Xmas reserved seating or All Day Dining?

[yolie912]

I am torn on which one to choose? Can you guys help me out?? Are the shows that good...would I want to be in a good seat for the shows??

Thank you,

 

[JaxDad]

Hi!

I have heard good reviews of the shows here. I am going on 22 December. I knew I wanted to see at least two of the shows--"O Wondrous Night" and the Christmas Shamu show. I HATE spending too much of my vacation time waiting in lines, especially if it is possible that we still might not even get in, so I chose to get reserved seating. Two things to consider: I think the reserved seating is only sold as part of packages this year. I got mine with Dine with Shamu. I am not sure if reserved seating is available as a stand-alone item. Also, I think I read on someone's post here that not all days are available now.

If you go the All Day Dining route, it sounds like a great deal. Many posters here speak highly of it.

Good luck!

 

[yolie912]

How cool. I am going on that day as well.

 

[JaxDad]

Awesome! I hope its a good day. I have a son age 11 and daughter age 7. I haven't done my planning yet, but hope to hit the dolphin show, pets ahoy, Dine with Shamu, O Wondrous Night, then the Christmas Shamu show. Oh yeah, and end with fireworks. We will work most of our rides in during the mid- to late afternoon I think. I bought QQs (the line thing). We're really looking forward to it! I have reservations at the Renaissance across the street (my choice) and Harbour Lake (the kids choice). I still need to decide which one to keep and which to cancel, but leaning toward HL.

 

[yolie912]

I hope it's a good day as well. Looking forward to NO RAIN! LOL
I think you will like Harbour Lake more. The rooms just got updated.
I am staying at Lakeshore Reserve. My children are 14 and 9 and they can't wait. We always go to Disney World so this is a change for them.

 

[JaxDad]

We've been to Harbour Lake twice this year for short trips. The kids love it! I do too. I chose it for Spring Break because I heard the pools were nicely heated and we ended up spending lots of time at the pools! My son also loves the basketball court, plus they usually do some of the planned activities. I got a good deal at the Renaissance even with all the fees they add, and I like the idea of just walking to the park (we've done it in the past), but will probably go with Harbour Lake out of familiarity. We need to check out the Lakeshore Reserve sometime!

 

[sweetp0618]

We got quick queue and all day dining. Although the crowds were pretty low, the lines for Polar Express, Antactica, etc. were long, which made QQ worth the money (1/2 price with the Blue Friday special). The food was OK and having all day dining allowed us to grab what we wanted when we wanted it. We probably broke even but it was nice to not have to pay everytime we wanted something to eat or drink. The evening Shamu show was great. We were able to get seats just to the left of the reserved section (facing the stage) 30 min before the show. There were a lot of empty seats but they were on the far left and right. Pretty much the entire stadium headed in a group to the ice skating show after Shamu. The fireworks followed. The ice show was good and the fireworks were OK. They probably would have seemed better if we hadn't seen the Magic Kingdom holiday fireworks the night before; they were outstanding compared to SW's.

We had a great day at SW. We hadn't been in years, but it was a nice change from WDW. I don't know how the crowds will be closer to Christmas, so our experience with low crowds may not be the norm. One note, if you are on all day dining, get your hot chocolate from one of the dining venues before heading for the stadium. We waited to get it at Mango Joe's, which is next to Shamu stadium and the line was long. I wanted some fruit, too, so I got the seasonal fruit bowl with orange wedges and grapes - the fruit was old and dried out.

 

[yolie912]

Thank you for your great review. Looking forward to Seaworld. Did you get to use your quick Q for polar express as well?

 

[nighttowll]

We went last year and did the reserved X-mas seating, and I was really glad we did. The reserved seats are excellent, front and center with great views, and Sea World does a pretty good job of policing this area to keep out people who didn't buy the pass.

However, if it would be worth it for you I think comes down to how many X-mas shows you want to see. We wanted to see all the Christmas shows, and I'm not sure about this year, but last year that was impossible to do without the pass.

They had the shows planned out so that there was only one combination of show times that allowed you to fit them all in, and it was pretty much back to back. For instance, one show would end at say 7:45 and another would start at 8:00. Even if you jumped up and ran out as soon as the first show ended, you couldn't make it over to the next theater before the doors were closed. They close the doors before the show actually starts as soon as the theater is full. Sometimes, they close them as early as 30 minutes before show time. However, if you have the reserved seating pass, they will let you in after the doors have closed. So without the seating pass, we wouldn't have been able to fit in all the shows in one night. The pass was nice; it really allowed us to maximize our time. If we needed to take a bathroom break or grab a drink or a snack, we could without worrying the doors would be shut on us if we didn't get there an hour to 30 minutes early. As long as we made it before the show started, even 5 minutes before, we were fine.

On the other hand, if you are a large group, the dining may be the better deal. Even in the reserved section, you would still need to arrive pretty early to get seats all together. We were able to arrive last minute because there were only 2 of us. A bigger group would have had to split up to fill in the few spaces left.

Also last year, the pass gave you QQ access to the Polar Express ride. Not sure if that is included this year as well or not. If that is a priority, it might be another reason to get the pass.

To decide which is worth it, you need to ask yourself these questions:

1. How early are you ok with staking out your seats? 1 hour? Would you rather be doing something else up to the last minute?

2. How big is the group? Will you need to arrive early to shows anyway?

3. How many shows are you set on seeing?

4. How much money is the dining plan saving you? Is that amount worth possibly missing a show?

5. How many meals/ snacks will you eat? Will members of your party go through the line more than once during the same meal? For instance, a good deal is a big group with lots of teens, men, or big eaters. A not so good deal is a small group with light eaters who will probably just snack all day anyway.

For instance, I don't think the dining plan will ever be a good deal for us. We usually eat breakfast before coming, have a light lunch or dinner, and a snack. for the other meal. Even when we do eat two full meals at SW, it still comes in way under the plan price. But I also know people who eat a lot, and it is a great deal for them, plus I think SW has some of the best QS food.

As far as the actual shows, my favorites were the ice skating show, the seal / sea lion show, and the Shamu show. Of which, the last two listed are basically the regular show with X-mas theming, so you could always skip them and just see the regular shows earlier in the day. That would only leave you needing to stake out a spot for O'Wondrous Night and the skating show early.

We didn't have any issues with lines for any of the attractions except the Penguins and the Polar Express. I suggest doing the Penguins first thing in the morning, and the Polar Express in the evening while everyone is distracted with the X-mas shows. The line for both get long quick and stay that way most of the day. However, everything else seems to be hit or miss fluctuating between walk-on and 20 minute waits. This was my experience for every trip to SW since last X-mas as well, even during spring break. I think Blackfish has really cut the lines down.