Good stuff for ALL ages
Written: Jul 12 '02 (Updated Jul 12 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great adventure and learning for the kids
Cons: My own fault - went on a hot day in July
The Bottom Line: Things to do for any age group - both fun and educational. Remember to sit in the front rows for the dolphin and Shamu shows!!!
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| en7489's Full Review: Sea World Florida |
Having spent a miserable time at Six Flags Georgia the week before visiting Sea World Florida, I was really set to be disappointed. How wrong I was.
Anheiser Busch must put a lot of thought into customer care and quality when they develop their parks. In comparing it to Six Flags (yes, I know they are different, but customer relations is the point here) it was a 180 degree change for the better. Although I know the focus of each park is to make money, Sea World at least had the decency to hide it.
We went on a very hot July 6th. That was probably the only downer to the day.
Arriving at the park, I was happy to see that parking was only $7, and the parking area was serviced by a tram that took guests from the various parking areas to the front gate. When we got to the gate, there were no employees hanging out in front like leeches offering to take our picture and sell it back to us for a ridiculous price. I had purchased my tickets at our military travel office - about $100 for three of us. The lady at the travel office told me that we might be able to get a second day pass for free - whether this was because I had purchased tickets from the military or not, I didn't think to ask. Impressing me though, the young lady who took our tickets at the gate didn't even wait for us to ask, as soon as she saw our tickets, she told us that if we were interested in a second day free, we simply had to walk over to the office just inside the gate and show them our stubs. As I had no intentions of returning the next day, I declined, but it was nice to see that they offered up front instead of making us ask.
The park itself is clean, neat and well manicured. There were a ton of things to do for all of us, it isn't a park designed for just one age group. The kids were able to feed and pet the dolphins and stingrays. The neat thing about Sea World is that they roll up an aquarium and theme park together, so while having fun, there are also people there to teach you about what you are seeing. Park personnel are located near all of the exhibits and can answer all of the kids questions...relieving me of that burden on the tough ones!!!
We visited as many of the exhibits as we could - stingrays, dolphins, turtles, urchins, manatees, coral reefs, seals......clydesdales. Clydesdales, you ask? Yes - this is an Anheiser Busch Theme park, and as they do in all their parks, they have a stable of Budweiser Clydesdales.
We also visited a couple of the shows - the dolphin and Shamu theaters. These also are a lot of fun as well as a learning experience - they teach you about the animals as well as entertain you with the tricks. Unfortunately, we hadn't planned on staying all day, so we missed a couple of the other shows, but there were seal shows and water ski shows as well.
For the person who loves to ride, the park does boast an awesome roller coaster - the Kraken. The wait wasn't too long, only about half an hour when we were there. The Kraken was great - I've never seen a roller coaster that goes underground before. We had a blast. There also is the Atlantis ride, a log-flume type ride, but we had to miss it so we could see one of the shows.
Lunch was expensive, as expected, but at least it was lunch with substance. For the same price I had spent for a hamburger and fries at McDonalds, we got a good lunch at Sea World - chicken fingers, hot dogs, and fries...but much better quality.
There were so many cool things to see here that I couldn't possibly remember them all. But, one thing that caught my attention was that they had adult events as well - they actually had a "Beer Class" where they teach you all about how they brew beer, differences between lager and ales, and dark vs. light beers. It was nice to know that the park makes the attempt to service all age groups, not just the younger crowd.
Unfortunately, the downer to our day was that it was really hot. Not an unexpected thing for central Florida, but it drained the kids (and me!) really fast. It wasn't bad when we were able to go into the underground areas to view the dolphins or aquarium exhibits, but the heat got to us a little. But, I in no way can blame the park for this, just a word of caution for those of you planning a summer trip there.
I have to give a big thumbs-up to Anheiser Busch, they really know how to run a park. Having been to Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Tampa, and now Sea World, I have to say that they will continue to get my business. I thoroughly enjoy visiting their parks and will continue to do so. The staff is courteous, the parks are clean, the exhibits are both fun and educational, and the overall experience left me satisfied, not disappointed.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
en7489
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Location: Massachusetts
Reviews written: 61
Trusted by: 6 members
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