SeaWorld Trip Report August 2014

[tinkerbellmagic]

Hi All!

Here is my trip report from our recent two day visit to SeaWorld. We had such a fun time! Looking back, it seems like we missed a lot of attractions, but there was never a dull moment and we never ran out of things to look at and to keep us busy.

It was pretty hot and rainy during our trip and I just didn't get many photos taken, but I promised myself that when I got back, I would write a report no matter what. You never know what information you add that might help someone else with their trip. We didn't have any small children in our party, so I can't be much help with kiddie rides and other things young parents might want to know.

Lodging and the first day: We stayed at the Hilton Grand Vacations SeaWorld. We check in around 10:30 am. As expected, our room isn't ready since check in isn't until 3 or 4 pm, so we pull our swimsuits from our luggage and stow our luggage with bell services. This way we could use the pool after we have lunch, until our room was ready. Our plan is to head on over to SeaWorld shortly after settling into our room with the luggage. We are dog tired and hungry.

Before swimming, we stop for lunch at the hotel's outdoor cafe, the Coral Reefe. There is a hostess podium, but no hostess present, so we seat ourselves. The Coral Reefe has the usual high priced hotel food. Our server is very nice. We order Burgers at $14 each and the Black Bean wrap $11, plus sodas. The food was actually very good, but I knew we wouldn't be back to pay those prices again. We were on the SeaWorld dining plan.

It was surprising to me that a hotel complex of this size only has one restaurant and that it is more of a bar/grill and it's all outdoors, even though the photo on their web site makes it look like an indoor restaurant. They do have a small market inside the hotel where you can get snacks, sandwiches, and sundries, which is very convenient, but again, you have to eat outdoors.

Hilton Grand Vacations SeaWorld



We enjoy the pool until our room is ready at about 2:30 pm. This hotel has limited free shuttle bus service to/from SeaWorld. The front desk gave us a shuttle bus pick up/drop off time sheet. We are surprised to see that the last shuttle of the day to SeaWorld was at 3 pm, even though SW stays open until 9pm. Will we make it?

We will have to make a mad dash to the room with our luggage, and back to the lobby area to catch the shuttle! With the help of one of the bell guys with a golf cart, we make it to our room, which is located pretty far away from the lobby.

We make a quick turn around in our room, gathering everything we need to catch the shuttle to SW. When I was given the room key, I asked the front desk clerk where the shuttle pick up is located. She didn't know and asked another worker who said it was at stop G14 (or something like that). Well, there is no way I would know where stop G14 is. It's not even marked on the hotel map! "Straight out the door" we were told. "Straight out the door, then what?" I ask. "Over that way." One thing I learned about the front desk in our experience anyway.... They will not freely offer much helpful information. You have to ask and they might not know the answer. Those who do know, are vague.

We ran out of the lobby trying to catch the 3 pm shuttle, wherever the pickup stop was. None of the workers outside knew where the shuttle pick up was. One of them told us the wrong spot to wait and we stood there like idiots, lol, in front of the hotel sign. It's funny now, thinking about it, but it wasn't so funny then, in the heat. Finally, someone knew where the shuttle stop was and told us where to go. See to me, shuttles to the parks are an important part of anyone's vacation. It would be nice if there was a sign somewhere, anywhere, saying "shuttles this way"... right?

Still, I get a chuckle, the way you do after you come home and you are thinking about your vacation... and it dawns on me that most of the images I have of us at that hotel show all of us running through the parking lot hither and yon, either in the rain or trying to find a shuttle stop or trying to catch a shuttle. Ah, the memories.

The 3 PM shuttle arrives and we are on our way, but not before encountering a rude bus driver *sigh*. Oh well, better things are ahead, I can see Seaworld now! There's the lighthouse! Ah, we get through the gates, but alas, our first day at SeaWorld, lightening shut down Atlantis and the coasters. This was a bit of a bummer since we hadn't ridden them yet, but like I said, there was no shortage of things to see and do. Time to whip out the rain ponchos.

