Of all the places we visited during our vacation, the boys rated SeaWorld at the top! We actually spent 2 days at the park. The first day we hit as many of the shows as we could and rode on just a couple of rides. The second day was spent exploring the park more and riding as many rides as we could, including the brand new roller coaster called, The Manta. I even got, "I don't like those kind of rides," persons to go on it with me. Noah and I went on the Manta first, he yelled at me the entire time but as soon as the ride stopped he asked if we could go again. The entire family rode it twice the second time we visited and would have gone again if it hadn't closed due to a disturbed bee nest.
The shows were a bag of mixed emotions for me. The animals are beautiful and amazing and what a treat to see them up close but a part of me felt like we (the viewers and SeaWorld) were exploiting these creatures. Yeah, I know it sounds sappy but I am who I am. I just hope that after thousands of us get to watch the shows and see the animals up close that the education, the awareness, the programs created, etc. far outweigh any negatives. Killer Whales, Pilot Whales, Beluga Whales, Dolphins, Bat Rays, Polar Bears, Penguins, oh my! Anyway, we actually watched the Shamu Show both days. The first day Noah was upset because he barely got wet. He couldn't believe his bad luck, sit in the soak zone and leave dry? No fair! Well, the second time around made up for the first. He and Oliver even sweet talked one of the handlers and she called the boys up to help with the Shamu Slam. That meant that they were literally inches from the whale that was splashing, what seemed like, hundreds of gallons of water onto the crowd. Not a hair on their bodies left that stadium dry and they couldn't have been happier about it!
We finished both days as the park by riding the Shipwreck Rapids. No
chance at all of staying dry on that ride. We all left soaked but
luckily, the condo (along with clean dry clothes) was only ten minutes
away.
Knowing that getting wet was part of being
at SeaWorld, I left my camera home the second visit. It was tough but
not having to protect it from all the water was nice. I did manage to
get a few pictures on my phone though, my apologies about the quality.
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| Oliver waiting for the show to start. |
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| How can something so big look so graceful?!? |
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| Hi there. |
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| Dolphins making flying through the air look easy. |
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| Pilot Whale whose job description is to get the crowd wet. |
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| First souvenir of the trip. |
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| In sync. |
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| Those 2 boys down there - they belong to me. |
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| Telling us how wet and how cool it was to be down so close! |
Of all the places we visited during our vacation, the boys rated SeaWorld at the top! We actually spent 2 days at the park. The first day we hit as many of the shows as we could and rode on just a couple of rides. The second day was spent exploring the park more and riding as many rides as we could, including the brand new roller coaster called, The Manta. I even got, "I don't like those kind of rides," persons to go on it with me. Noah and I went on the Manta first, he yelled at me the entire time but as soon as the ride stopped he asked if we could go again. The entire family rode it twice the second time we visited and would have gone again if it hadn't closed due to a disturbed bee nest. 
The shows were a bag of mixed emotions for me. The animals are beautiful and amazing and what a treat to see them up close but a part of me felt like we (the viewers and SeaWorld) were exploiting these creatures. Yeah, I know it sounds sappy but I am who I am. I just hope that after thousands of us get to watch the shows and see the animals up close that the education, the awareness, the programs created, etc. far outweigh any negatives. Killer Whales, Pilot Whales, Beluga Whales, Dolphins, Bat Rays, Polar Bears, Penguins, oh my! Anyway, we actually watched the Shamu Show both days. The first day Noah was upset because he barely got wet. He couldn't believe his bad luck, sit in the soak zone and leave dry? No fair! Well, the second time around made up for the first. He and Oliver even sweet talked one of the handlers and she called the boys up to help with the Shamu Slam. That meant that they were literally inches from the whale that was splashing, what seemed like, hundreds of gallons of water onto the crowd. Not a hair on their bodies left that stadium dry and they couldn't have been happier about it!
