VIP tours for Seaworld

[buckbart]

From the advice of another I am posting this as a new thread to gather information on the VIP tour for Seaworld.

I am desperately seeking reviews on the tours, specifically the VIP one. The tour we've booked is 7 hours (11-6). It includes VIP seating to 3 shows, front of the line access to the coasters (which we can't ride cause of height restrictions) a buffet lunch, interaction and feeding the dolphins, stingrays, sealions and otters. Our children are 7 & 4. The cost is $375 on top of park entry. Would we get the same experience if we just did the planning on our own? Anyone out there have any recommendations regarding the tours? Do you get any special interaction during the shows or photo ops that the general public doesn't? Is the buffet lunch good?

 

[JLR]

From the advice of another I am posting this as a new thread to gather information on the VIP tour for Seaworld.

I am desperately seeking reviews on the tours, specifically the VIP one. The tour we've booked is 7 hours (11-6). It includes VIP seating to 3 shows, front of the line access to the coasters (which we can't ride cause of height restrictions) a buffet lunch, interaction and feeding the dolphins, stingrays, sealions and otters. Our children are 7 & 4. The cost is $375 on top of park entry. Would we get the same experience if we just did the planning on our own? Anyone out there have any recommendations regarding the tours? Do you get any special interaction during the shows or photo ops that the general public doesn't? Is the buffet lunch good?

I asked the same question last year. The tours change a little from time to time - so I don't know what they are offering now - they cancelled lunch with shamu when I was considering it - but that may be back. What the others said, if you can't find their posts (remember you can put "VIP tour" into the search this thread tool), was that the tour leader was very knowledgeable and fun to spend time with and they enjoyed the tour a great deal. Some of the tours give you special animal experiences, but it should say that in the description. Some of them have not.

That said - I ended up very happy that we did not pay for the special tour. We went in April (on a Monday). The park was pretty quiet in the morning and mobbed from about 11:30 on. We fed dolphins, rays, lea lions and sharks in the morning. The dolphin feeding was a bit more expensive (I think $7 pp), you can get a punch card for the rays (very fun - you can touch them), sealions (fun), and sharks (eh), which saves you a little per-feeding. We also did the coasters in the morning which you will not need to do. If you go any time other than the busiest, I think you could easily do everything you want to do without the tour. I also think with a 4 year old, you will want the flexibility to stop and linger at an exhibit that he or she loves. That won't be possible with the tour since they put you with others (I think 10- 12 per group). What you will miss out on is the extra attention and education component and if your 7 year old is an animal nut and you want to indulge it, it might be worth it.

If you want to set the experience up for yourself -

1. Print out a park map so you can see where everything is. Sea World is NOT a park you want to zig zag around in.
2. About a month before your trip print out the show schedule, pick what you want to see (it is possible to see all the shows if you plan carefully and are not trying to ride the rides).
3. If you get there at rope drop the park will be empty. You can do animal feeding without much competition (watch out for the birds!). Please do feed the dolphins earlier - that is the one experience which can develop long lines.
4. Give yourself time to get to the shows if it is crowded or seating is important to you. Clyde and Seamore in particular you want to get there early to see the mime make fun of the latecomers.15-30 minutes in advance is plenty unless it is really busy. Honestly we snuck in about five minutes before everything and had fine seats. The only thing we missed was the dolphin show (which I really wanted to see) because my dd changed her mind and wanted to see wild artic (clear across the park) and I underestimated how long walking and riding the ride would take).

A less expensive option is to take one of the mini experiences like the penguin experience when you learn about them and get to touch one and have a pic with one. We didn't do it - but several people on the board have done it and liked it.

If interested, click on my TR below - I have links to the different days - so you can jump directly to my seaworld day.

Good luck!

