Zoo, wildlife park or seaworld with 7 yr old

[mukwa5]

List in order of your recommendation. May do 2 but def not 3. Thx for your input

 

[sonnyjane]

Have you ever been to any of the three before? Do you live near or will you likely travel to another Sea World?

The Sea World in San Diego is not as nice as the one in Orlando, so if you plan to go there anytime in the future, you can hold off on the one here.

I'd do the zoo for sure, that's the no-brainer of the three. My second choice would be Sea World because it has a lot of animals that the zoo doesn't cover (dolphins, sharks, penguins, beluga, orca). Sea World is much more expensive than the zoo and Safari Park, however, so if you're not big into sea life and as I said might be going to Sea World somewhere else in the next few years, you can pass. The Safari Park is a really awesome park, but the zoo and Safari Park back-to-back might be animal overload, as many of the animals at the park are also at the zoo.

 

[danaesacto]

Sonnyjane has sound advice IMO. Zoo is number 1. Then we skipped Seaworld because we have somthing similar here. We LOVED the wild life park- but you cant go middle of day in the heat and expect to see all the animals- they are too busy loungingand napping in the shade. If you are going before summer,or can be there at opening, it is best.

 

[Minuet888]

I have a 7 year old and have been to Sea World everal times and can't say it's the best for our son, I mean he'd love the shows but there isn't a lot of rides and that's what he (and other little kids) like.
The one big ride they have Atlantis I think it's called I think he is too small to ride and my son is tall for his age.
So I recommend the safari park or zoo becuase they can concentrate on the anuimals, if my son were to see rides around the shows and animals such as seworld all I would hear all day is "I wanna ride the rides I wanna ride the rides"
oh and you can do everything in Sea world in well under a day.
My first trip to Sea World I put in a full day with my choir kids on their trip and it was very hot and the kids were done about 3/4 of the way through the day, they had ridden all the rides and saw all the shows.

 

[mukwa5]

Thx for the info. I (the mom) have been to Seaworld and the zoo, but my husband and son have not been to either. We live in Canada and did go to the aquarium there which did have a dolphin show and we saw whales. I know, no where comparable to Seaworld though. I am now just going to decide between the zoo and safari park. Out of those two, it sounds like the zoo is likely better?? (correct me if I am wrong). Thanks

 

[sonnyjane]

Yeah while both great, if you only have one day, do the zoo over the Safari Park.

 

[aussiechic]

List in order of your recommendation. May do 2 but def not 3. Thx for your input

We are from Australia and are coming over for the first time in March and we are doing Sea World and the Zoo. Can anyone tell me if its worth the money to do lunch with the orca's??
I think DH is planning on doing the aircraft carrier tour thing while DD and I do the zoo and we'll catch up later. I'm most looking forward to Seaworld, while Australia does have aquariums ect it has nothing like San Diego

 

[julm26]

Great info - we only have 2 days in San Diego and want to spend one just exploring. We chose the Zoo over SeaWorld.

 

[Camonkeygirl]

We are from Australia and are coming over for the first time in March and we are doing Sea World and the Zoo. Can anyone tell me if its worth the money to do lunch with the orca's??
I think DH is planning on doing the aircraft carrier tour thing while DD and I do the zoo and we'll catch up later. I'm most looking forward to Seaworld, while Australia does have aquariums ect it has nothing like San Diego

DH and I did this about 10 years ago, so take my comment with a grain of salt.

You are paying for the privilege for eating close to the whales. The food was ok (they have other restaurants that the food quality is better). The training interaction was cool to watch but that was about it.