FAMILY TRAVEL FUN.COM
SEA WORLD ORLANDO
By Paula Hughes Court
Sea World Orlando is always high on my family's list of vacation
experiences so we jumped at the chance to visit again this year in April.
For this trip, I was traveling with my 13-year-old daughter, Claudia,for a
Mother/Daughter vacation. We're both huge animal lovers so the animal
exhibits and shows were high on our list of priorities, rather than the
park's two thrill rides, Kraken and Journey to Atlantis.
We arrived promptly at the park's opening to visit the most popular
exhibits before they became crowded and also to avoid the midday
Orlando sun as much as possible. Upon opening, the crowds tend to
follow the path to the dolphin exhibit at Key West first so we headed off in
the opposite direction toward the penguin and puffin exhibit.
PENGUIN ENCOUNTER
The penguin exhibit offers two ways to view the playful animals, a moving
sidewalk which glides past the exhibit and a standing area above the
sidewalk where you can watch the penguins for as long as you like. We
were the only people in the exhibit except for a female worker who was
walking among the penguins handing out fish and saying good morning
to the little guys. Ten hours later we saw this same worker feeding the
penguins again when we returned to the park for the night Shamu Rocks
show. To say the Sea World trainers and animal workers are dedicated is
an understatement. The close relationship between the trainers and
animals is clearly evident to even the most casual observer.
By staying ahead of the crowds we were able to visit the Shark Encounter
and the sea lions at Pacific Point Preserve while the exhibits were
relatively free of other visitors. While waiting for the Clyde and Seamore
show to begin we bought a cup of fish to feed to the loud and demanding
sea lions. We were warned to watch out for the native sea birds, but they
still managed to grab several of our fish.
CLYDE AND SEAMORE TAKE PIRATE ISLAND SHOW
The Clyde and Seamore show is a classic at Sea World and one show
you never tire of. The show usually involve pirates, treasure, a devilish
otter or two, two sea lions and a huge walrus. As a result, children usually
chose this show as their favorite.
This is one show where it's a good idea to show up a few minutes early to
watch the mime work the crowd. He's hysterically funny and it's always
entertaining to see what he can trick people into doing.
PENGUIN SPOTLIGHT TOUR
After the show, we headed to the meeting place for the Penguin Spotlight
Tour. We made arrangements beforehand for the one hour
behind-the-scenes tour of the Penguin facility and a chance to pet a
penguin and meet a puffin up close. Rates for this tour are $50 for adults
and $40 for children.
Our tour guide gave us a lot of great information about the penguin
program at Sea World as well as their worldwide rehabilitation program.
Unfortunately, the day of our visit there weren't any babies in the penguin
nursery, but we didn't mind. We knew in a few minutes we would get to do
the one thing everyone signed up for....to get close to and maybe even
pet a penguin.
After being given a tour of the penguin facilities, we were taken into the
back door of the penguin exhibit and introduced to Drake, an adorable
Gentoo penguin who was hand raised by humans at Sea World. Drake
waddled around our feet and didn't seem the least bit intimidated by a
crowd of humans oohing and ahhing over him. After several minutes of
taking photos and gently petting his back we switched groups to meet a
cute little puffin named Willie.
Though we weren't allow to touch Willie, we were given plenty of
opportunities to take photos with him. As we were leaving, in waddled
Colby, a King Penguin who the trainer said had insisted on coming over
to meet everybody. Colby wasn't a planned part of the tour so this was a
nice surprise. My daughter said the curious King Penguin was the best
part of the tour. Too bad we couldn't bring him home.
SEA WORLD TOURS AND INTERACTIVE PROGRAMS
If you can make time, I highly recommend doing one of the
behind-the-scenes tours at Sea World. Along with the penguin tour, they
also offer a 7-hour guided VIP Tour, an Elite VIP Tour, Dolphin Tour, and
a 1 1/2 hour Behind-the-Scenes Tour. Another great program at Sea
World is the interaction experiences including the Beluga Interaction
Program (this one is next on our list!), Sharks Deep Drive, and Marine
Mammal Keeper Experience.
