Sea World tips??

[CJK]

Our group of 10 are heading to Sea World for 1 day the first week of March. I haven't been there for 20 plus years, so I'm basically a newbie. We're staying just outside of Disney. Could some of you Sea World experts give me tips? I'm open to everything, but here's some questions I can think of:

1. When you buy tickets online, do you have to have a printer to print the tickets out immediately, or can you pick them up at the gate?

2. Is it important to get there right at park opening like you do in Disney/Universal?

3. Must do/see attractions (group ranges from ages 4 to grandparents).

4. Does AAA offer discounts on food in the parks? Any quick service or table service recommendations?

Thank you sooo much! I will try to read some threads on this board. It feels strange being a newbie again!

 

[crazelion]

My biggest tip is get all day dining plan for 30 bucks if stay in the park all day. If like shows get to the shows early because they fill up fast.

 

[KBF]

Our group of 10 are heading to Sea World for 1 day the first week of March. I haven't been there for 20 plus years, so I'm basically a newbie. We're staying just outside of Disney. Could some of you Sea World experts give me tips? I'm open to everything, but here's some questions I can think of:

1. When you buy tickets online, do you have to have a printer to print the tickets out immediately, or can you pick them up at the gate?

2. Is it important to get there right at park opening like you do in Disney/Universal?

3. Must do/see attractions (group ranges from ages 4 to grandparents).

4. Does AAA offer discounts on food in the parks? Any quick service or table service recommendations?

Thank you sooo much! I will try to read some threads on this board. It feels strange being a newbie again!

1. When my friends printed off tickets offline, they brought the sheet of paper they printed out with them and they had to go to a self serve ticket machine located at the front of the park. You simply go up to the machine, scan the piece of paper and it prints out your regular tickets. The line for that was extremely short where as the line for the ticket window was extremely long.

2. Since the park is only open until 7:00pm on the week you're visiting, I would reccomend getting there at park opening so you have the benefit of having the entire day to see all the shows and exhibits you want to see. There is a full days worth of things to do at Seaworld. Sometimes, it even takes two days.

3. The top things I would recommend seeing or doing at Seaworld is....
1) Dolphin Feeding (If you get there at park open, there is a 9:30 feeding which is not very crowded at all)
2) Blue Horizons dolphin show
3. Shamu Show "One Ocean"
4. Journey to Atlantis (A water ride like Splash Mountain)
5. Feeding sting rays
6. Sealion show "Clyde And Seamore Take Pirate Island"
7. Dog and Cat show "Pets Ahoy"
8. Shamu's Happy Harbor (A giant play area for young kids with kid rides and a huge playground)


4. No idea about AAA discounts sorry. But the only table service you will find at Seaworld is Sharks underwater grille or Makahiki Luau dinner show. Here is more info on those including other non table service restaurants....
http://seaworldparks.com/en/seaworld-orlando/Dine-and-Shop/Dining

Any other questions, feel free to ask! Have a great trip!

 

[CJK]

Thanks so much for the great info!!!! It helps tremendously!

Do you know how much parking costs by chance?

 

[SharonK0527]

Parking is $14.00 ($20 for Preferred Parking).

I can't answer all of your questions but I can tell you we visited Sea World in October of 2011 and LOVED it. Like you, we hadn't been to Sea World in years. We spent 2 days there and still didn't feel like we had seen or done everything. My DD is 11 years old so we did not visit Shamu's Happy Harbor as she has outgrown that area now. But we did visit a lot of the animal exhibits, participated in most of the feedings, saw 2 shows and rode some rides.

DD wants to be a Marine Biologist so we did the dolphin feeding, stingray feeding, and sea lion feeding. We spent quite a bit of time at these exhibits as she loved watching the animals. Because it was her birthday, we also did the Peguins Up Close Tour which took us backstage at the penguin and puffin exhibit. Very exciting and very interesting! We saw the Shamu: One Ocean show and Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island show. We would highly recommend both of these shows. As a PP said - get there early! Seating for the shows fills up quite fast. As big as Shamu Stadium is, you'd be surprised how fast it fills up. As for rides, we did Journey to Atlantis and Manta. It took me 2 days to work up my nerve to go on Manta and at the last minute I decided to do it. I'm so glad I did! What a fun and exciting ride!! We did not eat in the park, other than quick snack-type meals so I can't rate the restaurants for you.

Sea World is a great park and I'm sure you and your group will have a great time exploring and enjoying!