The Parkz Update: Sea World's Carnivale was a mixed bag

As Carnivale wraps up its inaugural season at Sea World, a combination of noticeable omissions, basic food offerings, average drinks and limited rides makes the 2017 event an enjoyable night but a shadow of its former Movie World self.

Image: Parkz. Carnivale lights up Sea World for 2017

Update By Richard Wilson
22 January 2017

A bit of rain and wind didn't stop the crowds from descending on Sea World for the final night of Carnivale. After three successful years at Warner Bros. Movie World during the cooler months, for 2017 it took over Sea World's summer.

Bamboo lanterns line the paths at Sea World in preparation for Carnivale.

Dockside Tavern makes for a great spot to sit, relax and wait for the festivities to begin.

And also a great spot to watch the crowds pour in as they battle the rain.

It could be a nice bar to sit and enjoy a refreshing beer too. But unfortunately Dockside Tavern is serving consistently flat beer as of late. All the beers and ciders on taps are almost completely uncarbonated for some reason, and have been for several months.

Entertainment at Sea World Carnivale

The ability to successfuly curate such a wide and varied collection of musicians, performers and entertainers has been one of the best qualities of Carnivale in recent years. Sea World's incarnation isn't different; it successfully replicates much of what made it great at Movie World, save for a few noticeable omissions like the lack of a parade.

The entertainment at Sea World Carnivale draws largely on the tried-and-true offerings from previous Movie World incarnations of the event. If you saw these previous events then there's not a lot that will surprise you at Sea World.

Colour, lights, fire and music fill the new Plaza area making for a great vibe.

Hashtag social media. Don't forget to tag the park in the photo so they can share it on Facebook and Instagram! It saves them actually having to come up with a marketing strategy for social media!!

Making the most of the novelty giant inflatable pool toys that were in every store this summer.

Giant Ukulele Lady. Play Khe Sanh!!!!!

Carnivale really captures the interesting, bizarre and kitschy. From Giant Pool Girl With A Pineapple, we go to...

... Gator King With Frogs Playing Harmonica. Very New Orleans.

Crowds pack the Plaza area during the downpour, making you realise just how crucial a sheltered area is for these events.

The rain came and went but didn't stop the festivities.

Sea World selected a range of 'popular' artists to close out each night at Carnivale. They drew relatively small crowds despite almost all of the marketing and promotional efforts for the event going into promoting these performances rather than the other Carnivale offerings.

It very much feels like a case of repurposing everything they could fit into Sea World – it is afterall a theme park with a unique layout that brings considerable logistical challenges – and simply leaving out the rest. You can't begrudge Village Roadshow Theme Parks for not simply making a carbon copy of Movie World's successful event, but it is particularly noticeable that no real efforts were made to play to Sea World's strengths.

The front half of Sea World features the ski show terrace seating, the sea lion stadium and a grassy knoll overlooking the dolphin pools that was used as casual seating for many shows over the years. There's even a stage central to Carnivale in Nickelodeon Land. These facilities sat conspicuously dark on nights filled with lights, music and entertainment.

There is surely enough creative nouse within Village Roadshow Theme Parks to develop some kind of unqiue headline experience that plays to the Carnivale theme. Something that is more worthy than the Who's that? lineup of musicians they assembled to close out the night on the stage shoehorned in between Penguin Encounter and Creatures of the Deep.

Sea World Carnivale's food offerings

The food offerings were incredibly lacklustre compared to the Movie World Carnivale. Louisiana Grill was the only vaguely on-theme option.

Village Green was repurposed as a quiet lounge/cafe, keeping the doors closed as a respite from the festivities for most of the night.

Prime Burgers became Plaza Island Kitchen and made the bizarre choice of serving just fish and chips as well as fish burgers that didn't seem terribly popular.

Carnivale might not be able to compete with the likes of NightQuarter, Eat Street Markets or Miami Marketta – unless they bring in outside vendors – but it seems severely limiting to reduce the selection to a tiny handful of uninspiring offerings that included run-of-the-mill noodles and curries. At Movie World, Carnival made itself all about cuisines as much as entertainment, the culling of much of the range really loses some of the magic of this great event.

But at least Carnivale looked good! An event like this can really play to Sea World's more natural and resort feeling.

Rides at Sea World Carnivale

Curiously on a busy night during the peak of summer they made the decision to only run one train on Jet Rescue.

Sea World is in an unenviable position with its ride roster seriously reduced. While there's valid arguments that better long-term planning might have seen a more seamless transition from rides that reached end-of-life to new replacements, ultimately Sea World have to work with what they have right now.

It's curious then that Sea World made the decision to leave one train off Jet Rescue and have Storm Coaster not running at peak capacity. Each ride's queue building was full for the entire night and it was was a solid 1.5 hour chunk to get through both rides. With a three hour event designed largely around selling food and beverage, it's surprising that the rides aren't operating at maximum capacity to reduce these waits. Less queuing means more time to explore and spend money, or so Disney would tell you.

Nickelodeon Land looks great at night with its festoon lights.

And we leave you with No Photos :D Emoji Dolphin. Please, no photos :D

Carnivale was consistently inconsistent; it's hard to see the event returning in 2018 without some serious retooling. It's a great concept and one that definitely has a place on the Village Roadshow Theme Parks' events calendar, but just needs an injection of the same creativity that shaped the nearly flawless Movie World event.