SeaWorld Orlando’s holiday plans for 2020 include a new Christmas-carol show, celebrations for Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and theme-park visitors being able to ice skate at Bayside Stadium.
“It’s a Wonderful Night: A New Story to Tell” will be produced at the park’s Nautilus Theater with limited capacity and physical distancing. SeaWorld says it will feature more than 30 carols “with clever surprises and lighthearted laughs.”
The park will observe Hanukkah from Dec. 10 through Dec. 18 with a lighting of the menorah.
Kwanzaa festivities will be held Dec. 26 through Jan. 1.
In addition, Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa will be celebrated in the park’s Sesame Street Land as characters perform to holiday songs.
For the first time, SeaWorld visitors will be allowed ice-time on the Bayside Stadium rink that’s along the park’s central lagoon. This activity requires a surcharge, and participants must wear crew length socks and gloves. Yes, this is outdoors.
But the “Winter Wonderland on Ice,” featuring figure skaters with an assist from prancing fountains and shiny trees, will still happen. “Rudolph’s Movie Experience” will be a 10-minute show performed multiple times daily at Sea Port Theater. The Sea of Trees, featuring dozens of lit trees that appear to loom above the lake, also returns.
SeaWorld’s Christmas Market will include merchandise, entertainment plus holiday food and drink. The park will sell the Christmas Celebration Tasting and Brew Sampler Lanyard ($35 for a five-punch version; $50 for 10 punches).
The park has developed a socially distant interaction with Santa Claus at Wild Arctic. Families will enter the space one at a time and sit in a sleigh with the big guy seated above and behind. There will be a plastic partition between visitors and Santa.
SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration will be held from Nov. 14 through Dec. 31. Activities are included in regular admission, with the exception of the skating experience and food/drink purchases. The park continues to require date-specific reservations, temperature checks, face coverings and other coronavirus-pandemic precautions.
For more information, go to seaworldorlando.com/christmas.
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