New Photos

Now this Elf — kind of carried the show. I could see the whole thing falling a little flat if she wasn't there. Santa is a good solid Santa, which can be a tricky role... but this "Female Lead Elf #1" seemed to not only organize and control the flow of the entire entertainment portion of the show — she was by far the best singer in the bunch as well.

Santa is wearing a brown apron because the Dinning with Santa event set is in Santa's Workshop. In fact, when the first guests check in, Santa can be seen on stage with his back to the audience, working on toys at his work bench. This helps us avoid any kind of "grand entrance" number.

Ahhhh... the classic "touch your nose" pose. This is a prerequisite stance for being one of Santa's helpers.

Hi Santa!!! There's several different times over the course of your meal where guests can go up on stage and meet with Santa (the Elves will come around to each table and help organize the timing of your visit).

A signed, original copy of the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas" (a.k.a "The Night Before Christmas") was sold for $280,000 in 2006. I'm pretty sure the book that Santa is reading from — is not an original signed copy.

Santa stands up to read the classic Clement Clarke Moore poem "A Visit from St Nicholas".

Santa is getting ready to read from his storybook at Dinner with Santa at SeaWorld.

The show itself is a two or three loosely stitched together show segments with time to eat in between the segments, and a scheduled time to meet with Santa. There's a little introduction segment, a pause with some photos, a sing-along led by the Elves, another pause, some more meet-and-greet photo time, a reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" by Santa, and then a little more photo time, etc.

The Dinner with Santa cast is only three people, but they fill the hour long event with plenty of family fun entertainment.

I wrote it in a previous caption, and I'll write it again — Female Lead Elf #1, really controlled the pace and cohesion of the show. Santa tended to be a little reactionary — but this Elf did everything... from coming out into the audience and interacting with guests as an Elf, scheduling the times with all the guests as to when your group could go up meet Santa, and being a solid voice when it came to the sing-a-long song segments.

Happy Holidays!!! The whole cast of Dinner with Santa. Thanks for a great performance everyone!!!

There's a little audience participation, but nothing that anyone is going to be forced into — if you're a little shy. Mostly, it's just calling out answers or singing along with a carol. There's no "let's bring them up on stage" moments.

The elves sit down with Santa as he reads from a story book and try to get the crowd involved as well.

While there are some physical props on the stage, like Santa's workshop desk, his chair (obviously) and a small rocking horse — the rest of the background is a very large vinyl backdrop.

Pictured here is a portion of stuffing with gravy, a little of the vegetable medley, roasted turkey with gravy and some mashed sweet potatoes.

This is the Pumpkin Loaf from the dessert buffet table at Dinner with Santa. The official SeaWorld menu read "with vanilla ice cream"... which may (or may not) have been true in previous years. This time, it was served with "vanilla icing" (which kind of sounds like "ice cream").

SeaWorld has historically served up a really good breaded chicken product at their locations — and this was no different. It was refreshing getting to have a bite of some good, old fashioned fried chicken with fries in=between all those traditional holiday meal items.

Pictured here are the mac and cheese, green beans almondine, a couple cubes of cheese, glazed ham and garlic mashed potatoes.

Here's a look at some of the items from the Charcuterie table.

The "Santa's Fall Salad" is a great mix of Baby Spinach and Frisee along with some orange pieces, olives, onion and tomatoes. A Raspberry Vinaigrette was also available to drizzle on top.

The Pumpkin Loaf dessert item combined a moist loaf style cake with vanilla drizzle a couple of crumble type of nuts and grains that had been sprinkled on top and some sweet dried cranberries.

A more traditional "Thanksgiving" style plate could be put together will items from the buffet table on the opposite side of the pavilion. Pictured here are some sweet potatoes, turkey and gravy, vegetable medley and corn bread stuffing.

There was also a "kids buffet table" that actually had some pretty great food on it too. Pictured here is a breaded chicken tender, some fries, mac and cheese, along with a single corn dog nugget.

Here's a sample plate from the buffet line on one side of the pavilion. All of these elements were close to each other — so I figured they intended for them to all be eaten together.

The "Donut Beignets" also looked festive — but could have really used some kind of sauce to dip in. They were offering hot chocolate after your meal — maybe that would have made a good "dunking" fluid.

Here's a closer look at a portion of the Santa's Fall Salad. The official SeaWorld description called for Poached Pears to be in the mix — but I actually quite like the Orange Slices that were in the salad instead.

The Holiday Sprinkles Cookie — was... (I'm trying to add any editorial comments to the photo captions)... it was — the shape of a cookie and looked quite festive.

The meats and cheese were nice to have on the table over the course of my meal. The Pepper Jack Cheese squares were properly hot (capsaicin) and offered a nice, different, pop on your palate in between some of the other traditional holiday meal flavors.

The Donut Beignets were more donut than beignet. Actually, they were pretty much all "donut". While technically, Beignets don't have to be hallow with a puff of air inside, they should be fried... crispy and chewy. These were more like, warmed over on a sheet pan.

Once you make it past the main entrance and the overpass walkway, the path forward looks quite nice and clean.