SeaWorld Orlando

WARNING: Contrary to what the app says, Kraken and Journey To Atlantis CLOSE TWO HOURS EARLY EVERY DAY. The only way to know this of course, is by walking across half the park to get to do Journey To Atlantis (because it was 93 degrees, feels like 104, and it would've been nice to be able to do the water ride at the HOTTEST PART OF THE DAY).

Of course, I know they're not evil or anything, they're just trying to make money. It's a subtle but highly unethical, dishonest business model; knowing the water rides will be most popular later on, they close one of the two. This forces those who aren't aware of this closure (hence the reason why they don't show it on the app or the website), to:

1. have to walk to the other water ride on the OPPOSITE SIDE of the park to be able to cool off (keeping in mind they don't let you bring food into the park and they only sell water for $7+),

2. now that you're at the other water ride (called Infinity Falls), you're quite exhausted by the heat, humidity and exertion, and now have to wait in the longest line that you've waited in all day due to the amount of people caravaning to it from the closed water ride.

Have a suspicion that they are doing it to get people to buy the Quick Queue out of feeling exhausted, maybe desperate to cool off, and desperate to get to the rides you want to do afterwards. Again, they're not evil. But they do seem to love their manufactured inconveniences. If that's not their motive, they would inform via their app about specific ride closing times. If y'all at SeaWorld are reading this, PLEASE tell whoever's in charge of communications that they need to do better with communicating things like this with guests with transparency so people can see there's nothing shady going on and so they can plan their day around such inconveniences rather than stumbling into them.

That said, the park was good and the rides were fun. A lot of good thrillers. Had relatively short lines (all I really have to compare is Disneyworld so don't quote me on that). On that front, 5 stars.

Guest-employee relationship: mid. There was a good mix. Some went out of their way to give you a good experience. Others could care less. Some seemed like they would rather be anywhere else. No encounters with any particularly rude employees, so that's a plus. 3-3.5 stars on that front.

Again, the whole communication fiasco about the early ride-closing deserves 0 stars.

Prices are typical for theme parks but it seemed like that was hurting the business. I never saw a single line in front of any of the food stands. That's a sign that you might want to maybe lower prices purely from a business standpoint. Doesn't seem like they're making any more profits by having prices that high. On prices, I'd say that gets 1 star.

Also they turned the dolphin show into an advertisement and I was not impressed by that. Loved seeing the dolphin show and that part of it was fully worth it because I'm not too bothered by the fact that they used bringing up a kid to interact with the dolphins as a way to advertise something rather than doing the advertising at the end of the show and not smack in the middle of it. But I would go again to see that show, it was epic. The trainers and dolphins both were amazing. 4 stars on that front.

Overall rating: 2.5 stars. I hesitate to round that up to 3 because of the communication thing, but I still had a relatively good experience here. My favorite part was getting to spend time with my toddler brother in Sesame Street; there were literal stars in his eyes, and that made it beyond worth it. Was satisfied to a good extent, but gave it 2 stars because I want to give y'all at SeaWorld the motivation to make improvement, because I want to pay it forward to future guests who might want to know in advance which rides close earlier.

Thank you SeaWorld and employees for the experience! God bless!

Post-Script: The picture below exhibits where an employee turning guests away from Kraken, standing beside a sign that advertised that the ride was currently open.