In this post, I’ll break down SeaWorld’s All-Day Dining plan and help you figure out if it’s the right plan for you. I’ll discuss the pros and cons of the All-Day Dining plan, share some menu highlights, and give you all the info that you need to know to get your money’s worth. This post will specifically focus on SeaWorld San Diego but the information is applicable to the other SeaWorld locations throughout the U.S. as well, including San Antonio and Orlando. But keep in mind that the details do vary from park to park so make sure to read all the fine print before adding any additional upgrades or meal plans to your ticket.
SeaWorld San Diego All-Day Dining Plan
The All-Day Dining Plan at SeaWorld San Diego lets you eat all day for one simple price of $49.99/per adult (ages 10+) or $24.99/per child between the ages of 3 and 9. Here are the important details.
- It’s only valid at certain restaurants located within the park so you can’t just go anywhere and order anything you want.
- The participating restaurants include Shipwreck Reef Café, Explorer’s Café, Calypso BBQ, Hibisco Modern Mexican, Manta Pizza, Big Bird Bistro and The Pretzel Shop.
- Certain exclusions do apply at some locations so make sure to read the fine print. For example, Funnel cake and soft-serve ice cream are not included at Big Bird Bistro and Icee, Dippin Dots and Starbucks drinks are not included at The Pretzel Shop.
- You can eat once an hour and each meal will include a main entrée, a side dish OR dessert and a drink (soda fountain or a bottle of water).
- This detail is a little misleading so it’s important to note that you don’t get to eat every hour, on the hour. But rather, your one-hour clock starts when you pay for your meal. For example, if you have your first meal at 11:50 AM, then your next meal will start at 12:50 PM. You can’t just get something at 11:50 AM and then get another meal at 12:00 PM. They make you wait the whole hour.
- You can add your Add-Day Dining plan when booking your ticket online or you can buy it at any of the participating restaurants. Either way, each person who purchases a plan will be issued a wristband with a unique bar code that allows them to get their meals. If you purchase a meal plan online, just take your voucher directly to the restaurant and they can issue you a wristband.
- You can’t switch wristbands with another person but nothing says you can’t get food for someone else. The person getting the food doesn’t have to be the person eating the food.
- Here’s the most important tip. Yes, you can eat once an hour but realistically, the wait for the food will take you at least 30 to 45 minutes per restaurant. So if you think you want to get some food, go get in line because it will definitely be a wait. I don’t know if it’s just a staffing issue or if they intentionally don’t staff the restaurants to specifically prevent people from eating too much, but you can expect a wait at the more popular places such as Calypso Bay BBQ and Hibisco Modern Mexican.
- Even if you’re not hungry yet, I would recommend getting something just to keep your clock going. Grab a pretzel, bag of chips or even just a bottle of water to drink later.
- As I mentioned earlier, this information only applies to the San Diego location as each location will have a different variation of this plan. For example, the All-Day Dining plan at SeaWorld San Antonio is only valid once every 90 minutes.
SeaWorld San Diego All-Day Dining Plan Restaurants
I’m gonna be honest here. SeaWorld San Diego is a theme park so expect to eat theme park food. You’re not going to get any fine dining or fancy restaurants included in your plan. That being said, we were pleasantly surprised with what we were able to eat all day so it wasn’t all bad. Here are some restaurants that we ate at and a list of their menu items.
Calypso Bay Smokehouse BBQ
By far, this was our favorite restaurant. We started off here and ended up eating here again later on in the night before we left the park. Don’t get me wrong. This wasn’t the most amazing BBQ restaurant we have ever had, but it was the best restaurant included in this meal plan. We had the brisket, spare ribs and BBQ chicken. Everything was smothered in Heinz BBQ sauce, which was very salty so make sure to ask for the BBQ sauce on the side if you’re sensitive to that.
Each entrée came with a bread roll and a small side of potato salad. You can get an additional side salad, a cup of fresh fruit, baked beans, a dessert or more potato salad as your “side.” For our side/dessert, we went with the chocolate cake and cheesecake, which were just okay. They were very rich and a little too sweet for our taste. The wait here at lunchtime was about 45 minutes.
If you only eat here once, I think it makes the All-Day Dining plan worth it. For my plate of spare ribs, a cheesecake dessert and a fountain drink, my meal would have cost me $32.97 + tax. That’s half the price of the dining plan already.
Hibisco Modern Mexican
This was our second favorite restaurant. The portions weren’t big but everything tasted good and there’s even an Impossible chorizo option for non-meat eaters. The wait here around lunchtime was about 50 minutes. There were a ton of people in line and there was only one cashier working to take everyone’s order. I had the carne asada bowl and it was good and the churros were delicious.
Shipwreck Reef Café and Explorer’s Café
These two restaurants offered the exact same menu so we didn’t need to try both. We just ate here once and you can expect the typical burger, fries, chicken fingers, etc. theme park food. For my vegetarian readers, you can order an Impossible Burger or a buffalo chickpea wrap here. For dessert, you can expect chocolate cake, cheesecake or something similar.
Manta Pizza
This is a great place if you want a quick snack to hold you over till dinner or if you want something that you can eat while on the go. There are no dessert options here so you’re limited to just a bag of chips as your side. The wait was pretty long here during lunch and the afternoon hours.
The Pretzel Shop
Of all the included restaurants, this was the easiest and least crowded; albeit the options were rather limited. The entrée options were either a hot dog or pretzel and the only side option was a bag of chips. There were no dessert options here and again, Starbucks drinks were offered but they were not included in the All-Day Dining plan.
Big Bird Bistro
I don’t know why this place is listed as one of the restaurants because you really can’t get anything here other than a side of fruit, dessert or a drink. They did serve funnel cake and other snacks here but just like at the Pretzel Shop, none of them were included as part of the All-Day Dining plan.
SeaWorld All-Day Dining Plan Bottom Line
Overall, I thought the SeaWorld All-Day Dining plan was a great value for us. For one simple price of $49.99, I ate about $100 worth of food all day so it was worth it for us. But for you, it may not be a good value if you’re a light eater or someone that is very particular about your food. For young kids, it may be worth but for kids ages 10 years and older, who may not have an adult appetite yet, it may not be worth it for them either. I wanted to include the menu prices so you had an idea of how much the food costs in the park. That way, you can do your own math and figure out if the All-Day Dining plan is worth it for you or not. It was for us and other than the parking, it was nice to spend all day at a theme park and not have to take our wallets out again to pay for anything. And we were stuffed at the end of the day.