The rides did open later that day. The coaster fans in our party got the biggest kick out of riding Manta and Kraken multiple times. They used the single rider line (look for the single rider line, it was amazingly fast on Manta) and didn't have too long of a wait. They also liked Journey to Atlantis very much (the water ride), but only rode it once due to long lines when it opened up after the lightening.














random strangers




to be continued....

 

[Ombo]

Thank you for sharing! Look forward to hear more about your trip !

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Thank you for sharing! Look forward to hear more about your trip !

Thanks for reading.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Food at SeaWorld

We did use the SeaWorld dining plan, which was absolutely great. We have never used a dining plan at any other theme park, so didn't know what to compare it to. Like others have said, even if you broke even, the convenience of using it, is the best. When it was steaming hot outside, we would just pop into one of the designated restaurants and grab a bottle of water... no carrying water around all day. I really liked that. It also gave us the freedom to eat what ever we wanted when ever we wanted. And like others have said, to really get your monies worth, do the breakfast, if possible, so you will get three meals a day plus drinks all day long. Yes, the dining plan left us all with a positive feeling and I would use it again.

I can't remember exactly when we ate where, since we are wearing the wrist bands and have no receipts, but will do my best. We're not real big eaters, so our food report might be a little disappointing.

The places I remember eating at are: Seaport Pizza, SeaFire Inn, Voyagers, and Mango Joes (for drinks). We meant to get to Spice Mill, but never made it. We skipped the Garden Terrace due to some unfavorable reviews.

On day 1, we tried to eat lunch at Voyagers, but it was pretty crowded with a long line, so we grabbed pizzas at Seaport Pizza, an outdoor restaurant. That plan backfired when after we bought our pizzas, we were greeted by a heavy downpour of rain. In retrospect, we should have stuck it out at Voyagers. Because of rain, all the tables at Seaport that were under the covered area were taken by people. Most of them were not eating, they were just getting shelter from the rain. We stood there with our trays not knowing where to go. We ended up having to eat standing up in the rain, at the take out window area, not the best situation. Then the rain subsided so we sat at a wet table and chairs and finished our pizza. I have to say, that despite the rain and wet seating, the pizza was really tasty! I kept thinking about going back there later or the next day, but didn't get a chance. My daughter didn't think the pizza was so good, though.

I wish all the restaurants on the dining plan gave you the option of indoor seating. Walking in the heat and rain are one thing, eating in it is another. Well, I guess four indoor dining plan restaurants out of six isn't bad, but it all depends on what part of the park you are in when the downfalls hit.

We were visited by a feathered friend at Seaport Pizza.


At Voyagers, where we ate twice, we ate a variety of food, but the running joke for our two day Seaworld trip was that someone in my family was always saying they had a huge craving for baby back ribs, which we all know, is NOT allowed on the dining plan, so that makes it sort of the forbidden fruit, .

Foods we ate at Voyagers were the Barbecue Sparerib Platter (tasted good, better than expected) with sides, the turkey sandwich (tasted ok), and there were fries, which weren't bad at all. There are little sides that come with the meals, just ask. The workers we encountered at the free dining restaurants were always very friendly and helpful. The line got long enough the first time we ate at Voyagers, that it wasn't worth it to go back in line for more food. While it was crowded that day, we did manage to find a place to sit, but it took some searching and then climbing over a few people at the long tables.

The second time we ate at Voyagers, it was a lot less crowded and it was easy to get back in line for additional food.

At some point during the trip, my daughter and I tried the cheesecake. We both thought the cheesecake was bland. It looked better than it tasted. We didn't even want to finish it. We promised ourselves to try the chocolate cake next time.

At SeaFire Inn we had breakfast and dinner on day 2. The breakfast line was slow but do-able. It wasn't really a SeaWorld problem, exactly. All you need are one or two people taking too long trying to figure out what they want to drink or eat and 25 people behind them get backed up ("Uh.... er.... well.... let's see....I'll have the orange juice... no wait... I'll have the hot chocolate. Honey, what do you want?" " I'll have the... uh.... hmmm..." well, you get the picture, lol --- and then you have to wait for the server to hand over all drinks to guests before you can even think about moving in line to the actual food). They could also use an extra person to help attach the dining wrist bands at breakfast so that the cashier doesn't have to do it.

