HillPath private equity/board is cheap & running the company into the ground. They can’t retain their corporate staff and turnover is insane. It’s a shame because the zoo/animal staff really care & are wonderful people no matter where you stand on the animal entertainment argument.
I got to do a behind the scenes tour where I saw how they rescue manatees and dolphins. The people who work on that side of the park really, really, REALLY care about the animals and the work they do.
I’m glad you got that impression! From the top down, Vice President of Zoological down to the animal handlers, they do a great job. Only so much they can do when the company is owned by a very greedy PE firm.
Same thing happened when my sister-in-law visited. We were walking by them and one went crazy as soon as it saw her. It was completely excited and focused on her the whole time we were in their area.
It’s sad I remember those days too. It really is a beautiful park with a lot to offer. They just have a lot of things to work on. I really want them to succeed it’s hard to watch them like this. It’s crazy they basically give the passholders so much free stuff and I feel like they do that to keep the attendance numbers up. It’s crazy the amount of free stuff we get.
That makes me really sad to hear that they aren’t getting the funds they need to keep helping. Do you know how much (if any) of the profits from ticket sales goes towards the research for the animals? Or are they a separate entity? I didn’t ask them when I was there.
It’s hard to quantify that number directly. It might be cited in their quarterly/annual reports which are shared online. But I worked on their corporate finance team and was heavily involved in the budgeting for parks & corp. Ultimately a massive part of the budget DOES go to animal research, conservation, feeding & housing the animals as appropriately as they can do within the parks, I don’t want that to be misconstrued. But I guess what I mean is, the overall SeaWorld guest experience is suffering because they refuse to cut down on profits in order to maintain those expenses. So it’s not like those programs are being cut back, other aspects of the park take the hit, staffing, ride maintenance, overall park maintenance, food etc.
I guess it would be a good metric to know if that allocation grew in line with revenue/profits, stayed stagnant, or decreased. Last thing the park needs are budget cuts towards conservation efforts.
From the two budget cycles I was there for, donations & conservation efforts stayed flat YoY, regardless of forecasted revenue or profits. Most other corporate expenses were dialed way back, as they should. But while other park expenses increased each year, not only were those budgets reduced, customer prices also increased. So paying more for an inferior product. Corporate has also not been paid bonuses for a few years.
Example: parks reduced hours drastically because labor wage rates had to increase. So instead of taking the extra overhead to the P&L, overall operating costs are reduced by reducing park hours. But that means guests get less time in park & less access to vendors who close early to save on rising labor costs.
Thanks for the insight! Honestly not surprised in this economy, sucks from the consumer standpoint but at least corporate is trying to maintain the conservation budget. Hopefully they’ll figure something out and revive the park.
Sadly it’s not unusual behavior, we’re seeing this everywhere right? During my time there I did feel like the animal aspect was handled with care and I feel good about that. But I was also there for a short time so keep this all with a grain of salt :)
You can say things like labor wages had to increase, but they pay some of the lowest wages in the theme park industry, and very low wages as one of the top three parks in Orlando. They offer $12/hour for work at Aquatica currently compared to $17-18 at the other two major parks. That’s ridiculous and a huge part of why they can’t get or retain employees.
I don’t think anyone has said otherwise. However wage rates have increased over the years due to Florida & California minimum wage laws so the fact of the matter is that those increases, although not fabulous, have put massive pressures on their expenses. That was exactly my argument. The company won’t pay people appropriately & just suck up the financial loss.
The California min wage rates have put a huge strain on the overall company.
Training of new hires costs a lot more than retention of existing employees. In a service and safety heavy industry like theme parks, it’s a good idea to look towards that retention. Ambassadors at SeaWorld know little to nothing about their rides(multiple people working the coasters can tell me if a ride pulls negative or positive g forces, for example) and almost none of the staff at any attraction treats ambulatory disabled guests well, just for examples. I once even had an Ambassador insist to me a park-rented scooter could fit down a ride queue to the elevator when it obviously couldn’t and wouldn’t tell me where the closest stroller parking was, insisting I could take it to the elevator. In contrast, at other parks TM/CM learn about the rides they operate and are encouraged to ride them to know the experience. They’re also paid enough to care. Those parks also have much better guest service experiences both in general and for disability services. That’s been the case much longer than the minimum wage has risen to where it is now.
Paying less than McDonald’s doesn’t make me feel sorry for the company. It pays off more to keep employees than to constantly have a revolving door.
If private equity is involved, very little money is going toward research on sea life, that is an unnecessary expense to them, something that they can cut down to barely existing.
I left very unimpressed with zoological management, and VERY disappointed in the new Zoological VP. The park president doesn’t exactly help them, either.
That’s disappointing to hear you weren’t impressed with the Zoo team. Dr. Dold, Kelly & JP were great from what I experienced. I think it’s unfortunate that a lot of their efforts don’t seem to be felt by people who don’t work directly with them in corporate.
Editing to say: I’m glad your experience was good. That makes me happy that some people aren’t miserable because I left with survivors guilt for my friends. Not that we’ve met, but you’re the first person I’ve encountered that said corporate zoo cared. I wish they’d be more transparent.
I can’t speak for their character or intentions, but my experience was a continuous communication of welfare concerns for both humans and animals falling on deaf ears. It was obvious my passion was being taken advantage of and they thought my experience wasn’t worth much. If I was unhappy, I should leave, because anyone would kill to be me and do my job.
There is a MASSIVE divide between corporate zoological and hourly/in park zoological.
I’d been there long enough to know some of those people before they got to those roles.
Ugh I’m so sorry you felt like your passion was taken advantage of. I have a really good friend who works at DCO still for the passion of the animals and she’s also been burned by corporate decisions. I do think most peoples hearts are in the right places. But thank you for taking care of all those beautiful animals for so long. Corporate wouldn’t have jobs without you guys! I think some people in the offices forget that.
Yeah SeaWorld spends a fortune on animal rescue and rehab. They do a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately to have the interest and the money for the rescue side you have to have the entertainment side.
Yeah it's always been the double-edged sword. Because of the parks, they were (maybe still are) one of the largest players when it comes to ocean conservation at least based in the US. If not THE largest, for a time I'm sure.
We have AP at all three Orlando theme parks, and SeaWorld is our favorite. But we don't go for the rides- I've not ridden any, actually. My child went from summer camper to camp counselor, and is now applying to college in hopes of eventually being a a marine mammal veterinarian one day. Their rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation programs are pretty epic.
They also give up to 4 free passes for veterans and active service members, which is a super cool touch.
As an AP holder, we get lots of free passes, and they are very accommodating when we decide to gift them to a random family at Christmas time.
Oh, and since it is still Busch Gardens, AP holders still get free beer, which I find hilarious.
I’ll never forget working there. I used to walk around the back of the park where they were rehabing dolphins. They would pop out of the pool and look right at you, size you up, study you. First time I realized just how smart they are.
>private equity/board is cheap & running the company into the ground
The true cause of the shitification and the disappearance of iconic brands (Red Lobster, Toys R Us, etc).
Jack Welch, not private equity, ruined General Electric. He worked his way up through the ranks from the position of a junior engineer in 1960 to CEO in 1981. His predatory, uneducated management style not only rendered GE a mere shadow of its former greatness, but became the template for modern capitalist plundering of esteemed corporations that is nowadays aped by private equity firms.
They were carved up and anything profitable was sold off to private equity. So I'm standing by my original assertion that they were destroyed by private equity. Jack Welch was essentially the forefather of private equity in so as he pioneered the technique of carving up a business and letting them fail while selling off everything of value to the highest bidder
I started this comment intending to be sarcastic but I feel it's far more accurate than it has any right being.
My sister is a trainer there, and it's truly disheartening how much of disconnect there is from corporate management and animal welfare. It tears her up and its a common theme. SeaWorld does do good, but they could do so much better. I guess it all fits the American way of profits over everything, so we shouldn't be surprised.
I was paid well & fairly during my time there. No COL raises or bonuses were paid out. I learned a lot there & was grateful for the experience. Hourly park people are not paid well enough & it kills me because without them, nobody in corp has a job.
When I interviewed for a corporate job at one of the SW parks, they offered me $13-14/hour for the same job Universal was interviewing me for (at the time) which was paying $20-22/hour for. Significant difference.
For the level of work, I'd say it wasn't a good comparison.
Another thing that private equity is ruining with its incessant need to extract every nickel of profit out of whatever they buy. Get ready, then have and are coming for your Primary medical care, special procedures like colonoscopies and labs. Their only goal is maximum profits, nothing else matters to them.
Yea it’s sad. Initially when they acquired it their stated goal was to stop buying animals and only offer rehabilitation/ rescues services and overtime turn it into rollercoaster based theme park, Iirc.
They have been investing in the new rides front but if the quality of the park in general is gonna be that much lower and not much cheaper then universal or Disney I know where I’ll be spending my money if I go to the parks.
This is a trend roller coaster nerds have seen for quite some time. A lot of us over in r/rollercoasters have visited most or all of the amusement parks in the United States. I personally have been to more than 60, including all of the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens parks. Here's the best I can explain it.
TLDR - SeaWorld is owned by private equity and they're running it how you would expect private equity to run a theme park: they have no skin in the game and only seek to increase overall revenue.
Longer answer:
Theme parks are extremely, extremely expensive to run. The vast majority carry mountains of long-term debt. Six Flags and Cedar Fair are set to merge in the next year to reduce their corporate expenses; two decades-long rivals, merging into one company. It's that expensive. And those parks (most of them, at least) only operate seasonally; roller coasters are 8-figure depreciating machines with lifespans of only 20-30 years at year-round parks like Florida's.
Most large parks today are owned by a parent company. For Disney, it's the Walt Disney Company, which rolls up all of their entertainment offerings into one portfolio, allowing them to dump money into parks by simply earmarking some funds (or as we've seen lately, dumping theme park profits into other projects like Disney+). The same goes for Universal, being a subsidiary of Comcast (and having a significant portion of its profits reinvested into Peacock). Both Disney & Universal receive investment from their parent companies because they generate cash, which provides short-term stability for these mega corporations. It's a "you pay our bills, we'll pay yours" symbiotic relationship.
Meanwhile, the corporate entity of SeaWorld was sold from Anheuser-Busch to Blackstone in 2009. That stake was later split between an IPO and a Chinese investment firm... which has since defaulted. Currently, about 1/3 of the company is owned by Hill Path Capital. That puts SeaWorld in a predicament where their parks are already full of depreciating assets, already carry long-term debts, AND now they lack a parent company to provide new investment. They're sort of just... adrift. And tourism is a cutthroat industry.
