So we have old expired Sea World tickets that we bought through a 3rd party provider that we never were able to use due to covid. We have not been able to visit Orlando since. The 3rd party provider says they are expired and I’ve reached out to Sea World with no response. It seems wrong not to honor the tickets, but wondering if anyone can offer some insight as to how sea world might handle if we show up at the gate with expired tickets?
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Have you tried calling them? Tickets: 407-545-5550
I hate those online contact forms. I feel like you rarely get a real response
I have called, but having purchased through a 3rd party vendor doesn’t yield great results. “We have to contact the 3rd party”.
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Sorry, but you are losing out on those tickets. That’s the gamble you take when not buying direct from the theme park. You save a few bucks, but if there’s an issue none of the theme parks will help you. 
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yeah, I’m assuming that its a total loss. Tougher to take, given they weren’t used
because the park was closed . Was just wondering if someone had a similar story and the park customer service was a bit more understanding?
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You would think that Sea World would be more understanding because of Covid. Hopefully someone has some better advice. Someone got paid for something they didn’t provide- 3rd party vendor or Sea World.
This seems wrong…although, I also think they might be within their rights.
If the tickets have an expiration date, it kind of is up to the policies of SeaWorld about whether they will allow you to, in a sense, “reactivate” those tickets. It isn’t in their financial interest to do so (setting aside the “good-will” factor), so I can see why they don’t want to help…but them telling you to contact the third-party kind of removes them from a sense of them causing any “ill will” on their part directly.
On the other hand…those SeaWorld tickets are valid SeaWorld tickets. A third party purchases those tickets from SeaWorld and sells them at a discount. The benefit to SeaWorld is potentially selling more tickets this way, even if each tickets doesn’t profit them as much. But the point is…those are, in fact, SEA WORLD tickets. SeaWorld is aware of those tickets, and should have some kind of registration and awareness of those tickets. So, if they wanted to, they should have problem crediting you for them, because they would be perfectly aware they were purchased legitimately.
I would think that SeaWorld, then, would want to in the very least allow you to re-activate those tickets, even if at some kind of service charge, so that you end up in their park spending money on their food and drinks, etc.
I have to wonder if, much like at UOR, if you went to the guest services desk with those tickets in hand, they would be more willing to accommodate you somehow. But the question then is…if they ultimately say no, are you willing to buy tickets then and there at full price?
It is a tricky situation.
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Once SeaWorld makes their money from the sale to the vendor, they really don’t care. A lot of parks specifically inform you not to buy tickets from anyone else for these reasons.
IMHO - SeaWorld guest service is on par with Six Flags. This is coming from someone that worked for Six Flags corporate for years! 
We’re talking about a park that charges a hidden 5% tax on all sales after all!!
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But there are a lot of authorized resellers for tickets like this. UT is a good example. But also AAA, and countless others. Unless they tickets were bought from a third party that is not authorized, I don’t think SeaWorld nor any other park can use that as a legit excuse because they are in a business deal with these resellers.
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As part of my job, Group Sales, for Six Flags I dealt with 3rd party sellers. We did our tickets on consignment - meaning they could return any unused tickets for a refund. (But sold to them with only a tiny discount.)
With the Orlando parks / “big theme parks” they make the reseller buy them with no returns option, but for a very good discounted price.
The parks don’t care about the resellers because there are so many already. Plus, there are even more people / businesses that would jump at the chance to buy these tickets and resell them.
No theme park endorses buying their tickets from any other seller - as far as I know. (I feel pretty ok saying it though. 
)
UT / AAA and the others all have the same “fine print” about unused / expired tickets.
Would it be great if they could get help?? Of course! I’m not trying to be a pessimist, but my experiences all have the same conclusion.
If the tickets were a few days past due, you could say - “I had COVID & couldn’t make it.” Then you’d get help. However, these tickets are months past due. The time to ask for an extension would’ve been after SeaWorld reopened. Sorry… 
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I’ll ask nice. If the answer is no, we’ll back track to Universal. Happy to spend money in their park. And lesson learned, I won’t be buying from Tickets at Work ever again.
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