Buying a Passport and the Passport Holder Website

[ShaggyDan]

Thanks for all the great information on this board. I’ve got some family coming into town this weekend and we were planning on going to Sea World tomorrow (Saturday). From looking at this board, I found out that passport holders can buy guest tickets for $40, $10 less than the best price on a one day ticket (the Be a Kid Again promotion). A silver passport is only $45 more than a one day admission. I have four other people going with me, so if they saved $10 each on tickets and we saved $10 on parking, we come out ahead $5 if I purchase the Silver Passport.

This sounded good until I hit a snag. I called customer service to check and sure enough I could order the passport online today, but I could not have access to the passport holder web site until I took my voucher to the park and redeemed it for an actual passport. I live about an hour away from the park so it is possible I might use the pass again sometime in the next year, but it is at least as possible that I might not use it again and I don’t want to drive all the way out to the park today to save $5 tomorrow. I’m pretty sure that I’ll just have to buy regular one day $50 tickets on line (because they are not available at the park) and forget my idea about getting the passport. Before I gave up hope, I thought I might check to see if anyone on the board knew of a way I could order the passport today, get on the passport holder web site, and not have to go to the park. Thanks!

 

[flatline]

you can buy your passport online today, or you can buy it outside the ticket windows at the kiosks tomorrow. take your voucher to the ticket windows and they'll honor the $40.00 ticket price. but you'll need to process your passport before you leave the park.

 

[ShaggyDan]

Thanks for the advice. I just called the park number again and spoke to a representative who said that the $39.99 offer was internet only and that the ticket booths at the park had no way to access the offer. He specifically said that I would need an active passport to get the deal online, that I could only get an active passport by going to the park, and that the best deal available to me without going to the park first would be the "Be a Kid Again" promotion. Has anyone had any luck buying the $40 tickets at the park themselves recently?

 

[RabFlmom]

Here's another thought. I live in Florida, too. There has been a pepsi promotion at the stores. You bring a can that is marked with the Sea World offer on it and you can get up to 6 people in for $39.99. Also check with Publix to see if the be a kid again Florida resident tickets are available there.

Another thought..... get the pass, turn in your voucher. Then go back out to the ticket booth and purchase the tickets for your friends at the 15% off price for pass holder guests. By buying the pass you can also buy food at the restaurants at 10% off which is a nice savings when you are feeding 4-6 people. You will get the free parking. You will get 10 % off purchases in any of the stores. You will also get fish to feed dolphins for $1 lessfor each tray.

We will be there tomorrow.too------maybe. Not sure I can handle a 95 degree day in the park. LOL We will head there after lunch and meet up with our son for dinner at Voyagers- its on his way home from his job at Disney. Only way we get to see him almost. LOL Bribe him with a meal . LOL I want to see the night sea lion show and and Mystify again. I thought it was as good as Disney's wishes last year, but not as good as the fireworks we saw at BG on Memorial Day last year.

 

[flatline]

I'm on the passholder site right now and don't see anything about an internet only $40.00 rate.

 

[FlaNative]

Another thought..... get the pass, turn in your voucher. Then go back out to the ticket booth and purchase the tickets for your friends at the 15% off price for pass holder guests. By buying the pass you can also buy food at the restaurants at 10% off which is a nice savings when you are feeding 4-6 people. You will get the free parking. You will get 10 % off purchases in any of the stores. You will also get fish to feed dolphins for $1 lessfor each tray.

I suggest buy at least the silver for yourself. You live an hour away? You'll go back more in the next year.

You will also save the $10 on parking. Buy a silver voucher online and print it out. Show it to parking booth and tell them you have a silver with free parking but need to get inside to redeem it. They will let you park no charge. They did for me.

Worst case, you could have your party drop you off in front of the Renasaunce Hotel and drive around the block while you walk to get your passport with free parking and walk back out, then go park for real.

 

[ShaggyDan]

Thanks again for the recommendations. Two of my family members couldn’t make it so me and the two that did went to the park yesterday.

I went to the passport sales booth and asked if I could buy the passport and get the $40 guest passes and they told me that they could not sell those at the park and I could only get them through the internet. So I gave the lady a Pepsi can and we bought tickets for $50 each.

At first I had a little regret that I didn’t spend the extra $45 that could have gotten us discounts on the money we spent in the park, but it didn’t take too long for me to decide I did not want to come back to Sea World anytime soon. There were smaller customer service deficiencies and I didn’t care for the layout of the park (I found the maps imprecise, the randomness of the pathways confusing, and I didn’t like that some paths would take you to the back of an attraction which required walking around other stores to get to the entrance of the attraction you were going for). But what really sealed the deal was the Pets Ahoy support staff and theater design. I tried three times to see the show and was denied entry each time. The second and third time, I was told the theater was full despite getting there 10 and 15 minutes before show time. I found it to be poor planning to create an animal show that only holds 400 people when the next smallest animal venue holds several thousand. It was the first attempt that really set my impression of the park as a whole. We arrived to the theater for the first show of the day, seven minutes before show time to find the entrance roped off. We were told by an employee that bordered on rude from the start of our conversation that the show closes its doors five minutes before show time. Keep in mind that the map says that show closes its door at show time (not before), that this was not a case of the theater being full, and that if my watch was the same as the park’s time (and it was based on the start of the dolphin show) they had closed their doors more than five minutes early. I asked the employee what is a good time to get there before a show to get seats and she told me that all shows at the park open 25 minutes before show time. This didn’t answer my question of when it was necessary to get to this show to get a seat, but I walked away anyway. The fact that we could have and should have been able to see the first show made it even worse when we were shut out of the next shows, particularly last time when I watched them close the entrance with only four people ahead of me.

As for everything else, there were some good points, but I don’t feel a need to get back to the park anytime soon. I rode the Kraken for the first time and it was much better than I expected; it was fun, fast, and smooth. As someone that has worked with marine mammals in the past, I did not care for the new “we have the greatest jobs in the world because we followed our dreams” theme of the new Believe show. I found it to be dishonest, condescending, and dismissive of the career choices and hard work done by most of the adults in the audience. Overall, I would say I had fun going the park with my family, but I could not recommend it over Universal and I do not believe it held up to any of the Disney parks.

 

[RabFlmom]

There is a reason for it only holding 400. It isn't like the other shows and it would not work in a stadium It used to be it was pretty empty for most shows, but this year the word has gotten out how cute the animals are. More people are going to it. It used to be thought of as sort of nerdy, but now it is the "thing to see".
I also think crowds are larger at Sea World now. All shows except Fusion seemed to be at capacity Saturday.

We couldn't get into the Pets Ahoy on Saturday either. Each showing was full before the show began. We got there about 5 for the 5:15 shoow. The rope was already up. There were about 30 people in line. The CM was very courteous and told the crowd that they were checking how many seats were still available( In other words.....everyone please move to the center of your row) and that as soon as they had a number they would begin letting us in again. Since we've seen it before, we got out of line to let people who hadn't get in.
Instead we went back to Wild Arctic to see the animals again. It was awesome as always. A couple people were doing the Beluga swim( not sure what the name of the program is right now) but know it costs $179 before our pass discount. I told my kids this is what I want for Christmas! LOL But I would be embarrassed to be in a wet suit in front of anyone watching the Belugas. LOL I am going to do it someday though. Only a couple people get to do this. You feed the whales. You get to get in the water with them and do some hand signals to get them to do things and you get a kiss on the cheek. It would be an awesome experience.