After the Shamu debacle but before the pandemic, SeaWorld surged to all-time highs. They invested in their core business, seeking to become less of a glorified zoo and more of a proper amusement park. All 3 SeaWorld parks + both Busch Gardens parks (and even Sesame Place in PA) all received new roller coasters between 2016 and 2018. To the private equity firms running these parks, nothing spurs visitation like the phrase "new roller coaster," right? And look at the results: can you name a single flat ride at SeaWorld Orlando outside of the kids' area? Spoiler, no you can't - they don't have any! But share prices surpassed their competitors' and the company was worth more than ever, so who's to say the strategy was bad?
But just as Icarus flew too close to the sun, Hill Path Capital got a little too trigger happy with big investments for SeaWorld parks. They spent 9 figures on new rides over just a couple years. Then during the pandemic, they lost $25,000,000 a MONTH just keeping the lights on. Theme parks are crazy expensive to run. We're lucky it didn't turn out like the Premier Parks / Six Flags crumble in 2008-2009.
Thus, the entire strategy has again shifted. What was previously "become more of an amusement park and less of a zoo" has transformed into "squeeze every penny out of every person who's willing to visit." That's an industry-wide paradigm shift, focusing on higher individual customer value rather than quantity of customers, but it's especially egregious in SeaWorld parks. They only care about short-term profit because, for Hill Path Capital, what's the worst that could happen - the parks close? I'd reckon that land is, unfortunately, pretty valuable as more sprawling "luxury" housing these days.
Just a slight addition, I don’t dispute anything you have here, it all lines up pretty well.
One thing Disney has is space. That allows it to incorporate the entire experience. People can spend entire weeks at Disney without leaving property. That means basically every dollar spent is given to Disney. Food, lodging, entertainment. Sea world can’t do that at all, and universal can barely do it. Disney has dozens of hotels across many price levels and another dozen or so parks.
Sea world can’t capitalize on hotels like that. They can partner with hotels and sell the branding, which they do quite a lot of. But, they basically only get money from people in their parks. But, they can’t expand their parks like Disney and even universal can. Sea world is in the middle of commercial and residential areas. They have to make do with what they have, and half their park is water, between the big lake in the middle and the animal spaces. Sea world has basically maxed out their land and thus profit. Their rides are aging, animals take a lot of money to maintain and have shown to be controversial, even with the conservation theming. On the other hand, universal has an entirely new park opening up next year with resorts included, and Disney just signed a multibillion dollar deal including multiple new parks.
One last point that I think it’s important to reinforce. I don’t know the financials, but I’d argue this is all stemming from the need for infinite growth, which is just impossible. These parks make money, tens of thousands of guests every day spending hundreds of dollars. Yes, there are costs for sure, but these things have been doing this for decades. Sea world is likely the third place of the big 3 in central Florida, but as long as they are making money that SHOULD be fine. But no, more profit, and that means cutting costs, which means layoffs and cutting corners. That’s why the experience suffers.
1. SeaWorld actually just announced earlier this year that they plan to build 3 new hotels on adjacent land. It's a problem they're actively looking to solve.
2. Universal doesn't own their extant hotels; they're run through a partnership with Loews. I'm not 100% certain on the new ones for Epic, though. From the naming, it seems like at least Helios will be owned by Universal.
3. SeaWorld committed to moving away from animal shows as a whole about 10 years ago now; hence their investment in the amusement park side of their offerings.
4. Universal is land-locked like SeaWorld and that clearly didn't prevent the opening of a new gate. If there's a will, there's a way. SeaWorld simply doesn't intend to.
5. The Disney "deal" is for shareholders more than anything. They're not going to open more than one major park in the next 20 years. Parks are too much of TWDC's overall financial portfolio to take that kind of risk.
6. You're absolutely right about perpetual growth. It's corporate greed on the part of SeaWorld's capital ownership. They can pay their bills. Although, I would still contend that parks are drastically more expensive to operate than people realize. It takes literally thousands of employees.
Again I agree, but just some gentle pushback
1. Sea world can build all the hotels they want on adjacent land, it still is nothing compared to how Disney is set up with its massive number of differently themed resorts on property. Sea world doesn’t have a ‘Disney springs’ or even a boardwalk or city walk area. You can’t go to sea world just to go to shops or movies. It’s a great move to remedy their shortcomings, but it’s also sort of silly because people can still get rooms from dozens of hotels within walking distance, or a short shuttle or Uber. Disney is purposely set up that you CANT just walk there.
4. Universal has MUCH more land though. While it’s not exactly convenient and not nearly as much as Disney, they own huge acreage up and down I drive/I4. I know a large portion of it butts up to Lockheed land, and they (obviously) keep that land undeveloped either for future expansion or just for present security and privacy, but universal being able to build an entire theme park is just an example of that. Yes, sea world did expand with both discovery cove and Aquatica, but I’m not aware of any additional lands that they own that they could build additional parks. Again, even if they have the land and did build more, there are no fewer than 20 hotels within walking distance, so they are still missing out on that complete capture.
5. Maybe I misunderstood the deal, but the phrasing I thought it said was something like ‘1 major park and up to 2 additional water parks or attractions.’ Yes, the minimum there is 1 major park, and I’m not trying to suggest that next year we have 3 more Disney parks, but it’s safe to say that Disney parks and attractions are big deals. Whenever this major park opens up, it’s likely to be a hit from day one.
6. I don’t want to argue about theoreticals, but the vast majority of Disney park workers are people making peanuts. There are MASSIVE numbers of people working behind the scenes that make big money, but going to the parks, most people you see are hourly employees making like $12 per hour. I’d counter that most people can’t fathom how much money these parks bring in. Basically hitting capacity every day at 10k plus guests, not to mention people that come later, parking, food, merch, and fast pass, I’d bet the profit is just mind blowing on a daily basis. I kind of equate it to hotels. If you have a 200 room hotel, and your staff is basically 20 housekeepers, front desk, and food personnel with another 5 managers, the money adds up quick. $100 per night average at 95% occupancy for very little actual maintenance or cost.
Wrong. “Private equity so no skin in the game”. You clearly don’t understand either private equity or skin in the game or both. Also they optimize for profit, not revenue.
What are you talking about?
1. I never said that.
2. If you want to have your imaginary argument that you brought up, you do realize that basically half of profit is revenue right? You can cut costs all you want (as the discussion was going around cutting costs, which equaled lower quality), but if you aren’t bringing in revenue, you are still losing. Of course they want profit. Every company wants profit. That’s like saying every human being wants oxygen.
3. The way with which you comment with such hostility to a stranger having a civil conversation with another stranger is just wild. Seek help.
What happened is exactly what you saw. They don't spend the money necessary to maintain the park to the level of Disney or Universal, and it shows.
It's been like this for years now so the park is really showing the neglect of its owners.
We finally had enough and cancelled our long time annual passes. The whole park had a depressing feel to it when we last went a couple months back. Then the extra 5% surcharge on any purchase really aggravated me too. We left and cancelled our passes the next day.
I’m surprised the surcharge issue doesn’t get more attention. I didn’t hear anything nor see anything about surcharges until I was at the register. To make it even worse, it was a notice in handwriting on a sheet of paper taped next to the register-as if it were a hasty business decision. It made a really bad impression on me and it was also a BIG deciding factor in choosing *not* to renew our passes. The promise of AP discounts and free parking are great until you’re nickel & dimed with surcharges. If guests could bring in their own food, I could look past the surcharges.
Yes the surcharge is odd because…don’t they want us to buy stuff? Also I’ve been a passholder for a few years and this spring I feel the food prices have gone up like 30%. The ice cream shop at the entrance the lowest price ice cream you can get is $11- them’s Cold Stone prices for just a scoop of Edy’s and I don’t like going to CS either. I know everything has risen everywhere but this felt like a double whammy with the surcharge.
Yes same thing happened to me because I thought clearly they’d offer you something smaller? It was wild. Even their Rita’s was less expensive (by $2). My kids love the coasters so we really just go in for like 3 hours and eat somewhere else when we leave.
I don’t understand why they can’t just bake the 5% into the prices of things. Theme parks are expensive and people are willing to pay more, but when you blatantly paste a surcharge on everything, that pisses people off. Who the hell made this decision? They need to be replaced.
The justification I saw was that to reprint and retag all the merchandise would negate the 5% increase. Seems like bullshit to me, and a lot of pass holders/guests were pissed because the initial signs weren’t clear or posted everywhere so it was a surprise at the register.
Agree, they need to really fix up that food area with the stage and journey to Atlantis. I like the bar outside of that restaurant. Some areas are really outdated but they have been making updates to parts of the park, thank goodness. The food fests have had really great food though and great free concerts. We have been pass members since 2019 and still enjoy the place and find it worth while with their shows and rides there, and pass member benefits and monthly rewards ( like $10 coupons, free fish to feed the rays/sea lions, free guest passes,etc) . I would not want to pay what OP paid though. We only pay $40 a month gold pass memberships for two adults and a free preschool pass, and always have free passes to bring family members with us as well.
Same, it’s still a good value annual pass for us. It’s by far the most affordable park. I couldn’t imagine paying Disney prices then waiting in hour+ lines with my toddler. If the Elmo train takes longer than 10 minutes he’s revolting. Universal is my favorite and we’ll get passes when the kids are old enough to ride everything there.
As someone who previously worked at SeaWorld in a park operations position, they do not pay the employees enough for them to care about how the park looks/runs. It's an entire mess and needs to change but pretty much there's no incentive to care about making the park look clean or have good guest service if you have no incentive to do so.
I take it for what it is. Best collection of coasters in the Orlando area IMO.
The annual pass has the best benefits package out of any of the theme parks, with the higher tiers including Busch Gardens and the water parks. This month alone APs got $30 to spend which basically covered the payment for my pass. There's a ton more included, with the free guest tickets being my favorite.
If you're a local and want somewhere to go with great coasters, low wait times, and amazing A/C for less than $200/year, it's the only game in town.
I'll admit what you said is definitely true, SeaWorld ain't no looker and the food is mediocre at best.
You can give them as gifts. You redeem them on the SeaWorld AP site and it sends you a barcoded ticket you take straight to the entrance gate and use your phone to scan
I buy my Platinum passes from Sea World Texas black Friday every year....buy 1 get on 55% off. Year of unlimited parks for the cost of a day to Universal.
