A Practical Guide to Viva La Música at SeaWorld, Orlando

Viva La Música is a family-friendly event, but it's probably more for young adults and adults more than anyone. In year's past, there had been some child-themed activities (crafting and such) but in more recent versions of the festival, that's been scaled back quite a bit.


More recently, children-based activities are really centered around the Fiesta Zone outdoor stage. If there's a couple of SeaWorld dancers around, they'll spend some time with the children in the audience (families standing around the stage) and try and get them involved with dancing — try and teach a couple of Salsa moves, etc.

The festival itself is split into three sections — food (which we'll talk about more in a bit), the live (or DJ) musical performance area, and a marketplace.

The Marketplace (or La Placita) features some local artisans and some unique, latin-themed, handcrafted items. It's actually a pretty neat little area and a fun idea — but when thinking about children — if your kids don't enjoy watching you shop outside of SeaWorld, they're not going have much fun watching you shop inside SeaWorld either.

The Food and Beverage kiosks and the sit-down concerts in the Nautilus Theater are main parts of the festival — and would mostly be enjoyed by young adults and older adults who like trying different foods and listing to music.

Well the good news is – Viva La Música doesn't specifically cost anything extra, once you get into SeaWorld (you still have to pay to get into SeaWorld somehow… day ticket, annual pass, etc.) . However, participating in some of the activities is "pay as you go".

It's free to look around the La Placita (marketplace), but naturally, if there's something that catches your eye — any souvenir you pick up will have a price tag, or will be clearly marked on a nearby sign. It's kind of nice to know you're supporting location artisans though (and SeaWorld, a little bit).

The outdoor concert stage in the Fiesta Zone is totally free to anyone walking by. The music is plenty loud enough to be heard by all and the space is fairly large — so this is an area where you can really soak in the spirit and environment of the festival.

The main concerts inside the Nautilus Theater are also free to anyone in SeaWorld that day. The Nautilus Theater is actually a pretty great venue for concerts. The slight-lines are all really good around the theater and it has a nice pitch to it — so that even the back rows should be able to see the stage. The theater is air-conditioned (yay) and the sound system is top-notch.

There is an "up-sell" of sorts with the big concerts — like most concerts at SeaWorld, there's a Reserved Seating option that does cost extra — but it's not necessary to see the show. The reserved seats are usually the first couple of rows directly in the center of the theater — so they are prime seats.

It's probably a good idea to pre-purchase access into the Reserved Seating area before you get to SeaWorld on the day of the concert you want to attend. There's really no point-of-sale location once you get back near the theater, to purchase those on the day of the concert. The cost of the Reserved Seating area changes, based on who the performer is — so it's kind of "market pricing" that changes from day to day.

All of the Food and Beverage offerings (naturally) cost extra, depending on what you select at the various food kiosks, so the only thing you can do for free in the "Fiery Flavors" section — is small all that food cooking! Most food samples are in the $10-$14 per item range, while mixed cocktails are in the $12-$15 range. Unlike some of the other food-based festivals at SeaWorld, there are no Sampler Lanyards at Viva La Música so the price on the menu board is the price that everyone pays to get that food or beverage sample

Viva La Música takes place in a relatively small area of the park and has the smallest footprint of any festival at SeaWorld. The Fiesta Zone is basically the ares directly around outdoor stage where live bands and DJs can be heard — and that is set up near the Shark Encounter attraction.

The marketplace or La Placita is located outdoors on the waterfront, behind a gift shop that's now being called "Fins Gifts". The Fins Gifts location is also directly across from the Shark Encounter attraction and Sharks Underwater Grill.

The far-end of the concert is really the Nautilus Theater. Most of the food and beverage booths are located between the Nautilus and the Shark Encounter attraction. There's one food and beverage kiosk before you get into this main area located on the path between the Sea Lion and Otter Stadium and the Waterfront Marketplace shops. There's also one food booth slightly beyond the main area, and then one more beverage tasting station that's even a little further down the walkway — but not quite as far as the Infinity Falls area of the park.  

The Fiery Flavors part of the festival takes place at multiple food and beverage kiosks that are all located in the main festival area. The food booths are generally the larger ones, and the beverage only stations are somewhat smaller.

Each of the stations has a menu posted on or near the kiosk and they're generally pretty easy to see while walking by each booth.



Once you know what you'd like to get, the larger food booths generally all have a payment register that's to one side of the booth — and there's usually a small line of people waiting to order.



You can order all the selections you'd like to try from that booth and pay for them at this register. Unlike other food-based festivals at SeaWorld — there is no Sampler Lanyard system in place for Viva La Música — so everything is pay-as-you-go. While I have refereed to these larger booths at "food" booths — there's usually a couple of beers, soda, or bottled water available at these locations as well, so you can get a drink as well.


