Greetings! I read many wonderful posts about these destinations and am planning to go there June/July 2007. While many of the hotels are not booking online that far in advance, I would like to know what kind of discounts might be available for the two parks, and for the Dolphin Interaction Program at Sea World. Having this information will help me budget accordingly. Thanks in advance. Stan

I believe you can get discount tickets through San Diego Visitors Assoc -

Well, if you live in southern California you could have your employer's HR department contract with Fun Express (www.funex.com) for discounts to area attractions. The savings are considerable.

Occasionally you will find discounted admission cards for area attractions at the checkout of the local supermarkets (most often the Vons/Pavilion chain). Again, the savings can be huge. They may have residency requirements....

For non-residents, try sandiego.com (which is the site sunburn1944 is mentioning, I think)-- there is a link to a attractions discount webpage. You will save quite a bit.

I'm not sure if this applies to the San Diego Sea World - But we live near the San Antonio Sea World and the annual pass is only a bit more expensive then a single day ticket. In addition, pass holders get a 10% discount on the animal encounters, food purchases, and a book of coupons for discounts at the gift shops, midway games, fish to feed the sea lions, etc. If you are planning to spend more than one day at Sea World you might want to consider getting the annual pass.

If you belong to the Auto Club there are always discounts available to the various theme parks. Check with your local office if you belong to the AAA.

Check online with one of the parks, because I believe you can get a discounted 3-park pass (Sea World, San Diego Zoo & The Wild Animal Park).

Vons in LA County was running a discount promotion for San Diego Zoo a few days ago. I think you have to check with individual stores to see if they have tickets, which would be a pain. But they were $25 if I remember right.

The San Diego Entertainment Book has coupons for $4.00 off certain tickets to the Zoo. One coupon can be used for up to six tickets. It also has 15% off tickets for the Wild Animal Park, but nothing for Sea World.
The book also has lots of coupons for restaurants, harbor cruises, museums, and some other theme parks, like Legoland.
The 2007 books go on sale in Fall 2006, but if you wait until Spring 2007, you can probably find them on sale for half-price on the Internet.

sgrabowski

Go to www.sandiego.org the official San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau website. You can request a free visitors planning guide and many other discounts that are on offer.

Sandy

I just bought one of the Von's tickets. It is $25 for either a "Best Value Ticket Package" at the Zoo which includes admission, unlimmed use of the Guided Bus Tour, Express Bus, and Skyfari Aerial Tram, Childrens Zoo, all animal shows and exhibits. The tickets can be used any day thru 1/31/2007. I did not have to show any proof of residency. They're available at the cash registers.

I just returned last week from a visit to San Diego and purchased SeaWorld tickets through my local AAA office before leaving home. The savings were $6 for an adult ticket and $5 for a child. The tickets are not day-specific, which was important to us as we weren't sure which day we would be going. SeaWorld is fabulous, by the way.

AAA did not offer discounts for the San Diego Zoo.

mlgb: That's wonderful! I need to check that out at my neighborhood Pavilions (I feel a need to schlepp down to San Diego sometime soon).

Do you know anybody who works for Budweiser or a Bud distributor? We always get free tickets from my BIL. The free passes also include a 10% discount on food and merchandise. Good for Busch Gardens, Sea World, etc.

Thanks everyone for your input. You have given me plenty to work with. I do know that the Sea World web site where you purchase tickets (http://4adventure.com/seaworld/ca/) does offer some discounts (e.g., second day free). I will have to keep checking to see when they start making the 2007 tickets available.

Thanks again!

Stan

All these replies are really neat! I guess if you're going to be doing a lot of sightseeing other than those two places you could get the Go San Diego card. It's an attraction pass which includes a bunch of San Diego things to do for one lower price. It includes Wild Animal park, San Diego Zoo, museums and other attractions and rentals in the area. They're on sale a lot but probably the best for people doing lots of sightseeing http://www.gosandiegocard.com