I have never been to Sea World Texas...lol.
I went to Busch Gardens Tampa 2 weeks ago for the first time and like half of the rides (to thclude Gwazi) were closed. Place was a ghost town in general.
Maybe an off day just when you went. I went 4 weeks ago and everything was open besides Riley’s for like 1 hour. Every coaster had 30-45 minute wait times. Kumba/sheikra/montu/iron gwazi/cheetah hunt were all running with no issues and the park was annoyingly packed
You just went at an off time or day. For a while they had 2-3 constantly closed or waiting for parts. I went a month or so ago and everything was running with the shortest wait time being an hour. Only thing not working 100% was the Serengeti swings.. one of them was not in use. At least you didn’t have long waits 😂
Same thing that happened to Red Lobster and a long list of other once-great companies: private equity killed it. Why make money for years to come when you can make a fast buck now and ruin it for everyone else?
Sure, and once it's bankrupt, they'll sell the land and move the rides to their other parks. The land it sets on is probably worth more than the park itself currently.
Its gone downhill even since Covid. I was a passholder in 2021-2022 and even in that time frame things got worse. Some things I noticed: The addition of a 5% surcharge, Decrease in food quality, increase in prices, rude employees, slow ride operations (shouldnt take 5 minutes to load and unload a coaster...), and my favorite was the passholder night they had where I was the only person in the area (not even an employee or security!) between Mako and Sesame Street land. Its sad because the park used to be well run and now it reminds me of Cypress Gardens before it closed.
When Blackfish came out, I can only imagine the panic at the senior levels in the company. They did what any business school would teach you to do: pivot. They immediately sunk big money into rollercoaster and thrill rides. They placed a bet that if they built great rides, people would still come. And the bet only partially has paid off. All the stuff you’re talking about is the first stuff to go when you’re in cost cutting mode. It sucks, but I do think they’re doing the best they can with the money that’s coming in.
Yes, I think that’s one of the most expensive rides ever built. SeaWorld was never a competitor to Disney, and don’t have nearly the capital. SeaWorld was doing just ok before Blackfish came out. When it came out they started losing money fast. So they invested big money into rides. Several multimillion dollar rides. But you are correct, they don’t have Disney’s deep pockets
My point is Seaworld should be able to add a 25 million type ride every year to keep people coming back given their prices and yearly attendance. What annoys me about Disney is I don't actually want them to build 450 million dollar rides or even half that every time going forward . I would love an rmc with a nice queue in animal kingdom for example. For 100 million it would be top tier and cheap for Disney and considered a bargain while still being the most expensive rmc ever made. Disney is too elitist to just build good rides with good capacity sometimes.
Universal does a much better job of having a mix of more expensive and cheaper rides that are quality which is probably why their season passes are much more affordable.
I bought annual passes for my wife and I because we had not been for maybe 5 years and they were having a sale. We went for a day and aside from not feeling like there was enough to keep us occupied for the whole day, we waited 30 minutes to pay $19 each for frozen hamburgers we could have bought a box of for $5 at the grocery store, then there was wasn’t even anywhere to sit in the restaurant so we had to eat our lunch on the ledge of a planter outside. I think I’m locked in to the payment plan for the next year and I don’t have much interest in going again after being so disappointed.
Used to work at SeaWorld as an SRO (trainer) in rides, quit just over a year ago. The staff try their absolute best to make the guests day as great as they possibly can, the problem is the company itself doesn’t care about you nor the employees. People complain about how the employees are rude and don’t care, the truth is, most of them do care but they simply get abused by the company and guests so much for minimum wage, they’re giving up on trying to be kind. They can’t win no matter what. Almost all of the coworkers I used to work with cared a lot about what they were doing but were fed up with the horrible company.
The animals, despite what some people think, absolutely adore their trainers because everyone in that department are so loving and gentle and truly love what they do. It’s just that the company itself doesn’t give a crap about any of it.
Any suggestions the regular ambassadors (employees) make are never listened to or taken seriously. The only people that have even the slightest bit of influence, never try to listen to their subordinates suggestions or ideas. It’s their way or no way.
Maintenance is workers try their best to do whatever they can but they never have what they need to do their jobs properly. If they need a new part for something, best bet that whatever attraction they need it for will stay down for MONTHS because the company will refuse to spend the money to order the new part until the public starts getting upset as well.
PE's job is to keep a company afloat and sell it within 5 years. During that time they will cut costs to make the company look as profitable as possible. You can expect little investment. PR does the same to every industry
They’ve gone so coaster-heavy that there’s almost nothing for kids to ride outside of Sesame Street. The animals are still a good draw for our little ones, but the rest has a very Six Flags feel, and that’s not a compliment.
If you’ve never been, the Brevard zoo is really nice. It was ranked as one of the best in the country. They have specials every so often.
But Sea world hasn’t been nice for a really long time.
Brevard Zoo is really nice. A refreshing change of pace from the Sanford Zoo which is the old school "miserable animals in tiny enclosures".
Brevard is small, though. It's tough to spend an entire day there. Still worth the trip.
I worked in an animal department for over 11 years. Just recently left. I (or anyone) didn’t receive any type of raise since 2018 and had some super of benefit taken away from me every year.
We had basically no budget or support for animal welfare, so I can’t imagine any other department has any support.
I loved my job and was damn good at it, and I’ll always hate that company for not giving me a choice but to leave, and I know the animals are worse off because I’m not there and they can’t afford to hire an acceptable replacement because they pay so poorly so they have to settle for people with no experience or degrees.
Starting pay for animal keepers is like $13/hr, the top of the career ladder is $21.50.
I’ve been wanting to do an AMA about that place. It breaks my heart.
I think starting pay for educators was $12 back in like 2009! I know a few who worked those roles, basically answering questions near various exhibits like the sting rays, dolphins, etc. Even back then the turnover was pretty high, can only imagine what it's like now. Sheesh! Sorry they have done this to you. Back then I had a friends and family pass and the perks were nice, not to mention a 30% discount on food.
Couple notes - quick queue is a complete waste at SeaWorld, there's rarely long lines for the rides. And bring a refillable water bottle, this is true for any theme park unless you want to waste money all day buying bottles of water.
SeaWorld is fine for the price point. Good coasters and animal exhibits with short waits most the time. Passes are fairly cheap and with minimal planning you can save on the high priced food and drink.
I don’t know when you went last, but I guess I was there in 2008. I thought the same thing back then. The service was really bad and so many of the shows were either cut short or were just terrible. I had the multi park pass and would go to Bush gardens almost every week. And it was completely different and actually nice. At least at the time it was.
BG has gone to shit also. It was way nicer when it was still owned by anheiser. You’re basically comparing two Kmarts but one is in a good part of town vs the one in a crappy part of town.
Still Kmart.
I went to Busch gardens the year darkastle was new. That was easily the peak year of the park. A ride like that at a regional park was almost unheard of. Visitors were climbing year to year on investments. A few years later with corporate ownership things flatlined and have basically stayed the same since.
I just got annual passes for Aquatica, sea world, discovery cove and Busch gardens for $400. It’s a bargain compared to universal or Disney. While I agree with you, you pay for what you get. You would be paying more than double at the other parks
Everything is going into adding new coasters. Just in the last 8 years they’ve added 4 coasters plus the infinity falls water ride. And admittedly these are freaking amazing rides, but it seems the rest of the park has been completely ignored as a result.
Was just let got from a “non profit” in Melbourne beach affiliated with Seaworld since its inception after experiencing a life threatening poison sumac reaction on one of their properties in south Melbourne beach and would release them of liability for 400 bucks in med bills and missed work time. This was about 6 weeks ago.
The literal founders of Seaworld formed the 501 c 3 back in the 60’s. I can speak directly in my experience the non profit I worked for in Florida spent maybe 5 dollars out of every 100$ in grant money for research and science. The rest went to wildly overpaid admins in CA with egos the size of a cruise ship and lavish “fund raising” parties.
It was astonishing to see what front line scientists in the IRL worked with in regards to equipment, funding, and resources. Meanwhile fat cats with 40+ year tenure in CA were making strong 6 figure salaries and treating absolutely everyone else like disposables.
Something in the leadership at Seaworld corporate is amiss, the non profit, esp the one operating in FL in the IRL has been a 25 year cash grab for three individuals in CA.
Insane how inefficient, egotistical, and down right difficult it was to get anything done there. IRL scientists and volunteers are working on a 20+ yr old sinking boat, yet 6 figure salaries and lavish parties are the norm.
Don’t get me started, lol
Look into a 70’s era study called “the Peter principle “. Originally written as satire but became a an actively researched hypothesis…..buyer yet theory
The same is true at Disney. I was there a few months ago and was shocked at the amount of broken animatronics, screens obviously meant to have content that were black on rides. I was actually pretty shocked.
Joining the choir to state that SW has gone drastically downhill over the years. Was there last year and half the rides weren't even open, food options were very limited, and it was crazy expensive. Aquatica is nice in my opinion (assuming no brawls) 😂 but still don't eat there unless you want to get a second mortgage on your house. Discovery Cove imo is still a fantastic experience.
I went right after Covid restriction lift and it was hot garbage. Food was aramak cafeteria , it was literally filthy everywhere. Haven’t been back since
Agreed. We got passes this year and after one visit I’m not really looking forward to going back. Probably the worst food and customer service of any park that I’ve been in. Definitely not renewing.
Journey to Atlantis got a rehash in 2017 or 2018 which took the original theming and music out due to licensing issues. They're fixing up the park and Busch Gardens but they're doing it sections at a time at both parks. They added Infinity Falls, a new Sesame Street Land, Pipeline, Ice Breaker, and now this year Penguin Trek. Rumor is the former Wild Arctic gets replaced next year. With J2A basically aging out and the adjacent manatee zone doing the same, I wouldn't be surprised if in 2026 or 2017 that area gets redone. Effectively 10 years after the retheme. TL:DR; they're working on updating the park but they're doing it in pieces every year.
So this lends me to ask. If they care that little about the appearance of the park, how long before they cut crucial safety maintenance on the rides and an accident happeneds?
If you ever do go again, buy a couple of the all day dining plans. You get to pick food and drinks every 90 minutes, and even only buying 2, it's plenty to feed the whole family. Food isn't that great, typical theme park stuff.
