Sea World Profits Soar by 300%

[Planogirl]

I agree with the previous posters. Animals being completely free is a nice notion but the world is changing and not for the better when it comes to nature.

I'm not saying that all Orcas need to be rounded up but having a few treated well in captivity doesn't harm the species and probably does it some good. People can be taught to care about animals but likely not as much if they just see pictures in a book.

Of course, YMMV. I'll just add that if things continue to disintegrate at a certain other place that we might end up at SeaWorld faster than I thought. I like the parks but just never have time.

 

[kathy884]

SeaWorld profits up 300% // Might some of this be that profits were down considerably after the tragic incident with the trainer getting killed and lots of negative publicity? // We really love SeaWorld, but I can't imagine they are doing all that well. Lots of negative publicity again this year with the movie Blackfish and I see the offer of a $50 weekday ticket. That tells me they are having to lower prices big time to get people in during slow season. Still I can see them working on upping profits, with selling all day dining, quick queue, partnering with hotels, offering expensive behind the scenes tour add ons, etc. // And I love their summer camps. DS who is a senior in HS will be going to one of these again (last year he can do the one in Orlando). This will be his fifth year. In between school and summer jobs when he's in college, we'll probably end up sending him to San Antonio. They are the only SeaWorld park with camps for college aged kids and they have camps for teachers too. // I do have mixed feelings for sure about animals in captivity, but go to their parks anyway. I totally understand why OSHA doesn't let the trainers get in the water with the Orcas, but for me as beautiful and lovely as the parks are (Their landscaping is just so good), the trainers and Orcas in the water together was truly the WOW factor that just blew me away (I wanted to be that trainer in the water), and the parks just don't have the same excitement without that for me.

My son and I enjoy WDW too. Usually though now we just take an occasional mini trip and DH stays home. On our mini mom/son trip we usually hit SeaWorld one day and two Disney parks on the other with a one day park hopper // Just do three nights / two days.

DH doesn't care for theme parks or fake man made things, so that's a strike against Disney to start, but he has always felt WDW is just too obvious and in your face about getting you to part with your money -- making it inconvenient to leave the world for a less expensive meal, high priced mediocre food, gifts shops placed very strategically all over, extras to buy -- light up items at night, balloons, outrageous prices for lodging compared to what you can get offsite, etc. He can't stand it than when he walks though their parks, he can't even find a rock to kick as the paths are that clean. But OMG -- the only park he really cares for in Orlando is Gatorland as alligators are native to the area and he thinks that that's an appropriate attraction for the area. Plus it reminds him a bit of the old time tourist attractions from when he was a kid. Despite his being a big Harry Potter fan, he thinks the idea of a Harry Potter world is ridiculous and thinks things like this are best described in the books and left to your imagination. He told me there is no way he would ever set foot in the place and that he'd even go to WDW park before that. The wild thing is that he fairly regularly has to go the Contemporary for a few days for seminars. He says though it's a perfectly nice conference facility and grounds and amenities are just fine / really nice actually (high priced, but his company is paying). And he doesn't leave the grounds.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

I love sea world, even though I hate that there is no more free . . .

1) We never considered the beer as being free.
2) To us, it was a reward for going deep into the park and smelling the horse barn.
3) Of course, we needed A LOT of reward.

 

[lucyem]

1) We never considered the beer as being free.
2) To us, it was a reward for going deep into the park and smelling the horse barn.
3) Of course, we needed A LOT of reward.

LOL! Not a horse person I see. If anything that barn was so clean there was nothing to smell

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

The "free beer" comment was really a non starter...Hyperbole perhaps. But we still love SW, even though I still wish there was free beer. SW is adding quality attractions at a much greater pace than WDW. 'nuff said?

 

[lexandme]

Announced yesterday the Blackstone Group plans on selling a majority of their Sea World stock. They are currently a majority owner but after sale is complete they will no longer hold that title. Perhaps they sense the tide is turning?
I have also heard Macy's is contemplating pulling the Shamu balloon from their Thanksgiving Day Parade. I truly hope that is true. Protest does make a difference.

 

[livndisney]

Announced yesterday the Blackstone Group plans on selling a majority of their Sea World stock. They are currently a majority owner but after sale is complete they will no longer hold that title. Perhaps they sense the tide is turning?
I have also heard Macy's is contemplating pulling the Shamu balloon from their Thanksgiving Day Parade. I truly hope that is true. Protest does make a difference.

