Dining at sea world, aquatica, and Busch gardens?

busymama224

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jul 11, 2009
I see that you can't take food or drink into any of the parks, but one of them said single size snacks are ok...and ine park allowed water bottles...we always take our own food to Disney so and get free ice water quite a bit and then splurge on the special treats or foods. Do the sea world parks give out free cups of ice water too? Are refillable mugs available? My kids are not big eaters so I don't want to do the all day dining. Suggestions on how to keep eating and drinking budget friendly? There are 5 of us, btw. Thanks!
 
Refillable cups are available, and if you purchase one at one of the parks (SW, AQ or BG) it can be used at the other parks as well (for just the price of the refill). And, you can bring the cups back on future trips, and reuse them on each vacation. No need to buy a new cup each time.

I know you said you don't want to do the all day dining, but honestly, we have found that that's the best way to go. We drank our plan value in water bottles alone on our most recent visit (August 2014), and they have some great food options on the dining plan that are nicer than you would expect from such an inclusive plan (fresh fruit, salads, pickles, pasta, burgers, barbecue, sandwiches, pudding, cakes, pizza, and a whole lot more in between). No having to carry around food and drinks is wonderful, and being able to grab almost anything you want whenever you are hungry or thirsty is so nice. We have enjoyed the dining plan at SW much more than Disney's restrictive and limited plans. Just some "food" for thought :) .
 
Thanks so much for the info! Does the busch gardens and aquatica work like sea world's where you can get snacks and drinks throughout the day? The aquatica one looked like just one buffet...Could my husband and i get the dining only and just buy meals for the kids to share? My kids are seriously terrible eaters although they do like to snack so maybe it would still be beneficial. ...We are leaving for florida tomorrow and still haven't decided if we are for sure doing the sea world parks! I hate being this last minute:)
 
Thanks so much for the info! Does the busch gardens and aquatica work like sea world's where you can get snacks and drinks throughout the day? The aquatica one looked like just one buffet...Could my husband and i get the dining only and just buy meals for the kids to share? My kids are seriously terrible eaters although they do like to snack so maybe it would still be beneficial. ...We are leaving for florida tomorrow and still haven't decided if we are for sure doing the sea world parks! I hate being this last minute:)

Aquatica's all day dining plan is at the Banana Beach Buffet only. Banana Beach allows for either one-time access or all-day access. You cannot take food out of the Banana Beach dining area (only beverages) so if you and your DH chose to eat there, you would have to actually eat while inside and would not be able to take food back to eat with your children.

Banana Beach is a good value, but Aquatica has better dining options (all a la carte) at the Waterstone Grill. If I were you, I would consider the all day dining for the family at SW and then just eat a la carte at Aquatica at Waterstone.

One thing you might want to consider....they have refillable popcorn buckets at both SW and AQ that are usable at both parks. They are about $5 to purchase (and come full of popcorn) with refills just over $1 each. The Aquatica buckets are more like sand pails, with the bumpy bottoms good for making castles. Might be worth buying, especially when they too are good for the life of the bucket (bring 'em back again and again and again).



(The other item is a souvenir raft full of cookies with chocolate dipping sauce....also fun, even for us big kids :teeth: ).
 


I am thinking we will do the dining plan, but it says no take out..how do you just get water or fruit or snacks? Sorry for all the questions! And thank you so much for your help! This is my first trip to sea world in 30 years and my kids first time ever
 
I am thinking we will do the dining plan, but it says no take out..how do you just get water or fruit or snacks? Sorry for all the questions! And thank you so much for your help! This is my first trip to sea world in 30 years and my kids first time ever

Assuming you are asking about SeaWorld (and not Aquatica), with water and snacks, you just walk through the line, pick up what you want (one entree, one drink, one side.....or any combination of those), then proceed to the cashier and show your band (and they will just give you an OK and wave you on). You can absolutely take those items and keep on going :thumbsup2 . We had no problems getting a fresh, cold water bottle to go. We even got pizza and drinks from Seaport Pizza and took them to Shamu Stadium to eat while we waited for the show to start.
 


Gina, I see that you said at Aquatica that they have 2 options for Banana Beach - one was a 'one time only' and the other a 'as much as you want'? I didn't see the different prices on the website - can you offer any other info?