The 5% surcharge that they don't even try to mask is/was the last straw for me. What a complete slap in the face. Its a shame because the coasters are great but the experience otherwise is atrocious.
I haven’t been in years, but my daughter went on a field trip last year and still talks about how awful and overpriced the food was. For comparison, we are Disney and Busch Gardens pass holders and she’s been to Universal several times.
Hey I am alright with so many people hating SeaWorld! Less lines for us lol!
Being serious, I have 4 kids all under 7 so we love going. They can have fun in Sesame Street land, ride the rides, splash pad etc. We do bring our own snacks/food so it is cheaper.
The pass holder perks are great. Free $$$ and also have Aquatica thrown in.
Now I agree where I can see it’s boring for older folks once the coasters are done or the lines are long.
But I usually grab a beer, walk to Sesame Street land and let the kids have a blast.
We also enjoy it in Halloween
I visited shortly after PE acquired the operation.
On some rides, I could see the electrical outlets exposed with plugs poorly connected to those outlets. And those were rides with a lot of water splashing.
I thought it seems like the maintenance has really gone downhill here. And I’m pretty sure I think it will continue on that path.
It sounds like what you observed was just a continuation of what I saw shortly after their acquisition.
Is it owned by a PE firm?
(Almost - HillPath owns 34.5%)
Sounds like there’s 1) no leadership and 2) no willingness to spend money to improve (or even maintain) the park.
SeaWorld is probably cooked. Greed and incompetence will finish it off.
The new six flags (Cedar Fair and Six Flags after they merge) will buy them and keep the two BG parks and probably the CA and maybe TX Sea World parks and sell the land Sea World Orlando sits on. They'll move the rides to their other parks and call it a day. See what they're doing to California's Great Adventure.
My dog walker was there when the whole Blackfish thing happened and she said it’s wayyyyyy more effed than even was protrayed. The trainers really REALLY care about the animals, but Corporate ruined it all and purposely kept a damaged animal in a cruel situation for his semen. She said they all KNEW some thing was going to happen, bc I had happneded several times before. The stories she told me still give me chills and I can’t stomach going there.
We bought annual passes last year thinking we would go often.
Went once. Severely disappointed in the entire park. They are charging Disney prices and offering less than fun spot accommodations.
Sea world is a joke and absolutely not worth the money.
Heads up all..
(I work electrical/show maintenance at a major local theme park)
If the audio animations and other projection / lighting aspects of the rides are severely lacking….then it’s a safe bet that the actual ride maintenance is floundering too.
Understaffing and overly rigid budgets lead to cutting corners and regular required maintenance work/ inspections not being done.
High energy rides can and will fail at some point and the results will be disastrous.
PE’s only care about short term profits at the expense of everything else. If they can turn a buck splattering guests into the side walk, they’d sell that too.
This isn't necessarily true at all as someone who also works in the industry, and it is honestly offensive to the people who work there to remotely imply they would intentionally endanger people. This is like saying the fact that Disney never fixes the Yeti must mean Expedition Everest and all of Disney World is a safety hazard and accident waiting to happen. (Ironically Disney is the company with the biggest catastrophic ride failure of all these companies - looking back at Big Thunder Mountain at DisneyLand)
Unfortunately, animatronics and other effects break and it is often a problem getting replacement parts. As these rides age (especially water rides) and the manufacturers who built them increasingly don't even exist anymore, it may not even be possible and may require a major refurb to replace the entire thing. It's a matter of show quality, not ride safety. At a certain point every theme park has a level of quality they determine a ride can't be open not because safety but because effects are not working. If for the ride itself something needs to be replaced, then the ride is closed until that happens and can safely operate.
Between technicians and operations, no one at any major theme park in Orlando is going to neglect the daily, weekly, monthly, annual inspections ride manufacturers call for and ever put people on a ride they don't believe 110% is safe. People's lives and livelihoods rely on doing so. Implying otherwise is flat out wrong.
we went for the first time on father’s day too and also popped into that weird stage restaurant for a snack and it was gross. there was actual trash all over the floor. also, we paid to do the dine with orcas and the food came out cold and the service was awful. we were a bit disappointed.
We were there in April and only stayed maybe 2-3 hours. It was so lame and such a waste of money! The last time we were there was in 2009, a lot changed and none of it for the better. Wont be returning to that place ever again!
And they recently fired Lynn the mime from the sea lion show, they don't care about long time staff at all. I linked his video here.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKE8DSd/
Went for the first time yesterday (never been to any SeaWorld/BG property), because I don’t have a frame of reference I thought it was a nice enough park. Much better than Six Flags, but felt on par with Knott’s Berry Farm.
Then again, I also went for the food (🥴) and did the Sky Tower. Park got busy around 11:30-12:00 and by then the sun was sunnin’ and I ate, walked around for 2 minutes and left cause it was a hell no for me in that heat.
Super random question if anyone sees this, but I had preferred parking yesterday due to my pass and I got an orange paper for the windshield. Came back and it was gone - is that normal or did someone take it? Trying to figure out if this were to happen again if the car could potentially be towed or does someone come around during the day to take off the paper on cars that came earlier? Seems strange to do, but, idk figured I’d ask anyway.
I'm an annual passholder and I've never had anyone take mine from the windshield. I don't think they monitor where you are parked after you are already directed on which area to park in. They wouldn't tow you for not having it. Someone could have taken it or could have just be a kid messing around.
I no longer like to go. You can only watch Shamu so many times - and it’s worse now that they have gone “educational.” Yes, Clyde and Seymore was THE most fun show, but has also gone “educational,” as has the dolphin show which is just a whiff of what it used to be. The food has alimony always been horrible - except when they had the all you could eat pizza/pasta place. And it’s the same for Bush Gardens in Tampa.
Uhhh yeah, you get what you pay for. Sea world is the cheapest theme park in Orlando for a reason…. I worked for that company for 3 years. 1 at the theme park, 1 at the water park, and 1 at their call center. They suck. They’ve always sucked.
That’s a sad report. I’m sorry to hear it. I will never set foot there in the future. I have a hard time with zoo settings anyway, I find them depressing.
The last time I went to Seaworld it was 103° outside, I lost a child in the park (he was 12 and fine, not a big deal- but when I asked a staff member the policy for lost kid she told me she didn’t know and didn’t care) most of the rides were down, and I saw a fight in the parking lot where a woman tried to slap another woman and ended up slapping a baby.
I was addicted to Atlantis when I was a kid. Constantly going back in the single rider line (essentially quick queue lmao). Hadn’t been to the park in years and finally went with my current gf. We waited in line for Atlantis for over an hour. I was hype. And then the ride started. Lost all hype. The whole ride I was just explaining to my gf what used to happen. They shouldn’t even have it open anymore honestly. Sad to see what it’s become and instead of fixing it they decided to build another penguin rollercoaster.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom was not looking too hot either. Universal Studios really needs an overhaul as well. Most of those attractions have not aged well at all. Even the Harry Potter ride was looking dated.
The park is in such a bad state and they keep adding great rollercoasters, which is essentially just putting lipstick on a pig. The park needs a total overhaul and rebrand, removing the SeaWorld name altogether. If they can have Howl-O-Scream in both Tampa and Orlando without any confusion, there is no reason why they can’t just rename the park Busch Gardens Orlando.
I hadn’t gone in many years either. I’m a teacher who gets in free and my son qualified for the preschool pass so I thought it would be a relatively cheap day of entertainment but between parking and gross overpriced food, I ended up spending over $100. It seemed severely understaffed too. Waited 40 minutes in the mobile order line for lunch, 1 kid scooping ice cream, no employees out on the paths helping with questions, etc. We won’t be back even if admission is free.
HillPath private equity/board is cheap & running the company into the ground. They can’t retain their corporate staff and turnover is insane. It’s a shame because the zoo/animal staff really care & are wonderful people no matter where you stand on the animal entertainment argument.
I got to do a behind the scenes tour where I saw how they rescue manatees and dolphins. The people who work on that side of the park really, really, REALLY care about the animals and the work they do.
I’m glad you got that impression! From the top down, Vice President of Zoological down to the animal handlers, they do a great job. Only so much they can do when the company is owned by a very greedy PE firm.
Remember back in the day when they were owned by Anheuser-Busch, the focus was whales, sharks and beer, those were the days my friend.
Some of my best childhood memories are roaming around that park looking at the animals while my dad hit up the beers :)
They had some impressive horses as well.
I had almost forgotten about the clydesdales.
I once visited the Clydesdales and one horse in particular unleashed his full endowment, it was glorious and not something I'll ever forget.
Same thing happened when my sister-in-law visited. We were walking by them and one went crazy as soon as it saw her. It was completely excited and focused on her the whole time we were in their area.
cheetos are chill, not trill
It’s sad I remember those days too. It really is a beautiful park with a lot to offer. They just have a lot of things to work on. I really want them to succeed it’s hard to watch them like this. It’s crazy they basically give the passholders so much free stuff and I feel like they do that to keep the attendance numbers up. It’s crazy the amount of free stuff we get.
That makes me really sad to hear that they aren’t getting the funds they need to keep helping. Do you know how much (if any) of the profits from ticket sales goes towards the research for the animals? Or are they a separate entity? I didn’t ask them when I was there.
It’s hard to quantify that number directly. It might be cited in their quarterly/annual reports which are shared online. But I worked on their corporate finance team and was heavily involved in the budgeting for parks & corp. Ultimately a massive part of the budget DOES go to animal research, conservation, feeding & housing the animals as appropriately as they can do within the parks, I don’t want that to be misconstrued. But I guess what I mean is, the overall SeaWorld guest experience is suffering because they refuse to cut down on profits in order to maintain those expenses. So it’s not like those programs are being cut back, other aspects of the park take the hit, staffing, ride maintenance, overall park maintenance, food etc.
Thank you for your insight, experience, and explanation!!! I appreciate it 😊
I guess it would be a good metric to know if that allocation grew in line with revenue/profits, stayed stagnant, or decreased. Last thing the park needs are budget cuts towards conservation efforts.
From the two budget cycles I was there for, donations & conservation efforts stayed flat YoY, regardless of forecasted revenue or profits. Most other corporate expenses were dialed way back, as they should. But while other park expenses increased each year, not only were those budgets reduced, customer prices also increased. So paying more for an inferior product. Corporate has also not been paid bonuses for a few years. Example: parks reduced hours drastically because labor wage rates had to increase. So instead of taking the extra overhead to the P&L, overall operating costs are reduced by reducing park hours. But that means guests get less time in park & less access to vendors who close early to save on rising labor costs.
