SAN DIEGO, Aug. 24, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- SeaWorld San Diego announced today the launch of a NEW park experience – Zoo Days: Bayside BBQ & Brews. This limited capacity, ticketed and reservation required experience will provide guests with the opportunity to not only delight their taste buds with an exciting variety of refreshing craft brews and mouthwatering BBQ, but also explore 40 acres of the park's expansive property to enjoy outdoor animal exhibits and fan-favorite marine life animal presentations with physical distancing measures in place. 
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Each ticket for this limited time experience includes park entry, access to all outdoor animal exhibits and presentations as well as a tasting lanyard to experience our chef created BBQ and paired craft beer offerings and select wines. The tasting lanyard will include six food or drink items (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) of each guest's choice to indulge in new offerings throughout the day, while exploring the vast park grounds. Additional lanyards will also be available for purchase. 

Zoo Days: Bayside BBQ & Brews will run Fridays through Sundays, August 28-September 27, plus Labor Day, from 11:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m.

In compliance with state safety guidelines for zoos, SeaWorld, a licensed, permitted and accredited zoo, will operate with enhanced health and safety protocols for cleaning and sanitizing, physical distancing, face covering requirements, and temperature screenings. In addition to enhancing the park's already strict health and safety measures, capacity will be significantly limited to create even more open space for a visit that provides ample opportunity to be physically distant. Date-specific tickets for this experience must be purchased online in advance to help manage capacity. The number of tickets available each day is limited and can be purchased starting Monday, August 24 at 9:00 A.M. PT.

Get Your Appetite Ready

• Guests can embark on a food journey across the park's expansive grounds to enjoy an unbeatable mix of craft brews and delicious BBQ fare from limited-time, specialty menus designed by our talented culinary team.
• With plenty of outdoor seating, parks guests are in for a treat with a wide variety of chef designed food items like specialty beer-infused BBQ Brisket Sliders, Shrimp Tacos, Grilled Fish, Impossible Burgers, German Bratwurst and more, that will surely delight palates.
• To cool down after a fun-filled day, beer lovers can choose a cold brew from a new expansive, curated selection of craft beers, including many SoCal favorites, available throughout the park.

Learn About Fascinating Animals

• Guests can safely roam SeaWorld's spacious park grounds to enjoy our incredible open-air, outdoor animal viewing exhibits with animals including Orcas, Bamboo Sharks, Stingrays, Sea Lions, Otters, Penguins, Dolphins (including Magellanic Penguins), Flamingos, and more!
• They can also attend SeaWorld's world-famous Dolphin, Sea Lion and Orca Encounter live educational presentations with physically distant seating.
• And for those guests who are excited about an even more interactive experience, they can purchase additional tickets for Dolphin Encounter (reservations required), Sea Lion Feeding, and Ray Feeding.

"We want to thank our guests for their continued patience and support, and are beyond excited to announce the launch of this unique zoo experience, in a limited capacity format, as we safely welcome everyone back to the park for Zoo Days: Bayside BBQ & Brews," said Marilyn Hannes, president of SeaWorld San Diego. "We have enhanced our already strict health and safety measures to implement best practices in health and safety protocols that will promote an outdoor experience for families and friends that is fun, memorable and safe."
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SeaWorld San Diego has launched a new safety website with detailed information about the measures that guests can expect when they arrive at the park, including key operational changes. Specific information can be found by visiting seaworldsandiego.com/safety.

All guests, including Fun Card holders and Pass Members must purchase a date-specific ticket online to this limited time experience. Each ticket for this experience includes park entry, animal presentations and outdoor exhibits as well as a tasting lanyard to experience our chef created BBQ and paired craft beer offerings. Tickets are available for $74.99 for adults and $64.99 for children (ages 3-9).

Pass Members and Fun Card Holders may purchase online and make a reservation for over 50% OFF at the special price of $30 for adults and $20 for children (ages 3-9).

As reservations will be limited to this experience, guests are strongly encouraged to purchase their tickets starting Monday, August 24 at 9:00 A.M. PT. Please visit seaworldsandiego.com/tickets for more details.
Guests can receive the latest information on hours of operation for SeaWorld San Diego by visiting, www.seaworldsandiego.com or https://www.facebook.com/seaworldsandiego.  

About SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc.
SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE: SEAS) is a leading theme park and entertainment company providing experiences that matter, and inspiring guests to protect animals and the wild wonders of our world. The Company is one of the world's foremost zoological organizations and a global leader in animal welfare, training, husbandry and veterinary care. The Company collectively cares for one of the largest zoological collections in the world and has helped lead advances in the care of animals. The Company also rescues and rehabilitates marine and terrestrial animals that are ill, injured, orphaned or abandoned, with the goal of returning them to the wild. The SeaWorld® rescue team has helped more than 37,000 animals in need over the Company's history.  SeaWorld Entertainment, Inc. owns or licenses a portfolio of recognized brands including SeaWorld®, Busch Gardens®, Aquatica®, Sesame Place® and Sea Rescue®. Over its more than 60-year history, the Company has built a diversified portfolio of 12 destination and regional theme parks that are grouped in key markets across the United States, many of which showcase its one-of-a-kind zoological collection. The Company's theme parks feature a diverse array of rides, shows and other attractions with broad demographic appeal which deliver memorable experiences and a strong value proposition for its guests.

This morning, SeaWorld held their quarterly investor release, which of course had some rough news for the parks due to COVID and other things. Instead of just posting all of the information, here are some highlights as it relates directly to theme park fans such as us. 

If you'd like to read the entire release, you can check it out here. - Gregg 

So what does this mean? Quite simply, any rides SeaWorld parks were set to debut in 2020 will not be opening until 2021. This includes Iron Gwazi, Emperor, Pantheon and Ice Breaker. 

Texas Stingray at SeaWorld San Antonio already opened for 2020. 

While this is a pretty big blow to theme park fans, it's not entirely unexpected. In 2020 the parks are trying to do the best they can just to stay open, which includes reducing capacity. Opening a new ride to bring in guests really doesn't make a whole lot of business sense. 

It's been widely reported for months that SeaWorld has "defaulted" on payments to RMC for Iron Gwazi, this is a part of that. It doesn't mean that it won't open, it just means they've been working with them to defer costs that aren't directly related to the parks operating in 2020. 

You can find the rest of the COVID-19 response steps the parks have made below. 

COVID-19 Response
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Since the global COVID-19 pandemic has begun, the Company has taken proactive measures for the safety of its guests, employees and animals, to appropriately manage costs and expenditures, and to provide liquidity in response to the temporary park closures related to COVID-19. Some of these measures included, but are not limited to the following: 

• increased its revolving credit commitments on March 10th and subsequently borrowed the remaining available amount;
• issued $227.5 million of first-priority senior secured notes to obtain additional liquidity;
• amended its existing senior secured credit facilities to amend its financial covenants;
• initially furloughed approximately 95% of its employees upon closing all of its parks;
• obtained payroll tax credits and deferred social security payroll taxes under the CARES act;
• reduced executive officers' base salary by 20% until the theme parks substantially resume normal operations;
• eliminated and/or deferred all non-essential operating expenses at all of its parks and corporate headquarters while the parks were closed;
• eliminated substantially all advertising and marketing spend while the parks were closed;
• substantially reduced or deferred all capital expenditures starting in March 2020 (other than minimal essential capital expenditures);
• postponed to 2021 the opening of rides that were still under construction and originally scheduled to open in 2020;
• worked with its vendors and other business partners to manage, defer, and/or abate certain costs and payables during the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic; and
• implemented a rigorous and strict formal review and approval process for payments and cash disbursements.

I'm down in San Diego for a few days visiting my sister so I thought it'd be a great idea to head out on the trails around mission bay and see if I could get some pics/video of SeaWorld. 

Written by Gregg Condon

Heading to the park area via the trails around Mission Bay. If you're ever vacationing down here they are really great. 

Heading towards the park via the Boat Ramp off SeaWorld Drive. 

Don't think that truck is carrying anything for the park, but you never know. 

And there it is, Emperor. 

The track is definitely done, obviously we can't get in to see what's going with the themeing, station, etc. 

Walking around to the front end of the park. 

A clear shot of Journey to Atlantis. And sure, I could have walked up there and gotten closer pictures, but I didn't really want to chance it. 

A very empty parking lot. It was bizarre. 

Thanks for reading/watching. Hopefully soon we'll be able to actually venture inside the park and get some rides on Emperor. 

Also, the reason I've been coming to San Diego so much lately. My sister was just diagnosed with terminal stage 4 bone cancer. Since we just met a few years ago for the first time, we've been trying to hang out as much as we can. And these past few days have been AMAZING! 

She's set up a GoFundMe for a cross country RV trip. I'll be joining her on this trip when I can, and she's going to be documenting her travels. If you can, please consider donating. We also have some cool park stuff we're going to be auctioning off for her GoFundMe over the next few weeks. Stay tuned! 

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