Seaworld San Diego Dine with Shamu Photos!!

[Laurabearz]

Hiya everyone! We just got back from our wonderful California trip, and really enjoyed our Dinner with Shamu!

We arrived about 15 minutes before 4pm and saw a HUGE line already there, and my heart sank... I knew we should have gotten there earlier!! We would have the worst seats... sigh

So the family gets in line, and I head up to the podium to check in. He hands me 5 dine with Shamu Neck ID's and a paper already printed up that says table 18... As I head back I ponder what does table 18 mean... it's pre printed so it didnt seem to matter what time we showed up... what does table 18 mean.... hmmmm

Well it means we are at THE best gosh darn table in the whole place!!! OMG

We were in front of the underwater platform Shamu would slide up on... Our table is at his nose...

This big slide caused a giant wave of water up over the plexglass and onto our table, splashing us and our desserts!! We had to get new ones, but no one minded, it was very cool and the kids were insanely happy!

Ok on to the food...

Here is a shot of the buffet line..

There is plain salad, a Oriental Salad and Ceaser

There was a stuffed tortalini in a white sauce, Beef tidbits in Gravy,lemon chicken i think, a total wonderful rice and nut dish that was beyond yummy, prefectly cooked veggies, An Avacado cold dish that was smashing, Some sort of soup with wontons I think and rolls. Most seen on the plates below.

The Kids area had Hot dogs, Mac and cheese, Chicken Strips. No picture sorry.

And here are the desserts...

These next photos shows the layout of the place...

This one shows you that most tables are around the pool, and if you look closely you see the trainer. They give you facts about the whales... biggest is Usullyis (spelled wrong sorry) at 9400 lbs and they eat approx 250 lbs of food a day... things like that. There is a Q and A sesson too. All the while the Whale is swimming aorund doing things... jumping, waving it's tale... things like that.

This next shot was taken from the buffet enterence... as you can see there were tables in the second row. I would be bummed if we were back there.

That's all I got! If you have any questions let me know.

I thought the food was above par for those types of things. I think seats are booked when you call, not when you line up. And we would do it again in a heartbeat!

 

[ozvisiter]

Thanks for the great report- how early did you book??? Maybe that's how you get the great seats???

We are definately doing this now!!!

 

[Laurabearz]

We booked like 3 weeks out... which for us is very short notice, but I think alot of people booked the experience that day at the park. When we arrived we saw a huge line in the Dining experience area....

I would book it, as soon as you figure out your seaworld day.

 

[Monkey Monkey]

Great pictures! The food looks wonderful! Thanks for sharing!

 

[medievaldave]

Cool report. Im going to SeaWorld in July but will do the dining with Shamu on Thanksgiving Day when we go back. With this report i made up my mind. Thanks so much.

 

[Mrs Grumpy]

Thanks for all the pics!!! I have reservations for August 22nd and bought our tickets the day they came available online so I hope that is a good thing. I assume the meal is all you can eat???? Not asking for me but I can see my husband going back over and over for the desserts.

 

[Laurabearz]

It's all you care to eat, and I thought everything was pretty good. One complaint, the spatula's for the desserts were covered with chocolate, so trying to get a cheesecake for my slightly picky daughter was a pain... I ended up using forks....

IMO Any row in the front is wonderful. Shamu swims around and does things all over the pool. And because of our seats I once again had to get a chocloate free piece of cheesecake for my daughter...

Oy everyone should have our problems.

 

[kj mom]

Thanks for sharing your experience and including those great photos! This is something I definitely want to do. Anyone know anything about the seating assignments?

 

[Plantlady]

Thanks for the great photos!

We too, booked the day it was available online. I sure hope we get the front row seating! I am glad to know the tables are already assigned though. Now we don't have to rush over there.

 

[kellynz]

Sounds like a wonderful experience, and thanks for the pictures, I have been wondering about this, and think we will definitely add it to our day now.

 

[Laurabearz]

Now that I have some distance... I wonder if they did seat first come first serve and when they were down to the last few they just wrote those out to save some work later... If table one is all the way over to the left of the tank, it's concievable we were pre assigned the last grouping, but then again there was a lot of people in the second row, and we were not that far in the back of the line... lol...

Maybe someone should call and see what they say. I would for someone not get front row, because they showed up too late.

Regardless I would try and show up 20 mintues early because they have an area to take pictures with a back drop and such, plus I you can buy exclusive Dine with Shamu items if that trips your trigger...

 

[Nora94]

I got our tickets about 3 wks prior to going and our table was #5. We were right by the other platform where he comes up. My dd was about 2 ft from him. We all enjoyed our food too. We were glad that we didn't get splashed, it was only about 65 degrees and windy right then (7 pm dine on June 12th). Worth every penny.

Nora

 

[Laurabearz]

Say Nora... was your ticket already filled out with your table number? And were there a lot of people there when you arrived that evening?

THanks

 

[Nora94]

No, we didn't have a ticket really. We had the receipt that showed the dine being paid for but there was nothing else. On the daily schedule our dine time wasn't there so I had gone and double checked. We got there and they said we were table 5. First I had heard of that. There were already about 10 families in the seating area when we arrived, but they didn't serve food till we had been there about 5 minutes. Then there was a line for the buffet.

Oh, and the hot chocolate btw was very yummy!

Nora

 

[Plantlady]

We did Dine with Shamu two days ago, and LOVED it.

Just to report in, our table was assigned in advance. We had table 18 too! Great seat.

The trainer started talking right AT 2. So, it was hard to get the food, and listen and learn. We went to our table at 10 till, and people were already getting food. Something we didn't think about.. beer was complimentary at this meal (well, included with price at least).

I would recommend it. We did the 2:00 meal. Late lunch/early dinner, it worked perfectly for us.

 

[Laurabearz]

Bumping up for a friend

 

[wdhinn89]

We are thinking about doing this in August. Are all the tables under cover and shaded? It looked like some were partially in the sun.

 

[Laurabearz]

It's all under a canopy, but as the sun rises and sets you can have sun on you.

Rain you should be protected from, unless the wind is blowing

 

[blackjackdelta]

We also had table #18 two years back for breakfast and the whole family enjoyed every minute of it. Thanks for the pics.

Jack

 

[hawky7]

Did you do the SHAMU rocks dance with them...shamu shamu. That always makes me laugh!! I love Seaworld.