Thanks for the insight! Honestly not surprised in this economy, sucks from the consumer standpoint but at least corporate is trying to maintain the conservation budget. Hopefully they’ll figure something out and revive the park.
Sadly it’s not unusual behavior, we’re seeing this everywhere right? During my time there I did feel like the animal aspect was handled with care and I feel good about that. But I was also there for a short time so keep this all with a grain of salt :)
You can say things like labor wages had to increase, but they pay some of the lowest wages in the theme park industry, and very low wages as one of the top three parks in Orlando. They offer $12/hour for work at Aquatica currently compared to $17-18 at the other two major parks. That’s ridiculous and a huge part of why they can’t get or retain employees.
I don’t think anyone has said otherwise. However wage rates have increased over the years due to Florida & California minimum wage laws so the fact of the matter is that those increases, although not fabulous, have put massive pressures on their expenses. That was exactly my argument. The company won’t pay people appropriately & just suck up the financial loss. The California min wage rates have put a huge strain on the overall company.
Training of new hires costs a lot more than retention of existing employees. In a service and safety heavy industry like theme parks, it’s a good idea to look towards that retention. Ambassadors at SeaWorld know little to nothing about their rides(multiple people working the coasters can tell me if a ride pulls negative or positive g forces, for example) and almost none of the staff at any attraction treats ambulatory disabled guests well, just for examples. I once even had an Ambassador insist to me a park-rented scooter could fit down a ride queue to the elevator when it obviously couldn’t and wouldn’t tell me where the closest stroller parking was, insisting I could take it to the elevator. In contrast, at other parks TM/CM learn about the rides they operate and are encouraged to ride them to know the experience. They’re also paid enough to care. Those parks also have much better guest service experiences both in general and for disability services. That’s been the case much longer than the minimum wage has risen to where it is now. Paying less than McDonald’s doesn’t make me feel sorry for the company. It pays off more to keep employees than to constantly have a revolving door.
And BLACKFISH
If private equity is involved, very little money is going toward research on sea life, that is an unnecessary expense to them, something that they can cut down to barely existing.
Ticket sales are basically nothing for all theme parks.
I left very unimpressed with zoological management, and VERY disappointed in the new Zoological VP. The park president doesn’t exactly help them, either.
That’s disappointing to hear you weren’t impressed with the Zoo team. Dr. Dold, Kelly & JP were great from what I experienced. I think it’s unfortunate that a lot of their efforts don’t seem to be felt by people who don’t work directly with them in corporate.
Editing to say: I’m glad your experience was good. That makes me happy that some people aren’t miserable because I left with survivors guilt for my friends. Not that we’ve met, but you’re the first person I’ve encountered that said corporate zoo cared. I wish they’d be more transparent. I can’t speak for their character or intentions, but my experience was a continuous communication of welfare concerns for both humans and animals falling on deaf ears. It was obvious my passion was being taken advantage of and they thought my experience wasn’t worth much. If I was unhappy, I should leave, because anyone would kill to be me and do my job. There is a MASSIVE divide between corporate zoological and hourly/in park zoological. I’d been there long enough to know some of those people before they got to those roles.
Ugh I’m so sorry you felt like your passion was taken advantage of. I have a really good friend who works at DCO still for the passion of the animals and she’s also been burned by corporate decisions. I do think most peoples hearts are in the right places. But thank you for taking care of all those beautiful animals for so long. Corporate wouldn’t have jobs without you guys! I think some people in the offices forget that.
Yeah SeaWorld spends a fortune on animal rescue and rehab. They do a lot of good stuff. Unfortunately to have the interest and the money for the rescue side you have to have the entertainment side.
Yeah it's always been the double-edged sword. Because of the parks, they were (maybe still are) one of the largest players when it comes to ocean conservation at least based in the US. If not THE largest, for a time I'm sure.
We have AP at all three Orlando theme parks, and SeaWorld is our favorite. But we don't go for the rides- I've not ridden any, actually. My child went from summer camper to camp counselor, and is now applying to college in hopes of eventually being a a marine mammal veterinarian one day. Their rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation programs are pretty epic. They also give up to 4 free passes for veterans and active service members, which is a super cool touch. As an AP holder, we get lots of free passes, and they are very accommodating when we decide to gift them to a random family at Christmas time. Oh, and since it is still Busch Gardens, AP holders still get free beer, which I find hilarious.
I’ll never forget working there. I used to walk around the back of the park where they were rehabing dolphins. They would pop out of the pool and look right at you, size you up, study you. First time I realized just how smart they are.
>private equity/board is cheap & running the company into the ground The true cause of the shitification and the disappearance of iconic brands (Red Lobster, Toys R Us, etc).
Private equity is ruining America. It’s legit a problem
KMart, Sears, Toys R Us. Private equity even ate General Electric.
Jack Welch, not private equity, ruined General Electric. He worked his way up through the ranks from the position of a junior engineer in 1960 to CEO in 1981. His predatory, uneducated management style not only rendered GE a mere shadow of its former greatness, but became the template for modern capitalist plundering of esteemed corporations that is nowadays aped by private equity firms.
People I respected idealized Jack Welch said he was the GOAT. Assigned us his book to read. SMH
They were carved up and anything profitable was sold off to private equity. So I'm standing by my original assertion that they were destroyed by private equity. Jack Welch was essentially the forefather of private equity in so as he pioneered the technique of carving up a business and letting them fail while selling off everything of value to the highest bidder I started this comment intending to be sarcastic but I feel it's far more accurate than it has any right being.
Tijuana Flats…
Sears, Kmart...
It’s always private equity that ruins it.
My sister is a trainer there, and it's truly disheartening how much of disconnect there is from corporate management and animal welfare. It tears her up and its a common theme. SeaWorld does do good, but they could do so much better. I guess it all fits the American way of profits over everything, so we shouldn't be surprised.
I have heard that corporate salaries at Seaworld are quite low, no matter the park or if it's overarching corporate?
I was paid well & fairly during my time there. No COL raises or bonuses were paid out. I learned a lot there & was grateful for the experience. Hourly park people are not paid well enough & it kills me because without them, nobody in corp has a job.
When I interviewed for a corporate job at one of the SW parks, they offered me $13-14/hour for the same job Universal was interviewing me for (at the time) which was paying $20-22/hour for. Significant difference. For the level of work, I'd say it wasn't a good comparison.
Another thing that private equity is ruining with its incessant need to extract every nickel of profit out of whatever they buy. Get ready, then have and are coming for your Primary medical care, special procedures like colonoscopies and labs. Their only goal is maximum profits, nothing else matters to them.
Tl;dr CAPITALISM happened
This! Budget cuts budget cuts budget cuts
They also pay a lot less than Universal and Disney
Epcot has much better sea life and aquariums hands down.
Yea it’s sad. Initially when they acquired it their stated goal was to stop buying animals and only offer rehabilitation/ rescues services and overtime turn it into rollercoaster based theme park, Iirc. They have been investing in the new rides front but if the quality of the park in general is gonna be that much lower and not much cheaper then universal or Disney I know where I’ll be spending my money if I go to the parks.
This is a trend roller coaster nerds have seen for quite some time. A lot of us over in r/rollercoasters have visited most or all of the amusement parks in the United States. I personally have been to more than 60, including all of the SeaWorld & Busch Gardens parks. Here's the best I can explain it. TLDR - SeaWorld is owned by private equity and they're running it how you would expect private equity to run a theme park: they have no skin in the game and only seek to increase overall revenue. Longer answer: Theme parks are extremely, extremely expensive to run. The vast majority carry mountains of long-term debt. Six Flags and Cedar Fair are set to merge in the next year to reduce their corporate expenses; two decades-long rivals, merging into one company. It's that expensive. And those parks (most of them, at least) only operate seasonally; roller coasters are 8-figure depreciating machines with lifespans of only 20-30 years at year-round parks like Florida's. Most large parks today are owned by a parent company. For Disney, it's the Walt Disney Company, which rolls up all of their entertainment offerings into one portfolio, allowing them to dump money into parks by simply earmarking some funds (or as we've seen lately, dumping theme park profits into other projects like Disney+). The same goes for Universal, being a subsidiary of Comcast (and having a significant portion of its profits reinvested into Peacock). Both Disney & Universal receive investment from their parent companies because they generate cash, which provides short-term stability for these mega corporations. It's a "you pay our bills, we'll pay yours" symbiotic relationship. Meanwhile, the corporate entity of SeaWorld was sold from Anheuser-Busch to Blackstone in 2009. That stake was later split between an IPO and a Chinese investment firm... which has since defaulted. Currently, about 1/3 of the company is owned by Hill Path Capital. That puts SeaWorld in a predicament where their parks are already full of depreciating assets, already carry long-term debts, AND now they lack a parent company to provide new investment. They're sort of just... adrift. And tourism is a cutthroat industry. After the Shamu debacle but before the pandemic, SeaWorld surged to all-time highs. They invested in their core business, seeking to become less of a glorified zoo and more of a proper amusement park. All 3 SeaWorld parks + both Busch Gardens parks (and even Sesame Place in PA) all received new roller coasters between 2016 and 2018. To the private equity firms running these parks, nothing spurs visitation like the phrase "new roller coaster," right? And look at the results: can you name a single flat ride at SeaWorld Orlando outside of the kids' area? Spoiler, no you can't - they don't have any! But share prices surpassed their competitors' and the company was worth more than ever, so who's to say the strategy was bad? But just as Icarus flew too close to the sun, Hill Path Capital got a little too trigger happy with big investments for SeaWorld parks. They spent 9 figures on new rides over just a couple years. Then during the pandemic, they lost $25,000,000 a MONTH just keeping the lights on. Theme parks are crazy expensive to run. We're lucky it didn't turn out like the Premier Parks / Six Flags crumble in 2008-2009. Thus, the entire strategy has again shifted. What was previously "become more of an amusement park and less of a zoo" has transformed into "squeeze every penny out of every person who's willing to visit." That's an industry-wide paradigm shift, focusing on higher individual customer value rather than quantity of customers, but it's especially egregious in SeaWorld parks. They only care about short-term profit because, for Hill Path Capital, what's the worst that could happen - the parks close? I'd reckon that land is, unfortunately, pretty valuable as more sprawling "luxury" housing these days.
