Diving into SeaWorld Orlando on Reopening Day

SeaWorld Orlando opened yesterday, June 11, with new safety procedures and a new park reservation system in place. As tourist attractions all over the Central Florida area are reopening, we took a trip to SeaWorld Orlando to show you what’s changed. 

New SeaWorld Health & Safety Procedures

The safety procedures are similar to what we have seen at both the Universal Orlando Resort and Disney Springs, including temperature screenings, mandatory face coverings, physical distancing, hand sanitizing and increased cleaning of everything.

There was an abundance of signage posted to encourage guests to follow safety guidelines and to wear masks, remain socially distant, frequently wash hands, and to use contactless payments whenever possible. 

There are mask free areas throughout the park as well. These are quiet areas, separated from traffic flow, that give guests a spot to take a break from wearing their masks and cool down for a bit. You are reminded to keep extra distance from other guests in these areas for your safety. 

Reservation System

While park capacity has been significantly lowered overall, there were still reservations available for opening day. Reservations are checked at the parking entrance. Park reservations are available on the SeaWorld website and in the SeaWorld app. You must have a valid ticket for entry prior to reserving your day.

Single-day tickets do not need an additional reservation as they are date specific.

Enter the ticket number and personal information. From here you can print your ticket or take a picture on your phone. We decided to print as there were a few of us going. 

Park Entry

To enter the parking area, you are required to show your reservations. This did slow the entry process. As there was no mention of this requirement, we were not prepared and had to pull out our reservation from our bag. Hopefully they’ll start notifying guests in advance to be prepared to show reservations at parking. 

The temperature check area was in a tent prior to the security area. You are directed to a line. Once your entire party has been checked you may continue on to the security checkpoint.

Again you are directed to a line. New line dividers have been put in place for each row.

Once through security, the lines are similar to how they operated in the past. However, line dividers have been added to channel guests.

To enter the park, you need a valid park ticket along with your valid park reservation ticket. This proved quite cumbersome as we had 8 tickets for 4 people! I don’t believe it would have been any easier with the tickets on our phone, which is suggested. The reservations are coded with your name and need to be matched with the correct tickets for entry.

Rides

Masks are required, even on rides. I personally had no problems keeping my mask on, even on the big Mako coaster. 

Rides were sanitized after every ride, with riders every other row. This does slow the ride turnover time significantly. Luckily, the lines were not long on opening day.

Not all rides were open, Manta and Atlantis were closed. Wild Arctic and Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin had only the animal viewing open, the ride portions were closed.

Sesame Street

Much of the Sesame Street area was closed.

The interactive area is open though.

Social distancing is practiced and masks are worn even on Sesame Street.

Characters were available for socially distanced photo ops. I didn’t catch the characters, but you can see the markings on the ground.

Animal Encounters and Viewing

Not all Animal Encounters or viewing areas are open. The Stingray Lagoon is walled off completely.

At the dolphin nursery, the close encounter area is closed.

There are socially distanced ground markers placed around available viewing areas. 

Shows

At the Orca Encounter, the seating is marked every other row. Each row available has 3-foot markings for distancing. In addition, only every other section is available for seating. Just keep your party together and allow lots of space between you and the next party in your row. 

While the “Soak Zone” center section was pretty full, the other areas had plenty of space.

Exiting the show, Ambassadors hold brightly colored flags, and the stadium empties by announcing the color sections.

This is the only show we viewed, but I understand the other available shows are similar.

Shopping

New merchandise is on hand to give a little lightness to the social distancing measures.

Bonus: Ice Breaker Construction Update

Ice Breaker will be the first multi-directional launch vertical drop coaster at SeaWorld Orlando. While the official opening date has not been announced, pre-pandemic closing it was supposed to open sometime in 2020.

The final piece of the attraction was installed in late February. A coaster train is already on the track. We might just see this twisted monster open soon. 

Overall Thoughts on SeaWorld’s Reopening

While we waited in line to get into the parking lot I was a bit concerned about how the day would go. Once we parked and started our adventure, I was relieved to see that entering the park ran smoothly. The distancing markings were clear and there was plenty of signage to remind people to follow guidelines. People, for the most part, complied with wearing masks and social distancing. In general, the park was not very crowded, but it was very hot and humid. Our masks did get uncomfortable, but not bad enough to make us want to leave. We simply made use of rest areas and drank lots of water. We spent about 5 hours in total at SeaWorld before calling it a day. I felt comfortable in the park and look forward to going back again this weekend. Now that I know what to expect, we can make better use of our time in the park, and perhaps see the characters this time around.

SeaWorld is scheduled to be closed Tuesdays and Thursdays for deep cleaning (there are a few schedule exceptions around the holidays). Reservations are currently available through the remainder of the year.