Walking Around the 2024 Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld, Orlando

I did not get a chance to visit the Seven Seas Food Festival last year... in fact, I'm not sure I sampled much of anything, at any of the theme park festivals last year. The break provided me with a little re-think on how to approach these festivals... I can't do anything about what they're offering now or what the festivals used to be, in years past... I can only enjoy what's here, now.

Without taking too much time away from the Seven Seas Food Festival by waxing nostalgic – many of the food items that are being presented at these in-park festivals has (unsurprisingly) been consolidated down to what sells well, items that are not too complex to make and plate, and things that would appeal to a large number of guests. Gone are the days where I would try and find a nice Barramundi or Red Snapper dish, a Balsamic Berry Cheesecake, a Kataifi Fried Orange, or even a proper Kimchi anything.

SeaWorld's Seven Seas Food Festival never positioned itself as a high-brow, foodie discovery type of event. Their own marketing copy, which had utilized a "street food from around the globe" phrase for many years, has since been updated to something more along the lines of "festival food for families" and "fan favorite food items" — I paraphrase, because I find SeaWorld's marketing copy to be a little frazzled.

Instead of continuing to look for something that's just not there, I decided to cave to the concept, toss any pretense of what I think a food festival should be, and just get a few things that I wanted to eat. All things considered, it's probably the best way to enjoy most of these food festivals anyway.

Before I get to the food though, it looks like they finally completed the deconstruction and reconstruction process in what had been the old "festival area". The new area, actually looks and feels pretty great.



There's not much in the way of shade in the new space, but there's ample room for food booths and kiosks… at least as much "kiosk flex space" as what had been there previously. The walkways are also nice and wide… which is what I really like the most about this re-planned space. If you've ever walked around the "food festival loop" at SeaWorld — that area between Sharks and the Nautilus Theater is tight — dangerous tight on busy days. This new area puts tons of space around each of the kiosks, so even if there's a line, there's still space to move around it.



There's a small outdoor flex-space near the Ports of Call and Sea Harbor Pavilions event spaces that has been opened up and is seemingly more accessible than it had been previously.



About the only down-side thing I could find in this newly reimagined area — is that a small covered seating space, has been turned into a drink stand with a walk-up bar of sorts.



Honestly though, there's enough room on either side of the counter to make up for the lost covered seating… if they were to install tall bar stool style seats on either side.



There were only four festival kiosks in the new area this time, but I feel like there's enough room for a couple more. Since this whole area had been used for many of the holiday offerings — food, environment, and character photo opportunities alike  — I'm very interested in returning, to see how they're going to set everything up.



There are also, a couple of (new to me) improved shaded areas around the park that include some seating — and I'm really happy about that. Park designers (even over at Disney) like putting stuff everywhere, and underestimate how important it is to have free, quiet, non-smoking, "just sit for a few minutes under full shade" spaces around the parks. These are especially needed— if you're going to host food-based festivals, year-round. So this new, sail-shade covered "beer garden" over near the Gulf Coast and Mexico markets is a welcome addition!



It's a large area with different types of seating, a beverage kiosk, and there's even a small event stage at one end. It's close enough to Sesame Street Land to be a parent's "sit and relax" area, but in my mind, it makes so much sense to have this space close to a couple of the larger food and beverage booths at the festival.

While I was here and close to the Golf Coast Market food booth, I decided to try out the Cajun Shrimp and Grits. I had tried a similar item previously at the park's Craft Beer Festival and really enjoyed it.



This ended up being one of my top picks this year — it was a hands-down, great shrimp and grits entry. The description from the menu board says that it features Cheddar Stone Grits, Royal Red Shrimp, Andouille Sausage, Roasted Tomatoes, and Green Peas. All of that stuff was in there — I could taste all of it, the texture of the grits was spot-on and it was served hot and freshly plated.



