You'll need a whole day for sure. Electric Eel and Emporer will be a bit much for DS, Manta and Journey to Atlantis will be great.
Prioritize the Orca Encounter and Dolphin Days. Sitting in the soak zone is a super awesome experience. Whenever I go to sea world, I spend the first half of the day enjoying animal encounters and rides. Dry. I have lunch packed in the car. (The parking lot is right outside the front gate - no need to buy lunch here. They don't let you bring food in.). After lunch, I'll change into an outfit and flip-flops that I'm ok literally getting drenched. Then, I'll ride Journey to Atlantis a few times and ask for the front row - no fear of getting soaked here!
Then I'll do the back-to-back showings of Dolphin Days and Orca encounter - sit in the first 3 rows one section to the left or right of entry at dolphins for maximum soaking! Orca encounter, first 5 rows about halfway between the middle of the amphitheater and the edge. You get a super awesome view of the animals RIGHT THERE and during at least one of the shows you will probably get absolutely
drenched. You can also ride shipwreck rapids after the orca encounter if you want to do even more wet rides. No drops on this one, makes it much more family friendly.
If you aren't a soak zone person, I totally get it. Getting absolutely drenched is such a cool experience though and are some of my favorite childhood memories and are still some of the best times at a theme park I have with my family today. Highly recommend packing a change and enjoy the SEA in sea world. Or at least pack a change for half the family and video the chaos from the dry section of the show
The best animal exhibits are the Shark Encounter, the Turtle Reef, and the Arctic Exhibit. The Penguin encounter is also good.
If you can swing it, dine with orcas is awesome. It's pretty reasonably priced, has lots of food options, and is a really cool experience sitting right next to your own private orca show. The only time I like to eat in the park is when our family does this.
Miscellaneous tips:
- Time your rides on the major rides with a big show. Manta's lines are smaller during an orca encounter, and Atlantis is smaller, especially during dolphin days.
- Avoid rides near an amphitheater right after a show gets out. DON'T go straight to Manta or Shipwreck right after orcas gets out - the line will spike for the next 45 minutes or so then die down.
- Be prepared for a slower and different feeling day than a Disney park. Sea World is a very pleasant place to be. Very clean, well landscaped, and overall enjoyable and family-friendly. The crowds are also much,
much more spread out here. It's the kind of place where you can show up after park opening, park a 60-second walk from the gate, walk into the park within 10 minutes, and still enjoy all the major sights of the park at a leisurely pace during the height of summer.
- The soak zone will either miss you entirely or soak your whole body. Either you'll sit in a spot where you don't really get splashed, or you'll get hit with 4 or 5 strong splashes. I've been going to this park for 15 years. Always happens this way. Always.
- Don't sit in the soak zone if you aren't ready to actually get soaked!! Especially on busy days at the orca encounter, people will sit towards the top of the soak zone because they think "there's no way the whales will splash all the way up here". Boy are they wrong. I've seen some MASSIVE splashes in my day. Stay out of that soak zone!
- The ampitheaters are giant ovens if you go to the wrong show. It's a bunch of metal seats all facing the same direction. The orca encounter faces North East, the Dolphin Stadium faces basically South. Especially in orca stadium, the
earlier you go, the less sun will be beating straight into your face. If you have the option between a late morning and a mid-afternoon showing at orca stadium, the early one will have lower crowds and less sun. This tip has saved my pale skin more than once
That was a lot of random garbage but hope it was helpful!
