Sea World, February 2011

All updates from February 16, 2011:

What's happening at Sea World this month? All is revealed in this month's first Parkz Update from Sea World

Our first stop in this update is Sea World, and after a brief absence, the flagpole has returned. Fun Fact: The flags spell "Welcome to Sea World" in the flag alphabet

Of course the really big news from out the front of the park is replacement of those bloody tensor barriers with new permanent ropes

While the signs may spoil the vista a tiny bit, the improvement to the area more then make up for it, and gives Sea World the most user friendly entry area of any Gold Coast park. Well done to Sea World for improving this area!

We may have covered Penguin Encounter, but it's nice to see the building in the sunshine

Zoe's Submarine was rebuilt this year, and while it opened a while ago, it was curiously missing from the updates. Here it is now it all its glory

Speaking of curiously missing, Grover's flight school (helicopter ride) is missing from Sesame Street Beach, and has been replaced with Picnic tables (making it a nice place to enjoy a pack lunch). No official word yet on if the ride is gone for good, or what it's replacement will be.

Still not much progress over at Bermuda Triangle

Next door the scaffolding that had been used for 'painting' has been removed from the last drop of the Flume Ride

Hopefully we'll soon see painters heading over to Jet Rescue, which in areas is starting to look a little worse for wear from the salty sea air

Elsewhere in the park there's a new baby dolphin! Since baby dolphins are so hard to take a photo of, here's a photo from the morning's dolphin show. Can you find the flying man?

Sea World has also held an eBay auction to name the baby dolphin. The bidding ended at $8,988.00. Proceeds went towards a Dugong research trip.

In revenue department news, on this hot summer's day the only drinks available are bottled water, and post mix soft drink in souvenir bottles for $10. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt that they sold out of bottled soft drinks rather than not selling the cheaper alternative as an evil money grab, but we'll be back next month to find out for all our valuable readers.

There's also 45% off Roxy and Quicksilver gear.

Chili Dogs now for sale. Also hot dogs with onion and peppers. That's right. Peppers. Not capsicum. Peppers. Which country are we in again?

We'll leave Sea World with some shots of last month's "Jet Stunt Extreme" show, taken on a sunny day.

That's all from Sea World for now!

All updates from February 16, 2011:

Comments

Forum Comments

Posted by themeparkgc at 9:59pm, 16 Feb 11

QUOTE

I was there in January and it seemed any drinks that guests wished to purchase had to purchased with the souvenir cup/bottle. There were no disposable cups available. Also they wanted to charge me $1 for a straw because they didn't have disposable ones. I think all of this may have been an environmentally based decision for Sea World in a hope that people would keep the souvenir cups (at least throughout the day) and thus reduce wastage. Alternately it could be $$$.

Posted by AlexB at 10:51pm, 17 Feb 11

We went in July 2010 and they only had the souvenir cups in the drink carts... so it's not a short term thing at all.
One problem to that is that you can't tell what flavours they have available, and the cast member only knows based on the neck straps attached to them.

As for straws, I know that back in 1996, Sea World only had paper straws, so that if they got into the water, they would not be a concern for the marine life, however, because the paper straws would collapse as they got wet, people would use more than one for every drink - and it would cost too much. Simplest solution was to remove the straws altogether, and it IS an environmental move as eating a plastic straw would not ne healthy for a lot of the marine life at the park.
If you want a straw, i've no problem with them charging you for a "heavy duty" straw, that you're more likely to keep, than if they charged 10 cents for a cheap plastic one that you're more likely to throw away.

Posted by Gazza at 8:26am, 18 Feb 11

I am a man, so therefore I don't need a straw.

Posted by AlexB at 1:38pm, 18 Feb 11

LOL... amen to that Gazza...

Posted by themeparkgc at 11:05pm, 18 Feb 11

The straw was actually for my sister's Frozen Raspberry Fanta which I was purchasing for her. I only brought it up because Joz (or Richard or whoever did the captions) had stated that it could be "an evil money grab" and I was simply stating that it was probably an environmentally based decision.

Posted by joz at 4:44am, 19 Feb 11

^ What the caption refers to is that you can't buy 600ml bottles of soft drink any more from the vendors, and can only buy $10 souvenir bottles. Aside from making people who want a drink pay $10, those bottles are potentially filled 30 mins before sale, by which time the drink goes flat, and the ice melts. "Evil money grab" is perhaps an exaggeration, but what's happening here certainly is not environmentally motivated. This is a money grab, and not one that I think is customer friendly.

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