SeaWorld Orlando's Future Plans

[UniversalRBLX]

I believe part of the plan is to have employees park in the main lot closer to Wild Arctic/Sea Harbor Pavilions (where Howl O Scream enters). I just hope they finally give the parking lot a proper/safer exit, and fix all of the potholes.

It's a massive walk from the HQ/HR building to the back portion of SWO, so I'd imagine they'll consider that with these plans as employees wouldn't be too happy having to make that walk each day. SeaWorld is severely understaffed, can't imagine it'll help if they move parking across the other side of the park unless they provide shuttles.

 

[GAcoaster]

I wouldn't be surprised if this prompts them to build a parking structure in the main lot so they actually have enough parking, As it stands on busy days they park employees across the road at the Florida Festival (HR), and guests, but that seems to be at capacity at this point. Perhaps that's why the tree "islands" have been removed from the main lot? Maybe they build a small parking structure for Preferred and VIP parking to add more capacity and make those spaces more worth the price. Otherwise they'll be parking employees at Aquatica and bussing them (which they have done on busy days in the past).

 

[IzzyB]

I believe part of the plan is to have employees park in the main lot closer to Wild Arctic/Sea Harbor Pavilions (where Howl O Scream enters). I just hope they finally give the parking lot a proper/safer exit, and fix all of the potholes.

It's a massive walk from the HQ/HR building to the back portion of SWO, so I'd imagine they'll consider that with these plans as employees wouldn't be too happy having to make that walk each day. SeaWorld is severely understaffed, can't imagine it'll help if they move parking across the other side of the park unless they provide shuttles.

I agree it is not ideal, but the lot they are replacing is not a ton of spaces, so I feel they can come up with an easy solution. This is massive and can really help Sea World Revenue so I feel this is a minor speed bump and not a major issue.

 

[GAcoaster]

I'm sure there will be plenty of overlap with guests coming for Epic staying there since it's right around the corner. Between that and SeaWorld's out of state pass base (Virginia, Philly, Texas) coming it has the potential to do well. I know I often see people with Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania plates in the lot who are BGW and Sesame Place passholders taking advantage of their passes while here in Orlando.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I wouldn't be surprised if this prompts them to build a parking structure in the main lot so they actually have enough parking, As it stands on busy days they park employees across the road at the Florida Festival (HR), and guests, but that seems to be at capacity at this point. Perhaps that's why the tree "islands" have been removed from the main lot? Maybe they build a small parking structure for Preferred and VIP parking to add more capacity and make those spaces more worth the price. Otherwise they'll be parking employees at Aquatica and bussing them (which they have done on busy days in the past).

I'd imagine this is part of a phased development of the property. Too expensive for SeaWorld to invest in a parking garage right now (they can barely pay more than 1 employee to staff turnstiles on some days) so I'd imagine we get a reconfiguration of the parking garage with (hopefully) a new park entrance in the next decade or so.

The great thing about hotels is that, if popular, they can generate a ridiculous amount of revenue. While all the success of Universal can be attributed to Potter, the hotels are a significant driver of revenue for the resort. Which has allowed them to continue this rapid expansion of the resort. Hopefully, it can happen at SW as well.

 

[HandsomePete]

Wow-- 15 stories will be much taller than anything around it. Almost as tall as Aventura. I think the hotels on the opposite corner are about 8 stories.
Looks good though, and nice to see the parking garage as part of the plan.

Except Mako right next to it

I wonder who is their partner on this? No way SeaWorld is doing this on its own. The outdoor pool area is very impressive and the hotel's design looks very nice, much better than the standard rectangle-shaped hotels.

Personally I’d just hire a management company and open it as an independent to see if they can get the occupancy on their own … if not they’d have the fallback of Marriott and Hilton fighting each other to turn it into an Autograph Collection or Curio. Doubtful they’d partner up with Loews given the whole Universal thing and not sure what value any of the other major brands could bring.

The great thing about hotels is that, if popular, they can generate a ridiculous amount of revenue. While all the success of Universal can be attributed to Potter, the hotels are a significant driver of revenue for the resort. Which has allowed them to continue this rapid expansion of the resort. Hopefully, it can happen at SW as well.

But coaster or no coaster in 2021, it’s borderline negligence that they haven’t built a hotel yet.

It’s been low-hanging fruit that they just haven’t picked for ages.

 

[IzzyB]

Personally I’d just hire a management company and open it as an independent to see if they can get the occupancy on their own … if not they’d have the fallback of Marriott and Hilton fighting each other to turn it into an Autograph Collection or Curio. Doubtful they’d partner up with Loews given the whole Universal thing and not sure what value any of the other major brands could bring.

I am curious what places like Dollywood and Legoland do. Because if they can do it, clearly Sea World can.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

I am curious what places like Dollywood and Legoland do. Because if they can do it, clearly Sea World can.

Hold your horses, you're talking about the company that takes 7 minutes to load a train on Iron Gwazi lol

 

[HandsomePete]

I am curious what places like Dollywood and Legoland do. Because if they can do it, clearly Sea World can.

Dollywood did what I described, hired a management company and then eventually took it over to run themselves. Legoland I think ran it on their own from the beginning but it’s also the highlight of the Winter Haven hotel market, not sure SeaWorld is getting anyone to sign up to run their hotel compared to all of the other options in Orlando.

