This year for Spring Break we went to CA again, this was our first stop- Sea World! I have to say, after going last year I wasn't sure that there would be much to see or do going a second year in a row, but my hubby and kids loved it last year so we made sure to add it to our schedule. And I'm glad we did! If you're planning a trip to Sea World and you need to stay on a budget you'll want to check out some ways to save money, and maybe even get some free tickets!
We were able to do different things than we had the year before for example-
First let me tell you my FAVORITE and the coolest new thing we experienced at Sea World-
All day dining!
So here's the deal, it's roughly $18 for children and $38 for adults.
You get a wrist band to wear all day, and every 60 minutes you can go get food free!
For adults it includes: a drink, a entree & your choice of a side dish or a dessert
For children it includes: child meal (which includes a drink) and a side dish or dessert
This was the BEST thing we did! So I asked one of the workers at the gate how it worked and she told me the breakdown of it. I asked her if we could share food and her answer was that the rules say no sharing- BUT she pointed out that no one is going to be there monitoring how you eat your food and it's your family so if you share food that's your choice. (which I agree with- plus there's a time limit on how often you can get food anyway)
So what we ended up doing was getting 2 child wristbands and 1 adult.
Then we just made sure to watch the clock and every hour (when we could) we went to the nearest place on the list of venues (they're all throughout the park) and got food. It was awesome!
We got to try a lot of things we normally wouldn't buy. And a lot of the food is pretty expensive so just for a idea- BEFORE taxes the cost of all the food we got throughout the day would have normally cost us- $205.42 (probably around $225 with taxes) And instead we paid just under $80 for the wristbands.
PLUS we probably missed at least 2 times we could have eaten. Each meal would have cost about $45 so after only eating twice it had paid for itself.
For example, the kids meals are all $6.99, and the adult entrees ranged from $8.99-$16.99 Then the drinks were $3.29 each, and sides/desserts were $3.29-5.99 each
The food was pretty good. I have to say that my favorite was the Calypso Bay Smokehouse (and it was the best value using the wrist bands), the fruit cups and desserts were pretty similar throughout the park and they were all amazing!
Last year since it was our first year going we went to both the Dolphin show and the Shamu show. This year the dolphin show was closed due to renovations, and instead of going to the Shamu show we spent the time exploring and doing other things we didn't get to last year.
We did go to the seal show- that was fun, short and sweet I think it was only about 30 minutes but entertaining (even a bit cheesy) and the kids really enjoyed it.
So they had this one guy lip singing popular songs and dressing up in costumes before the show started- it was pretty funny and entertaining for both parents and kids.
Here's a picture of some of us waiting for the show to start.
The kids and my hubby went on a lot of rides, which left me on little kid duty- which included supervising nap time..... It really wasn't too bad except nap time happened to be in a area where there were NO benches and I had to sit on the ground while waiting for the others to go on a ride. Ahhh the joys of being a mom at an amusement park! *Note to Sea World- more benches would be awesome .
They do have some rides for younger kids as well so it's not like the 2 little ones missed out on everything all day :)
Sea World always doubles as educational for my kids too- each time we've gone they've learned something new. They love being able to pet some of the fish and this trip my son even got to pet a dolphin! (they had them in the pool and you weren't supposed to touch the water unless a dolphin came up to you then you were allowed to pet it- I think wearing blue shirts made us look like their trainers so they came up to us)
Matching shirts are a thing I like to do. This year I didn't take as much time making the shirts, but instead found some clearance deals on ones that would work for all of us. Sea World was Captain America shirt day :) It makes it easier to keep track of everyone, and we got quite a few compliments too.
And remember, if you are a teacher you can get a free yearly pass and up to 3 free tickets!
If you have a child between the ages of 3-5 they can get a free preschool pass here. Just make sure to bring a copy of their birth certificate with you when you go to the park.
I want to thank Sea World for providing some complimentary tickets so that we could do this review! :)
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