Not sure about a balloon but the float looks to be a go-

"It was in that spirit that parade executive producer Amy Kule told The Associated Press last week that the SeaWorld float is staying. “There is no controversy,” she said. “Our goal is to entertain and that is their goal as well.”

http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2013/nov/27/macys-parade-awash-in-seaworld-float-controversy/

 

[freediverdude]

I personally just will not go to SeaWorld again until the dolphins and whales are gone. It's against my beliefs to support that. Those animals are different than other animals, in that dolphins and killer whales are built for swimming large vast distances in the ocean every day, constantly swimming. Even as big as that tank is, it's just not anywhere large enough to give a killer whale a happy life. Keeping them in a tank that they can dart across in 2 seconds when their normal habitat would be many miles of ocean just isn't humane, and I'm surprised more haven't snapped.

The stingrays and fish and even seals I don't mind as much, but the dolphins and whales are just too big for captivity. There's a reason why they haven't been able to keep a great white shark in captivity. So it's time to end this. The dolphins and whales don't know they are ambassadors to humans, all they know is they are kept in a fairly confined space, and must do tricks to eat (or at least for part of their food). I believe India even gave dolphins an enhanced status recently, like sentient beings or something of the sort, I forget the terminology they used.

 

[Victoria3]

I personally just will not go to SeaWorld again until the dolphins and whales are gone. It's against my beliefs to support that. Those animals are different than other animals, in that dolphins and killer whales are built for swimming large vast distances in the ocean every day, constantly swimming. Even as big as that tank is, it's just not anywhere large enough to give a killer whale a happy life. Keeping them in a tank that they can dart across in 2 seconds when their normal habitat would be many miles of ocean just isn't humane, and I'm surprised more haven't snapped.

The stingrays and fish and even seals I don't mind as much, but the dolphins and whales are just too big for captivity. There's a reason why they haven't been able to keep a great white shark in captivity. So it's time to end this. The dolphins and whales don't know they are ambassadors to humans, all they know is they are kept in a fairly confined space, and must do tricks to eat (or at least for part of their food). I believe India even gave dolphins an enhanced status recently, like sentient beings or something of the sort, I forget the terminology they used.

Do you go to Epcot? They have dolphins too.

 

[freediverdude]

Thank you for trolling, but the couple dolphins at Epcot are not the centerpiece of the park like at SeaWorld. Although I don't go and see them at Epcot either.

BTW, Block Party Bash, you must work for Disney if you have that in your signature, lol.

 

[pioneer89]

SeaWorld Entertainment reports a 300 percent profit jump in 2012. Interestingly, this news comes after the company began considering a public stock offering, hoping to raise at least $100 million. 2012 earnings hit $77.4 million; in 2011, earnings were only $19.1 million. Revenue for the 10 SeaWorld parks was up 7 percent to $1.4 billion. In spite of higher ticket prices, ticket sales were up 7 percent to $884 million. Attendance for the year grew as well, with more than 24 million visitors entering the company's theme parks. Click link for more details.

$0.884 billion in tickets out of $1.4 billion total?

That's 63.1% revenue from tickets, which goes against an assumption I've always had that tickets were much smaller than other revenue. The old "Theme parks make their real money from food and souvenirs" trope.

It might be the early morning brain-fog, but 24 million visitors and $1.4 billion revenue is only $58.33 per visitor. A lot less then I would have ever guessed.

I just looked up Seaworld stock info, and that number is $60.74 per visitor, with $38.38 for admission, and $22.36 for in-park spending (food, toys, etc.)

Admission per capita (defined as admission revenue divided by total attendance) increased by 9.1% from $35.19 to $38.38 primarily as a result of pricing and yield management strategies. In-park per capita spending (defined as food, merchandise and other revenue divided by total attendance) increased by 3.5% from $21.61 to $22.36 due to targeted price increases and increased in-park offerings.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

$0.884 billion in tickets out of $1.4 billion total?

That's 63.1% revenue from tickets, which goes against an assumption I've always had that tickets were much smaller than other revenue. The old "Theme parks make their real money from food and souvenirs" trope.

What it means is that their profit margin is not nearly as high as the rat...

Disney parks generates around 3.5 billion of revenue from merch sales and roughly 3.5 billion from all the other revenue (I'm simplifying...but more or less). That includes wdw, Disneyland and roughly 50% of Disneyland Paris.

Most of the expense is in the "other revenues"...a ridiculous portion of the profits is in the sales categories.

And that...is the whole ballgame. Annual stockholder report.

But it probably also means they are running a much leaner operation... As Disney has always whined internally about how much the operation costs and how alot of the "big ticket" items - namely rooms and tickets - are gobbled
Up by overhead.
If you believe such things

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

We are dvc and going to okw for 7 days and decided to try different things we have no Disney park days planned. We want to do discovery cove so it makes sense to do all of the seaworld parks as we will have them for 14 days. The tickets for Disney are getting a bit out of hand. But we still love the resorts. We cook our own meals as we no longer enjoy the dining we do like the bass excursion and will continue to vacation there but we are kinda over the parks.

