Should we add Sea World to our WDW vacation?

[Rox.jea]

How is Sea World? Is it worth the cost to tack it onto a WDW vacation? How is the food @ Sea World? My husband is a huge Animal & Sea life fan. Or we thought to go to Marineland @ Niagara Falls for an entirely different trip. Any ideas?

 

[crazyfordisney2000]

I've never been to Seaworld but I've been to Marineland in Niagara Falls. Marineland is OK. Well , actually, quite a disapointment. They just didn't seem to have much there. I have a feeling it doesn't even compare to Seaworld. The only thing I really remember enjoying is the killer whale show. Now it has been 7 years since we went so maybe it has changed? I would go for Seaworld.

 

[TinkerMouse]

I've been to SeaWorld twice and it's "sister" park Discovery Cove once.

SeaWorld is fun. It's essentially an aquatic themed zoo and amusement park. I love the Atlantis boat ride (it's like an ancient and somewhat spooky though funny Splash Mountain), and the Krakken roller coaster. I also love the Budweiser Clydesdale horses who live there. They are huge and beautiful. If you don't know what a Clydesdale is (because many people don't) they are the horses from the Budweiser commercials and Bell's horse Philippe in Beauty and the Beast.

There are also tons of cool shows but I've never really been able to see any of them other than the Cirque de Soleil one because all the shows have only a few starting times and the arenas fill up very quickly. If the time is approaching or you've just plain momentarily forgotten then you are out of luck. I now think it's best to plan to see those ahead of time. Keep in mind that if you arrive at a time when a killer whale has just been born the famous whale show will be nonexistent. You'll simply get to see the mommy and baby swim around together and footage of the baby's birth, all of which was very insightful and cool to me at first but then got boring pretty quick.

Honestly, although I've made two visits to SeaWorld I only remember eating there once. It was one of those cafeteria style restaurants and the food was alright, not memorable and not bad. The packages with Discovery Cove or at least the one we had came with food in the sense that you just grab a tray and walk right over. It was kind of like the barbecue buffet that Disney serves when you first get to Castaway Cay during one of the cruises. If memory serves, you could also get snacks whenever you wanted. Discovery Cove definitely had better food, a nicer atmosphere, especially since you felt like everything was taken care of.

You can do SeaWorld in a day or less depending on what you want to see. It's no where near as packed full of attractions as the Disney parks are so it's pretty easy and relaxing to explore. It's nice. It has aquariums with a bevy of exhibits from penguins to manta rays to dolphins that you can pet and feed. Feeding SeaWorld's dolphins is very fun but still kind of pales in comparison if you've already swam with the dolphins over at Discovery Cove.

 

[crazelion]

I love all the shows and animals at Sea World. Very interactive the kids love feeding the animals. I think Sea World food was awesome. I had all eat dinning plan for 30.00 bucks. I can't remember how much the kids cost. I know the drinks alone was were the 30.00 bucks. I did go this summer and this was the summer of extreme heat.

 

[annacali]

Sea World is one of our favorites too. We have been in Orlando and San Diego, multiple times each. We love the shows, the animal feeding experiences are great, and the up close animal viewing is amazing. My 6 yo is now a manatee fanatic, LOL. You can usually find some good deals on tickets...last summer they had the Sea World Cares where a child got in for $5 with a full price adult. Worked great for us.

FYI, someone else bought Sea World from Anheiser Busch, so the Clydesdales are not there anymore. We loved that part too.

Funny but I have always found Sea World Orlando a rather "cool" place to be...all the theaters are shaded and/or indoors and air conditioned. In San Diego, where it isn't supposed to be hot but has been mid 80's or warmer and sunny every time we have been, there is NO shade and no AC and it is one of the hottest places in town to be!!! Beautiful park though.

 

[cam&chris]

Marineland is so tiny compared to Seaworld. Also at Marineland, the whales don't even do a show anymore. The killer whales and beluga whales are in a separate tank where you can view them above or below ground - that's it! The only show there now is with dolphins, sea lions and seals. No aquariums - just a few kiddie rides and 2 or 3 adult rides.

Now I haven't been to Seaworld yet (going in May 2011) but from all the research that I have done, I think that it would be worth doing 1 day there.

