Seaworld Needs Some Help

This has been in my drafts for more than two months. After I went here, I was so disappointed that I HAD to write about it, and I never posted it. Well…Here it is. 

I went to Seaworld for their 4th of July fireworks show. My cousin bought the special viewing area for $25 so we decided to join her. It was my least favorite time in a theme park. 

I knew it would be busy. July 4th is a very popular time for the theme parks, and I prepped for that, but the lack of employees was extremely evident. It started in the parking lot. There were no parking attendants, we had to go up and down the rows of cars, dodging people crossing to get to Seaworld until we finally found one several minutes later. This was the first issue. At the entry point, people were getting turned away left and right, more than I had ever seen? The park was at capacity is what my mind was saying. The lines were really long to get in, but we finally did get in, I guess I wish I was turned away. The crowds were on another level. My girlfriend nearly got ran over several times and one girl just ran right into her. 

We fought through the crowd and ended up at Mako. One of their big scary roller coasters. When we got in the line, the wait time was 35 minutes. There was no greeter at the front pointing people to quick queue or standby line. We chose the regular wait and right as we walked in, the largest group of quick queue people passed by us. Which were followed by more and more people. Having been to Seaworld many times and other theme parks, the quick queue line seemed a little bit too long. But there wasn’t a greeter so maybe it wasn’t entirely their fault. They might not have known any better. This was the case until a few people from our line dipped over there. Within 10 minutes of waiting the quick queue line was as long as the regular wait. Which ruins it for the people who actually purchased the quick queue and us in the regular wait. I believe Disney takes a large ratio of lightning lane guests to regular wait guests but we were at Seaworld. It was much worse. We finally got to the ride platform where we found no groupers. It was a complete free-for-all and an absolute mess. All the rows overflowed well outside of what should be in there. Blocking the walkways to fill the other rows. One group behind us didn’t agree with us waiting to clear the rows blocking the walkway and just walked by us to fight through the crowd. A complete mess that could have been avoided with appropriate staffing. It is still a great coaster, but it was impacted by the lack of staff. Also, the load time was very slow with them averaging sometimes well over two minutes between dispatches.

More of the same at Journey to Atlantis. Slow line, people jumping into the quick queue, no greeter, and no posted wait time, so we just left. 

One $10 ice cream later, it was time for fireworks and once again, staffing was a large issue. They sold VIP viewing areas for $25 a person but they weren’t checking anyone, so the VIP seating area turned into general admission. 

Seaworld has a normal fireworks show nightly during the summer and this show started and ended. And then nothing. No announcement. Nothing. We heard July 4th Fireworks were supposed to happen immediately after but there was nothing. People began to leave around us. Our member sitting in the “VIP” section told us that the DJ said the fireworks were delayed due to the weather. Still no announcement to the general areas of the park. After probably 15 minutes of waiting, they finally came on to say they were delayed due to the weather. After another 20 minutes, they said canceled due to wind. I looked up at the flags above my head and there was no movement. They also didn’t cancel it with the speakers throughout the park. It was just the DJ in the VIP area that we couldn’t even hear. Once the VIP section left the word got spread and we all walked out to join the adventure in the parking lot. It was so bad. No parking attendant, no one. It was a free-for-all once again. It took 20 minutes to leave. Horns were honking, people were being aggressive, cutting people off.

It was so bad. No one to direct traffic. No one to put you in a parking spot. No greeters. No groupers. Didn’t see any custodial. No security. The only people I saw in name tags were the ride attendants and the ice cream workers. It was one of the worst theme park experiences I have ever seen. Seaworld is in trouble. With that lopsided of guest to cast ratio it could get dangerous. I probably won’t be going back for some time. This makes me sad because I loved this place but it is just in a terrible spot here. It isn’t going to keep up with Universal or Disney but there is a market share to be had and they are losing it. It is going to keep fading, having worse experiences until it eventually gets bought out by a company with deep pockets like Comcast did with Universal or it’s just going to close. It is in a state of complete neglect right now. Only building gimmicky roller coasters and not caring about the guest experience.