Busch Gardens Tampa announced last month that it again would be serving free beer to visitors ages 21 and over at the park. Today, sister park SeaWorld Orlando announced that it will be offering the same deal this summer, too.
The free brews will be available at the park starting this Friday, May 18 through September 2, 2018 from 10:30 a.m. to one hour before park close. Complimentary domestic and seasonal beers will be available to guests 21 years of age and older. Guests can visit Mama’s Pretzel Kitchen Patio and receive up to two complimentary 7-ounce beers per visit. The park will rotate beer offerings throughout the summer starting off with SeaWorld’s very own Mako Red Ale. Bud Light, Coors Light, Miller Light, Yuengling and more will also be featured throughout the summer.TweetPark guests are also invited to enjoy Happy Hour at SeaWorld, daily starting at 4 p.m. Happy Hour will feature buy one, get one free offers on all drink and food items at Flamecraft Bar and Sharks Underwater Grill Bar. Both locations feature a variety of domestic and craft beer, mixed drinks and sharable appetizers.
Are you being sarcastic?
I, like most Sea World executives I imagine, often wonder: Is it just too much for Sea World to recover? Without angering activists by adding more living draws to the parks, do you think they'll ever be considered at the same level as Disney or Universal? And what would it take?
I think Robert put it best in an earlier column - Theme parks are becoming more story driven, and while Sea World has some incredible stories to tell, they all involve US (the guests) starting out as a villain. That can be a turn off to many, negating all of the work their storytellers have done to lay out a narrative. Their stories end with a "call to action" where the guest can chose to be the hero, but it can often fall flat because so many guests have no desire being "preached" to while on vacation. Some of the Sea World stories have tried to focus on the animals as the heroes (TurtleTrek and Antarctica), but it's difficult to stay true to their mission of conservation without anthropomorphizing the animal heroes, meaning that the attractions lack spirit/excitement and relatability.
What they probably need to do is to create separate "lands" that allow for storytellers to be a little more fantastical in the narratives instead of being so dedicated to reality. Sesame Street is probably a step in the right direction, and perhaps they can find other IPs that can be used to tell animal and conservation stories without being so preachy and scientific. I actually enjoy the science and realistic accuracy of Sea World (I'm a geologist by trade), but understand that people don't go on vacation to be lectured to or to see perfect recreations of habitats.
This discussion has been archived and is no longer accepting responses.
Now they just need to do shows where the trainers balance on the Orca's nose and SeaWorld might have a revival