On Saturday, my wife and I spent a full 8 hours out at SeaWorld, taking in the stingrays, dolphins, manatees, sea lions, sharks, and, of course, whales. We even managed to see 3 shows (Blue Horizons, Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island, and Shamu Rocks!) and ride two rides (Kraken and Wild Arctic). While the park was busy, I was amazed that we didn’t have to deal with many crowds (other than after the Shamu Rocks! show).

Whenever I visit a theme park, I find myself putting together a mental list of things that the park does well and another of what could be improved. Here are my lists from yesterday …

Things SeaWorld does well
- The animals and show performers are always on their “A” game
- Animal education is a top priority
- New shows sacrifice animal “face-time” for better entertainment
- Excellent variety of food selections

Things SeaWorld could improve upon
- Too many employees don’t care about the guest experience
- Second-class attractions are treated as an after thought

Just to expand on these “areas of improvement”, of the 10 or so non-performing, non-educational employees we interacted with, only 2 of them seemed to care about their job. The team members at Kraken were involved in a non guest-related dispute of sorts, making for a very inefficient load-unload of the park’s best attraction.

The “second-class” attractions I’m speaking of are “Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island” and “Wild Arctic”. The performance of “Clyde and Seamore” seemed more like a pre-hours rehearsal, with the cast members joking around and improvising on an already poor script. “Wild Arctic” was abysmal, as the entire pre-show was skipped and the overview/security film was presented in a “let’s just get this over with” manner. The ride was then interrupted mid-way through with the end-of-show security message about waiting for the doors to open before unbuckling our seat belts.

With all of that said, I still think SeaWorld does an excellent job of providing a fantastic overall guest experience and it’s a park that I always enjoy visiting. I’m really excited to see how their newly announced thrill ride comes together and am also looking forward to my first visit to Aquatica.

For some pictures of SeaWorld, check the out the newly updated photo gallery.

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