Sea World Orlando: 11/29/24

During our week at Universal Orland during Thanksgiving week, we made a visit to Sea World, and it was… subpar.

Highs:
-The coaster line up here is pretty good.
-The animal education/exhibits, are great
-The park looks very nice

Lows:
Operations here are absolutely atrocious. I remember from my last visit in 2018 they were bad then, and it’s even worse now. I figured since I was willing to pony up for Quick Queue I wouldn’t notice even on a holiday weekend, but I was wrong. How a park full of B&Ms can have terrible capacity is beyond me, but here we are.

The Quick Queue Unlimited Plus only allows one line skip on Penguin Trek and Pipeline, so we got to the park early in hopes of hitting them both in standby before the crowds rolled in. Heh, joke was on us though. Penguin Trek was down. As was Pipeline. As was EVERY ride in the park. So we waited it out for Penguin Trek. No movement, and I didn’t see people on any coaster until 45 minutes after park open. That’s inexcusable. Penguin Trek never did open, and Pipeline was down more than it was up. We happened to catch it right after it reopened after a breakdown. As soon as we got off the ride, it broke down again. More on that later, but essentially if we didn’t hit it just right, I would have paid extra money to skip the line on both of these attractions (Quick Queue Unlimited Plus is the only way to do this) and not been able to ride either of them. That leaves a bad taste in your mouth.

Anyway, we eventually bailed on Penguin Trek and went to Manta, which posted a 20 minute wait in standby... It took longer than that to get through Quick Queue. I don’t think Pipeline opened until 11:00. I overheard one guy asking a team member “I paid to be here from 9:00am to 10:00pm. Where do I go to get a refund for that first hour?” I mean, that’s a bit much but… all the rides were closed most of that time and there weren’t any shows going on… I get it.

Anyway, onto the coasters and whatnot…

Manta (2x)
Man I love this ride. I wanted to get a front seat ride but operations are so painfully slow, we didn’t bother. But dat pretzel roll doe…

Kraken
Standard B&M looper. It was fun, but nothing to write home about. Which, seems like a crazy thing to say now, but a lot has changed in 20+ years. The QuickQue set up on Kraken is the dumbest thing I’ve seen for a line cutting pass. You go up the exit ramp side, and they allow eight people to fill two assigned rows (row 2 and I think 7), every other train. Is that really the norm? With 3-4 minute dispatches, I’ll let you do the math on that capacity.

Mako (2x)
Good floaty B&M airtime, as advertised. Many claim this is the best B&M Hyper out there… I’ve only been on a couple so it’s hard for me to say. But I didn’t find it to be that much different than Diamondback.

Penguin Trek
Closed all day.

Ice Breaker
This was decent, though short. Pretty aggressive for a “family coaster”, and I think it rounds out their collection nicely.

Pipeline
AKA, Breakdown: The Ride. As mentioned we caught it in one of the small windows when it was open, and WOW what a great freaking coaster. Floaty airtime on a standup? Yes please. Such a unique feeling. I’d love to see more of these. We tried to get a second ride on it three more times… and each time, it broke down while we were in line. Pro tip: You’re only supposed to get one QuickQue trip on this, but in reality, they don’t really check. So get a couple laps in, if it’s operating

Journey to Atlantis
I really enjoyed this one on our last visit. Unfortunately, it was down most of the day (notice a pattern yet?), opening around 4:00pm. By that time it was getting cooler with passing showers so we never got back to it.

Food Service
Lunch was a dud. Less food for more money compared to Universal. That double whammy, again… leaves a bad taste in your mouth. When we got ice cream mid-day (which was pretty good), as I’m paying I notice this sign on the register: “A 5% surcharge will be added to all checks”. WTF. We ended up leaving the park around 6:30 to go have dinner elsewhere. The slow service, small portions and high prices, even for a theme park... fool me once, or something like that.

Shows and Exhibits
The shows seemed to take a step back. They weren’t terrible, but lacked the creativity and duration that I remember. So I guess I’ll put that in the “good enough” column. The exhibits were all excellent, and I wish the enthusiasm from knowledgeable employees in these areas carried over to the rest of the park. We had some fascinating conversations with these folks.

In the end, there’s so much potential in this park, but the operations lead to some frustrations as a guest. I’m glad I was able to experience some new coasters, but I won’t be returning.

Operations suck all over the chain. It's such a bummer. I feel like the industry's C players run those areas.

Surprised at the miss on food though. Some of the counter service stuff isn't good, but I feel like they mostly get it right. I'm especially surprised at the comparison to Universal, which is entirely awful outside of the Potter stuff, which is quite good.

The food quality at Sea World was fine; my comment on the food was more about the quantity/price. As for Universal, we had pretty good luck. Then again, I really did my research on the options to avoid (many) and what would be our best bets. In the end, I was pleased.

But those operations... it's like they're trying to be awful. I don't know how they compete with Disney and Universal nearby doing cartwheels to shave off a few seconds on dispatch times. And policies (or whatever you want to call it) were inconsistent. On Mako, for example, they waited until all returning riders had completely exited the platform before opening the gates for oncoming riders. At one point this girl gets off the ride, walks over to get her stuff out of the bin and takes her time reorganizing her bag, fixing her hair, checking her phone, etc. She was the only one left, and they would not open the gates until she finished and went down the stairs. Just bizarre.

