At the SeaWorld BBQ Festival, we tried the new Smoked Chicken Taco. Here’s how it stacks up—and if it’s worth your sampler lanyard.
Bands, Brew & BBQ at SeaWorld Orlando runs on weekends from July 5 through August 24, 2025, and is included with general park admission. During this event, guests can enjoy a high-energy festival of live music, regional BBQ flavors, and craft brews with no extra ticket needed.
Live Music in the Nautilus Theater
Each weekend brings a new rock or country act to the air‑conditioned Nautilus Theater, and reserved seating upgrades are available, from $9.99 for promo seating to around $14.99 for premium.
Highlights include:
- Toby Keith Tribute July 19
- Blue Öyster Cult July 20
- Jason Aldean Tribute July 26
- DOKKEN July 27
- Bon Jovi Tribute August 2
- Avery Anna August 3
- Luke Bryan Tribute August 9
- LoCash August 10
- Fleetwood Max (Fleetwood Mac tribute) August 16
- Fuel / Lit August 17
- American Stones (Rolling Stones tribute) August 23
- Lee Greenwood August 24.
SeaWorld BBQ Festival
A series of themed huts serves over 130 varieties of smoked meats, sides, cocktails, and craft beers. Highlights include:
- Regional BBQ styles from Kansas City, Carolina, Texas, Memphis, and the park’s own slow‑smoked specialties
- New dishes like the BBQ Sundae (pulled pork, mashed potatoes, beans, coleslaw, onion straws), smoked chicken tacos, corn ribs, smoked turkey collard greens, pretzel-wrapped bratwurst, and more
- Drink options including Frozen Sangria, Royal Rush, Kansas City Smash, Orange Mojito, Pub Grub Old Fashioned, Honkey Tonk Punch, alongside local craft beers such as Florida Avenue’s Big Boy Blue, Brew Bus “You’re My Boy, Blue!”, Ivanhoe Park’s Guavacation, and 3 Daughters Key Lime Cider.
Tasting Lanyards & Event Value
Guests can savor more of the food and beverage choices with a festival lanyard. They can buy one that offers five items for $45. For a more extensive experience, a sampler lanyard entitling guests to ten samples costs $65. SeaWorld Orlando passmembers receive two bonus samples when they purchase the $65 ten-sampler lanyard.
SeaWorld BBQ Festival: Smoked Chicken Taco – $10.99
During a recent weekend visit to SeaWorld Orlando, we decided to try some of the new Bands, Brew & BBQ food offerings. We ended up at the Texas BBQ booth to try a new item for this year’s festival, the Smoked Chicken Taco. The online menu description for this read, “Smoked BBQ Chicken, Flour Tortilla, Pickled Onions, Jalapeños, Tangy BBQ Sauce.” This was a more complete description than the printed version at the Texas BBQ booth.
Like the Taco al Pastor we reviewed during the Seven Seas Food Festival at SeaWorld Orlando, guests get one taco. Though we initially thought the tortiall was street taco size, it actually was a reasonable size soft taco shell. Still, this tortilla needed to hold up to plenty of fillings – maybe too much. It offers decent flavor but missing the true Texas BBQ element, at least at first. The jalapenos were low quality but provided some spicy heat.
As we ate more of the taco, the tangy BBQ sauce started to shine more. That element serves as the key component to call this a barbecue item. The chicken provided an average to slightly above average quick-service level grilled chicken.
The taco comes served flat. Guests trying to eat this as a handheld taco will struggle due to portion size of filling for this taco. We made it three bites in before the contents of our taco burst out onto our plate. The fork and knife technique will be key at some point when eating this taco.
SeaWorld BBQ Festival Review: Value?
This taco makes a decent choice for those using a sampler lanyard. That would drop the price to below $7 or even less for SeaWorld Orlando pass members. For $11, it does not make a good value. Still, the flavor quality for a festival taco deserves respect.
The Bands, Brew & BBQ festival at SeaWorld Orlando runs on weekends through August 24. This provides a little less than two weeks to switch to food for Howl-O-Scream Orlando, which starts on September 5. For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon Eastern Time. As always, eat like you mean it!
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