SeaWorld Orlando in Orlando, FL

I was a bit skeptical about visiting as I am not a fan of holding cetaceans in captivity. I have seen enough dolphins and whales, even killer whales, in the wild and that is where they should be. I understand that the killer whales programme is being phased out. Anyway I went with the family under a slight protest. Anyway it was a good day. It is evident that SeaWorld is heavily involved in marine conservation and that at some level some of your money is doing something good. How much I do not know but at least someone is trying. It is also evident that the shows, we saw the killer whales, are massively changed. It was very different from historical footage I would have seen on tv, now a lot less exploitative performances. So on this side of things I think you should see it for yourself and make up your own mind. On the other side of it they have a couple of the best rides in Florida. Mako is similar to shambala at portaventura in Spain, the restraint is only across the waste, with the result that you spend a lot of the time ‘flying’, only held in by the restraint. Manta was amazing, one of my top favourite rides. The seat tilts 90 degrees so you are facing the ground and hanging there as the ride goes round. Brilliant. We also saw the pets ahoy show, which is performed by animals trained after being taken from rescue centres, they are obviously well looked after and loved, and do a great show. Overall we enjoyed our day and had a good time.

This is not your grandfather's Sea World. I say this because I am a grandfather. Back in my day we didn't have rollercoasters and water rides. We had to walk for hours from one show to another because that's all you could do was eat, walk, and watch shows but now things have changed. Sea World has two water rides Atlantis and Infinity Falls and yes you will get wet so water proof your devices or pay 20 dollars for a locker. There are 3 rollercoasters; Kracken, Manta and Mako none of them are to be taken lightly. So if you are afraid of heights I suggest you stick to the shows and visit Sesame Street Place and go relive your childhood. If you plan to close the park I suggest the meal plan. There is a lot to do and the place is huge so pace yourself.

Last stop on our Florida trip, to be honest I had lost my will to live around 3 o'clock somewhere in the back of the park and yet by 8 o'clock we were heading home. This goes to show what you do for your kids. It's not entirely SeaWorlds fault but also just being 40 and now it's my turn to take my kids and show them what an amazing place SeaWorld is (this bit goes for the other parks as well) BUT the old memories you have of the park are crushed of the by the obvious greed going on. I'm going to tear the other parks a new one also but SeaWorld just set me off. Ok, so you pay $40 per adult for the all day dining and if you think that's expensive, after our excuse for a cold burger we had which was just BAD BAD BAD. I saw the actual cost for that early lunch at 11:30 would have been $78 for the 4 of us without the all day dining.... If you had gotten those burgers anywhere else in the world AND paid $78 for that, you would have had a "hissy fit" to put it mildly. An additional bonus to the experience was that the entire staff, not some, every single one of them had lost their will to live earlier than me by the looks of it. Pro Tip Show up by the time the place opens and you spend 10 min getting your food, any later than 20 minutes and you can expect to spend 30 minutes just in the line. Forget about getting seating if you're group is more than 4. Moving on to the free drinks all day thing Sure they are free, but on more than one occasion we bought a soda for $4.15.......because the line in the places close to us reached way out it's doors and if you have to spend 30 minutes in line for that "free" drink you start to ask yourself if it's really free. Rides The big rides are awesome, hands down. Buying the fast pass one time vs unlimited thingy is kind of redundant as only on our last ride someone accidentally used a pen to check the box for that ride. It may have been big "I'm new here and I don't really care" day, staff wise but in our case it was a good day because we got free once per ride tickets and we went 2+ on all but one. Again good for us, bad for people spending extra money on the unlimited tickets and people like us were in their way a lot of the time :| Pro tip Kraken fast pass goers, bring your hats and shades to the line as SeaWorld clearly didn't think of this option when they build the thing. We were in the blistering sun for 20 minutes and in the way of exiting riders half of the way. Then we Ofc we showed up on the exiting riders side entering the ride that explains a lot of the hold up getting people in the thing. Again all staff had lost their will to live when we were there as most of the other staff in the park. Besides the awesome dude who helped me with our photos for the day, kudos to him. Also the fact that a lot of the rides don't have staff placing people in rows by their group sizes creates a lot of anxiety and letting others pass in front of you so you can be next to your family sucks, so just be prepared for that. And who thought it was a good idea to blast theam music everywhere at 90+ db?? Seriously, if not the guests, think about the staff for crying out loud, pun intended :) To sum it up Our kids had a blast so theoretically the visit was a success but shelling out this amount of money + your parents accounts for the real facts as they were with us now and then to verify, just saddens me. To be fair Bush Gardens is still the same awesome place but SeaWorld and my God don't mention Universal, they're all about the money and they don't even bother with trying to hide it. Last note The animals are still animals and look just the same ;)

Had a great time here, the dolphin swim was fantastic, and snorkeling with the rays was Great, food was better than expected having read some bad reviews here on TripAdvisor, all the meals we had where great, will definitely go again.

We initially used our seaworld trip as a way to fill in our spare day in amongst our Disney trips, and it ended up being one of our favourite experiences! We expected some dolphins and sharks diving up and down, maybe some turtles...but we got an amazing killer whale show! We got soaked (we were in the splash zone) but it was incredible to see such a beautiful animal so up close! We also went to a dolphin show which exceeded our expectations, and proved what intelligent and gorgeous creatures dolphins are. I’m not a real thrill-seeker so I missed out Mako, Kraken and Manta, but they looked awesome for any rollercoaster enthusiasts. We didn’t stay for the firework display but we get a perfect view of them from our villa balcony which we often watch.