Which 2 parks for Christmas? SW/Aquatica/BG?

elaine amj

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jan 26, 2012
We will be redeeming 2 day tickets with all day dining from Air Miles that are a valid for SW/Aquatica/BG and will be there for Christmas week. Now debating which parks to visit. Right now I am planning on visiting SeaWorld for 2 days but wondering if we are missing out on the other 2 parks.

While we got to Orlando regularly, we mostly spend our time at WDW and rarely manage to squeeze out the time for other parks. In fact this will be our first visit to SeaWorld even though we have been going to Disney for 10 years. So possible it will be many more years before we fit in another SeaWorld visit.

DD18 and I adore coasters while DH, DS17 and DM71 (my mother) won't go near them. We all like shows. DS17 and I love staring at animals (I love sea creatures the best) while the others enjoy them for short amounts of time (although DH says once he has seen one fish, he's seen 'em all. He escaped to the car for a nap after a couple of hours at Clearwater Aquarium). All of us except for DM71 like waterparks. No point sending DH and DS off to a different park as without me there telling them what to do next, they will be found sitting on a park bench twiddling their thumbs lol.

We will be staying at Fort Wilderness and will either uber or rent a car - whichever is cheaper .

Thoughts on whether we should do SW/SW or SW/BG or SW/Aquatica?
 
SW / SW or SW / BG - both parks offer a nice mix of GREAT roller coasters, along with some minor rides (obviously more at BG) and entertainment (shows, exhibits). You can easily fill 2 days at SW and wish for more time, but if you want to mix it up BG is a ton of fun, with spectacular animal exhibits. The train ride through the Serengeti is awesome, and may be nice for your non-coaster fans.
 
I would go with SW and BG (especially during the Christmas season)
 
I would go SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. The weather can be iffy at times during Christmas so while Aquatica may be open it may also be too cool for you to really enjoy. I am guessing the tickets are either non-exchange or would be difficult to exchange day of, so if the weather were cooler than you wanted to do a water park you would be stuck.

SeaWorld may be busy enough that you could easily do 2 days there and still have a difficult time getting all the shows and rides in (and their Christmas shows are usually rated very high against the other parks), but Busch Gardens has a great line up of roller coasters, along with some good Christmas shows.
 


I was originally thinking 2 Seaworld days so we are not racing from show to show to show. We all adore shows and would want to watch all the Christmas ones.

That said, Busch Gardens is pretty tempting. Just not sure it is as worth the travel time, etc for the non-coaster fans in our family.
 
I was originally thinking 2 Seaworld days so we are not racing from show to show to show. We all adore shows and would want to watch all the Christmas ones.

That said, Busch Gardens is pretty tempting. Just not sure it is as worth the travel time, etc for the non-coaster fans in our family.

honestly- that isn't a bad idea either. All of the shows are worth it (both day shows, and the holiday shows). And of course the rides are fun too
 
We were in Orlando three years ago dec 8 week and Aquatica closed most of the week we were there based on temps. We did maybe a half day and it was miserably cold only many attractions were closed and food places.
Loved the decorations at SeaWorld and busch garden. Hands down I’d pick those two parks
 


If you enjoy running, you can do all the Christmas shows in one day at SW. Last time we were there (sat after thanksgiving 2016) we went to the latest One Ocean show, and it was only 1/3 full, ended and still had a half hour before the park closed....enough for a nice walk along the boardwalk through the decorated trees.

I
 
We went to seaworld and aquatica in march. The all day dine is amazing. I really wish we would have went to BG. Aquatica is nice but for us it wasn't anything great that we couldn't do at home. And the all day dine was not as great at seaworld. I think my older kids thought that was the best part. They set there phones every hour.
They have free transportation to bush gardens from seaworld.
 
It is easy to catch all the Christmas shows at Seaworld in one day. Make sure to get in line for the first O Wonderous Night show at least and hour before show time. Seaworld is my favorite park at Christmas, but Busch Gardens is a close second. We don’t do coasters, but between the animals and the great Christmas shows, (the skating show is our favorite), we always enjoy our visits. The park is absolutely beautiful at Christmastime.
 
It is easy to catch all the Christmas shows at Seaworld in one day. Make sure to get in line for the first O Wonderous Night show at least and hour before show time. Seaworld is my favorite park at Christmas, but Busch Gardens is a close second. We don’t do coasters, but between the animals and the great Christmas shows, (the skating show is our favorite), we always enjoy our visits. The park is absolutely beautiful at Christmastime.

Hmmm...this definitely makes BG sound much more intriguing.
 

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