SeaWorld

A few weeks ago I saw that SeaWorld was offering preschool passes which would allow 3-5 year olds to get in free for the rest of the year.  I told Matthew about it and we made plans to go June 24th.  Matt's dad was able to join us.  Unfortunately hundreds of other people decided to get their preschool passes that day, too, so the line to get them was rather long and probably took a good 30 minutes to get them.  Luckily we bought the adult tickets online the night before, so that was one less thing to worry about.

Once everyone had tickets, the first thing we did was see a Shamu character and, since the line was so short, we took pictures with him.  They aren't great because they had everyone facing the sun. I was surprised how excited the boys were to take their picture with him.  I thought they would be a little scared.

Saying hi.

You can decide which one was the best picture.

I was already hot and I wasn't wearing a Shamu costume.  I do feel bad for the people stuck inside.

We decided to go see our first show, Pets Ahoy!  It was so cute and impressive that they can train all of the animals to do their part, especially the cats.  We can't train our cats to do anything!

After that we saw the dolphin show Blue Horizons.  Part of the show has people dressed as birds jumping and flipping from platforms high above the pool.  It made me wonder how deep the pool was and how in the world they didn't hit their heads on the beams overhead.  I really think a few came close!

Next we went underground for the shark exhibit.  The kids loved riding the people mover through the underground aquarium and seeing all of the sharks and fish.  It was nice that it was air conditioned, too.

Scary sharks!!

We were ready for lunch after that and headed to have some burgers.  I will say we made the best purchase of the day at lunch: a refillable cup!  I'm not sure how many free refills we got, but I know at one count it was 6.  There were tons places to get refills and it was easy and hassle-free.  Seriously, I will always get one from now on!


We took the kids to the Shamu viewing area.  I was surprised that there was a Shamu in the tank and I love how close it came to the window!  Robbie was a bit more interested in reading one of the signs than watching the orca, though!

Looking for Shamu!

Alex's spray fan is green.  Because we were in an enclosed area with blue light coming through it looked yellow.  Alex was not happy with his yellow fan.  Luckily he calmed down when we showed him it was still green.

Sweet Catie!

Robbie was a little more excited the second time around.




Then we saw the Shamu Show One Ocean.  Trainers are no longer allowed in the tank with the orcas (though they were called "killer whales" by SeaWorld staff which surprised me), so I feel like it was mostly a "see how far into the splash zone Shamu can splash."  I had to take Alex potty and missed a good bit of the end, though.

Shamu!

I love that, at one point, they dump a bucket of fish into Shamu's mouth.



The kids were losing steam at this point.  We walked over to the Wild Artic and waited in a short line to take a helicopter ride to the North Pole.  Ok, it was just a ride/video that opened up to the North Pole exhibit, we didn't actually go there, but Robbie and Alex kept asking us if we were really at the north pole.

There was a pretend ice cave that the kids could walk through.  It was short, but only Robbie was brave enough to go through it.  Catie and Alex were happy to touch the "ice" walls.

Alex comparing his hand to a polar bear paw.

Alex and Robbie

Catie trying to climb up.

Catie next to the bear's paw prints.

If you look carefully you can see the red lights on Robbie's shoes.

A walrus

Robbie, Alex and Catie checking out the beluga whales.

Robbie asked at the beginning of the video if he can go back in the ice cave.  Sorry buddy!



We went to see Clyde and Seamore in Sea Lion High.  Before the show started a guy with a stop sign and a whistle was trying to make people stop.  One kid stopped by him and the guy flipped the sign over and it said "dance."  Robbie loves talking about it.  I think this was definitely his favorite show!  One day we were driving and Robbie said "Tripp doesn't know how to swim."  I didn't know who Tripp was and Robbie said "He's the guy from Sea Lion High!"  Duh!

We were supposed to do hand motions during the song.  I really think Robbie wanted to do it, he just wasn't sure what to do when.





The sea lions were having a hard time sticking to the script.  The trainers were good about it and I hope everyone realizes that even the most professional animal has a bad day.  But they ended up finishing the show...just not as smoothly as planned!

At this point we had been telling the kids for a while that we would get them ice cream.  You can see how hot Catie was in the second sea lion video.  The kids had only taken a short power nap, so I figured we might as well give them some energy for the rest of the day.  Robbie even fell asleep on the way to get ice cream but you better believe he perked up once we set it in front of him!

We went and saw more sea lions.  The neatest part was seeing a pup that was born the night before!

Mama and her new pup

The sky started getting dark and the were announcements to take cover.  It did rain a bit, but not very hard.  Jim, Matt and the kids went and saw the sharks again and I sat with the stroller in a covered area so it didn't get wet.

Here comes the rain!

We decided to wait out the rain and get dinner, though I don't think the kids were too hungry after their ice cream!  

The rain probably helped thin out the crowds, though.  We went to the turtle exhibit.  I didn't know anything about it, I just thought there were some turtles in tanks.  Nope, there was a cool 3D movie about the life of a sea turtle.  The kids really liked it.  I didn't get 3D glasses for Catie because I didn't think she would wear them.  She stole mine anyway.  Luckily it wasn't too hard to watch the movie without the glasses and Jim let me use his.  

We had gone to Antarctica earlier, but the wait for the penguins was about an hour.  We came back and the sign said the wait was 35 minutes, but it was probably closer to 15.  I'm so glad we got in line.  We did the gentle version of the ride which meant our boat didn't get bounced around like the others, but we were fine with that.  When we got off the ride it was literally freezing in the penguin area!  Probably not as cold as Antarctica, but pretty close.  I took Catie out after a while because I was cold!

We did almost everything we wanted to do.  Robbie really wanted to ride the Sky Tower, but it was already almost 8 pm and the line was 30 minutes long.  (At least that's what the sign said.)  Jim treated the kids to souvenirs: Shamu cups for the boys with their names on them and a t-shirt for Catie.  It was so nice having him with us!  I'm already thinking about going back!