Sea World Carnivale 2024

[Park Addict 93]

Carnivale bookings/dates are live for February 2024.

General Admission is the same as last year $69 Adults $49 Kids

Aqua Light Show and Affinity at Night confirmed as returning, website homepage advertises "ride the Leviathan and Trident at night" although the current maintenance schedule posted for Sea World says Trident will be unavailable on the 16th and 23rd.

Upcharges 

Disappointed to see the Festival Flavours Pass is now simply one food item (full size serve) + souvenir sipper / unlimited refills, a single scoop ice cream and a churro. Is it really festival flavours if only one item is not available during standard day trade? Although objectively its good value when a souvenir sipper is now $17 on its own.

[New display name]

17 hours ago, Park Addict 93 said:

Disappointed to see the Festival Flavours Pass is now simply one food item (full size serve) + souvenir sipper / unlimited refills, a single scoop ice cream and a churro. Is it really festival flavours if only one item is not available during standard day trade? Although objectively its good value when a souvenir sipper is now $17 on its own.

That sucks.  The end.  

[Brad2912]

My guess would be that ticket sales are underwhelming…. 

Edited January 25 by Brad2912

[themagician]

I was thinking the same because when you go onto the Sea World website, the screen fills with a banner altering you to buy tickets to Carnivale 

[Ashley Jeffery]

57 minutes ago, Brad2912 said:

My guess would be that ticket sales are underwhelming…. 

Not surprising really subpar event and a lot of people are broke

[New display name]

Last year was underwhelming so why would you go back?

[Brad2912]

36 minutes ago, New display name said:

Last year was underwhelming so why would you go back?

For me - it’s included with my passes.

if it wasn’t - then the chance to do the rides at night - especially Leviathan. 

[New display name]

Just close your eyes @Brad2912😁

[TomiJ]

I'm from Sydney, was set to go this year for the first time. That was until VRTP doubled their membership price and I decided to cancel it. Had the membership from the very start. Carnivale has never appealed to me. 

I would never pay full price to go to Carnivale but would consider half price discount if family and friends were going. 

If I did go, my main reasons would be riding leviathan, jet rescue and the aqua light show. 

[Park Addict 93]

On 25/01/2024 at 4:27 PM, Brad2912 said:

My guess would be that ticket sales are underwhelming…. 

There's also nothing new this year, people need a reason to return (thooies somewhat excluded).

It's always been the lesser of the VRTP events since leaving MW, at half price I'm buying an extra ticket (in addition to my One Pass redemption) for more night rides on Levi

On 17/12/2023 at 5:20 PM, Park Addict 93 said:

website homepage advertises "ride the Leviathan and Trident at night" although the current maintenance schedule posted for Sea World says Trident will be unavailable on the 16th and 23rd.

New maintenance period for Trident means it will be out the whole event despite the home page of the event website advertising it.

Edited January 26 by Park Addict 93

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

On 25/01/2024 at 4:27 PM, Brad2912 said:

My guess would be that ticket sales are underwhelming…. 

The event has gotten less and less each year. It needs a reinvention. The food they had at Movie World's carnivale event was enough to go back year on year. Now the food they have is the same boring shit they serve, but with special garnishes or decorations. 

Bring back the unique food. Figure out how to do some sort of street parade (you don't need giant floats to have a parade). The atmosphere in the park during carnivale is lacking and they need to make it more exciting (and having it immediately following the school holidays is probably a miss too - everyone is trying to get back into routine and this doesn't help)

[aaronm]

1 hour ago, DaptoFunlandGuy said:

The food they had at Movie World's carnivale event was enough to go back year on year.

I agree, however based on queues most people were skipping the po'boys and chowder bowls and picking up hot dogs and chips instead. They are catering to what their market wants, hence the current generic lineup.

[New display name]

The food quality from MW carnival to SW carnival:

Edited January 29 by New display name

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

5 hours ago, aaronm said:

I agree, however based on queues most people were skipping the po'boys and chowder bowls and picking up hot dogs and chips instead. They are catering to what their market wants, hence the current generic lineup.

Careful with those words. If I remember correctly, Doomsday's current neutered operations and the removal of The Wipeout were both because that's what guests wanted. 

 

I can't recall prices, but i'll bet you hot chips and hot dogs were a damn sight cheaper than po' boys and chowder bowls, and likely that's why the cheaper options were favoured. It's less about what guests want, and more about how the options are structured and marketed.