It's a great item. Probably less spicy than some would like... but it's important to note — you're not really going to find "authentic spicy hot" dishes at any theme park festival. Sorry, it's the nature of "family style" food festivals. This one had tons of flavor and was what I would call moderate on the capsaicin spice scale.

An item that ended up sounding better on the menu board that it was on the plate are these St. Patrick’s Day Nachos from the  Irish Market. The menu says they're a combination of Crispy Potato Chips, Corned Beef, Cheese, Red Cabbage.



I've tried enough of these "fusion nachos" items now to officially declare — they just don't work. Fusion poutine, where you dump stuff on fries — that works better… but nachos — not so much.  Some really good, traditional Mexican-style nachos are a thing that you just can't mess around with. In this case, you would think the Corned Beef would have enough flavor power to stand up against those "nacho" chips (which are really just house-made potato chips in this case), but all you could taste here — was kettle chip grease.



As far as tradition goes, I'm not sure red cabbage and micro-shredded multi-cheese is something that goes with Corned Beef in the first place. So??? I don't know — I can see why this would be a fun dish to concept and develop — but those flavors from the "Corned Beef, Cabbage and Potatoes" plate that one might associate with St. Patrick’s Day — weren't really present in this dish at all.

An item that hasn't changed too much since the festival began — is this Bratwurst served on a Pretzel Bun with Sauerkraut and Beer Cheese from the German Market booth.



This goes hand-in-hand with my new mind-set for enjoying the SeaWorld festivals. I know this isn't new to the festival and it's not one of those highlight items that are going to draw a lot of attention. I just like Bratwurst, Sauerkraut and Beer Cheese — and you know what? This was actually pretty good.



I could taste all the ingredients, the textures were all correct, there was a nice contrast with all the elements on this one. The  Bratwurst itself was a little mild, but I go back to what I mentioned before about "family style" food and authentic flavors being taken down a notch. A traditional German Bratwurst would bring a little more nutmeg, caraway, marjoram, and garlic to the flavor party.

As a side note, I got free beer too — which paired quite nicely with the Bratwurst! Every now and then SeaWorld gives away free beer to everyone in the park — this time (and most times) it was being poured over near the Waterway Bar — from a suspiciously unmarked tap, behind a small cart positioned directly outside the Waterway Grill's entrance. So the passholder perk this time was — if you're an annual passholder, you get two free 7oz beers... per visit, per day. It's probably Budweiser or Bud Light... but I mean — it's free, cold beer from a tap!



Just so you don't forget that this food festival is happening at SeaWorld, here's a photo of a whale that looks like it's made out of repurposed, lacquered, wooden planks from a bowling alley — jumping out of a concrete box. (Things get a little crazy when you start handing me free beers.)



There were a couple of new booths to the festival this year — one of those is the "French Market" which served snails and duck — which maybe explains why I never saw too many people around the booth.



A French Market booth seems like a great idea. I do like well-executed French food — and while I don't eat Escargot that often, I do really like a good Duck Confit. However, this all kind of goes against my new mindset about the festival… just walk around and enjoy some great flavors without getting too caught up in fancy food. The French Market booth seems out of place with regard to that concept.

The new Indian Market booth however — well now we're talking.



I feel like curry has made inroads with "pub grub" style food over the years in America… curry wings and curry sauces pop-up in the strangest market segments — but for good reason. Americans love different sauces. From BBQ to cheese, Ranch and hot sauce — teriyaki and now curry… it's poised to be one of the "last great frontiers" in American food sauce. Not only that, but there's a cool photo-op stand set up next to the food booth.



There's a Garlic Naan with Chickpea Curry on the menu, along with the dish I picked up — the Chicken Tikka Masala.



This would be another one of my top picks from this year's festival. From a spice-level perspective, like most of the dishes, it's family-freindly and not "traditional heat level spicy" — but there's a ton of flavor in that Masala sauce. To me — this is a perfect food festival dish. If you've never tried anything curry or had Tikka Masala — this is a great time to try a well-executed and fairly mild version of a new flavor.



