Anyone else disappointed with SeaWorld?

[Ah80207]

Just returned from our sixth trip Have always loved Seaworld before, but have never really been at peak, peak season. The upshot is we won't be going again! After the slickness and super-organisation of Disney and Universal Studios, it just seemed so chaotic and frustrating! Very few staff around to ask for help, enormous queues right at the start of the day, rides not running with no explanation or information, truly dreadful customer service and ridiculously long lines in the restaurants (ONE member of staff doing all the hot food while people queued out of the door!) and why on earth open the park at nine but then keep most of it closed off until ten, allowing huge lines to build up? Shamu's harbour still hadn't opened at 10.45, and there was no information and nobody there to ask about it. We went to the Sea Lion show, and were told it had been full for ten minutes, but as we were walking back staff were still sending people up to it! Have they not heard of walkie-talkies? All the parks we went to were very busy, but WDW and US/IOA are so much better organised that there is at least method in the madness! Felt very cheated when we left at 2pm.

[Guest]

please not another negative thread about seaworld why is it seaworld always seems to get such negative things said about it. we have been to florida twice and are ready for our next trip in a few weeks and seaworld is our most visited park. we go there at least 5 times in a trip and have never had any problems and have never felt it is a poor park at all. there will always be something negative about parks but not just seaworld, all parks! we have problems just about every time we go to alton towers and we go there a lot as we have annual passes every year does it stop us going just because we had to wait for food or wait for a ride because it broke down? NO! you have to accept that things happen in life. i used to work behind a bar as a superviser and would often be left on my own whilst the bar was 3 deep. and it was very frustrating but sometimes these things happen maybe they had people call in sick at seaworld or maybe they needed the people that are usually at those certain places that had the queues somewhere else. did you go to guest relations and complain? if you had done then im sure they would have helped you out and maybe even given you a fast pass or something for one of the rides. instead of being nasty about a park that does so much good why not think about the reasons why these things could have happened? if anything i think busch gardens is the worst park for customer service and queues ect... when we were getting off the skyride the person attending to that rushed us off that quickly and was that rude my fiancee banged his head quite badly. it immediatly got a big bump. the guy didnt even ask my fiancee if he was ok or anything that bump was still on his head 2 months later... seaworld is ALWAYS getting negative feedback and where i understand it upsets people and frustrates them when things go wrong i honestly dont think its anything to complain about just having to wait for things... my opinion anyway

[itsrachelhere]

Sorry you had a bad experience. I still love it though!

[Macmac]

Seaworld has always been our favourite park, but to be honest we noticed a few changes on our last trip which took the shine of it a little .

Just little things like the space at the Dolphin interaction being significantly reduced to create more space for those who pay to feed the dolphins. And the creation of the restuarant in what was possibly the best vieing area for the aquarium.

There have been many little things that we noticed that had detracted from what we had experienced on previous visits.

I know they need to make the money when and where they can, so I suppose it is progress in one way or another.

Also the management of the queues by taking cars of the kracken ride when quiet, increasing the wait time from 20 minutes up to 40 minutes or so.

However it wouldnt subdue my enthusiasm to visit the park if we ever do the parks again.

[Guest]

We were very disappointed with Seaworld on our first visit a couple of years ago and won't be visiting it this summer.

Nothing in particular, just didn't particularly enjoy the rides or the shows, nice to do once but no need to go back basically for us

[Melanie R]

We've always enjoyed Seaoworld but I'll be honest our last visit was a disappointment for us and I'm not sure we would rush back in a hurry
We found it lacked atmosphere when we were there and they were in the process of decorating for Christmas and had lots of areas cordoned off - just seemed to be lacking somehow.

[Ah80207]

Cutekitty - I've not been a dibber that long so never seen another thread about Seaworld but your reply - "not another negative thread about Seaworld", "seaworld is ALWAYS getting negative feedback" and "why is it SeaWorld always seems to get such negative things said about it" is not doing much to change my opinion - I was curious to know whether the day we went was an "off day" or whether other dibbers felt the same, and I think you've answered that question :-)

My first visit to Seaworld was back in 1998. then it felt like a breath of fresh air, and a break from the fast pace of the other parks. Now it seems to have become a lot more commercial, charging for things that used to be free, and I didn't feel the expansion had been balanced out with the additional staff and organisation that are needed. Just my opinion!

[MrsBC]

We used to love Seaworld when Annheuser Busch owned it; it seemed to have a different atmosphere then, more about the animals than rides. We haven't been for a while and the family want to visit when we go next year - so we'll see what the changes are like.

[Fieryannie]

We visited in 2009 but not on our Agenda for this year... Doesn't like look we're missing out on anything then!

xxx

[sueh6]

We love Seaworld - always go every visit but make sure that we plan in the same way as we would any other park.

I thought their customer service last year was very good - we purchased the QQ tickets for a particular day but sadly the weather was awful and many of the rides were closed - I went to guest services and was given QQ passes for any day we chose to go back and they were very pleasant.

It's not Disney or Universal and things can go wrong but they can also go wrong too within Disney/US. If I'm being honest our experience at Disney wasn't great last year but these things happen ... don't get upset about it but if you feel that strongly then perhaps you should have spoken to a manager or next time vote with your feet and not go.