Sea World Park Opening Procedure?

nolawave

Earning My Ears
Joined
Sep 24, 2018
First time going to Sea World at end of June and there doesn't seem to be much information out there about best ways to tour the park. Will be myself, wife, and elmo obsessed daughter. We will be there at park opening, but will the entire park be open at 9 am or does Sea World do a phased opening where additional lands/rides open later than 9? Trying to figure out where to head first.

I was planning on buying quick que just so that my wife and I can ride the coasters quickly while other waits with daughter, but from checking the wait times on Sea World's website, it doesn't seem necessary.

Lastly, we can go on either a Friday or Saturday at end of June. Any difference crowd wise? Thanks!
 
Purely for selfish reasons, I would say go on the Saturday instead of the Friday because we’ll be there that Friday and it’s less people for us to deal with haha :rotfl: But in all seriousness, Saturday will probably be slightly busier due to locals/ap holders coming in so Friday most likely won’t be as busy as Saturday.

From previous experiences, the front part park opens at 9:00am and the back half normally opens around 10:00am but someone else said in a thread the other week that when they went recently all of the park opened at 9:00am so YMMV. Not sure what time the Sesame Street area opens as we haven’t been since it was built.

My best advice to you is to check out the park map and the show time guides on the website so you’re familiar with where stuff is and what you want to do before you go as it’s quite easy to get turned around at Sea World in some areas. If you do choose to get Quick Queue though you can hit most of the rides in whatever order you want. Although, I’d recommend trying to hit the coasters and outdoor rides early on due to the notorious Florida afternoon showers which will shut those rides down. There’s also a couple of Aquariums at Journey To Atlantis and Manta that are hidden gems for if you need a break to cool down or get out of the rain.

I don’t know what your budget is like but you can also buy reserved viewing for the parade in Sesame Street and priority access to the Elmo meet and greet which includes a printed picture but again I don’t know how necessary they’ll be to do that stuff but it might be a cool experience for you daughter.

Also if you have time and are not too tried out I would recommend sticking around for some of the Electric Ocean stuff at nighttime. Some of the shows are really cool for that and your daughter might enjoy some of dance parties they have. Electric Ocean really changes the whole vibe of the park at night in a good way.
 
Thanks so much! Exactly the type of advice I was looking for

You’re welcome! Hope you have a great trip!

If you have any other questions then feel free to ask and i’ll do my best to answer them or i’m sure someone will be able to if I can’t.
 


When the park opens normally most of the crowd heads for Manta since it's so close to the front of the park so I'd say avoid that ride until later on.
 
Random other question: I thought I read somewhere that you aren't allowed to bring any food at all into the park. Will I not be able to bring in snacks for daughter? Does this even include water bottles?
 
I take a bottle of water with me every time I go and no one has ever said anything to me about it. We also take a ziplock of Popcorn with us for snacking on during the shows and again no one has said anything. I've seen plenty of kids snacking on Gold Fish etc around the park so that kind of stuff seems to be okay.

Officially it says "no outside food" but what they really mean is that they don't want you taking a full cooler or packed lunches. A few snacks is fine. You could have food allergies for all they know so they can't stop you from bringing a reasonable amount of snacks with you.
 


I take a bottle of water with me every time I go and no one has ever said anything to me about it. We also take a ziplock of Popcorn with us for snacking on during the shows and again no one has said anything. I've seen plenty of kids snacking on Gold Fish etc around the park so that kind of stuff seems to be okay.

Officially it says "no outside food" but what they really mean is that they don't want you taking a full cooler or packed lunches. A few snacks is fine. You could have food allergies for all they know so they can't stop you from bringing a reasonable amount of snacks with you.

I agree a few snacks will be fine. I even saw some people eating peanut butter sandwiches in the annual pass lounge last time I was there.

I am hoping they were locals, because I can not even imagine eating peanut butter sandwiches on vacation. I can do that every day at home. BTW, I do like peanut butter sandwiches, esp on toast just not on vacation.
 
Sesame Street opens 1 hour after the park

Good to know! I was planning on running to Sesame Street at park opening. Guess I will do coasters first thing then before they get crowded then head over to Sesame Street right at 10
 
Random other question: I thought I read somewhere that you aren't allowed to bring any food at all into the park. Will I not be able to bring in snacks for daughter? Does this even include water bottles?
We take heaps of snacks for our kids, it's no problem you just aren't supposed to bring full blown meals in giant coolers etc.
 
I really enjoy the Penguin exhibit. IIRC it opened later than rope drop, and it always seemed to have a long line during the day. So if its on your list you may want to try to do that first thing.
 
Sesame Street opens 1 hour after the park

Unless you stay at one of the part we hotels. We went yesterday and as we were staying at the DoubleTree SeaWorld, we were able to head over to Infinity Falls and Seasame St at 9am park opening. Pretty much had that park of the park to ourselves. Other areas like Wild Artic did not open til 11.
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