SeaWorld and Busch Gardens ride operations suck, so the best way we found to offset that is to go in the off season time.

Our visit last fall we were able ride Pipeline over and over, and we paid for Quick queue when it wasn't necessary. Now we always wait until we get to the park to see what the crowd levels are.

We've gone to BGW two times to ride Pantheon and still have yet to ride because it was down both visits. That's one my biggest frustrations with their parks. At least you got to ride Pipeline. I'd be upset that i didn't get to ride penguin trek too. That's not like a B&M to be down.

If spending a whole day at the park we always do their all day dining($59 for a meal every 90 minutes,) and you can't beat the amount of food you get for that. It is really worth it.

Penguin Trek being down was disappointing; sometimes you can't win 'em all. But when you see how the rest of the park operates, you can't help but wonder if it was a self inflicted wound by Sea World. Then add on that I paid an upcharge on top of the standard Quick Que to skip the line... then it gets irritating.

I wish we could travel in the off season, but it just isn't in the cards. Closest we can get is the summer months, which isn't happening when it comes to Orlando.

More confirmation that as much as I miss being able to just pop over for Mako and Pipeline rides anytime I'd like, I have no regrets cancelling my SWO/BGT pass.

As for the food, it spiraled after the pandemic. I remember when the Seaworld/Busch parks had the best counter service food in the industry. I'd argue now much of it is even worse than Legacy Six Flags.

Funny you say that. At one point during the day I thought, "tell me again who Six Flags merged with?"

Danimales:

The shows seemed to take a step back. They weren’t terrible, but lacked the creativity and duration that I remember. So I guess I’ll put that in the “good enough” column.

There has been a distinct effort at the SeaWorld Parks over the last few years to transition from "shows" to "presentations", particularly with any show involving animals. The sea lion "presentations" can be an odd mix of educational material and the classic SeaWorld sea lion comedy bits.

I understand that. But it still felt a bit lacking. The dolphin presentation for example, was practically over before it even started. I guess it's supposed to be 20 minutes, but it was 10 minutes at the absolute max.

Speaking of... has anyone seen the show lately? The guy they had for the preshow entertainment... so much cringe. Guy was trying waaaaaaaay to hard driving his voice so high I'm pretty sure every mirror within a mile radius shattered. I realize he's trying to appeal to the kids but that was brutal. Meanwhile the mime over at Clyde and Seamore continues to bring great fun!

The only Busch parks I've been to in recent memory are BGW and Sea World SD. Both were on fairly light days, but I didn't notice anything good or bad about operations. Nessie was down, but that was right before the retracking and Darkoaster had a long line, but it was brand new and I didn't particularly care. I was happy to ride Pantheon 5 times with a station wait and walk onto pretty much everything else.

That said, as much as I want to try the three newest B&M's at SWO, the bad trip reports have given me major pause.

That's how I feel as well. I haven't even been to SWO since Mako was built so there is a lot new there for us to do. Same with BGT with Iron Gwazi. But I usually only hit one park chain on each trip to Florida and I don't want to have a lousy trip altogether just since I've done Universal the last trip and Disney the time before. Universal is definitely our favorite so if we don't do SWO/BGT, we'll likely end up back there. Not sure if we'd even attempt Epic Universe yet when we go.

I will only visit BGT and SWO on weekdays when local schools are in sessions except when SWO gives pass holders Unlimited Quick Queue after a certain hour of the day various times of the year.

You sometimes run into lines on days when the parks are almost empty because of the operations and lack of rides (more at BGT). Sheikra frequently gets 30 - 45 minute waits on those low crowd days because it only runs 1 train with slow dispatches.

Even worse, BGT sometimes has only 1 person working at guest relations with the Platinum Pass window never open. The kiosks rarely work for me and that means having to wait in line each time I visit to get my 1 ride Quick Queue and other rewards, sometimes 20+ minutes with only a few groups in front of me.

It's still wild to me that these parks (BGT especially) get away with operations that would make Legacy Six Flags blush in the theme park capital of the world. All while having one day ticket gate prices of $100+

It's all so disappointing. My wife and I used to go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg every spring to escape the Pittsburgh shoulder season but the park has just become very meh and not worth the drive.

The board and exec team has been wallowing in mediocrity for years. I wonder how that's going to play when there will soon be another significant, day-long thing to do in Orlando in a few months. If people aren't adding days in town, something has to give. I doubt it's gonna be the rat or Potter instead of the whale.

Once epic opens, more people will have good reason to stay at UOR for a full week (that's already easy to do at Disney). Where does Sea World fit in now? It won't be in our plans again. Even Discovery Cove... as incredible of a park that is (our first visit was in 2022), there was still some issues (long story about them not being able to find our photo package), and the food was terrible.

I just don't understand how on earth any park can function like that and think it's ok, let alone when you have competitors in town doing it a hundred times better. I mean... how do you not notice that? It relates to that other thread about wait time science. I don't mind being in a long line that's moving. That wait is easier to swallow when it's evident a park is trying to get people through. But when you're in a line that should take, I don't know, 10 minutes and it takes 30... man is that irritating.