 

[JLR]

Other threads that might help

Up close tours
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2594781&highlight=vip+tours

VIP tour worth it?
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2505380&highlight=vip+tours

 

[wbarkhur]

We just got back from our trip and did the VIP tour the day after Thanksgiving. We were very pleased and glad that we did it.
Some of the highlights for us were....

We had an awsome tour guide who was very knowledgeable about the park and animals there. When we were in different places he would give us info about it, and share stories about the staff or animals. The kids were able to ask him lots of questions and learned alot that they other wise wouldn't have.

We did like the reserved seating for the shows, we were able to just walk in right before they started and have great seats. No getting there early to wait, so we didn't waiste valuable park time.

You will also get to feed Sealions, Sting rays, and dolphins, there was seven of us, so it would have cost us $150(seven dollars a tray of fish per person) to do this on our.

Also if you do want to do the rides, (we had kids who didn't meet heigth either) our tour guide offered to watch them while the rest of us rode, we didn't want to do that, so he gave us passes so the other adult could ride after the tour was over.

Lunch is not a buffet. They give you meal vouchers(tickets), and you get to eat at one of the water front restruants.

Overall for me the reason we decided to do it was it was our first trip so I didn't know the park well, and we were going to be there during a very crowded time. With the tour we were able to see all the shows, and also most of the park. I also didn't have to try and figure out how to fit it all in myself, I was able to enjoy the park and not spend time looking at a map trying to plan our next move. That alone made it worth it for me.

If you have any other question I would be glad to answer them if I can.

 

[buckbart]

We just got back from our trip and did the VIP tour the day after Thanksgiving. We were very pleased and glad that we did it.
Some of the highlights for us were....

We had an awsome tour guide who was very knowledgeable about the park and animals there. When we were in different places he would give us info about it, and share stories about the staff or animals. The kids were able to ask him lots of questions and learned alot that they other wise wouldn't have.

We did like the reserved seating for the shows, we were able to just walk in right before they started and have great seats. No getting there early to wait, so we didn't waiste valuable park time.

You will also get to feed Sealions, Sting rays, and dolphins, there was seven of us, so it would have cost us $150(seven dollars a tray of fish per person) to do this on our. Also if you do want to do the rides, (we had kids who didn't meet heigth either) our tour guide offered to watch them while the rest of us rode, we didn't want to do that, so he gave us passes so the other adult could ride after the tour was over.

Lunch is not a buffet. They give you meal vouchers(tickets), and you get to eat at one of the water front restruants.

Overall for me the reason we decided to do it was it was our first trip so I didn't know the park well, and we were going to be there during a very crowded time. With the tour we were able to see all the shows, and also most of the park. I also didn't have to try and figure out how to fit it all in myself, I was able to enjoy the park and not spend time looking at a map trying to plan our next move. That alone made it worth it for me.

If you have any other question I would be glad to answer them if I can.

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Thank you so much I've been tossing the idea around and didn't know what to do. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for.

How old are the children that travelled with you? I read on another thread that the tour is back and forth through the park. Is this true or was it well organized?

Did anyone from the VIP tours have special participation in the show? Did you have pictures opportunities with any of the marine animals? Was there any free time to go see the other shows, particularly the Pets Ahoy show?

Did you have alot of fish or was it limited? Someone mentioned that you are with the other park go-ers during this time but get "wall preference", is that still the case? Was there anytime to squeeze in the penguin display? Any chance you got to touch one or have photo op?

We won't be using any of the front of the line rides due to height restrictions too and most of the rides in the kids part are also too big. How much time was allotted to do the rides? Could we possibly see that Pets Ahoy show during that time?

mmmm...what water front restaurants does that include? How long do you have for lunch break? how much are the vouchers worth?

Thank you so much, and again sorry for all the questions.

 

[wbarkhur]

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Thank you so much I've been tossing the idea around and didn't know what to do. This is exactly the kind of feedback I was looking for.

