I shouldn’t have said operations, but each one of them were involved in the business management of the park from those positions. John and Donny, for example, weren’t cooking meals and picking ingredients; they were the ones making the dollars-and-cents decisions of their department.
Serious question, though. Does anyone have a rough estimate of what the park president salary is? I hope this doesn’t come off in bad taste, but I’m curious about what the position would be comparable to from a career standpoint.
It depends on the qualifications and experience they have. Like @Jahrules said I would think the salary would be around $150,000 as a base. That would be minimal qualifications and I would expect that could also be negotiated higher. They also get bonuses and such for performance.
SeaWorld and theme parks in general don't necessarily pay as much as you could get in other industries. For reference SeaWorld's new CEO only makes 600k + stock and cash incentives.