I mean, the last Fun Pass I got to SeaWorld's sister park: Busch Gardens in Tampa went so well didn't it? All of a single, sad 45-minute visit for the entire year?
Well today I put in a good 3 hours and I'll be visiting again in about a month...more on that soon.
But I can tell already, that good old reliably cheap SeaWorld is a thing of the past.
As of the beginning of this year, it looks like the corporate ownership of this park underwent another change and maybe that's one of the reasons for the greatly reduced value. Yet again a reminder of the Lost Halcyon Days of this park as part of the Anheuser-Busch family.
Like before, the Fun Pass is the cheapest option and unchanged from its original inception, there are traditional downsides to this budget pass. First and foremost, no free parking. And with parking at a whopping $34 with tax, this hits hard. Next, there be blackout dates. Some weekend days, virtually all of July and some of August, and chunks towards the holidays at the end of the year. With the pass lasting not a full year but only to the end of 2024, this whittles down the options. And lastly, no discounts on food or merchandise.
Once you get in the park, I've noticed a lot more nickel and diming practically with every step you take along the winding path through the attractions. Made me think that maybe next they'll actually charge you to even look at their beautiful landscaping which frankly is still the star attraction at this park. Of course there's the Quick Pass or whatever they call the Fastpass here for an added fee. But now, if you want the best seats at the shows, that's an upsell. And now they even charge an extra $5 to go up in the tower. Back in the day, this tower was the least popular attraction above all even when it was free. Now I do see people lining up for it and paying that price I guess because it's been refurbished a bit? Not really sure. For a veteran like me, there's no way I'm going to pay 5 bucks to go in it just to get a bird's-eye view of the park.
The outdoor bar that they built a few years back used to have a vast selection of craft beers on tap. Well they whittled down that selection for sure. They had maybe 10 varieties and of them the only thing I could find palatable was Yuengling. How sad is that? And the couple of pints, er, I mean, 12 oz. cups I drank were stale at that. Ambled my way over to a drink kiosk and ordered an Orlando Vice. It tasted actually quite strong! At first I thought they did so to make it somewhat worth the $15 price for again another 12 oz. cup. But the more I sipped on it through my silly candy straw (no plastic straws here of course, they "care" about the safety of the wildlife, LOL #Blackfish) the more I realized the harsh flavor was because it was rot gut rum and weakly-flavored strawberry puree and pina colada sludge.
My mood was pretty sour even before I got to the park. Insomnia issues causing lack of sleep. Blood sugar issues because I think my Ozempic is being rejected by my evil body. And just a general malaise so honestly I just wasn't feeling it today even though the weather was absolutely freaking gorgeous.
I went to only one show, the new sea otter and sea lion show which still, apparently, features a sea lion named Seymore, but, apparently, no Clyde. And you're not going to tell me this is the same Seymour that's been doing this show since those aforementioned Halcyon Days. That'd be one damn old sea lion for sure. The show was just...meh. I was such a stick in the mud I was probably the only audience member in the entire amphitheater that just sat there and didn't applaud at all for the oh so freaking famous mime at the beginning of the show. Mimes do nothing for me. Meh.
Despite it being spring break, I don't think that had too much of an effect on attendance since it was moderate but not overwhelmingly packed with people at the park today. So that made ride wait times pretty quick. Only 10 minutes for Mako! But I was feeling woozy even before the 3 drinks I had and I was in a bit of a pussy mood as I said so of course I didn't even try to fit in the test seat let alone contemplate going on that ride. The ride I was really hoping to get on, Infinity Falls, the Popeye-sque water ride they installed a couple years ago, was closed. I think one of the other new coasters was closed as well. Kraken was running and maybe Atlantis too but by the time I made my way near towards them it was going on 3 hours and I was over it. I was hungry and I didn't feel like plunking down a chunk of change for in-park food especially since I found out that being a Tuesday there were no Seven Seas kiosks open as they're available only Thursday through Sunday. Somehow I didn't see this on the website when I signed up for my Fun Pass. In fact, the wording on the website was like "Seven Seas Festival going on now through May!" No mention of "only on some days."
I'll be back here next month on a pre-committed arrangement. I'll get into more of that with that post. But my attitude better change or I better just turn a blind eye to the nickel and diming and just accept things the way they are.
The days of doing SeaWorld on a Dime are a thing of the distant past.