The tours give you a true sense of how important Sea World is for animal
rehabilitation and conservation. If there's an oil spill in Africa, Sea World
employees rush to the scene to try to save the penguins covered in oil.
The same thing goes for the many manatees Sea World saves as well as
dolphins and whales. We hope to eventually do all the behind the scenes
tours at Sea World because it's a wonderful education opportunity both
for my daughter as well as myself.
SEA WORLD ORLANDO SHOWS
It can be almost impossible to catch all of the shows at Sea World in a
one day visit so I recommend a two day visit for this reason. If you only
have one day the must see shows are the Clyde and Seamore Take
Pirate Island, Blue Horizons, Believe and Shamu Rocks. The show
stadiums hold a large number of people so unless it's an extremely
crowded day, there's really not a reason to get there more than 15
minutes before show time to grab a good seat.
BLUE HORIZONS SHOWS
The new Blue Horizons show featuring Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics,
dolphins, macaws and Sun Conures completely wowed me from start to
finish. Sea World upped the bar when they created this show so don't
miss it. Several times during the show, gorgeous macaws flew low over
the heads of visitors. I own a pet Sun Conure so I was thrilled to see an
flock of these colorful parrots released at the end of the show to fly free
through the stadium. After grabbing a treat from the back of the stadium
the flock immediately flew back to their handler. At times there's so much
going on it's hard to catch all of it. We watched the show a second time at
night and caught several things we didn't see the first time around.
SHAMU ROCKS
The one show we never miss is the night time Shamu Rocks. No matter
how many times I've seen this show I can never get over the amazing
connection between the whales and their trainers. Shamu Rocks is the
perfect way to end the day at Sea World.
CURRENT SEA WORLD PRICES ARE:
$74.95 ADULT
$64.95 CHILDREN
For a $10 discount per ticket, buy online at www.seaworld.com.
MORE ABOUT SEA WORLD ORLANDO ANIMAL EXHIBITS, SHOWS AND
RIDES
By Paula Hughes Court
Sea World Orlando is always high on my family's list of vacation
experiences so we jumped at the chance to visit again this year in April.
For this trip, I was traveling with my 13-year-old daughter, Claudia,for a
Mother/Daughter vacation. We're both huge animal lovers so the animal
exhibits and shows were high on our list of priorities, rather than the
park's two thrill rides, Kraken and Journey to Atlantis.
We arrived promptly at the park's opening to visit the most popular
exhibits before they became crowded and also to avoid the midday
Orlando sun as much as possible. Upon opening, the crowds tend to
follow the path to the dolphin exhibit at Key West first so we headed off in
the opposite direction toward the penguin and puffin exhibit.
PENGUIN ENCOUNTER
The penguin exhibit offers two ways to view the playful animals, a moving
sidewalk which glides past the exhibit and a standing area above the
sidewalk where you can watch the penguins for as long as you like. We
were the only people in the exhibit except for a female worker who was
walking among the penguins handing out fish and saying good morning
to the little guys. Ten hours later we saw this same worker feeding the
penguins again when we returned to the park for the night Shamu Rocks
show. To say the Sea World trainers and animal workers are dedicated is
an understatement. The close relationship between the trainers and
animals is clearly evident to even the most casual observer.
By staying ahead of the crowds we were able to visit the Shark Encounter
and the sea lions at Pacific Point Preserve while the exhibits were
relatively free of other visitors. While waiting for the Clyde and Seamore
show to begin we bought a cup of fish to feed to the loud and demanding
sea lions. We were warned to watch out for the native sea birds, but they
still managed to grab several of our fish.
CLYDE AND SEAMORE TAKE PIRATE ISLAND SHOW
The Clyde and Seamore show is a classic at Sea World and one show
you never tire of. The show usually involve pirates, treasure, a devilish
otter or two, two sea lions and a huge walrus. As a result, children usually
chose this show as their favorite.