How old are the children that travelled with you? Our kids are 12, 10 , 7, 6, and almost 3I read on another thread that the tour is back and forth through the park. Is this true or was it well organized? Our tour was very well organized, we really didn't go back and forth.Did anyone from the VIP tours have special participation in the show? One person from our group did get chosen for the clyde and seamore show. Did you have pictures opportunities with any of the marine animals? There were not any special one on one type pictures. You can take pictures of the shows, and of the animals as you feed them. Was there any free time to go see the other shows, particularly the Pets Ahoy show? We were able to see some of the other shows we wanted to see after our tour. You might be able to see the pets ahoy show then or maybe even before your tour depending on when the show is going on the day you are there. Did you have alot of fish or was it limited? Each person in your group will get one tray of fish per feeding experiance. I honestly didn't count how many were there, but I would say at least a dozen. Someone mentioned that you are with the other park go-ers during this time but get "wall preference", is that still the case? During the dolphin feeding you get to go in before the other people who are not doing a tour and they give your group your own area (they only do the dolphin feeding during certin times, versus the others where you can feed them anytime you want), for the other feedings you are with anyone else that wants to feed them but there is plenty of room. Was there anytime to squeeze in the penguin display We did see the penguin display, and our guide actually took time to point out each type of penguin in the display, and told us about them. He even knew some of their names! Any chance you got to touch one or have photo op? No that is not included in this tour, I wish it were.We won't be using any of the front of the line rides due to height restrictions too and most of the rides in the kids part are also too big. How much time was allotted to do the rides? We did the rides mixed in with the tour. The rides that you get front of the line to were Kraken(sp), journey to atlantis, and manta. During Kraken my husband and the tour guide when to the aquarium that is next to the ride, during atlantis, they went into the gift shop area and looked at the fish tanks that are part of it, they are pretty cool, they are under and over you. Could we possibly see that Pets Ahoy show during that time? Probably not, because it isn't an alotted time thing.
mmmm...what water front restaurants does that include? I believe that it is good for any of the restruants that do all day dining, i could be wrong though. How long do you have for lunch break? I think that it probably varies per tour, it was prety busy during our tour, and he gave us 1 1/2 hours for lunch. how much are the vouchers worth? The vouchers are good for a complete meal, a drink, dessert and two sides. We ate at voyager's smokehouse. I can't remember exactly what everyone got, but I know that two people got the rib platters that included the ribs and fries and I want to say some type of veggies and a roll. One of the kids got a chicken fingers meal that came with fries, and I got a special holiday platter. We each got a dessert (different cakes and cookies), the other sides were things like salads, fruit, baked beans, corn on the cob, more fries if you want, mac and cheese, and I am sure there was more just don't remember. They gave our kids adult vouches also, so the kids even got adult meals, it was WAY more food then we could eat. I promise it is way more food than most people would be able to eat. They did also give our two year old a voucher, I am not sure if this is the norm or not but even if they hadn't given him one there would have been enough food for him. Something that we did think about after we got our food was that if we had to do it again we would have only used about half of the vouchers then, and the rest later that day for dinner, because we had a lot of food that got waisted.
Thank you so much, and again sorry for all the questions. No problem glad i could help let me know if there is anything else.[/QUOTE]

Something else I forgot to mention was that we also got bottled water, and when it rained he also got us ponchos. I am not sure if that is normal or not.

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

We did the Christmas VIP tour last week, and it was worth every penny. If we go to another SeaWorld in the future, we will opt for the tour again.

We did 2 rides, 3 shows, dinner at Sharks, fed/touched dolphins, fed/touched sting rays, and fed sealions. The park was pretty crowded, and it was very nice to be led around and to skip the lines. We were completely spoiled by the end of the day. Our guide was incredible. She was clearly well educated and knew everything about the park. She was a little quirky and kept all of us entertained.

We did get to the park at opening and toured family-style first. Our tour was from 4-11, so we put in a 14 hour day. We were dead tired by the end of the day, but this tour was one of the highlights of our trip.