 

[IzzyB]

Hold your horses, you're talking about the company that takes 7 minutes to load a train on Iron Gwazi lol

I mean Dollywood can be just as slow sometimes lol. But point taken.

Dollywood did what I described, hired a management company and then eventually took it over to run themselves. Legoland I think ran it on their own from the beginning but it’s also the highlight of the Winter Haven hotel market, not sure SeaWorld is getting anyone to sign up to run their hotel compared to all of the other options in Orlando.

Then management company for the win lol

I am sure they will figure something out. I was just curious since there are smaller parks with their own hotel. This was extremely low hanging fruit they should have done a long time ago.

 

[SeventyOne]

I am curious what places like Dollywood and Legoland do. Because if they can do it, clearly Sea World can.

Not familiar with Dollywood, but LegoLand FL doesn't have a convention center with densely packed hotel rooms surrounding it. Unless they have a "Blue Ocean" plan for this, they're entering a Red Ocean wearing chum underwear.

 

[Magic-Man]

I just wish SeaWorld/Busch Gardens as a whole would concentrate on making the parks a good place to work for. If they paid their employees a lot better and actually treated them decently, they wouldn't be close to as understaffed as they are now. Every time I go to SWO everyone looks miserable. Horrible atmosphere.

 

[HandsomePete]

I just wish SeaWorld/Busch Gardens as a whole would concentrate on making the parks a good place to work for. If they paid their employees a lot better and actually treated them decently, they wouldn't be close to as understaffed as they are now. Every time I go to SWO everyone looks miserable. Horrible atmosphere.

Amen.

It should be the place where talented operators/experts who get tired of the Disney/Universal nonsense go to run a place the way they want to run it as opposed to how Wall Street thinks it should be run.

Instead the hourly workers are all miserable and nobody wants to work in the corporate office because you never know when Scott Ross might call a meeting at 8pm on a Saturday.

That's another reason why I hope they go the management company route because then technically those people won't be SeaWorld employees. But I'm fully expecting them to try to do it on their own since they already have all of the things a typical small-ish hotel owner doesn't - accounting systems, applicant portals, recruiters, etc., etc.

 

[ZachPL]

Paying their workers would make spending 7 dollars on a bottle of soda a little easier to swallow.

 

[GA-MBIT]

The mismanagement is widespread and infects most branches of the company. If they could tighten it all up it'd be wonderful, but it's almost company wide, so unfortunately I don't hold much hope.

 

[IzzyB]

Not familiar with Dollywood, but LegoLand FL doesn't have a convention center with densely packed hotel rooms surrounding it. Unless they have a "Blue Ocean" plan for this, they're entering a Red Ocean wearing chum underwear.

I really wasn't thinking of the convention center part, just more of the hotel part. It does sound like it would be better to have a management company.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

The mismanagement is widespread and infects most branches of the company. If they could tighten it all up it'd be wonderful, but it's almost company wide, so unfortunately I don't hold much hope.

Surprisingly the only branch of the company that hasn't been affected too much has been the entertainment side of things. They still pull off great shows and provide lots of streetmosphere.

I will admit, went to the park on Friday and found the park's condition to be pretty clean and somewhat well-maintained now. Operations are still horrendous, but far better than last year.

 

[IzzyB]

Surprisingly the only branch of the company that hasn't been affected too much has been the entertainment side of things. They still pull off great shows and provide lots of streetmosphere.

I will admit, went to the park on Friday and found the park's condition to be pretty clean and somewhat well-maintained now. Operations are still horrendous, but far better than last year.

Agreed, their entertainment is really good. The amount of street shows and theater shows and at high quality is really nice. The park has been clean, but their bathrooms do not get enough checks. Toilet paper, paper towels, and soap was missing several times when I visited. They need air blowers in all bathrooms because paper towels was the worst. Soap I could find, just had to try a couple different ones. Toilet paper was end of evening in some stalls.

Coaster operations is just PAINFUL. I do not understand why they move SOOOOO slowly and those workers just don't seem to want to be there. Now I will say I did a buyout event once there and the employees were MUCH more friendly. I will also say they do care about safety. It sure slowed down the pipeline loading, but they did double check something that was "off" and the guy said, lets do this again just in case. They also pulled and measured kids. So they do seem to get paid enough to care about safety. Just not friendly and fast.

Some employees seem to care more, some really don't care. Some are super nice and friendly and others are just grumpy. Some are 100% rule followers and others just Meh their way thru it. The one lady misunderstood what I was asking in the AP lounge and gave me something I shouldn't have had. She said, "You really need to do this, but I am too tired to care, here you go". Worked in my favor, as I didn't have to come back to the lounge at my next visit, but was pretty funny. But I had other people in the lounge be PITAs and super strict about scanning and not giving me the $10 for all parties unless all parties come up to counter.

 

[GAcoaster]

I think the company is slowly "recovering" some of what was lost over time. They are listening to passholder and guest complaints and trying to bring back some of the things they are hearing are missing. It just takes time and planning budgets to make that happen.

I've heard Tampa has dropped the 5% surcharge. I'm hearing positive stuff about Williamsburg's current direction and it seems like they are slowly improving all around. They will never be what they were under AB, but they are finding the niche in the market.

 

[jarmor]

I figured by now there would be some image of the proposed hotel layered with a satellite image of the park and surrounding area but I cannot seem to come across one. Am i the only one excited about this lol lol