RabFlmom
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2003
- Messages
- 1,903
Well, forget everything about everything I ever said about no lines at Sea World! We went yesterday-a Thursday. We have gone the week of Christmas before so figured it would be no different. We arrived around 10AM and the parking lots were pretty empty.
We went straight to the Sea Lion and Otter Show and had no problem getting seats. Stadium was pretty full by the time the show started. From there we walked toward the Blue Horizon stadium but had time to kill so petted the dolphins and spent some time in underwater viewing area. We got into the Blue Horizon show and basically found the last seat in the house before there was standing room only.
From there we ate BBQ ribs at Smokey Creek without having to wait in line at all. When we finished eating there were probably 60 people in the lines for food, so we were glad we ate early.
From noon on the park was more crowded than any park-even the Disney parks- than I have ever seen. They said Wednesday there were almost 34,000 people at Sea World. Crowds were larger on Thursday according to one employee. After eating we went to see the manatees and then walked around the Blue Horizon stadium. The lines from the 2 entrances stretched all the way around the stadium with the lines facing oposite directions within 3 feet of each other. An hour before the next show they were anouncing the Blue Horizon show was at capacity. Same thing for the 3 o'clock Shamu Show. By 1:45 they were announcing that the 3:30 show was at capacity and there would be another show at 6. We did not see a show from noon until the Shamu Rocks show at 9! We spent our time watching the dolphins, down in Artic adventure without doing the movie, going through gift shops and even resorted to just crowd watching so we could sit a while. We ate dinner at the Pizza place. Not sure we will do that again. The line was so slow and they were so disorganized in the serving that it took us about an hour and half to get food and there were maybe only 15 families in front of us. It seemed one large family that had about 6 trays was letting kids decide what they wanted for most of our stand in line and they kept changing their minds! The serving line is backwards as far as foods goes. They have the drinks first. Then the cafe type meals you can choose from, then the pizza and fries at the end. Everyone was complaining about the long wait with no one moving up at all. The servers then said you didn't have to wait in line to get pizza. BUT.... if you want a drink you have to wait in line because the drinks are first??????? The servers didn't seem to speak English which made the whole thing take longer. They kept filling plates of fries and pizza and no one was moving, so the pizza and fries were cold. When I asked for hot pizza and fries and wouldn't take one of the plates that had sat there for 10-15 minutes, they seemed to be telling me to take one of the ones already made up. It probably works better when the park isn't so crowded, but they also didn't have much guidance as to how the lines worked. We were never sure how you got into the other line that was going. We were not sure where it even started. One good thing about waiting that long ......everyone waiting met everyone else that was waiting. There were some cute families around us so we enjoyed talking to them.
We lined up for the 9pm Shamu Rocks show about 7:30. They did Mystify at the same time so Shamu stadium wasn't full. Rocks was just mediocre. We got to see the 1 month old whale with his 3 year old sister and mother swim for quite a while cause they were not cooperating and wanted to be together or something of that nature. Then they responded to a leave the center water and the show began. Show was shorter than usual.
At 9:45 they did Mystify again. We watched from the patio area of the Spice restaurant( I think that is the one) and it was well worth staying to see. Not as good as the fireworks show they had years ago if you saw the lazer shows back then, but we thought it was really worth seeing.
Even with the crowds we had a lot of fun. For someone going to Sea World for the first time, I am sure they did not see all of the shows. There were lines everywhere you looked. They advised getting to shows 45 minutes in advance but as I stated earlier that was too late to see the shows. During Christmas you definitely need 2 full days. The people sitting behind us for Shamu Rocks said they had spent Wed. there and still had not seen all they wanted to see. They had not been able to see the Shamu Show or Blue Horizon in their 2 days and were going back for them today!
Last week on the 21st we were at MGM and Magic Kingdom. They were crowded too, but we didn't have as long to wait for any thing we saw. Funny how that sounds coming from me who always says you neever notice the crowds at Sea World like you do at Disney Parks. LOL
We went straight to the Sea Lion and Otter Show and had no problem getting seats. Stadium was pretty full by the time the show started. From there we walked toward the Blue Horizon stadium but had time to kill so petted the dolphins and spent some time in underwater viewing area. We got into the Blue Horizon show and basically found the last seat in the house before there was standing room only.
From there we ate BBQ ribs at Smokey Creek without having to wait in line at all. When we finished eating there were probably 60 people in the lines for food, so we were glad we ate early.
From noon on the park was more crowded than any park-even the Disney parks- than I have ever seen. They said Wednesday there were almost 34,000 people at Sea World. Crowds were larger on Thursday according to one employee. After eating we went to see the manatees and then walked around the Blue Horizon stadium. The lines from the 2 entrances stretched all the way around the stadium with the lines facing oposite directions within 3 feet of each other. An hour before the next show they were anouncing the Blue Horizon show was at capacity. Same thing for the 3 o'clock Shamu Show. By 1:45 they were announcing that the 3:30 show was at capacity and there would be another show at 6. We did not see a show from noon until the Shamu Rocks show at 9! We spent our time watching the dolphins, down in Artic adventure without doing the movie, going through gift shops and even resorted to just crowd watching so we could sit a while. We ate dinner at the Pizza place. Not sure we will do that again. The line was so slow and they were so disorganized in the serving that it took us about an hour and half to get food and there were maybe only 15 families in front of us. It seemed one large family that had about 6 trays was letting kids decide what they wanted for most of our stand in line and they kept changing their minds! The serving line is backwards as far as foods goes. They have the drinks first. Then the cafe type meals you can choose from, then the pizza and fries at the end. Everyone was complaining about the long wait with no one moving up at all. The servers then said you didn't have to wait in line to get pizza. BUT.... if you want a drink you have to wait in line because the drinks are first??????? The servers didn't seem to speak English which made the whole thing take longer. They kept filling plates of fries and pizza and no one was moving, so the pizza and fries were cold. When I asked for hot pizza and fries and wouldn't take one of the plates that had sat there for 10-15 minutes, they seemed to be telling me to take one of the ones already made up. It probably works better when the park isn't so crowded, but they also didn't have much guidance as to how the lines worked. We were never sure how you got into the other line that was going. We were not sure where it even started. One good thing about waiting that long ......everyone waiting met everyone else that was waiting. There were some cute families around us so we enjoyed talking to them.
We lined up for the 9pm Shamu Rocks show about 7:30. They did Mystify at the same time so Shamu stadium wasn't full. Rocks was just mediocre. We got to see the 1 month old whale with his 3 year old sister and mother swim for quite a while cause they were not cooperating and wanted to be together or something of that nature. Then they responded to a leave the center water and the show began. Show was shorter than usual.
At 9:45 they did Mystify again. We watched from the patio area of the Spice restaurant( I think that is the one) and it was well worth staying to see. Not as good as the fireworks show they had years ago if you saw the lazer shows back then, but we thought it was really worth seeing.
Even with the crowds we had a lot of fun. For someone going to Sea World for the first time, I am sure they did not see all of the shows. There were lines everywhere you looked. They advised getting to shows 45 minutes in advance but as I stated earlier that was too late to see the shows. During Christmas you definitely need 2 full days. The people sitting behind us for Shamu Rocks said they had spent Wed. there and still had not seen all they wanted to see. They had not been able to see the Shamu Show or Blue Horizon in their 2 days and were going back for them today!
Last week on the 21st we were at MGM and Magic Kingdom. They were crowded too, but we didn't have as long to wait for any thing we saw. Funny how that sounds coming from me who always says you neever notice the crowds at Sea World like you do at Disney Parks. LOL
