Those in the park stated that they watched employees of Sea World kicking Orthodox Jews out of the facilities for not properly wearing masks. But all of them claimed that they witnessed them turning a blind eye to hundreds of non-Jews who were doing the same.
One person said “We were in Sea World today, and were kicked out for not wearing a mask. Mind you the whole park is not masking and one member of our group of 6 people pulled their mask down to get a drink. We were embarrassed and escorted out as hundreds of people passed us not masking. The only answer is, we were kicked for being Jewish. Sad day at Sea World.”
Another person said “I was there today. There were people of all ethnicities not wearing masks and staff constantly reminded. It was glaringly obvious that some of the staff only targeted and reminded Frum (Orthodox) Jews about it. On a separate note, there were too many kosher wrappers that I noticed littered all around.”
Yet another person said “I felt they were unfairly targeting Jews when there were many other violators. I heard them threatening someone that they would escort him out of the park, when there were many unmasked people around. Also, there were way too many people there for the capacity of the rides with the social distancing changes in the park (like every other row empty…). They couldn’t handle the crowd. It was over 90 degrees and the water fountains and misters were turned off.”
And another guy said “Hi I was in Sea World today. Plain anti seimtisem on display. There were thousands not in masks. Only Jews thrown out. A huge chutzpah. Calling lawyers won’t help. We should boycott them. A side note, it was PACKED beyond capacity. It’s a joke that they make it as if they care about social distancing. Save your money people and stay away!”
Yeshiva of Miami, which booked and sold hundreds upon hundreds of tickets for tomorrow at Sea World, sent out the following email to everyone who purchased tickets:
Dear Friends,
This is a very difficult email for me to write. Unfortunately, SeaWorld informed us that they are cancelling all group tickets, including ours, for tomorrow. The reason that they gave is that they had difficulty enforcing their mask policy amongst the various groups that were in Sea World today. Yeshiva of Miami prides ourselves on our complete transparency and communication when it comes to our customers. We are therefore sharing all the details with you, although it may be too lengthy. Please feel free to skip to the end of this email if you want to!
There were about 6 groups in Sea World today, all of which were Jewish groups. Our shared experiences were not great.
I have been in touch with quite a number of the participants today and many of them shared that they felt unfairly singled out regarding masks today.
I have had hundreds of pictures sent to me by our SeaWorld guests today showing very flagrant mask violations by many people that were clearly not in our group.
I spent about 4 hours today on the phone with SeaWorld explaining how our guests felt unfairly singled out today, and how this colored their Sea World experience.
I offered alternative ways to make this work. I explained that tomorrow the weather would be cooler and mask wearing would be less challenging.
I offered to them that I would ask each participant to sign a “Mask Contract” and I would offer a full refund to anyone who didn’t agree to sign that contract.
I spoke to our attorney who explained that as a private entity, especially during covid, SeaWorld is allowed to make this choice and we don’t have much legal recourse.
I literally tried everything. Sea World was not willing to budge.
Therefore, it is with a heavy heart that we are forced to cancel our group trip for tomorrow. We will be giving a full refund to everyone. The refunds will be processed after Pesach. Please be patient because it may take a few days to get to all the refunds.
We realize we are disappointing many people and that you now have to tell your family that your plans for tomorrow have been cancelled. We feel terrible and hope you realize that this literally hurts us more than it hurts you, on many levels. You are welcome to buy tickets directly from Sea World and enter through the main entrance. I will caution you that I have heard from many of today’s participants that it was very crowded and that many of the rides that were supposed to be open, were actually closed, leading to unreasonably long lines. Additionally, many of the shows were operating at 25% capacity and unless you were waiting in line for an hour beforehand, you couldn’t be guaranteed a seat at the show. In general, people that went today did not seem to have the best experiences, so take this into advisement when deciding if you want to purchase full price tickets for tomorrow.
Please feel free to reach out to me with any questions, comments, or anything else. I will try to respond as quickly as possible.
Yeshiva of Miami
THANKS SO MUCH,, IT MEANS THE WORLD TO US IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES
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