There was plenty of indoor seating at SeaFire for breakfast. Eggs, hash browns, bacon, muffins, french toast sticks, and danish were all filling and good. The french toast sticks are pretty sweet, though, because they are smothered in sugar. The hash brown nuggets were good as was the bacon and the danish.

We had a late dinner at SeaFire on day 2. Our meals: Pasta and Sauce, Mediterranean Veggie Wrap (not so good), and the
International Club Sandwich (ok to good). I will add that the vegetables my daughter had here tasted old. Alas, this was our last chance to try the chocolate cake. It was pretty good, not super great. In the cake's defense, I will say my daughter and I bake from scratch, so we might be a tad fussy when it comes to cakes, cookies, and other goodies.

Final thoughts about dining: I wish we would have eaten at Spice Mill rather than eating at Voyagers twice, in order to try another restaurant. I wish I would have gone back to SeaFire for more pizza and I wish we would have gotten some ice cream at the ice cream parlor. None of the food was terribly good and none was terribly bad.





A tranquil scene at Seaworld.


The dolphin nursery






to be continued...

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Dolphin feeding area:



closer views of dolphin feeding area from the photo above:





We were able to see the Clyde and Seamore show for the last time. Great show, the mime was hysterical!!!





Journey to Atlantis



Kraken is below

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

The Shuttles from he**:

As I mentioned earlier, our experiences with the free shuttles from our hotel, Hilton Grand Vacations, to/from Seaworld left a LOT to be desired. It started out with the very rude bus driver I mentioned earlier. Not a fun way to start our first day at Seaworld, but we didn't want to let his attitude drag us down.

Then, that same evening, we caught the 7:50 pm shuttle from Seaworld back to our hotel at Grand Vacations. This rickety old shuttle made a couple of stops. I can't remember exactly, but it may have stopped at another partner hotel, maybe it was the Double Tree? Then it stopped at Wet n Wild to pick up additional guests and take them back to their hotel(s).

At the Wet n Wild shuttle stop, a group of three young teen boys and one teen girl (who we later found out, were staying at our hotel) and a shady character that was not part of their group, got on the bus. This strange character, who was travelling alone, appeared to be a local not even staying at any partner hotel. It was obvious to anyone paying attention that this guy was a creep. Based on this experience, I would not let your teenagers use the shuttle alone. Anyone can hop on this bus. It was a long ride on that shuttle that night and we could not wait to get back to the hotel. We made sure the teenagers got off safely when we did. The shuttle ride took a half an hour, even though the hotel is a 5 minute ride away.

On day 2 of our Seaworld vacation, we tried to catch the morning shuttle to Seaworld. We were running to the shuttle stop and saw two shuttle buses. One bus took off like a bat out of h*ll, even though he saw us and another family, running toward it (was this 'mr nice guy' from the previous day?). The other bus, the one that stayed, was not going to Seaworld. The driver of the second bus was so sweet. He saw that the first driver left without us and the other family, so even though he wasn't going to Seaworld, he drove us all half way there. That was so nice of him.

We were left off in the Seaworld parking lot that morning. We were grateful for the time saved, but there is no walking path, so you are walking willy nilly dodging cars through this enormous parking lot. Not too safe. I don't think I would attempt this walk with little kids who are on foot. But since we didn't have any little kids, we realized that walking to Seaworld from our hotel and back looked do-able. Good thing, too, because after the rude bus driver, the shady character, the 30 minute shuttle drive the night before, and the bus driver that drove away without us, my family refused to use the shuttle again and preferred walking in the heat and rain through the crazy SW parking lot, just to avoid it, lol. Actually, we felt rather lucky and with a new sense of freedom, being able to walk to/from Seaworld. We timed it at 20 minutes. Ah, what a relief! So if you're staying at Hilton Grand Vacations, don't say I didn't warn you about the shuttles, but know you can walk it in 20 mnutes.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

