Dine With Shamu F.A.Q. Thread

[Joanna71985]

I believe both will be adults

 

[MomtothreeEs]

I have noticed in the pictures that the tables seat 4. I have a party of 5. Does anyone know how they seat larger families?

I'm worried that since I didn't book way in advance that we will be in the second row of tables. I hope no one would be seated at the end and have their back to the water.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Both a adults. Ten and older are adults.

We want to book Dine with Shamu (adult 29$, child 19$).
My children are 10 and 13 years old.
Which price (adult or child)?

o

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

Tip for those who book dinner: Plan to arrive at the park before noon. Our "dinner" today was at 12:30. They decided to have only one show, even though we had booked "dinner." We had considered arriving at the park by two because we thought dinner would not start until three. So glad we decided to arrive in the morning. There was no notice to us. No email. No text. When we arrived I checked the schedule and there was only one DWS and it was at 12:30. Be aware that if you book dinner, it could actually become lunch on the day of the show. Great experience. Definitely worth doing. Just be flexible with your plans.

 

[cleopenn]

I have noticed in the pictures that the tables seat 4. I have a party of 5. Does anyone know how they seat larger families?

I'm worried that since I didn't book way in advance that we will be in the second row of tables. I hope no one would be seated at the end and have their back to the water.

We had a party of 3 seated at a table to 4 so I would think they would do the same with a party of 5, meaning they would put you at a table for 6. When we were there, it was at capacity and the all the tables were set up perpendicular to the glass. The show started after the meal so even if the tables had a different configuration, you could just turn your chair around.

I was pretty impressed with the whole experience. They handle the crowds well and there was plenty of room in the area to walk around, take pictures and get a different view.

Tip for those who book dinner: Plan to arrive at the park before noon. Our "dinner" today was at 12:30. They decided to have only one show, even though we had booked "dinner." We had considered arriving at the park by two because we thought dinner would not start until three. So glad we decided to arrive in the morning. There was no notice to us. No email. No text. When we arrived I checked the schedule and there was only one DWS and it was at 12:30. Be aware that if you book dinner, it could actually become lunch on the day of the show. Great experience. Definitely worth doing. Just be flexible with your plans.

Very good advice. While they didn't change our dinner to lunch, my confirmation said to check in at 5pm and my memory tells me we entered much earlier, like 3:30.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I have noticed in the pictures that the tables seat 4. I have a party of 5. Does anyone know how they seat larger families?

I'm worried that since I didn't book way in advance that we will be in the second row of tables. I hope no one would be seated at the end and have their back to the water.

No seats in the dining area have their backs to the water. All tables are arranged like this:

They should just push two of those tables for 4 together (see the bottom of the above picture) for your party of 5.

 

[debbie424]

We are booked to Dine With Shamu on June 3rd nd we just got an email that what was supposed to be dinner is now lunch. It said it would be at 1230. How early should we check in and where do we check into? Thanks for the help.

 

[Joanna71985]

We are booked to Dine With Shamu on June 3rd nd we just got an email that what was supposed to be dinner is now lunch. It said it would be at 1230. How early should we check in and where do we check into? Thanks for the help.

check in starts at 12:15, and you check in by the Dine with Shamu ramp (above the Underwater Viewing pool)

 

[purple hippo]

I am looking to book Dine With Shamu for the first week of Janaury, 2018, but the reservations haven't opened yet. Is this strange? They wouldn't discontinue this event at the end of the year would they?

 

[Carrie Lynn]

I am so excited to finally get to go to Dine with Shamu in December for my birthday! I got so much information from this thread and can't wait to tell others about my experience with lots of pictures!

 

[Joanna71985]

I am so excited to finally get to go to Dine with Shamu in December for my birthday! I got so much information from this thread and can't wait to tell others about my experience with lots of pictures!

Have fun! I'm doing DWS for my birthday in July, and I can't wait

 

[FLOIR]

I am looking to book Dine With Shamu for the first week of Janaury, 2018, but the reservations haven't opened yet. Is this strange? They wouldn't discontinue this event at the end of the year would they?

From what I have seen - SeaWorld does not seem to update anything going into the next year until later in the year. This includes tours and dine features like this. Their park hours calendar currently only goes through December, so I doubt if it was discontinued, just not updated yet. I would keep checking periodically and hopefully by October or November they start to post things for 2018.

 

[FLOIR]

I just tried to book Dine With Shamu for the rest of July and also into August. It looks like they have completely removed the portion about being able to reserve a dinner spot. The only time that comes up now is 12:30 PM. This actually includes days going into October, although October does not have dines on Tuesday or Thursday, so not sure if they actually won't have dines on those days or if it is just not updated.

 

[Joanna71985]

I just tried to book Dine With Shamu for the rest of July and also into August. It looks like they have completely removed the portion about being able to reserve a dinner spot. The only time that comes up now is 12:30 PM. This actually includes days going into October, although October does not have dines on Tuesday or Thursday, so not sure if they actually won't have dines on those days or if it is just not updated.

There hasn't been a 3:30 time slot in months (it's been 12:30 for awhile now)

 

[FLOIR]

True - but as others above stated they did mention "dinner" in the detail in places. I believe that phrase is completely gone now, unless it pops up when you actually book (I looked at times but did not actually attempt to book)

 

[Joanna71985]

It's just weird the description would list it as dinner (I personally consider 3:30 to be lunch really)

 

[wolf29]

We had a dinner reservation(3:30) for August 24th. I just received an email two days ago notifying us of a "slight" change to 12:30. Totally ticked off, as we have an 8:30 am Chef Mickey's reservation that morning. When I replied back to the notification, I received a canned response stating that the sender is out of the office until July 26th. Really messed up our plans for the day.

 

[FLOIR]

Do you have another day to move it to, or is that your one chance? If you can move it I would recommend calling the call center main number, rather then waiting until a particular person got back in the office. If that is your only day - sorry, tough decision as to whether to cancel or rush between parks. It is a really good lunch.

 

[wolf29]

The 24th really is the only day that works. We won't cancel. We have dined with Shamu twice before and enjoyed it. Just annoyed that they changed to lunch.

 

[bellarinah]

Our family did this yesterday (Sun. July 30, 2017). We got an email two weeks ago saying that our dinner reservation was changed to lunch since they only had one seating that day. It didn't matter to us since we planned to spend the whole day at SeaWorld anyway.

Check-in was at 12.15pm. They seated us right away and buffet was also ready. Three whales were released to the pool and they swam around the whole time we were eating. I kept waiting for the "show" to start. But only after 40 minutes of eating, the trainers came out and started the show. I guess they wanted to make sure that everyone was done eating before they started. The food was pretty good. They had something for everyone.

The show was really awesome. It was amazing to see those majestic animals up close.

That being said, I couldn't help feeling a tad disappointed when we walked out. The total show time was only 15 minutes. When the trainers said their goodbyes, I went, "That's it!?!?" All the three whales stayed behind to swim around some more. But I personally didn't need to watch anymore of that since we already did for 40 minutes earlier.

I knew going into it that the whole experience was about an hour. I figured we would spend the first half an hour eating and the second half watching the show. We spent $100 for this (1 adult and 2 children, including taxes and tip).

All in all, I was glad we did it. Even if I knew beforehand that the show was only 15 minutes long, I would have done it anyway. But I probably wouldn't do it again.