Ahem.
 

Take a gander over at Dreamworld's tasting trails (or Epcot's food and wine festival, or California Adventure's food and wine festival) to see the popularity of the 'tasting passports' \ "sip and savor pass" (and similar) which shows it can work. (i've personally bought both the DCA and Dreamworld options, and felt they were great value).

You sell a ticket that gets a guest a small sampling from all of the vendors - this guides them to each stall in turn, ensuring they're all kept reasonably busy and productive, and well patronised. Guests given the opportunity to 'try' everything are more likely to spend more money on something that they like - even if it is more expensive. 

(Also, more guests walking around with a unique product from a particular stall, the more "i'll have what they're having" effect you have)

A hot dog and chips is safe if you aren't sure what a "po'boy" is, but if you like what you sample, you can bet you're going back for more!

[themagician]

Apparently the first night has sold out 

[New display name]

Early slow ticket sales, might have been caused by people waiting to see what the weather will do.  The start of this year has been super shitty for me, so I have decided to start 2024 from today.  

Edited February 1 by New display name

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

4 minutes ago, New display name said:

Early slow ticket sales, might have been caused by people waiting to see what the weather will do.  The start of this year has been super shitty for me, so I have decided to start 2024 from today.  

Are you starting with a hangover? or you wanna start from tomorrow and get on it tonight?

[Park Addict 93]

2 hours ago, themagician said:

Apparently the first night has sold out 

This to me is just their usual marketing BS, first night of FN sold out too but the crowds were not close to other nights.

Tickets are still available on their website too currently. 

On 27/1/2024 at 8:13 AM, Park Addict 93 said:

New maintenance period for Trident means it will be out the whole event despite the home page of the event website advertising it.

Nice to see they still monitor Parkz as this has now been fixed.

[aaronm]

Went tonight, pretty much the same event as last year. Good for night rides on Leviathan and Jet Rescue, and the Aqua Light Show was decent. Apart from that there’s not a whole lot to recommend - if you’re after some interesting food options Dreamworld’s night market blows it out of the water.

The entertainment and atmospherics were fine, I suppose it’s an environmental positive that Village have managed to keep reusing the old parade floats year after year? 

I certainly don’t think this event is worth the $69 entry price. As a pass inclusion it’s ok but it’s a shame that Sea World don’t seem to be aiming to improve Carnivale each year. If I had to sum up the experience in one word: stale.

[Rivals]

i went tonight and i really think Sea World should get a new event that suits the park a lot more then Carnivale does and send the event back to MovieWorld. the food options are very meh and cheap as they are either seen at other parks or very clearly thrown together using products from the permanent outlets (besides stuff like chargrilled corn.)

Vortex was also shut for the night with the ride and queue closing around 5:30, so they’ve got one out of three of the rides in the New Atlantis open while they used the area as a marketing point until recently. i’m glad Leviathan was on two trains with good operations, the train no longer sits their waiting for the video to be done and it now just plays while you board. 

with the event only being open from 5:30-8:30 with ticket prices being $69 there is no where near enough time to do everything unless you want to just stay on the rides all night. the light show is really good but, it’s been the same for years. it feels like Village don’t have the effort to change it up so they just reuse the same event over and over again.

its a good concept but they need to pour some money into the event and make it something worth $69pp for again. i agree with @aaronm that it just feels stale now. 

[Michelangelo]

On 3/2/2024 at 9:38 PM, aaronm said:

If I had to sum up the experience in one word: stale.

100% this.

I also went on Saturday. I feel like it was less than previous years, there certainly hasn’t been any effort in growing or improving the event.
Only positive of the night was the aqua light show, other than that it was all just a bit… meh.

Won’t be rushing to return next year

[downunder]

What have the lines been like for Leviathan and Jet Rescue during Carnivale?

[Brad2912]

Figured we’d head down as we had the free tickets booked with one passes, and it’s raining so hopefully it would keep some people away and allow for plenty of night riding on Levi. 

Levi lasted all of one cycle and now nothing for 15mins. No communication from any staff, just standing having a chat at ride entry with a full queue line and more entering 
 

guest services in all village parks is just complete shit these days 

[Dean Barnett]

Do they have pre-recorded announcements about ride interruptions?

[Brad2912]

2 hours ago, Dean Barnett said:

Do they have pre-recorded announcements about ride interruptions?

Never heard a pre-record in any Aussie theme park tbh