We just got back from our 1-day visit to SeaWorld Orlando. We were in the park from 9am to 10pm on 7/3 - a very, very long day for us and busy day at the park. There were 6 of us; my husband and me are in our early 30s, my MIL (mid-50s), our niece (15), and our daughters (4 & 3).
We were able to get two rooms at the Doubletree @ SeaWorld through Hotwire for $53 a night!! Unfortunaly this hotel charges for parking so we had to pay $20 to park our rental van for the 2 nights. BUT this hotel is in easy, easy walking distance to the park so no messing with shuttles or paying to park
We got to the hotel at around noon (got off our cruise ship in Tampa and drove straight there). Our rooms were of course not ready yet but they told us to use the resort while we waited. I went to the Expedia Expert desk to find out what time the next morning to pick up our Quick Queue passes. There was a sign on the desk already that stated the passes for that day (7/2) were all gone!! He let me pick up the next days passes right away though!!!! 
We were not even checked-in yet but he did look up my reservation in the computer. Also note we did not buy this room as a vacation package through SeaWorld nor did we buy park tickets through them, we had got those back in the May sale. He mentioned while he printed off our 6 vouchers (had to give him a name for each voucher) that they might "sell" out before even the next day! Oh and my 3-yr old could not do any of the quick-queue rides but I got her a voucher because we did the sky-tower and we thinking about doing the paddle boats - never got around to doing those. The hotel does offer a shuttle to the park, I have the schedule but never even looked at it because it is such an easy walk.
A few more quick notes on the hotel. There are 3 pool areas and all are really nice. They have scheduled activities each day of the week. We were in the tower (14th floor) and had a great view of SeaWorld and of the night-time firework show, you need to be in an even numbered room though to get the view. The tower room numbers were very, very confusing we had 21415 and 21406. First we went to the 4th floor to get our rooms and had no luck, then we realized they meant the 14th floor and we helped some other people in the elevator who were having the same problems understanding. Also the Tower takes skinny room keys, so if they give you a normal credit-card sized one you might want to ask - we had to go back down to get them switched!!! Oh and look at you bill on check-out; we were charged for a water we did not drink and an extra $20 for parking, they resolved this with no issues but it was annoying we had to have them resolve it at all.
7/3 - SeaWorld!!!!!!
The walk from the hotel probably took us 8 minutes or so, not hard to find as it is on the hotel map
The first gate you get to will let you in if you already have your tickets, otherwise you would have to walk a little bit further to the main gate. You have to go to guest services to switch the quick queue vouchers for bracelets and these little cards. Most rides only looked at the bracelets but Manta did ask to see the cards too because they have the actual date on them.
Quick Queue worked great; no wait for Wild Arctic, no issues with the Sky Tower, a minute or 2 wait for Manta and Journey to Atlantis. We were unlucky with Kraken, got in line behind a large group so we did have a couple of ride cycle wait there. On a ride note - Manta is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Journey to Atlantis and Kraken are really, really good too. Wild Arctic was dated but air conditioned
My 4-yr old was able to go on Wild Arctic and Journey to Atlantis. She loved WA and was convinced to for JtA a second try, the witch was a bit scary to her. Since we had Quick Queue we didn't do Child Swap, instead one of us waited in the gift shops for WA and JtA while the rest of the party rode. For Manta and Kraken we broke into groups of 2 adults and switched off letting the kids do something while we waited.
The only feeding we did was the dolphins first thing in the morning - awesome! It was $7 per person over the age of 3 so my 3-yr old was free and we were able to get one of us adults for free as an adult escort for my 4-yr old. You get to touch the dolphins while you feed them!! I didn't know that and was very excited. No birds tried to steal our fish but they were there so I imagine they would sometimes. Oh we also were at the Manatee exhibit when they were feed by chance so that was really cool to watch too.
Shows: We saw - 10am Blue Horizons, 11:15 Clyde & Seamore, 2:30 One Ocean, 6:45 Sea Lions Tonight, 8:15 Shamu Rocks, 9:50 Reflections. We tried to see the 12pm Elmo & Abby but it was full by the time we found the theater after Clyde & Seamore got out. We also tried to see the 1:30 A'Lure but they were experiencing technical difficulties and had to cancel the show. Blue Horizons & both Shamu show were amazing. Sea Lions tonight was a riot, sooo funny. Clyde & Seamore is cheesy but in good fun and it was really funny because Clyde did not want to cooperate . Reflections was nice, your typical water jet, fireworks to music type show but a good way to end the day. Other then Elmo & Abby we had no problems getting good seats, we never sat in the splash zone nor at the way, way back corner. The earliest we got to a show was about 20 minutes early for Shamu Rocks. Oh Reflections fills fast though and we got lucky and decided to get our seats there about 40 minutes before the show - a must if you want seats!!! At about 20 minutes left it was standing room only.
Kids rides - the signage was tricky!!! Everywhere said you to be 42 inches so my poor 3-yr old wasn't able to ride, she played in the splash pad quite happily though. Then we found out the 42 inches was for if they wanted to ride by themselves and she could actually ride everything but the kiddie roller coaster with an adult.
Refillable cups - a MUST on a hot July day! They offer lemonade almost everywhere if you don't let your kids have soda (like us) and in the kid area you can get fruit punch too, we didn't find that option anywhere but the kids area.
All in all it was a great day and we could easily have filled 2 days at SeaWorld. The crowds were bad but not undo-able and they didn't stop us from anything we wanted to do - except the Elmo & Abby show. Oh and a side note, don't tell your 3-yr old you are seeing Elmo & Abby before you actually get seats - that was NOT fun.
