kinda like AK.....noticeably hotter than other places. There are long areas of blacktop to walk on, which of course just blasts heat at you. Lots of vegetation, so there's a wetness clinging around. Some very long walks to reach some areas of the park, too.

In other words....we were so uncomfortable there, that we had little interest in seeing much. Even the kids, after riding Kraaken several times in a row, wanted to leave.

That all being said, if you have a high interest in seeing all the water animals, this is a great place to do it. You'll see and learn a lot. The shows are fun and entertaining. They also have one water/flume ride there.

[Rosebud]

Barb,
This past year we ventured back to SeaWorld after years of not going. They had a great deal prior to June 1st - buy one day and go through the end of the year. I knew we would be able to go at least 3x with that deal and not have to worry about seeing everything in one day. I think they often have deals and sometimes they are linked to other parks, so keep looking.

I actually bought the tickets on-line because I wasn't arriving until June 1. We went for @ 1/2 day that first week of June. We also went on August 11, and plan to go back one day Christmas week, before the tickets expire.

We saw the Pets Show which is at an inside theater. We really enjoyed that show, but nothing to do with marine life. It was dogs, cats, chickens, a pig. They really amazed us with the trained cats. All animals from a shelter.

We also saw another show that I wouldn't bother going back to - it was suppose to be funny but just didn't do it for us. I would have rather seen more interaction with the otter and walrus (I believe). They also have a dolphin show and a whale show, both of which we skipped.

They also have 3 areas where you can feed different animals. The first one was the stingrays. For $4 you get a few little fish and you can feed the stingrays. You can also touch them even if you don't feed them.

The other area is for seals. This was the best deal on the fish It was I believe $3 or 2 for $5. You can't touch the seals though. You also have to be careful that the birds don't steal the fish when you toss them. The seals are cute though when they see you have fish they will "talk" and wave to you.

The last area that we did both times was feed the dolphins. The fish there are $4. You can pet the dolphins too when they come up to you. They will come up to you sometimes if you don't have fish, but easier if you do. At this location they will take pictures and sell them to you if you wish. You can either signal the photographer to take a picture of you, or they will do it randomly and another worker will give you the ticket number of your picture.

That have a nice manatee display with an underwater viewing window that we enjoyed. They have a display of different types of penguins in one building. Another building is where they have a tube that brings you under the aquarium and that is mostly various kinds of sharks. Another building has a motion simulator ride, you can skip the ride and walk through. It shows the artic, but we found it rather bumpy and not very informative. It was so bumpy the seat belt was digging into us - we didn't enjoy it. After the ride they had 3 different environments and I can't remember what was in the first display. The 2nd one was polar bears although we only saw 1. The 3rd display was a walrus and we were lucky enough to see the trainer feeding it and checking it out, which shows different behaviors they do.

We did walk through the kids play area. We did see adults with children on the various things and it did say you had to have a kid to go on. I can't remember everything, but they had a big boat which basically has a bunch of squirting things on it. They also had a big huge net type thing that you climb on. Sorry, I just can't remember what else, but I'm sure there were some other stuff just not as big as those two things.

There are a lot of little stores and different restaurants. None of the restaurants seemed too appealing to us - we didn't check them all out though. We only ate there one day and had the barbeque stuff which smelled better than it tasted. It was okay, but not something I would go back for.

We enjoyed the time there and our favorite thing was feeding the dolphins. However, I doubt I'll be spending $50 any time soon again to go. But like I said I have often seen specials there so keep looking.

ETA - I just remembered the baby dolphins. They have a dolphin nursery and when we were there there were two little babies. One about a week old and the other born the day before on my DD's birthday. In the morning they wouldn't even let us go in because the baby was too new still.

[Smiley]

Thank you for your vivid description of Sea World, Rosebud! I have never been and although I had put it on my list of must dos for our next trip, your description has made me want to go NOW!!! :)

[Snickerdoodlesmommy]

Smiley,

Sea World offers several options for admission. There is a multi day pass called the Five Day Flex Pass which will also get you into Busch Gardens in Tampa as well as WetNWild, Universal Studios,plus Islands of Adventure~this pass is good for 14 consecutive days .

You may want to try www.SeaWorld.com to check other options.
I know they take 10% off if you book one of the passes on line with a 7 day advance notice.
Good Luck!

LindaC :sun:

[Smiley]

Thank you for the pass information, LindaC!

Gosh there is just so much to do, I wish I could afford to go for a month! :)