Seaworld must really be desperate if they’re giving away passes to the park and their waterpark for only 180 bucks. Go with a friend and you’re paying only 90 dollars!
Hot damn.
It costs nearly $200 to watch fish swim? I’s amazed anyone pays that amount.
They’re annual passes, so you can go whenever you feel like. They probably figure most people who would buy an annual pass thinking it’s a great deal probably only go a few times.
The Six Flags near DC was having a sale last year at $50 per annual pass. A day ticket was more then that. The catch was you had to buy 4 or more. I have two girls and me, but I ended up buying four passes, saving money, and giving a pass away. The pass included parking, which is $20 each time, plus I can go to any of the other Six Flags in the US and park for free.
It’s a great deal, and because it was good for the last part of last year I’ve already gotten my monies worth. This summer will be a plus. The nice thing is that even if we only go for a couple of hours on the weekend it doesn’t matter how packed it is there.
Ms. Cups and went ahead and got one.
Free parking is huge in a deal like that, plus the wildcard in this deal isn’t that we can see Shamu multiple times…but we have access to the waterpark.
Gonna be a hot saturday? Let’s go play in a giant ass pool with fun rides all the time.
Bought the passes and will laugh all the way to the bank
Boyo Jim:
I can only assume you’ve never been to Sea World. It’s much more than an aquarium.
I think part of it is that they figure you’ll probably eat something while you’re there. And the locals who buy these passes fill up the amusement/theme parks on days when there are fewer tourists.
The passes also give discounts to regular tickets.
So if we want to bring friends/family that don’t have passes then it’s money made for them
Slight hijack, but I saw a Groupon this week for half price tickets to a Nickelback/Lifehouse show…
…that’s not until July :smack:
They must be doing horribly.
I’ve heard (but haven’t personally researched) that Seaworld attendance and sales are way down because of the documentary Blackfish and surrounding boycott and bad press. I took my family there once in the late 1980s and don’t remember how much it cost at the time but I saw Blackfish and as a result would never go back to Seaworld, even if the tickets were completely free.
I’ve heard the same thing; and I think it’s sad. Sea World single-handedly brought orcas into America’s consciousness and made them accessible to millions of us. Now, they stand accused of being horrible care-takers of these animals, and I think it’s unfair.
I think it’s directly due to Sea World’s efforts that we all know what killer whales are, but probably couldn’t distinguish other similar cetaceans, such as belugas, pilot whales, and narwhals.
Although, I will concede that Sea World’s male orca that keeps eating people is problematic.
When it comes to ANY documentary I always know that the doc says one thing, the people in the doc say another, and the truth is somewhere in between.
It better be. I can only imagine one of these fish can give me a happy ending. Perhaps the blowfish?
Many point to Blackfish as the cause of SeaWorld’s problems, and it probably hurt them; but I think SeaWorld’s bigger problem is the stronger competition of Universal Studios. All the non-Disney Orlando parks play second fiddle to Disney, but with the Harry Potter stuff at Universal, Universal is rising in popularity. The biggest casualty is SeaWorld because families are prioritizing Disney and Universal. The vast majority of families that are going to split their visit over two resorts is going to hit Disney and Universal. Fewer people are willing to hit all three resorts so SeaWorld ends up the loser.
Pretty much no one goes to Orlando specifically to go to SeaWorld. SeaWorld exists by picking off people coming to Orlando for Disney. Their ability to pull guests has been decimated by Harry Potter.
While Blackfish probably had an impact, my bet is on Harry Potter as the SeaWorld killer.
It’s super cheap, comparatively, to get passes to any of the big Chicago area attractions: Six Flags, The Shedd Aquarium, Field Museum, Art Institute, etc, because most of their spending comes from tourists and people that live here won’t go more than a few times a year anyway. An annual pass to the Art Institute for a family of 4 is only like $110-120.
Most tourist places have a year membership+one that doesn’t cost much more than taking two people into the resort twice or is even slightly less than two days’ visit. The few that don’t are places like Disney - actually, Disney is the only one I can think of.
It means they get their money upfront, which is better for their finances. It’s also usually (in the UK) on a direct debit, so if you don’t opt out you get renewed even if you didn’t want to; I imagine something like that happens in the US. Some people opt out of these but a few don’t.
But basically the vast majority of people going there will only go once. Even if they visit the area regularly they might only go every couple of years. Dangle an offer in front of them and they’ll leap up like a seal and go back and second time and feel like they got a bargain. And they will, in a way, as long as they were actually interested enough to enjoy a second day there. Then they can try to time next year’s vacation so it’s just before the validity expires, and that means that they will be far more likely to go there than if they were just thinking “hmm, what dates shall I go to Uncle John’s Florida apt?”
So they go back again sooner than they would otherwise have planned; they spend money at the cafes, and they make the resort look busy. For some places with a somewhat educational remit, and I think Seaworld probably counts among them, revenue from the govt or from charities, bequests, etc, can be higher if you can demonstrate that more people were coming through your doors. Repeat visitors count towards that.
Basically, Seaworld can’t lose with this.
It’s marketing well done, and it makes more money for Seaworld than charging on the door does.
You should take a trip up here and try out ours (Six Flags-Great Escape and Splashwater Kingdom) in Lake George, NY. The park was opened in 1954 as Storytown, USA by Charles Wood, a local and noted philanthropist in this area. It was purchased by Six Flags in the 80’s. It also has one of the best old wooden roller coasters in North America, the Comet.
Plus, it’s incredibly beautiful here. Sorry, I don’t work the tourism board here, I swear. I’m just rally proud of the beautiful place where I live.