We were able to get two rooms at the Doubletree @ SeaWorld through Hotwire for $53 a night!! Unfortunaly this hotel charges for parking so we had to pay $20 to park our rental van for the 2 nights. BUT this hotel is in easy, easy walking distance to the park so no messing with shuttles or paying to park
We got to the hotel at around noon (got off our cruise ship in Tampa and drove straight there). Our rooms were of course not ready yet but they told us to use the resort while we waited. I went to the Expedia Expert desk to find out what time the next morning to pick up our Quick Queue passes. There was a sign on the desk already that stated the passes for that day (7/2) were all gone!! He let me pick up the next days passes right away though!!!! We were not even checked-in yet but he did look up my reservation in the computer. Also note we did not buy this room as a vacation package through SeaWorld nor did we buy park tickets through them, we had got those back in the May sale. He mentioned while he printed off our 6 vouchers (had to give him a name for each voucher) that they might "sell" out before even the next day! Oh and my 3-yr old could not do any of the quick-queue rides but I got her a voucher because we did the sky-tower and we thinking about doing the paddle boats - never got around to doing those. The hotel does offer a shuttle to the park, I have the schedule but never even looked at it because it is such an easy walk.A few more quick notes on the hotel. There are 3 pool areas and all are really nice. They have scheduled activities each day of the week. We were in the tower (14th floor) and had a great view of SeaWorld and of the night-time firework show, you need to be in an even numbered room though to get the view. The tower room numbers were very, very confusing we had 21415 and 21406. First we went to the 4th floor to get our rooms and had no luck, then we realized they meant the 14th floor and we helped some other people in the elevator who were having the same problems understanding. Also the Tower takes skinny room keys, so if they give you a normal credit-card sized one you might want to ask - we had to go back down to get them switched!!! Oh and look at you bill on check-out; we were charged for a water we did not drink and an extra $20 for parking, they resolved this with no issues but it was annoying we had to have them resolve it at all.
7/3 - SeaWorld!!!!!!
The walk from the hotel probably took us 8 minutes or so, not hard to find as it is on the hotel map
The first gate you get to will let you in if you already have your tickets, otherwise you would have to walk a little bit further to the main gate. You have to go to guest services to switch the quick queue vouchers for bracelets and these little cards. Most rides only looked at the bracelets but Manta did ask to see the cards too because they have the actual date on them.Quick Queue worked great; no wait for Wild Arctic, no issues with the Sky Tower, a minute or 2 wait for Manta and Journey to Atlantis. We were unlucky with Kraken, got in line behind a large group so we did have a couple of ride cycle wait there. On a ride note - Manta is AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! Journey to Atlantis and Kraken are really, really good too. Wild Arctic was dated but air conditioned
My 4-yr old was able to go on Wild Arctic and Journey to Atlantis. She loved WA and was convinced to for JtA a second try, the witch was a bit scary to her. Since we had Quick Queue we didn't do Child Swap, instead one of us waited in the gift shops for WA and JtA while the rest of the party rode. For Manta and Kraken we broke into groups of 2 adults and switched off letting the kids do something while we waited.The only feeding we did was the dolphins first thing in the morning - awesome! It was $7 per person over the age of 3 so my 3-yr old was free and we were able to get one of us adults for free as an adult escort for my 4-yr old. You get to touch the dolphins while you feed them!! I didn't know that and was very excited. No birds tried to steal our fish but they were there so I imagine they would sometimes. Oh we also were at the Manatee exhibit when they were feed by chance so that was really cool to watch too.
Shows: We saw - 10am Blue Horizons, 11:15 Clyde & Seamore, 2:30 One Ocean, 6:45 Sea Lions Tonight, 8:15 Shamu Rocks, 9:50 Reflections. We tried to see the 12pm Elmo & Abby but it was full by the time we found the theater after Clyde & Seamore got out. We also tried to see the 1:30 A'Lure but they were experiencing technical difficulties and had to cancel the show. Blue Horizons & both Shamu show were amazing. Sea Lions tonight was a riot, sooo funny. Clyde & Seamore is cheesy but in good fun and it was really funny because Clyde did not want to cooperate . Reflections was nice, your typical water jet, fireworks to music type show but a good way to end the day. Other then Elmo & Abby we had no problems getting good seats, we never sat in the splash zone nor at the way, way back corner. The earliest we got to a show was about 20 minutes early for Shamu Rocks. Oh Reflections fills fast though and we got lucky and decided to get our seats there about 40 minutes before the show - a must if you want seats!!! At about 20 minutes left it was standing room only.
Kids rides - the signage was tricky!!! Everywhere said you to be 42 inches so my poor 3-yr old wasn't able to ride, she played in the splash pad quite happily though. Then we found out the 42 inches was for if they wanted to ride by themselves and she could actually ride everything but the kiddie roller coaster with an adult.
Refillable cups - a MUST on a hot July day! They offer lemonade almost everywhere if you don't let your kids have soda (like us) and in the kid area you can get fruit punch too, we didn't find that option anywhere but the kids area.
All in all it was a great day and we could easily have filled 2 days at SeaWorld. The crowds were bad but not undo-able and they didn't stop us from anything we wanted to do - except the Elmo & Abby show. Oh and a side note, don't tell your 3-yr old you are seeing Elmo & Abby before you actually get seats - that was NOT fun.
