DISCLOSURE: We booked this trip on sponsorship and we’re given a discounted family package that included a weekend Suite accommodation and $150 MasterCard. Although this is was a sponsored trip, the content and opinions are my own. This is my honest review of our experience. We have no affiliation to SeaWorld Orlando at all. I am just proud to share our experience as a family on our first trip to SeaWorld Orlando.
It was Mother’s Day weekend and we booked a weekend full of family fun and adventure.
We were set to head off to Orlando, Florida with our little ones. We truly admire the fact we live just 2 hours north of Orlando and are just a few miles away from the most visited family tourist spot in the world. This is one of the biggest reasons why we moved from New York to Jacksonville, Florida. We wanted to be closer to Orlando without being exactly in Orlando. Traffic was definitely a huge factor in this decision making. Orlando’s tourist traffic is definitely something to get used to.
Back to our adventure!
We were packed and ready for our adventure. We made certain to pack our swimsuits, flip flops, sunscreen, and of course our camera. We were excited to visit SeaWorld Orlando for the first time. I like going on adventures for the first time with our family because we all get the opportunity to experience new memories together. Our children were so excited to get to see the whales and dolphins up close. They were so excited and nervous at the same time. I must say, our children are very passionate about animals especially sea animals. We have a small aquarium at home with different kinds of fish. However, going to SeaWorld, was on a different level for them.
We were also very excited to be going to SeaWorld as a family.
However, I must be transparent here. We typically don’t go to adventure parks as a family. This is for many reasons. First of all, the adventure parks are expensive especially the major ones in Orlando, Florida. Let’s be honest, after we spent a fortune going to the Disney Magic Kingdom, I was for sure that we weren’t going to another theme park for a long while. However, once we checked into our resort, we inquired about any promotions on theme park tickets for our size family. Being that we’re Florida residents, we were able to get a great promotional package that included discounted tickets to two SeaWorld Theme Parks for the cost of one!
We were truly excited about the promotion that they were offering at the time for Florida residents. Along with the two theme park tickets, the package also included the added meal package for the entire family plus parking passes. We literally landed a huge deal! We paid a total of $320 for a total of 5 tickets, for two parks, a meal package to two parks plus parking passes for both parks. We literally could not resist this promotion. The two parks that we chose were, of course, SeaWorld and Aquatica.
Being that we were in Orlando only for a weekend trip, we knew that going to two parks each day that we were there would have been entirely too time-consuming.
I will be honest; it would have felt like a chore to me rather than enjoyment. Seriously, I don’t know about you all, but my children get overly excited at theme parks and just being on vacation in general. So, when they are overly excited, let’s just say they don’t listen as much as they usually will. So, it’s more like me screaming and dropping the f-bomb constantly. This is not my preference, so I take the latter and try to control the day as much as possible for the sake of everyone.
As we prepared for the day, we checked the weather and made sure the forecast was not raining all day because if you didn’t know, Orlando is known for its rainy days. The forecast said 20% chance of rain which meant we probably were going to be in the clear. Just to be safe we packed our umbrellas. SeaWorld is not much of a water park but more like an adventure park. Therefore, the swimwear was not needed. We just dressed ourselves and the kiddies in comfortable clothes. We also didn’t need to pack a snack bag for once because all of our meals, drinks, and snacks were covered.
Our daughter at the time was 2 years old so we didn’t have to pay for her. Therefore, she didn’t get her own wristband for the meal packaged. So, of course, she ate off of all of our plates which was more than enough as they really packed the food on there. What they typically do is give out wristbands to the ones with the meal package when they check-in. The wristband could only be scanned every hour. This is so no one else could use your wristband right after you. You will have to wait the hour after.
Parking at the park was a bit tedious.
Once you arrive, parking was $20 for regular size vehicles. However, we didn’t have to pay because it was already paid for at our package price. I suggest getting to the park early. The park opens up at 10:00 am, so, getting there around 9:00 am isn’t a bad idea. That way you get great parking. We arrived there around 9:30 am and had a little walk from the parking lot to the kiosk. If you have your tickets printed, then you could take that and go directly to the entrance line. However, being that we didn’t have our tickets, we needed to stand in line to change our tickets over and receive our wristbands. The lines were long for Mother’s Day weekend however, we expected it to be.
After we checked into the park, we definitely purchased a little buggy for our daughter. There’s a lot of walking, so make sure you bring your sneakers! I am not typically a tennis sneaker wearer however, something told me to bring my sneakers that day and I did not. My feet weren’t killing me but just bring sneakers and don’t risk it.
We walked around to each exhibit and I must say this was one of our favorite parks.
We had a blast. Our favorite exhibit was with the dolphins of course! My children still talk about this adventure to this day.
If you haven’t been to SeaWorld Orlando, I truly recommend it as we had a blast for Mother’s day weekend.
Here are our other posts you may like about vacationing to Orlando, Florida
