We don't really have a SeaWorld thread (or we do but I'm not bothering to look for it) but I did get to visit the park this past weekend, and had some general thoughts.
Initially I had some thoughts about the cost to attend (it was $90 a ticket presale, and $110 at the gate for a Saturday) but after doing some more looking around, I guess that price seems generally fair. It is more expensive than Knotts and Six Flags online, which I feel are better values, but it's not unreasonable on its face given the mix of rides and animal exhibits/shows. They also have some discounts floating around - for example, I was able to get a free yearly pass for being a teacher - so there are ways to save here. Parking, however, was wildly expensive ($35 a car) and was a red flag for how the rest of the day was going to go.
SeaWorld is a fascinating mashup of a park. The coaster lineup is surprisingly strong, with two of the coasters (Manta and Emperor) comfortably sitting in my Top 10 for the entire state. Manta is just as excellent as the reviews describe it, being fast-paced with great airtime and an excellent layout that doesn't let up the entire time. Emperor has that impressive dive, but what I like about it is that it actually has a good layout once you get past that feature element, with great G-forces throughout. I was thoroughly surprised by Artic Rescue; I figured I would find the family coaster merely enjoyable, but the layout and train design (you essentially sit on jetskis) turned into a really good ride that I wish I had done multiple times. Electric Eel is the weakest of the four, but a lot of that might be due to my general dislike of the Sky Rocket model. It's still a good ride, but that line can feel miserable.
Notably, Journey to Atlantis was not open but was going through technical runs with water weights. I was happy to see they aren't abandoning this ride and are instead updating it, as it's a wholly-unique ride in California.
One thing I will say for SeaWorld is that their attention to safety was surprisingly thorough. This may be the only park I've seen where the seatbelt sensors are visible to people standing in line, so you can feel comfortable before it's your turn to ride. Similarly, the ride operators were clearly taking their jobs seriously from the front entrance of the line all the way to the station. It was a surprising touch, especially given what I've seen at other theme parks in the same vein (hell, I went to Belmont Park the day before to ride the Giant Dipper coaster, and they had one employee doing everything).
I saw both the orca and dolphin shows, and they were both as good as I anticipated. It is weird to watch these shows in a post-Blackfish world, and SeaWorld clearly understands this, as so much of the shows now focus on conservation and how the animals at the park cannot be returned to the wild and instead are used in studies to better understand how they behave and their bodies function. There are still plenty of jumps and splashes (the orcas in particular are true jerks, but in the best way possible), but it's definitely a different show than it was back in the 90s when I last visited the park.
The rest of the exhibits were hit and miss. The Artic exhibit was a real highlight; it's clearly the newest one, and they put a lot of detail into set design and environment. On the flip side, the penguin exhibit was nice for the thought put into creating a dark atmosphere for the animals (given it is mostly night in their native habitats at this moment), but the viewing was suboptimal at best. I walked out of the shark exhibit because it was an overcrowded, humid mess, as was the turtle exhibit.
Which now gets me to why my thoughts were mixed on SeaWorld: everything is wildly expensive. We're talking above Disney prices here; the cost for a bottle of soda was $9, a plain hot dog was $15, and full meals were even more. This wouldn't be a problem if the food quality was above and beyond, but it was excessively bad. And SeaWorld loved to nickel-and-dime all kinds of things; they have a front-of-the-line pass that was around $50 extra (and also unnecessary given the crowd size, but I didn't buy it anyway) and there are all sorts of high-priced animal meets that took up considerable real estate. SeaWorld gives the story of how the money goes towards conservation, but that doesn't stop the whole thing from feeling like highway robbery.
My biggest question for SeaWorld is what comes next? There are whole parts of this park that feel empty, and the park has such a weird mix of attractions and shows that I'm not sure who this park is really for. The pricing also feels excessively high for everything, especially for a park that feels like it should target locals much more than it does.
Initially I had some thoughts about the cost to attend (it was $90 a ticket presale, and $110 at the gate for a Saturday) but after doing some more looking around, I guess that price seems generally fair. It is more expensive than Knotts and Six Flags online, which I feel are better values, but it's not unreasonable on its face given the mix of rides and animal exhibits/shows. They also have some discounts floating around - for example, I was able to get a free yearly pass for being a teacher - so there are ways to save here. Parking, however, was wildly expensive ($35 a car) and was a red flag for how the rest of the day was going to go.
SeaWorld is a fascinating mashup of a park. The coaster lineup is surprisingly strong, with two of the coasters (Manta and Emperor) comfortably sitting in my Top 10 for the entire state. Manta is just as excellent as the reviews describe it, being fast-paced with great airtime and an excellent layout that doesn't let up the entire time. Emperor has that impressive dive, but what I like about it is that it actually has a good layout once you get past that feature element, with great G-forces throughout. I was thoroughly surprised by Artic Rescue; I figured I would find the family coaster merely enjoyable, but the layout and train design (you essentially sit on jetskis) turned into a really good ride that I wish I had done multiple times. Electric Eel is the weakest of the four, but a lot of that might be due to my general dislike of the Sky Rocket model. It's still a good ride, but that line can feel miserable.
Notably, Journey to Atlantis was not open but was going through technical runs with water weights. I was happy to see they aren't abandoning this ride and are instead updating it, as it's a wholly-unique ride in California.
One thing I will say for SeaWorld is that their attention to safety was surprisingly thorough. This may be the only park I've seen where the seatbelt sensors are visible to people standing in line, so you can feel comfortable before it's your turn to ride. Similarly, the ride operators were clearly taking their jobs seriously from the front entrance of the line all the way to the station. It was a surprising touch, especially given what I've seen at other theme parks in the same vein (hell, I went to Belmont Park the day before to ride the Giant Dipper coaster, and they had one employee doing everything).
I saw both the orca and dolphin shows, and they were both as good as I anticipated. It is weird to watch these shows in a post-Blackfish world, and SeaWorld clearly understands this, as so much of the shows now focus on conservation and how the animals at the park cannot be returned to the wild and instead are used in studies to better understand how they behave and their bodies function. There are still plenty of jumps and splashes (the orcas in particular are true jerks, but in the best way possible), but it's definitely a different show than it was back in the 90s when I last visited the park.
The rest of the exhibits were hit and miss. The Artic exhibit was a real highlight; it's clearly the newest one, and they put a lot of detail into set design and environment. On the flip side, the penguin exhibit was nice for the thought put into creating a dark atmosphere for the animals (given it is mostly night in their native habitats at this moment), but the viewing was suboptimal at best. I walked out of the shark exhibit because it was an overcrowded, humid mess, as was the turtle exhibit.
Which now gets me to why my thoughts were mixed on SeaWorld: everything is wildly expensive. We're talking above Disney prices here; the cost for a bottle of soda was $9, a plain hot dog was $15, and full meals were even more. This wouldn't be a problem if the food quality was above and beyond, but it was excessively bad. And SeaWorld loved to nickel-and-dime all kinds of things; they have a front-of-the-line pass that was around $50 extra (and also unnecessary given the crowd size, but I didn't buy it anyway) and there are all sorts of high-priced animal meets that took up considerable real estate. SeaWorld gives the story of how the money goes towards conservation, but that doesn't stop the whole thing from feeling like highway robbery.
My biggest question for SeaWorld is what comes next? There are whole parts of this park that feel empty, and the park has such a weird mix of attractions and shows that I'm not sure who this park is really for. The pricing also feels excessively high for everything, especially for a park that feels like it should target locals much more than it does.