At Seaworld we participated in a behind the scenes tour. The highlight of this tour was that we all got to pet a penguin. This was awesome.
In fact, I could have stayed in that cold penguin room all day, it was such a relief from the heat. In all fairness, I think we would have enjoyed this tour a lot more if it wasn't so darn hot outside. A bus was provided to take our group from site to site, behind the scenes, but it was an open air bus, which offered no relief from the heat. Also, I think it would be nice if at some point they provided the guests with at least one bottle of cold water. The girl running the tour did a really nice job, but I wished there was a little less talking and more animals to see.

We spent our final day at SW looking at exhibits and riding the rides. We loved the shark exhibit and never tired of the dolphins, turtles, and other creatures. We had a great time. Like I said, I think we missed quite a few attractions, but we were always busy doing or seeing something.

One of our disappointments, though, was missing the Empire of the Penguin exhibit. There was a 60 minute wait when we checked so unfortunately, we missed it as they will not allow you to see the exhibit unless you ride the ride.

We did see the nighttime Shamu show. I know everyone loves this show. The whales are so amazing. However, I think I was expecting something different. I almost hesitate to say anything, but I didn't like all that loud thumping dance party music and screaming DJ. The whales are such beautiful creatures, and to me, that loud heart thumping noise just doesn't do them justice. Their music, imo, should be as majestic as they are. Other than that, we loved watching the whales in this show. They were the true stars shining that night.


one of the signs backstage


the penguins on the tour








I have no idea why I took this picture. But if you're looking for the quick ticket kiosks, here ya go.





I will end this trip report with a little review of our hotel, Hilton Grand Vacations Seaworld.
If I visit Seaworld again, I would choose a different hotel, but definitely one within walking distance to Seaworld, just like this one was because I never want to rely on free shuttles to SW again.

Hilton Grand Vacation Pros:
Room was very clean and plenty big.
The beds were very comfortable with plenty of nice linens.
There was a washer and dryer in the room, which was great. They even included soap for one load.
It is about a 20 minute walk from hotel to SeaWorld - this is a huge plus if you don't want to rely on the free shuttles.

Hilton Grand Vacation Cons and other notes:
We found the grounds, specifically the walkways outside the rooms and the walking paths in our section of the hotel dirty, in need of a good hosing off. Guests left small amounts of trash out in those areas (ripped up papers, etc) and threw things on the ground that were there for two days.

As I mentioned before, there is no indoor restaurant or food court in the entire large complex, only an outdoor bar/cafe with the typical high hotel prices (the food there was good, though). Because of the cost to eat at the hotel, I was glad we were using the SeaWorld dining plan.

There is a small market place inside the hotel which has snacks, sandwiches, sundries, and a small counter section for Starbucks drinks, but again, you must eat outside.

Many of the workers we encountered were not very friendly, but luckily we did meet a few very nice workers that helped make up for it.

Our shuttle service experiences were not good, as stated above.

And again, the last shuttle of the day leaves the hotel at 3 PM, even though SeaWorld stays open until 9 pm. Not too convenient if you are using the shuttle.

Actually, now that I know what to expect from this hotel, (the limited dining options, the indifferent attitudes of some of the staff, poor shuttle service but the ability to walk to SW, and exterior grounds in some locations in need of cleaning and upkeep) I wouldn't say I'd never stay there again. I would just do my research and try my best to find something better first. Then if all else fails, I might try this hotel again.

FYI, if you stay at Hilton Grand Vacations, make sure to ask for your Free Quick Queue for the Seaworld rides as soon as you check in at the front desk. If the person you are talking to doesn't know what it is, keep asking until you find someone that does. They never offered it to us. They never even mentioned it. I forgot to ask at check in and when I went later to ask, the greeter in the lobby (a very nice guy) had no idea what I was talking about and I didn't have time to wait in line to ask someone at the front desk (I needed to go catch the shuttle). I should have made a point of doing so though. Ask as early as you can, as I hear there is a limited supply.