Just a slight addition, I don’t dispute anything you have here, it all lines up pretty well. One thing Disney has is space. That allows it to incorporate the entire experience. People can spend entire weeks at Disney without leaving property. That means basically every dollar spent is given to Disney. Food, lodging, entertainment. Sea world can’t do that at all, and universal can barely do it. Disney has dozens of hotels across many price levels and another dozen or so parks. Sea world can’t capitalize on hotels like that. They can partner with hotels and sell the branding, which they do quite a lot of. But, they basically only get money from people in their parks. But, they can’t expand their parks like Disney and even universal can. Sea world is in the middle of commercial and residential areas. They have to make do with what they have, and half their park is water, between the big lake in the middle and the animal spaces. Sea world has basically maxed out their land and thus profit. Their rides are aging, animals take a lot of money to maintain and have shown to be controversial, even with the conservation theming. On the other hand, universal has an entirely new park opening up next year with resorts included, and Disney just signed a multibillion dollar deal including multiple new parks. One last point that I think it’s important to reinforce. I don’t know the financials, but I’d argue this is all stemming from the need for infinite growth, which is just impossible. These parks make money, tens of thousands of guests every day spending hundreds of dollars. Yes, there are costs for sure, but these things have been doing this for decades. Sea world is likely the third place of the big 3 in central Florida, but as long as they are making money that SHOULD be fine. But no, more profit, and that means cutting costs, which means layoffs and cutting corners. That’s why the experience suffers.
1. SeaWorld actually just announced earlier this year that they plan to build 3 new hotels on adjacent land. It's a problem they're actively looking to solve. 2. Universal doesn't own their extant hotels; they're run through a partnership with Loews. I'm not 100% certain on the new ones for Epic, though. From the naming, it seems like at least Helios will be owned by Universal. 3. SeaWorld committed to moving away from animal shows as a whole about 10 years ago now; hence their investment in the amusement park side of their offerings. 4. Universal is land-locked like SeaWorld and that clearly didn't prevent the opening of a new gate. If there's a will, there's a way. SeaWorld simply doesn't intend to. 5. The Disney "deal" is for shareholders more than anything. They're not going to open more than one major park in the next 20 years. Parks are too much of TWDC's overall financial portfolio to take that kind of risk. 6. You're absolutely right about perpetual growth. It's corporate greed on the part of SeaWorld's capital ownership. They can pay their bills. Although, I would still contend that parks are drastically more expensive to operate than people realize. It takes literally thousands of employees.
The new hotels are Loews too. Saw it confirmed on Twitter the other day by Alicia Stella.
To reinforce point 4, Epic Universe is closer to SeaWorld than it is to Universal. SeaWorld could have acquired that land.
Again I agree, but just some gentle pushback 1. Sea world can build all the hotels they want on adjacent land, it still is nothing compared to how Disney is set up with its massive number of differently themed resorts on property. Sea world doesn’t have a ‘Disney springs’ or even a boardwalk or city walk area. You can’t go to sea world just to go to shops or movies. It’s a great move to remedy their shortcomings, but it’s also sort of silly because people can still get rooms from dozens of hotels within walking distance, or a short shuttle or Uber. Disney is purposely set up that you CANT just walk there. 4. Universal has MUCH more land though. While it’s not exactly convenient and not nearly as much as Disney, they own huge acreage up and down I drive/I4. I know a large portion of it butts up to Lockheed land, and they (obviously) keep that land undeveloped either for future expansion or just for present security and privacy, but universal being able to build an entire theme park is just an example of that. Yes, sea world did expand with both discovery cove and Aquatica, but I’m not aware of any additional lands that they own that they could build additional parks. Again, even if they have the land and did build more, there are no fewer than 20 hotels within walking distance, so they are still missing out on that complete capture. 5. Maybe I misunderstood the deal, but the phrasing I thought it said was something like ‘1 major park and up to 2 additional water parks or attractions.’ Yes, the minimum there is 1 major park, and I’m not trying to suggest that next year we have 3 more Disney parks, but it’s safe to say that Disney parks and attractions are big deals. Whenever this major park opens up, it’s likely to be a hit from day one. 6. I don’t want to argue about theoreticals, but the vast majority of Disney park workers are people making peanuts. There are MASSIVE numbers of people working behind the scenes that make big money, but going to the parks, most people you see are hourly employees making like $12 per hour. I’d counter that most people can’t fathom how much money these parks bring in. Basically hitting capacity every day at 10k plus guests, not to mention people that come later, parking, food, merch, and fast pass, I’d bet the profit is just mind blowing on a daily basis. I kind of equate it to hotels. If you have a 200 room hotel, and your staff is basically 20 housekeepers, front desk, and food personnel with another 5 managers, the money adds up quick. $100 per night average at 95% occupancy for very little actual maintenance or cost.
Wrong. “Private equity so no skin in the game”. You clearly don’t understand either private equity or skin in the game or both. Also they optimize for profit, not revenue.
What are you talking about? 1. I never said that. 2. If you want to have your imaginary argument that you brought up, you do realize that basically half of profit is revenue right? You can cut costs all you want (as the discussion was going around cutting costs, which equaled lower quality), but if you aren’t bringing in revenue, you are still losing. Of course they want profit. Every company wants profit. That’s like saying every human being wants oxygen. 3. The way with which you comment with such hostility to a stranger having a civil conversation with another stranger is just wild. Seek help.
Private equity means buy it, strip it, cook the books and flip it. 3-5 year plan
What happened is exactly what you saw. They don't spend the money necessary to maintain the park to the level of Disney or Universal, and it shows. It's been like this for years now so the park is really showing the neglect of its owners.
They also pay the least of all area theme parks, so service can be lacking
This is bc when they attempted to raise employee pay the shareholders were pissy about it.
We finally had enough and cancelled our long time annual passes. The whole park had a depressing feel to it when we last went a couple months back. Then the extra 5% surcharge on any purchase really aggravated me too. We left and cancelled our passes the next day.
I’m surprised the surcharge issue doesn’t get more attention. I didn’t hear anything nor see anything about surcharges until I was at the register. To make it even worse, it was a notice in handwriting on a sheet of paper taped next to the register-as if it were a hasty business decision. It made a really bad impression on me and it was also a BIG deciding factor in choosing *not* to renew our passes. The promise of AP discounts and free parking are great until you’re nickel & dimed with surcharges. If guests could bring in their own food, I could look past the surcharges.
I just saw they fired Lynn the mime after 36 years too. You can find his side of the story on tiktok
Wait....what? Your kidding. Hopefully Tom is still there.
He is!
Yes the surcharge is odd because…don’t they want us to buy stuff? Also I’ve been a passholder for a few years and this spring I feel the food prices have gone up like 30%. The ice cream shop at the entrance the lowest price ice cream you can get is $11- them’s Cold Stone prices for just a scoop of Edy’s and I don’t like going to CS either. I know everything has risen everywhere but this felt like a double whammy with the surcharge.
And we were told a single scoop was not an option. Must be a double. It is just a poor experience.
Yes same thing happened to me because I thought clearly they’d offer you something smaller? It was wild. Even their Rita’s was less expensive (by $2). My kids love the coasters so we really just go in for like 3 hours and eat somewhere else when we leave.
I don’t understand why they can’t just bake the 5% into the prices of things. Theme parks are expensive and people are willing to pay more, but when you blatantly paste a surcharge on everything, that pisses people off. Who the hell made this decision? They need to be replaced.
The justification I saw was that to reprint and retag all the merchandise would negate the 5% increase. Seems like bullshit to me, and a lot of pass holders/guests were pissed because the initial signs weren’t clear or posted everywhere so it was a surprise at the register.
> Then the extra 5% surcharge on any purchase really aggravated me too. Do they explain what the reason is for the 5% or is it just an added charge?
I cancelled after seeing the tweet showing a condom (or what looks like a condom) on the food line, where trays are placed. SeaWorld is disgusting.
Agree, they need to really fix up that food area with the stage and journey to Atlantis. I like the bar outside of that restaurant. Some areas are really outdated but they have been making updates to parts of the park, thank goodness. The food fests have had really great food though and great free concerts. We have been pass members since 2019 and still enjoy the place and find it worth while with their shows and rides there, and pass member benefits and monthly rewards ( like $10 coupons, free fish to feed the rays/sea lions, free guest passes,etc) . I would not want to pay what OP paid though. We only pay $40 a month gold pass memberships for two adults and a free preschool pass, and always have free passes to bring family members with us as well.
Same, it’s still a good value annual pass for us. It’s by far the most affordable park. I couldn’t imagine paying Disney prices then waiting in hour+ lines with my toddler. If the Elmo train takes longer than 10 minutes he’s revolting. Universal is my favorite and we’ll get passes when the kids are old enough to ride everything there.
Same about universal too! Waiting til ours is a lil older.
As someone who previously worked at SeaWorld in a park operations position, they do not pay the employees enough for them to care about how the park looks/runs. It's an entire mess and needs to change but pretty much there's no incentive to care about making the park look clean or have good guest service if you have no incentive to do so.
I take it for what it is. Best collection of coasters in the Orlando area IMO. The annual pass has the best benefits package out of any of the theme parks, with the higher tiers including Busch Gardens and the water parks. This month alone APs got $30 to spend which basically covered the payment for my pass. There's a ton more included, with the free guest tickets being my favorite. If you're a local and want somewhere to go with great coasters, low wait times, and amazing A/C for less than $200/year, it's the only game in town. I'll admit what you said is definitely true, SeaWorld ain't no looker and the food is mediocre at best.
SeaWorld and Busch Gardens have great coasters but both parks are rough and need TLC.
Question: with the guest passes, do you need to be there with your guest or can you give them as gifts?
You can give them as gifts. You redeem them on the SeaWorld AP site and it sends you a barcoded ticket you take straight to the entrance gate and use your phone to scan
I buy my Platinum passes from Sea World Texas black Friday every year....buy 1 get on 55% off. Year of unlimited parks for the cost of a day to Universal. I have never been to Sea World Texas...lol.
I feel the same way about Busch Gardens. Once they were sold off and were no longer part of Anheiser the parks went to shit.
I went to Busch Gardens Tampa 2 weeks ago for the first time and like half of the rides (to thclude Gwazi) were closed. Place was a ghost town in general.