The Italian Market food booth has been located in the same spot for a couple of years now, and I really like the location. There's covered seating and it doesn't seems to be as busy as other locations. This year, there was a new menu item — a Mini Calzone which features a ricotta and mozzarella filling and is served with a house made marinara sauce.



The ricotta and mozzarella filling was great, the house made marinara sauce was pretty good too — the top half of the calzone dough/crust was great, the bottom half was soggy with some kind of oil (I think) and very difficult to cut or bite into… which is kind of a tell-tale sign that it had just been sitting under a heat lamp for too long.



I suppose it's worth pointing out, the calzone might be house-made, but it could just as easily be a food service product that's just "baked to order". It's kind of hard say with any certainty — either way, it would have been better, if the crust was more evenly consistent.

Mostly because I really like the seating near the Italian Market food booth (and because I still had a little beer left) we picked up a plate of Palermo Fontina Cheese Meatballs as well.



There's actually three meatballs under all that pomodoro sauce and fontina cheese... the "garlic pancito" that's listed on the menu is basically a breadstick that's been torn in half. The breadstick itself was nice — but I wouldn't call it "garlic" or use it as an example of what pancito bread is, so I'm not really sure what they were going for there.



Fortunity, the pomodoro sauce was the right, chunky texture that it's supposed to be — and the entry was just as savory and cheesy as it looks in the photos. A great pairing with any beer or wine.

Closing out our food stroll around the 2024 Seven Seas Food Festival, we tried the Whiskey Maple Bacon Cinnamon Roll topped with whiskey maple glaze from the Café De Mar booth.



These are all pre-made and held in two large "keep warm" boxes, (and look nothing like the photo they're using on the menu board) — so honestly, I wasn't expecting much here.

While it was somewhat messy forking out the Cinnamon Roll from the cardboard boat it was served in — I was actually pretty surprised by the flavors. You could taste the yeasty roll, the cinnamon, a smokey quality from the whisky, a sweetness from the maple, some saltiness from the bacon — all in all, all the flavors were there.



The tiny bacon pieces they used in the roll were more like a semi-dried candied bacon bits rather than fresh bacon crumbles. Texture-wise, I would have preferred a crisper bacon product, which might have provided a little crunch contrast to the dessert. But even with that, the savory dessert roll gets high marks from me, because all the flavors listed on the menu were in the finished item, and they all paired well and tasted great together.

Conclusion and Cost

All in all, I'm happy with my new mindset while visiting the Seven Seas Food Festival — and I'm happy with all the food I tried as well. Those Irish Nachos is the only thing I wouldn't get again… but in all the rest of the dishes — I could taste the various food components in each of the items — and that's something that even a couple of in-park sit-down restaurants haven't gotten right recently.

It was a fun day, getting to stroll around and sample some great food items. I guess the only real drawback to going again, would be the cost. The listed menu board prices for many of the savory items were in the $10.99 to $11.99 range. At those prices — things add up quick.

SeaWorld does still offer a great "Sampler Lanyard" program, where you pre-purchase a number of samples at a slight discount — which makes all of this more affordable. There's a 10 Sample Lanyard for $79.34 — which makes each item $7.93 (regardless of what's posted on the menu board). The 15 Sample Lanyard is an even better deal, if you're going to get 15 samples… it's $96.38 — which makes each item $6.43 (regardless of what's posted on the menu board).

Those Sampler Lanyard prices, bring the food back into a range where I can try different items — and it's all still fun — rather than me constantly thinking about how much everything is costing. I'd even go so far as to say, if you're thinking about just paying full menu prices for things — I'm not sure I'd recommend the festival. The 10 or 15 Sample Lanyard offer a 30-45% savings on each item you try, which is not only a pretty great discount, but brings the cost of these items more in-line with the quality and presentation that's being offered.

Click Here to visit our main SeaWorld, Orlando Seven Seas Food Festival Page — where you can find more information about this fun and tasty annual food festival.