 

[greenclan67]

Have been to both, Seaworld and Marineland, and there is no way ever that the 2 can be compared! ML is like a drop in the bucket compared to Seaworld! To be honest, Seaworld is our favourite park in Orlando! We go every year, and say it our "welcome home" park! THe shows are amazing, the animal interactions are awesome! IF you have the time, I would def do it! You won't be disappointed!

 

[TinkerMouse]

FYI, someone else bought Sea World from Anheiser Busch, so the Clydesdales are not there anymore. We loved that part too.

What! NOOOO! I knew that Anheiser Busch and everything it owned got bought by some Europeans making Budweiser no longer an American brand, but I didn't know that the things it owned got picked off and seperated. How and where am I supposed to see the horses now?

 

[kathy884]

SeaWorld is my family's favorite out of all the wonderful world class theme parks in Orlando. We can't go to Orlando without doing at least one visit there. The shows and animal attractions are outstanding. They also have two fun coasters, a water ride, and a simulator ride. I personally find their food to be quite good for a theme park. If you are going to be there for both lunch and dinner, the meal deal for $30 is a pretty decent deal. I don't think they serve breakfast there.

I would recommend the park, especially if you have Sea Life fans in your family. We have been to numerous top rated aquariums and othe Sea Life parks, but SeaWorld beats them all (is in a class by itself) IMHO.

Most of their tickets also allow you to go to the customer service desk and get a second day free within seven days, in case you have time to go more than once. That's a pretty tall order with so much to do in Orlando, but we love this park so much that we usually reserve two days for it and go the first and the last day of a week long trip. We get there at rope drop the first day. The second day we sleep in and hit what we didn't have time for the first time and a few other favorites that we want to repeat.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

SeaWorld was probably our favorite day of our trip. I was expecting it to be DD's favorite day, but I did not expect it for myself.

We went during the crazy week between Christmas and New Years, and it was crowded but manageable. We did half a day on our own and then we took a VIP tour. The tour didn't add anything that we couldn't do on our own, but it was nice to be led around, brought to the front of lines/prime show seating, and having an expert with us to answer questions. A few highlights from our day:

* If you like rollercoasters, Manta and Kraken were the best I rode during our vacation, including all the Disney parks and Universal. They look really intimidating though - they were the only rides I couldn't get DH on and DD was too short.

* We ate at meal at Sharks Underwater Grill. We had eaten at Coral Reef the night before, and there was no comparison - Sharks had a better aquarium and better food.

* The shows were all incredible.

* We got to pet and feed dolphins and sting rays. We also fed sea lions and sharks.

 

[Detailor]

How and where am I supposed to see the horses now?

I'm fairly certain that there are still Clydesdales at Busch Gardens in Williamsburg. Not sure that they are at Tampa's Busch Gardens any more.

Dick Taylor

 

[shalom]

There were horses, but not Clydesdales, when we went this past spring. There are also little presentations in the horse barn throughout the day -- they were listed on the map/schedule, and looked interesting but we didn't get to any. Maybe next time.

My kids liked Sea World so much last year we're all going again this year, and eldest son wants to get an annual pass so he can go multiple times (you can get a free upgrade on your one-day pass and go two days, which most of us did last year). Be aware that if you want to feed the dolphins or sting rays or whatever, you need to pay extra for the food, and if you're taking a child both of you have to buy some. That's a change that some parents got irate about when we were there.

Well worth doing, we thought.

 

[abolanwoski]

FYI, someone else bought Sea World from Anheiser Busch, so the Clydesdales are not there anymore. We loved that part too.

Not sure about the horses, but the park is def still part of Anheiser Bush. I was worried because AB gives free passes to military each year and we were planning on using ours to go to SW. Just went to the website and they still are.

 

[Macgyver91]

If your husband is a huge animal person then you really need to try and swing Discovery cove. My DH who is NOT an animal person but absolutely LOVED it. He went along just because we wanted to go. At first glance, the price is a little frightening. However when you break it all down it isn't really that bad, and when we went they threw in 5 day Sea World passes. Discovery Cove is all inclusive and they only allow X amount of people in a day. Someday we will do it again...

 

[AliceInMommyland]

Yes, the Clydesdale's are still in Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. We saw them in October. Marineland was pretty disappointing to me. I can't wait to go to Sea World in April.