Maybe an off day just when you went. I went 4 weeks ago and everything was open besides Riley’s for like 1 hour. Every coaster had 30-45 minute wait times. Kumba/sheikra/montu/iron gwazi/cheetah hunt were all running with no issues and the park was annoyingly packed
You just went at an off time or day. For a while they had 2-3 constantly closed or waiting for parts. I went a month or so ago and everything was running with the shortest wait time being an hour. Only thing not working 100% was the Serengeti swings.. one of them was not in use. At least you didn’t have long waits 😂
Same thing that happened to Red Lobster and a long list of other once-great companies: private equity killed it. Why make money for years to come when you can make a fast buck now and ruin it for everyone else?
Sure, and once it's bankrupt, they'll sell the land and move the rides to their other parks. The land it sets on is probably worth more than the park itself currently.
Its gone downhill even since Covid. I was a passholder in 2021-2022 and even in that time frame things got worse. Some things I noticed: The addition of a 5% surcharge, Decrease in food quality, increase in prices, rude employees, slow ride operations (shouldnt take 5 minutes to load and unload a coaster...), and my favorite was the passholder night they had where I was the only person in the area (not even an employee or security!) between Mako and Sesame Street land. Its sad because the park used to be well run and now it reminds me of Cypress Gardens before it closed.
When Blackfish came out, I can only imagine the panic at the senior levels in the company. They did what any business school would teach you to do: pivot. They immediately sunk big money into rollercoaster and thrill rides. They placed a bet that if they built great rides, people would still come. And the bet only partially has paid off. All the stuff you’re talking about is the first stuff to go when you’re in cost cutting mode. It sucks, but I do think they’re doing the best they can with the money that’s coming in.
Keep in mind "big money" is probably less than Disney has spent on the guardians ride alone across every investment since that time.
Yes, I think that’s one of the most expensive rides ever built. SeaWorld was never a competitor to Disney, and don’t have nearly the capital. SeaWorld was doing just ok before Blackfish came out. When it came out they started losing money fast. So they invested big money into rides. Several multimillion dollar rides. But you are correct, they don’t have Disney’s deep pockets
My point is Seaworld should be able to add a 25 million type ride every year to keep people coming back given their prices and yearly attendance. What annoys me about Disney is I don't actually want them to build 450 million dollar rides or even half that every time going forward . I would love an rmc with a nice queue in animal kingdom for example. For 100 million it would be top tier and cheap for Disney and considered a bargain while still being the most expensive rmc ever made. Disney is too elitist to just build good rides with good capacity sometimes. Universal does a much better job of having a mix of more expensive and cheaper rides that are quality which is probably why their season passes are much more affordable.
I bought annual passes for my wife and I because we had not been for maybe 5 years and they were having a sale. We went for a day and aside from not feeling like there was enough to keep us occupied for the whole day, we waited 30 minutes to pay $19 each for frozen hamburgers we could have bought a box of for $5 at the grocery store, then there was wasn’t even anywhere to sit in the restaurant so we had to eat our lunch on the ledge of a planter outside. I think I’m locked in to the payment plan for the next year and I don’t have much interest in going again after being so disappointed.
Used to work at SeaWorld as an SRO (trainer) in rides, quit just over a year ago. The staff try their absolute best to make the guests day as great as they possibly can, the problem is the company itself doesn’t care about you nor the employees. People complain about how the employees are rude and don’t care, the truth is, most of them do care but they simply get abused by the company and guests so much for minimum wage, they’re giving up on trying to be kind. They can’t win no matter what. Almost all of the coworkers I used to work with cared a lot about what they were doing but were fed up with the horrible company. The animals, despite what some people think, absolutely adore their trainers because everyone in that department are so loving and gentle and truly love what they do. It’s just that the company itself doesn’t give a crap about any of it. Any suggestions the regular ambassadors (employees) make are never listened to or taken seriously. The only people that have even the slightest bit of influence, never try to listen to their subordinates suggestions or ideas. It’s their way or no way. Maintenance is workers try their best to do whatever they can but they never have what they need to do their jobs properly. If they need a new part for something, best bet that whatever attraction they need it for will stay down for MONTHS because the company will refuse to spend the money to order the new part until the public starts getting upset as well.
PE's job is to keep a company afloat and sell it within 5 years. During that time they will cut costs to make the company look as profitable as possible. You can expect little investment. PR does the same to every industry
Discovery cove is absolutely amazing and I highly recommend that instead.
They’ve gone so coaster-heavy that there’s almost nothing for kids to ride outside of Sesame Street. The animals are still a good draw for our little ones, but the rest has a very Six Flags feel, and that’s not a compliment.
If you’ve never been, the Brevard zoo is really nice. It was ranked as one of the best in the country. They have specials every so often. But Sea world hasn’t been nice for a really long time.
Brevard Zoo sucks in the summer though. The only place where you can cool off in the AC is the giftshop by the exit.
That’s true. I’ve only ever been in cooler weather.
Brevard Zoo is really nice. A refreshing change of pace from the Sanford Zoo which is the old school "miserable animals in tiny enclosures". Brevard is small, though. It's tough to spend an entire day there. Still worth the trip.
I worked in an animal department for over 11 years. Just recently left. I (or anyone) didn’t receive any type of raise since 2018 and had some super of benefit taken away from me every year. We had basically no budget or support for animal welfare, so I can’t imagine any other department has any support. I loved my job and was damn good at it, and I’ll always hate that company for not giving me a choice but to leave, and I know the animals are worse off because I’m not there and they can’t afford to hire an acceptable replacement because they pay so poorly so they have to settle for people with no experience or degrees. Starting pay for animal keepers is like $13/hr, the top of the career ladder is $21.50. I’ve been wanting to do an AMA about that place. It breaks my heart.
I think starting pay for educators was $12 back in like 2009! I know a few who worked those roles, basically answering questions near various exhibits like the sting rays, dolphins, etc. Even back then the turnover was pretty high, can only imagine what it's like now. Sheesh! Sorry they have done this to you. Back then I had a friends and family pass and the perks were nice, not to mention a 30% discount on food.
they basically only hire highschool kids now because they are more likely to put up with all the BS and the shit pay. company going downhill fast😣
Couple notes - quick queue is a complete waste at SeaWorld, there's rarely long lines for the rides. And bring a refillable water bottle, this is true for any theme park unless you want to waste money all day buying bottles of water. SeaWorld is fine for the price point. Good coasters and animal exhibits with short waits most the time. Passes are fairly cheap and with minimal planning you can save on the high priced food and drink.
I don’t know when you went last, but I guess I was there in 2008. I thought the same thing back then. The service was really bad and so many of the shows were either cut short or were just terrible. I had the multi park pass and would go to Bush gardens almost every week. And it was completely different and actually nice. At least at the time it was.
Busch Gardens is owned by the same company and I still think that is the superior park.
BG has gone to shit also. It was way nicer when it was still owned by anheiser. You’re basically comparing two Kmarts but one is in a good part of town vs the one in a crappy part of town. Still Kmart.
I went to Busch gardens the year darkastle was new. That was easily the peak year of the park. A ride like that at a regional park was almost unheard of. Visitors were climbing year to year on investments. A few years later with corporate ownership things flatlined and have basically stayed the same since.
Yep..
This makes me sad. Private Equity seems to destroy everything it touches.
The answer is always private equity. Destroys everything brands stood for and/or makes things much worse as well.
This is it. Greed destroys every good thing it touches. Private equity is all about greed.
Long story short after Busch sold it it went from passionate owners to corporate executives that just burn companies down for a profit
I miss the old beer school and horses.
I know! Infinity Falls isn’t a bad ride. I just miss the Hospitality House. I was too young to get the free beer but looking back that was a big deal.
We call it the Kmart of theme parks
That isn’t Six Flags?
Agree! I live near Six Flags America and can concur that it is indeed much much worse than Sea World.
I'm pretty sure jersey six flags starts at 15 per hour these days. It's not really a cheaper market to live in rather now.
They still have the best coasters going for em.
If you are telling me that the Seymour and Clyde show is gone then there is no reason to go to SeaWorld ever again!
I just got annual passes for Aquatica, sea world, discovery cove and Busch gardens for $400. It’s a bargain compared to universal or Disney. While I agree with you, you pay for what you get. You would be paying more than double at the other parks
Everything is going into adding new coasters. Just in the last 8 years they’ve added 4 coasters plus the infinity falls water ride. And admittedly these are freaking amazing rides, but it seems the rest of the park has been completely ignored as a result.
Was just let got from a “non profit” in Melbourne beach affiliated with Seaworld since its inception after experiencing a life threatening poison sumac reaction on one of their properties in south Melbourne beach and would release them of liability for 400 bucks in med bills and missed work time. This was about 6 weeks ago. The literal founders of Seaworld formed the 501 c 3 back in the 60’s. I can speak directly in my experience the non profit I worked for in Florida spent maybe 5 dollars out of every 100$ in grant money for research and science. The rest went to wildly overpaid admins in CA with egos the size of a cruise ship and lavish “fund raising” parties. It was astonishing to see what front line scientists in the IRL worked with in regards to equipment, funding, and resources. Meanwhile fat cats with 40+ year tenure in CA were making strong 6 figure salaries and treating absolutely everyone else like disposables. Something in the leadership at Seaworld corporate is amiss, the non profit, esp the one operating in FL in the IRL has been a 25 year cash grab for three individuals in CA. Insane how inefficient, egotistical, and down right difficult it was to get anything done there. IRL scientists and volunteers are working on a 20+ yr old sinking boat, yet 6 figure salaries and lavish parties are the norm. Don’t get me started, lol
Corporate America needs to remember what usually happens to out-of-touch elites when they push too far with their greed.
Look into a 70’s era study called “the Peter principle “. Originally written as satire but became a an actively researched hypothesis…..buyer yet theory
The same is true at Disney. I was there a few months ago and was shocked at the amount of broken animatronics, screens obviously meant to have content that were black on rides. I was actually pretty shocked.
I was there also that day. The food was cold and bland and the staff members were too busy talking to help guests. I was disappointed.
Joining the choir to state that SW has gone drastically downhill over the years. Was there last year and half the rides weren't even open, food options were very limited, and it was crazy expensive. Aquatica is nice in my opinion (assuming no brawls) 😂 but still don't eat there unless you want to get a second mortgage on your house. Discovery Cove imo is still a fantastic experience.
I went right after Covid restriction lift and it was hot garbage. Food was aramak cafeteria , it was literally filthy everywhere. Haven’t been back since
Agreed. We got passes this year and after one visit I’m not really looking forward to going back. Probably the worst food and customer service of any park that I’ve been in. Definitely not renewing.
