{"id":1404,"date":"2025-10-14T04:51:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/1404\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T04:51:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T04:51:28","slug":"orlando-theme-park-operator-sued-over-hidden-fees-at-busch-gardens-williamsburg-and-water-country-usa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/1404\/","title":{"rendered":"Orlando theme park operator sued over hidden fees at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and Water Country USA"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Virginia man is suing the Orlando-based company that runs SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks around the country for tacking on hidden fees for theme park tickets in his home state.<\/p>\n

Matthew Beeman filed his lawsuit<\/a> seeking class action status against United Parks and Resorts<\/a> in U.S. District Court\u2019s<\/a> Orlando division after he bought tickets earlier this year.<\/p>\n

He accused the company of \u201cbait-and-switch tactics that mislead consumers about the true price of tickets that Defendant sells to lure consumers into paying higher prices than they otherwise would.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tacking on what he called illegal hidden fees to theme park tickets violates a new Virginia law meant to protect consumers, he argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendant uses a deceptively low initial price to lure consumers into the purchase process \u2014 the \u2018bait.\u2019 Then, after the consumer has relied on that low advertised price and decided to buy, Defendant adds a hidden \u2018Service Fee\u2019 \u2014 the \u2018switch,’\u201d his lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Neither Beeman\u2019s attorney nor United Parks and Resorts returned a message for comment for this story.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the company has been sued over allegations of deceptive fees.<\/p>\n

An Osceola County woman sued the company in 2024<\/a> over a 5% fee appearing on her receipt when she bought items inside SeaWorld Orlando. The company argued in a response that it had disclosed the surcharge prior to purchase and denied any wrongdoing, according to court records. That lawsuit is still pending and is set for trial in September 2026.<\/p>\n

Beeman bought a ticket to Busch Gardens Williamsburg<\/a> and two tickets to Water Country USA<\/a> online this Summer. After he went through the checkout process of picking the dates and number of tickets, he clicked \u201cadd to cart\u201d and saw the itemized breakdown for \u201ctaxes and fees,\u201d the lawsuit said. On a closer look, he realized he was charged $0 for taxes and $11.99 in service fees that he said had not been advertised in the ticket price.<\/p>\n

\u201cDefendant intentionally excluded these mandatory fees from the displayed and advertised ticket prices and disclosed them only after Plaintiff \u2014 and all other consumers purchasing tickets through Defendant\u2019s websites \u2014 had invested significant time and effort selecting tickets,\u201d his lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Beeman\u2019s lawsuit said the company charged more than $5 million in these service fees to guests. \u201cOn information and belief, the Defendant has sold at least several hundreds of thousands of tickets during the statutory period,\u201d the lawsuit said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Beeman\u2019s complaint pointed to a new Virginia state law \u2014 \u201cone of the first laws of its kind\u201d\u2014 to require companies to advertise the full price.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe brazenness of Defendant\u2019s conduct is exemplified not just by the fact that Defendant, a multi-billion dollar enterprise with significant legal resources is undoubtedly aware of Virginia law, but also that Defendant complies with upfront pricing in other states where it operates,\u201d his lawsuit said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Virginia man is suing the Orlando-based company that runs SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks around the country…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[2040,833,2041,139,141,140,2042,2043,2044],"class_list":["post-1404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-hidden-fees","tag-lawsuit","tag-matthew-beeman","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-orlando-theme-parks","tag-seaworld","tag-united-parks-and-resorts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}