Address: Sea World Drive, Main Beach QLD 4217
Recommended: yes (all ages)
Number of people in our group: 5
Getting There
Sea World is extremely easy to get to from Broadbeach or Surfers Paradise. The 705 bus which runs through both suburbs will take you straight to Sea World (last stop). There is also a 704 bus which runs to/from Helensvale Station.
All of my recommendations for getting to Sea World match that as described in my Movie World review. Again public transport (in this instance the bus) is still a quick and easy option. If the park is extremely busy, it beats waiting in the line of cars trying to get out at the end of the day.
General Information
A lot of the general information such as:
- Food and Drink information
- Lockers – see Sea World map
- Tickets
- Virtual Queue Information
- Photo Packages
is the same as per the Movie World review. Rather than re-writing it here, I have only added specific information I wanted to share on Sea World below. For general information, click here to visit the Movie World review and all of the above information can be found under its related heading.
How long will you need
I would allow a day. If you plan on doing some of the additional extras (like the animal Adventures) they can take up a bit of time. You may find that you want to go back on another day to complete anything you may have missed in the park.
Sea World is quite unique as a theme park. The park is a marine park so has a focus on the rescue and rehabilitation of injured, orphaned or sick wildlife. It focuses on conservation of wildlife and their environment through education programs . If you watch a show or do experience one of the animal adventures, you will also receive information on how to protect our wildlife and the part we, as humans, play in this.
Things to do
Before you get started on the below, I suggest you have a copy of the park map on hand so you can see how close everything is to each other.
I have listed Animal Adventures first, not because they are necessarily a must do but because you will need to think about how you plan your day around them, if you choose to do them.
There are a whole range of encounters you can experience. They do have minimum age requirements so have a look through all options on their website if this is something that interests you. If you don’t want to risk missing out, it’s probably advisable to book for them in advance. In the quieter months if you decide to do them on the day you may find they still have space but I wouldn’t recommend leaving it to the day during the peak summer period. If it’s something you really want to do and would be disappointed if you missed out, book in advance.
I had the opportunity many (many) years ago to swim with the dolphins and both my daughters did the child encounters. We thoroughly enjoyed them.
I would highly recommend these activities. They are costly, especially if you’re talking about buying for a family, but are a great adventure.
Again, this isn’t number two because it’s the second best but because it requires some planning. Shows and presentations are on a certain times throughout the day. These times are all readily available in the themeparks app. I would recommend taking some time to look at what you would like to do / see and what time it is on. Once you have this list, have a look at where each is within the park. Try to space the times out to give you time to see and do things on the way to each activity. That way, you’re not running from one side of the park to the other and then having to go back again to see what you missed.
The park is well spaced out and most things fork off the main path so it’s quite easy to navigate.
I would highly recommend visiting the shows if you haven’t seen them before. They are entertaining and informative for all ages.
As I mentioned in my Movie World review, lines for rides can get ridiculously long. My advice here is the same. Get in ON TIME and head straight for the rides you want to make sure you do that day. If there is time later because the park isn’t too busy then great. If not, you can then decide whether you want to wait an hour to go on the ride again.
Given that Sea World is also a good park for the little ones, I’d also think about the rides for them as well early in the day so that they have done it before lines get too long. Of course you can also look to combine rides while walking from one activity or presentation to the next. In the more quieter months this is definitely achievable.
You will see these in your app or you can click on the link in the heading. I would recommend visiting exhibits while walking from one show to the other. There are a number of different things you can see and do here. Only thing to watch is if they have a presentation where they might have a talk on the animals or may have a feeding presentation. If you want to see these, add it to your list of activity times to work around.
Special Events
Sea World have two special events throughout the year.
Carnivale – which we had the pleasure of attending in January 2022, is a celebration of cultures and fun. Check out our review here. In 2022 the event ran from 29th January to the 26th February.
Spooky Nights – A celebration of Halloween. They haven’t released the dates for 2022 yet but we want to come back to visit and experience this then.
If you have an annual pass, you get one free entry into both of these events with your pass which is great (you just have to either live in Queensland or travel here when they’re on).
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