After you've paid for your order the cast member will hand you a paper receipt and then you can move one step over into the main food booth line. One of the cast members in the booth will ask for your paper receipt — and then everyone in the booth will start preparing your order. This might be a good time to grab and utensils or napkins you might need, because in a couple of minutes — you're going to have a handful of food!

Once your order is ready, a cast member will ask if you want your receipt (or not) and then hand you everything you ordered. The food is a prepared on tapas-sized plates — but be forewarned — there's not plastic trays available for carrying everything. It's a little difficult to order more than two things at a time at any of these food booths (unless you have more hands to help carry stuff).

From there — you're free to roam around and find one of the few standing tables that might be around, or just enjoy your food standing-up. Some items (like a taco) might lend itself to that kind of eating — but most dishes are going to require either a fork, or at least some free fingers to pull items apart.

The beverage-only kiosks work very much in the same way, except the payment register is usually in the booth. They can do this because not nearly as much room is needed to prepare drink, compared to making food.

The food at Viva La Música is served tapas style and sized – so not "full meal" sized plates but more like "tasting portions". That works out well because it let's you try a couple different things.

I think (and this is purely editorial), the food at Viva La Música is more authentic and just plain better than at the other festivals – because the overall festival menu is smaller. There's fewer food kiosks to run, and so the three or four food kiosks that are operating – are stationed by culinary teams that know their stuff. Theres' roughly a dozen food items any given year and not the 40 or more items at the Seven Seas Food Festival and the focus seems to be on making those food items well.

Here's a plate of Shrimp Mofongo from one of the booths. It features mofongo de yuca with shrimp in a creole sauce.



Portion-wise, there's five shrimp on there. Let's call them two-bite shrimp. (Technically they're just over "medium", but not quite "large".) The shrimp were cooked perfectly and there was just the right amount of creole sauce on them. Generally speaking, a creole sauce combines a tomato base with sautéed onions, celery, and green bell peppers — and a little heat from a spice blend.

The mofongo de yuca is a lesser-known version of fried plantains, but similar in preparation. The yuca (or cassava) is a starchy root vegetable (sort of like a potato), and is native to South America. A traditional preparation of mofongo de yuca would involve mashing or smashing the yuca and frying it with garlic, salt and some kind of fat… usually bacon or pork. That's what I was tasting here, and so the item as a whole – came off as being authentic and delicious.



The mofongo de yuca was topped with a couple of sprigs of cilantro which you could pull off if you don't like cilantro. I know this is a crazy small thing – but the amount of cilantro on this dish was perfect. I've ordered items before at SeaWorld festivals that included fresh cilantro – and they've put enough on the dish to last for a week.

Here again, it points to the virtues of a slower, more careful and precise pace. Only make 12 items, but make the 12 items great. I'd love to see more of SeaWorld's festival go this way.

The beverage samples can be a little hit and miss, but are generally good and well thought out… maybe a tad bit on the small size for the price (but that could be said about most theme park adult beverages). Most are served from a pre mix refrigerated dispenser, so they tend to be well balanced but not fresh. Honestly though – outside of a lounge, you won't find anything different going on at any of the other theme park food festivals. SeaWorld does tend to put a "slightly" higher ratio of alcohol in their adult beverage though, so there's that!

There's not really enough here for me to suggest buying a single day pass to SeaWorld just to experience the Viva La Música festival – but if you're planning a trip to experience other stuff at SeaWorld or for annual passholders or fun card holders – I'd say heck yeah, it's totally worth a walk around.

Live Latin music is really accessible and easy to dance and sway to – even if you're just walking by so the musical portion of the Viva La Música really adds to the environment in the festival area.

Taking five or ten minutes to browse though colorful hand-made craft area is fun – and it's a little different than what SeaWorld offers in their gift shops normally.

Honestly, the fact that everything takes place in a much smaller area is a great feature for me as well. Having just been to the Seven Seas Food Festival – this is a welcome change of pace. There's a ton of walking to get around to see and taste various offering. Here at Viva La Música, the whole experience is in a much smaller footprint and so it all ends up feeling more focused and fun.

The food and beverage kiosks at Viva La Música are actually still pretty good. If they manage to keep up consistency – I'd say this is actually the best food festival at SeaWorld. The Seven Seas Food Festival (that proceeds this festival) — is huge and there are many things to choose from – but I've been quite disappointed with the actual food quality and authenticity the past couple of years.

With the Viva La Música food booths – there's not as much to choose from, but it feels like more effort is being put into making the dozen items they're offering – taste good. Which is really what it should be about in the first place.

Check out the Mealtrip menus for the Viva La Música festival – and if you can find a couple things you might like to try and you're already a passholder (and if the weather is going to be good) – check out the Viva La Música festival. It's a really fun mini-walkaround activity.