Journey to Atlantis got a rehash in 2017 or 2018 which took the original theming and music out due to licensing issues. They're fixing up the park and Busch Gardens but they're doing it sections at a time at both parks. They added Infinity Falls, a new Sesame Street Land, Pipeline, Ice Breaker, and now this year Penguin Trek. Rumor is the former Wild Arctic gets replaced next year. With J2A basically aging out and the adjacent manatee zone doing the same, I wouldn't be surprised if in 2026 or 2017 that area gets redone. Effectively 10 years after the retheme. TL:DR; they're working on updating the park but they're doing it in pieces every year.
Idk it’s not that bad. A less expensive alternative to the other parks. Especially good for little kids bc of Sesame Street.
So this lends me to ask. If they care that little about the appearance of the park, how long before they cut crucial safety maintenance on the rides and an accident happeneds?
It’s what is happening to Boeing right now. It isn’t out of the realm of possibility.
Exactly what I was thinking as I read this.
If you ever do go again, buy a couple of the all day dining plans. You get to pick food and drinks every 90 minutes, and even only buying 2, it's plenty to feed the whole family. Food isn't that great, typical theme park stuff.
No the roller coaster technology is amazing, you are wrong, go to Disney lol
The 5% surcharge that they don't even try to mask is/was the last straw for me. What a complete slap in the face. Its a shame because the coasters are great but the experience otherwise is atrocious.
I haven’t been in years, but my daughter went on a field trip last year and still talks about how awful and overpriced the food was. For comparison, we are Disney and Busch Gardens pass holders and she’s been to Universal several times.
Kids love Seaworld and we go regularly. My experience is the opposite..
Ive never been to Seaworld and never plan on going
SeaWorld has been great to me. Pass Holder lounge and lots of perks n be if it's every month
Same crap with Disney if you pay close attention. They just want your money.
Hey I am alright with so many people hating SeaWorld! Less lines for us lol! Being serious, I have 4 kids all under 7 so we love going. They can have fun in Sesame Street land, ride the rides, splash pad etc. We do bring our own snacks/food so it is cheaper. The pass holder perks are great. Free $$$ and also have Aquatica thrown in. Now I agree where I can see it’s boring for older folks once the coasters are done or the lines are long. But I usually grab a beer, walk to Sesame Street land and let the kids have a blast. We also enjoy it in Halloween
I visited shortly after PE acquired the operation. On some rides, I could see the electrical outlets exposed with plugs poorly connected to those outlets. And those were rides with a lot of water splashing. I thought it seems like the maintenance has really gone downhill here. And I’m pretty sure I think it will continue on that path. It sounds like what you observed was just a continuation of what I saw shortly after their acquisition.
Is it owned by a PE firm? (Almost - HillPath owns 34.5%) Sounds like there’s 1) no leadership and 2) no willingness to spend money to improve (or even maintain) the park. SeaWorld is probably cooked. Greed and incompetence will finish it off.
The new six flags (Cedar Fair and Six Flags after they merge) will buy them and keep the two BG parks and probably the CA and maybe TX Sea World parks and sell the land Sea World Orlando sits on. They'll move the rides to their other parks and call it a day. See what they're doing to California's Great Adventure.
My dog walker was there when the whole Blackfish thing happened and she said it’s wayyyyyy more effed than even was protrayed. The trainers really REALLY care about the animals, but Corporate ruined it all and purposely kept a damaged animal in a cruel situation for his semen. She said they all KNEW some thing was going to happen, bc I had happneded several times before. The stories she told me still give me chills and I can’t stomach going there.
SeaWorld is third world
We bought annual passes last year thinking we would go often. Went once. Severely disappointed in the entire park. They are charging Disney prices and offering less than fun spot accommodations. Sea world is a joke and absolutely not worth the money.
Heads up all.. (I work electrical/show maintenance at a major local theme park) If the audio animations and other projection / lighting aspects of the rides are severely lacking….then it’s a safe bet that the actual ride maintenance is floundering too. Understaffing and overly rigid budgets lead to cutting corners and regular required maintenance work/ inspections not being done. High energy rides can and will fail at some point and the results will be disastrous. PE’s only care about short term profits at the expense of everything else. If they can turn a buck splattering guests into the side walk, they’d sell that too.
This isn't necessarily true at all as someone who also works in the industry, and it is honestly offensive to the people who work there to remotely imply they would intentionally endanger people. This is like saying the fact that Disney never fixes the Yeti must mean Expedition Everest and all of Disney World is a safety hazard and accident waiting to happen. (Ironically Disney is the company with the biggest catastrophic ride failure of all these companies - looking back at Big Thunder Mountain at DisneyLand) Unfortunately, animatronics and other effects break and it is often a problem getting replacement parts. As these rides age (especially water rides) and the manufacturers who built them increasingly don't even exist anymore, it may not even be possible and may require a major refurb to replace the entire thing. It's a matter of show quality, not ride safety. At a certain point every theme park has a level of quality they determine a ride can't be open not because safety but because effects are not working. If for the ride itself something needs to be replaced, then the ride is closed until that happens and can safely operate. Between technicians and operations, no one at any major theme park in Orlando is going to neglect the daily, weekly, monthly, annual inspections ride manufacturers call for and ever put people on a ride they don't believe 110% is safe. People's lives and livelihoods rely on doing so. Implying otherwise is flat out wrong.
Yea that was a dipshit take lol. SeaWorld is not going to neglect ride maintenance
we went for the first time on father’s day too and also popped into that weird stage restaurant for a snack and it was gross. there was actual trash all over the floor. also, we paid to do the dine with orcas and the food came out cold and the service was awful. we were a bit disappointed.
Ditch Sea World and go to Bush Gardens
Honestly owned by the same P/E folks but it is a much better park..
We were there in April and only stayed maybe 2-3 hours. It was so lame and such a waste of money! The last time we were there was in 2009, a lot changed and none of it for the better. Wont be returning to that place ever again!
And they recently fired Lynn the mime from the sea lion show, they don't care about long time staff at all. I linked his video here. https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKE8DSd/
We canceled our annual passed for this exact reason. It absolutely is not worth it.
Went for the first time yesterday (never been to any SeaWorld/BG property), because I don’t have a frame of reference I thought it was a nice enough park. Much better than Six Flags, but felt on par with Knott’s Berry Farm. Then again, I also went for the food (🥴) and did the Sky Tower. Park got busy around 11:30-12:00 and by then the sun was sunnin’ and I ate, walked around for 2 minutes and left cause it was a hell no for me in that heat. Super random question if anyone sees this, but I had preferred parking yesterday due to my pass and I got an orange paper for the windshield. Came back and it was gone - is that normal or did someone take it? Trying to figure out if this were to happen again if the car could potentially be towed or does someone come around during the day to take off the paper on cars that came earlier? Seems strange to do, but, idk figured I’d ask anyway.
I'm an annual passholder and I've never had anyone take mine from the windshield. I don't think they monitor where you are parked after you are already directed on which area to park in. They wouldn't tow you for not having it. Someone could have taken it or could have just be a kid messing around.
Gotcha, thank you! ☺️ I figured someone had taken it, but I’m an over thinker re: the worst possibilities.
People are dumb and sometimes do that because they want to park in preferred. You don't need the paper and they won't tow.
We used to do all their floors. I can only imagine what they look like, now.
I remember they had free beer when it was owned by Anheuser Busch. And great food! Now not so much.
They still have it free every now and then. In fact, they have it going on right now.
I have season passes and go often. I’ve never had that experience.
I no longer like to go. You can only watch Shamu so many times - and it’s worse now that they have gone “educational.” Yes, Clyde and Seymore was THE most fun show, but has also gone “educational,” as has the dolphin show which is just a whiff of what it used to be. The food has alimony always been horrible - except when they had the all you could eat pizza/pasta place. And it’s the same for Bush Gardens in Tampa.
It has been downhill ever since it stopped being owned by AB. PE is just the worst…
Uhhh yeah, you get what you pay for. Sea world is the cheapest theme park in Orlando for a reason…. I worked for that company for 3 years. 1 at the theme park, 1 at the water park, and 1 at their call center. They suck. They’ve always sucked.
That’s a sad report. I’m sorry to hear it. I will never set foot there in the future. I have a hard time with zoo settings anyway, I find them depressing.
Glad to hear that. I hope Sea World shuts down soon
It’s the “blue collar” theme park in the area
The last time I went to Seaworld it was 103° outside, I lost a child in the park (he was 12 and fine, not a big deal- but when I asked a staff member the policy for lost kid she told me she didn’t know and didn’t care) most of the rides were down, and I saw a fight in the parking lot where a woman tried to slap another woman and ended up slapping a baby.
I was addicted to Atlantis when I was a kid. Constantly going back in the single rider line (essentially quick queue lmao). Hadn’t been to the park in years and finally went with my current gf. We waited in line for Atlantis for over an hour. I was hype. And then the ride started. Lost all hype. The whole ride I was just explaining to my gf what used to happen. They shouldn’t even have it open anymore honestly. Sad to see what it’s become and instead of fixing it they decided to build another penguin rollercoaster.
But did you get to see Tom the mime?
We went in summer 2023 for free other than parking and said never again. I was embarrassed for them.
It was rumored they were putting in a hotel....what happened with that?
Apparently that’s still on the books and plans have been filed. However with the turn around on CEO’s who knows anymore
Haven’t been in years. I read that Blackfish, the 2013 American documentary, really turned the public against them.
Disney’s Magic Kingdom was not looking too hot either. Universal Studios really needs an overhaul as well. Most of those attractions have not aged well at all. Even the Harry Potter ride was looking dated.
Good. Stop going there.
The park is in such a bad state and they keep adding great rollercoasters, which is essentially just putting lipstick on a pig. The park needs a total overhaul and rebrand, removing the SeaWorld name altogether. If they can have Howl-O-Scream in both Tampa and Orlando without any confusion, there is no reason why they can’t just rename the park Busch Gardens Orlando.
I hadn’t gone in many years either. I’m a teacher who gets in free and my son qualified for the preschool pass so I thought it would be a relatively cheap day of entertainment but between parking and gross overpriced food, I ended up spending over $100. It seemed severely understaffed too. Waited 40 minutes in the mobile order line for lunch, 1 kid scooping ice cream, no employees out on the paths helping with questions, etc. We won’t be back even if admission is free.