We did have a wonderful time at SeaWorld. Thanks for reading!

I highly recommend reading this trip report by momof2n2 - she even included pics of the food at SW:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3288841

 

[tink too]

Thanks for sharing your review and photos - I've enjoyed reading along. What a pity about the unhelpful staff and bus drivers but glad that you didn't let them spoil your vacation.

I was really pleased to read that there are breakfast options on the All Day Dining deal as we're considering purchasing this for our upcoming visit.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

I was really pleased to read that there are breakfast options on the All Day Dining deal as we're considering purchasing this for our upcoming visit.

Thanks for your reply. I wouldn't hesitate to purchase the dining plan again. Even knowing we could even only break even, the convenience was so appreciated. SW dining plan isn't complicated. If you go into it not expecting any more than theme park food, nothing spectacular, then you should be good. Have fun!

 

[tink too]

We've visited SW before (but not for several years) previous to the "All Day Dining" deal being available, so know what type of food to expect and that'll get us through the day, so it's all good. But, it's always great to get reports and recommendations first though.

With thanks to your review and the one by momof2n2, we've gone ahead and booked our dining plan. So we now look forward to a long day at SW knowing that we can eat as often and as much/little as we want each time through the line.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

We've visited SW before (but not for several years) previous to the "All Day Dining" deal being available, so know what type of food to expect and that'll get us through the day, so it's all good. But, it's always great to get reports and recommendations first though.

With thanks to your review and the one by momof2n2, we've gone ahead and booked our dining plan. So we now look forward to a long day at SW knowing that we can eat as often and as much/little as we want each time through the line.

You're very welcome. And yes, I enjoyed momof2n2's review so much too. Her food photos were so helpful and her report was lots of fun to read. Have a wonderful trip and maybe let us know how your experiences at SW go (including the food, lol). I'd love to hear about it!

 

[bizeemom4]

As I was reading your review, I kept thinking "Why are they taking the shuttle? The hotel is right across the parking lot!?" Good to see that you figured it out.

I've stayed at the Renaissance at Sea World a few times. Very nice. Quick queue is included as well as a welcome glass of champagne. It's nice to run back across the parking lot for a swim mid-day.

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

As I was reading your review, I kept thinking "Why are they taking the shuttle? The hotel is right across the parking lot!?" Good to see that you figured it out.

I've stayed at the Renaissance at Sea World a few times. Very nice. Quick queue is included as well as a welcome glass of champagne. It's nice to run back across the parking lot for a swim mid-day.

Hi, Being new to this vacation area, we had no idea how far SW was from the Hilton Grand Vacations hotel. You surely couldn't see SW from the hotel, the way you can at the Renaissance. People at the hotel seemed to be unable to give us a straight answer as to how far it was to walk to SW and suggested the shuttle. If it is extremely hot, or if it is pouring rain, or if you have small kids with you, you would be inclined to take the shuttle, especially if you are first timers to SW.

The hotel we stayed at, Hilton Grand Vacations, is no where near as close to SW as the Renaissance is. As I said, it was a 20 minute walk from the hotel to the SW entrance. We weren't staying at the Renaissance, which is right across from the parking lot. With the way the maps are, it may appear that HGVacations is close to SW and may look like it's right across from the parking lot, but the Renaissance is much closer to SW than Grand Vacations. The Renaissance is across the width of the parking lot, while the Grand Vacations is past the longest length of the parking lot. The SW parking lot is extremely LARGE and there is no walking path. Not only that, but our room was the farthest away from SW as you can get, so it was already a little hike to even get to the shuttle stop (when it's rainy or extremely hot).

Some people might have physical reasons for why they take the shuttle. That wasn't our case, but just saying...

If I go back to SW, I would most likely be looking for a different hotel to stay at, so I welcome any suggestions, so thanks for your reply on the Renaissance.

 

[sweetiee]

We love the Springhill Suites which is right around the corner from the parking lot. They have shuttles here as well. The rooms are large and the hotel is very modernly designed. We see actually here now for our first Aquatica trip.

 

[jt68]

great