I did see an all day priced at around $10 ish - do you know which this applies too?

Thanks
 
Gina, I see that you said at Aquatica that they have 2 options for Banana Beach - one was a 'one time only' and the other a 'as much as you want'? I didn't see the different prices on the website - can you offer any other info?

I did see an all day priced at around $10 ish - do you know which this applies too?

Thanks

On all of our visits, they have offered the two options (one visit or all day, with the option to upgrade from the one visit to the all day for the difference between the two costs as long as you can show your receipt). Online, it does indeed show just the all-day option. Perhaps they have changed things since we were last there in August, and the one time visit pricing has been discontinued?

Looks like prices are currently $20 pp (though it does say it ranges seasonally between $16 and $20). This would be for the Banana Beach Buffet.

http://aquaticabyseaworld.com/en/orlando/dine-and-shop/dining/banana-beach/

The Waterstone Grill is a la carte (no all day option).
 
Great - Thanks!

It looks as though if the all day is around $20 that would be a good price to pay just to cover drinks alone on a hot August day.
 
Great - Thanks!

It looks as though if the all day is around $20 that would be a good price to pay just to cover drinks alone on a hot August day.

We especially enjoyed the all day option in the August heat, so we didn't have to eat too much at one time. We could snack and pick at smaller amounts all day long, which was much easier on the tummy when enjoying the slides and enduring the searing 95+ degree temps!
 
I verified today while I was over there - Banana Beach no longer offers a single time pass. You can now only purchase the all day option.

Just a gut feel, nothing to back this up - I don't expect the single time pass will be back.
 
I know this is an older post, but thought I would piggyback off of it since my questions are in the same realm.

I see that a previous poster commented that they went through the line with their bottle of water or whatnot and were just waved through by showing their wristband, which is how it worked for us on our last SW trip in 2012. I see on the website it now says that you can only go through the line once per hour. Is this something new or a rule that was never really enforced? I'm just asking because we tend to get Coke or iced tea to drink with our meal but would like to grab a water on our way out for walking around.

Also, what is the price range of kid's meals? My 2.5 year old daughter will not have a dining band but eats enough to have her own meal so I'm just trying to get an idea of budget for that.

What are some good ideas for places to go into to grab a dining band eligible dessert/snack type food to take into the Shamu show with us? Do they still offer the refillable popcorn buckets? I know those aren't dining band covered, but we are a popcorn eating family ;)

Lastly, the package we got gave us one free design a care cup (or something along those lines) are those the refillable cups that people refer to or something different?

Thank you so much :)
 
The once an hour through the line is new - it used to be just 3 items per time through but you could basically go through the line every 10 minutes if you wanted. Now the cashiers should scan your wrist band which tracks how often you do go through the line, although they may not scan 100% of the time.
 
Refillable cups are available, and if you purchase one at one of the parks (SW, AQ or BG) it can be used at the other parks as well (for just the price of the refill). And, you can bring the cups back on future trips, and reuse them on each vacation. No need to buy a new cup each time.

Absolutely the best tip of the entire week! In apotheek post from 2012 I read that you can use BG/SW refillable mugs at US/IoA and vice versa. Can any one confirm?
 
I see that a previous poster commented that they went through the line with their bottle of water or whatnot and were just waved through by showing their wristband, which is how it worked for us on our last SW trip in 2012. I see on the website it now says that you can only go through the line once per hour. Is this something new or a rule that was never really enforced? I'm just asking because we tend to get Coke or iced tea to drink with our meal but would like to grab a water on our way out for walking around.

Also, what is the price range of kid's meals? My 2.5 year old daughter will not have a dining band but eats enough to have her own meal so I'm just trying to get an idea of budget for that.

The once an hour through the line only applies to the food, not the drinks. You can get drinks as many times as you want. As far as the kid's meal, if you go to the menu thread, there are pictures of all the menus and pricing, including kids meals.
 
Absolutely the best tip of the entire week! In apotheek post from 2012 I read that you can use BG/SW refillable mugs at US/IoA and vice versa. Can any one confirm?

Never heard of that. Can't say I've seen any of the BG/SW refillable mugs in the U parks.
 

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