Fun Family Vacation: Tips for Visiting San Antonio Sea World with Little Kids

Our recent family vacation to San Antonio and Sea World was so much fun, I had to share what we did and what we learned with anyone who may still care to read things I write (thanks, AG, for prodding me!).

We highly recommend Sea World and San Antonio for a family trip.  With our family of five, with three little ones (age 5 and under), taking a vacation anywhere is a daunting task.  It’s quite a production to pack us all up, with the required blankies, pillows, lovies, and such…not to mention car seats and strollers.  Airplanes at this point are out of the question, but a five-hour car trip is doable – especially along I-35, which has many options for stopping (i.e., McDonald’s) along the way when little legs get too antsy.  Here’s what we did when we visited SeaWorld San Antonio with our kids.  To see what we did in the Alamo City overall (hotel, riverwalk, other things to do), go to my post on What to Do with Kids in San Antonio.

Sea World San Antonio for Little Ones:

SeaWorld San Antonio is huge and intimidating for a Mom and Dad with three hyper kids in tow.  We decided to focus the first day on seeing the shows and the animals, and the second day for splashing.  In hindsight, we could have mixed the two, but as this was our first trip, we didn’t know what to expect and wanted to hit the ‘must see’s’ the first day and then relax (so to speak) on the second day.

Buying your tickets: We were told to buy our tickets ahead of time, but honestly, the lines to buy at the window of the park were not that long.  If you search on Google for SeaWorld coupons, you’ll find several options.  We knew we wanted to go for two days, so we searched for ‘2nd day free’ and found many links for coupon codes.  (WARNING – some places will try to charge you for the coupon code – don’t pay.  You’ll find a workable one for free.)  The one we found was on HotBuzz4U.  After purchasing, we found an even better deal was on Commerce.4Adventure.com, which was Adult at Kids Price and 2nd Day Free.  I also saw a Facebook coupon that would have worked if we had wanted to buy tickets on the day of for that same deal (Adult at Kids Price and 2nd Day Free).  You may want to consider buying an annual pass for one adult in your group, however.  It is $99.99 (on the SeaWorld San Antonio site), gives you free general parking (which is $15) and 20% off discounts at various places in the park, including food.  We would have easily paid that back in our two day visit.

When to arrive: Over the two days, we tried two different approaches.  On the first day, we got there around 9:30, thinking we’d get in line before the park got busy when it opened at 10am.  Oh, what novices we were!  We ended up standing in a very long line for about a half hour after the park opened – so a total of an hour to wait (and yes, everyone already had their tickets purchased in that line, which surprised me).  The second day, we arrived around 10:40am, thinking the line would be pushed through and we’d get in without a boring, hot wait for the kids.  Nope.  Still waited, although this time we only waited half an hour.  Lesson:  prepare yourself for a long wait.  Tip:  go to the north line, not because it moves faster, but because there is more shade.

What to wear: Other than plenty of sunscreen, I suggest wearing swimming suits.  Our kids wear rash guards and swim shorts (yes, even Kate), which are basically like wearing quick-dry t-shirt and shorts.  There are a lot of opportunities to get wet throughout the park, which you will want to take advantage of to cool off during your visit.

What to see: Our kids, even our 2-year old, loved the shows.  Days later, she is still talking about “sea lions” and “whales coming” and “people watching”.  You must see Shamu, of course, but also don’t miss the other shows, especially the Cannery Row Caper with sea lions, otters, and the fattest walrus you can imagine, and Azul, with beluga whales, dolphins, and acrobats.  Get your seats early…the stadiums do fill up, so we headed in around 25-30 minutes before show-time to pick our seats (and we had plenty of company already).  My tip is to time snacks or lunch with your seating, so you can keep the kids occupied while you wait for the show to start.  And, unless you truly want to get wet, don’t sit in the first 10 or even 15 rows…the park does not exaggerate about all the splashing!

You also will want to walk through the park and see the various animal habitats, including dolphins, penguins, sea lions, and tropical coral reef.  If you can, feed the fish.  Our older two children loved interacting with the animals this way, and it made for great photo opps!  We happened upon the feeding time for the sting rays and other fish in the Coral Reef exhibit, where a scuba diver gave the fish a scheduled feeding, and that turned out to be a real treat to watch the fish interact with her (plus a cool, dark respite from the sunny, 95+ degree heat outside).

What to do: The newly opened Sesame Street Bay of Play was a great play area for our kids.  It has a toddler dry playground that’s shaded, plus a 3 yr and under only splash area.  There is a three-story (or more) climbing jungle gym that the kids can play on to get really hot, then they can splash in one of the spray areas to cool off.  There are a handful of rides for little ones, like a merry-go-round, plus some slightly more daring ones for the Pre-K set, like the Shamu Express roller coaster.

We spent almost all of our second day at the Lost Lagoon, which is the waterpark at Sea World San Antonio.  We could have spent longer, and even considered turning our two day passes into an annual pass so that we could come back for a third day (in hindsight, glad we didn’t, as we had a great time in San Antonio for our last day of the trip).  Our younger two kids loved the Lil Gators splash area, with its soft play slides and shallow water, as well as the Activity Pool.  Our 5-yr old liked the Splash Attack (which he called the “Splash Castle”), a three-story structure with geysers and sprays that gets you wet every which way.  All the kids loved the wave pool.  Mom’s favorite would have been the lazy river (called Castaway Cruisin’), but unfortunately we didn’t even get a chance to try it.  Two tips for Lost Lagoon:  life vests are plentiful, so no need to bring your own for the kids.  If you can afford it and they are available, a cabana would be a great investment if you plan to spend the day at Lost Lagoon, as shaded chairs are hard to come by (alas, I only looked longingly at them from afar on our trip).

Overall, it was a great vacation, and we had a great time at Sea World San Antonio.  To see the other tips from the rest of our trip to San Antonio, go to my post What to Do with Kids in San Antonio.  Enjoy!