Same here! DH likes to take the kids to the parks still, but I am over them. If everyone wants to go to SeaWorld instead I'm all over that though! Our 7 year-old does camp at SeaWorld every summer too. I just never get tired of it, probably because it is an animal park and is therefore never the same place twice (to me). I told DH that I don't want a Disney AP this year. He and the kids have them, and they can do the parks. We have DVC but are looking at selling it as we are finding the units to look run-down more often than not lately Too bad, because when they were kept up I liked just staying at the resort itself while DH and the kids did the parks.

 

[luvmy3]

I personally just will not go to SeaWorld again until the dolphins and whales are gone. It's against my beliefs to support that. Those animals are different than other animals, in that dolphins and killer whales are built for swimming large vast distances in the ocean every day, constantly swimming. Even as big as that tank is, it's just not anywhere large enough to give a killer whale a happy life. Keeping them in a tank that they can dart across in 2 seconds when their normal habitat would be many miles of ocean just isn't humane, and I'm surprised more haven't snapped.

The stingrays and fish and even seals I don't mind as much, but the dolphins and whales are just too big for captivity. There's a reason why they haven't been able to keep a great white shark in captivity. So it's time to end this. The dolphins and whales don't know they are ambassadors to humans, all they know is they are kept in a fairly confined space, and must do tricks to eat (or at least for part of their food). I believe India even gave dolphins an enhanced status recently, like sentient beings or something of the sort, I forget the terminology they used.

Thank you for trolling, but the couple dolphins at Epcot are not the centerpiece of the park like at SeaWorld. Although I don't go and see them at Epcot either.

You don't sound very committed to your beliefs. I mean you pick and choose what animals are okay in captivity, and apparently even though there are dolphins in captivity at Epcot that is okay because you don't go and see them. So, you won't support Seaworld but Disney is okay to hold animals captive because you don't see them? Time to end it at Seaworld but not Disney? Gotcha.
That pp wasn't trolling, just pointing out your hypocrisy

 

[mikehn]

You don't sound very committed to your beliefs. I mean you pick and choose what animals are okay in captivity, and apparently even though there are dolphins in captivity at Epcot that is okay because you don't go and see them. So, you won't support Seaworld but Disney is okay to hold animals captive because you don't see them? Time to end it at Seaworld but not Disney? Gotcha.
That pp wasn't trolling, just pointing out your hypocrisy

This entire topic is all hypocracy. Its ok for Disney to hold animals in captivity, but boycott everyone else.

 

[JB2K]

This entire topic is all hypocracy. Its ok for Disney to hold animals in captivity, but boycott everyone else.

It's the old "give Disney a free pass" schtick...

 

[anthony2k7]

Interesting times ahead for Seaworld it seems.

I hear that several artists have cancelled in the last few days from Bands, Brew and BBQ. Willie Nelson being the most critical in an interview with CNN saying how he doesnt agree with the way they treat their animals. I guess Willie has his own unique reasons for not caring about this when he happily performed at the same event in 2011.

Clearly Seaworld is trying to just ride out the whole Blackfish thing, but its starting to look like they're going to have to react somehow. I've no idea how they can react though? I do think they urgently need a new big show not featuring Whales or Dolphins though.

 

[Kpskyman]

Sea World is what it is, a theme park revolving around captive sea life. Those that have problems with this, but not with Ak, or zoos, or petting farms, or circuses, are hypocrites. Sea world puts millions of dollars into research and millions more into the health of their animals. You can say it is wrong and refuse to visit, that is what makes this country great, but my daughter would not know what an Orca, dolphin, seal, walrus are if not for this institution, and by it existing it brings about awareness for all these animals.

 

[julieannboo]

This entire topic is all hypocracy. Its ok for Disney to hold animals in captivity, but boycott everyone else.

Disney have managed to go under the radar for sometime now with their dolphins, in the mainstream media.

But there are campaigns to release these dolphins.

So people are not okay with dolphin captivity anywhere - not just at Seaworld.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Sea World is what it is, a theme park revolving around captive sea life. Those that have problems with this, but not with Ak, or zoos, or petting farms, or circuses, are hypocrites. Sea world puts millions of dollars into research and millions more into the health of their animals. You can say it is wrong and refuse to visit, that is what makes this country great, but my daughter would not know what an Orca, dolphin, seal, walrus are if not for this institution, and by it existing it brings about awareness for all these animals.

Great post. You can't pick and choose which creatures are "worthy" of not being in captivity. Someone going to AK but boycotting SW is a hypocrite.