This is one show where it's a good idea to show up a few minutes early to
watch the mime work the crowd. He's hysterically funny and it's always
entertaining to see what he can trick people into doing.
PENGUIN SPOTLIGHT TOUR
After the show, we headed to the meeting place for the Penguin Spotlight
Tour. We made arrangements beforehand for the one hour
behind-the-scenes tour of the Penguin facility and a chance to pet a
penguin and meet a puffin up close. Rates for this tour are $50 for adults
and $40 for children.
Our tour guide gave us a lot of great information about the penguin
program at Sea World as well as their worldwide rehabilitation program.
Unfortunately, the day of our visit there weren't any babies in the penguin
nursery, but we didn't mind. We knew in a few minutes we would get to do
the one thing everyone signed up for....to get close to and maybe even
pet a penguin.
After being given a tour of the penguin facilities, we were taken into the
back door of the penguin exhibit and introduced to Drake, an adorable
Gentoo penguin who was hand raised by humans at Sea World. Drake
waddled around our feet and didn't seem the least bit intimidated by a
crowd of humans oohing and ahhing over him. After several minutes of
taking photos and gently petting his back we switched groups to meet a
cute little puffin named Willie.
Though we weren't allow to touch Willie, we were given plenty of
opportunities to take photos with him. As we were leaving, in waddled
Colby, a King Penguin who the trainer said had insisted on coming over
to meet everybody. Colby wasn't a planned part of the tour so this was a
nice surprise. My daughter said the curious King Penguin was the best
part of the tour. Too bad we couldn't bring him home.
SEA WORLD TOURS AND INTERACTIVE PROGRAMS
If you can make time, I highly recommend doing one of the
behind-the-scenes tours at Sea World. Along with the penguin tour, they
also offer a 7-hour guided VIP Tour, an Elite VIP Tour, Dolphin Tour, and
a 1 1/2 hour Behind-the-Scenes Tour. Another great program at Sea
World is the interaction experiences including the Beluga Interaction
Program (this one is next on our list!), Sharks Deep Drive, and Marine
Mammal Keeper Experience.
The tours give you a true sense of how important Sea World is for animal
rehabilitation and conservation. If there's an oil spill in Africa, Sea World
employees rush to the scene to try to save the penguins covered in oil.
The same thing goes for the many manatees Sea World saves as well as
dolphins and whales. We hope to eventually do all the behind the scenes
tours at Sea World because it's a wonderful education opportunity both
for my daughter as well as myself.
SEA WORLD ORLANDO SHOWS
It can be almost impossible to catch all of the shows at Sea World in a
one day visit so I recommend a two day visit for this reason. If you only
have one day the must see shows are the Clyde and Seamore Take
Pirate Island, Blue Horizons, Believe and Shamu Rocks. The show
stadiums hold a large number of people so unless it's an extremely
crowded day, there's really not a reason to get there more than 15
minutes before show time to grab a good seat.
BLUE HORIZONS SHOWS
The new Blue Horizons show featuring Cirque du Soleil style acrobatics,
dolphins, macaws and Sun Conures completely wowed me from start to
finish. Sea World upped the bar when they created this show so don't
miss it. Several times during the show, gorgeous macaws flew low over
the heads of visitors. I own a pet Sun Conure so I was thrilled to see an
flock of these colorful parrots released at the end of the show to fly free
through the stadium. After grabbing a treat from the back of the stadium
the flock immediately flew back to their handler. At times there's so much
going on it's hard to catch all of it. We watched the show a second time at
night and caught several things we didn't see the first time around.
SHAMU ROCKS
The one show we never miss is the night time Shamu Rocks. No matter
how many times I've seen this show I can never get over the amazing
connection between the whales and their trainers. Shamu Rocks is the
perfect way to end the day at Sea World.
CURRENT SEA WORLD PRICES ARE:
$74.95 ADULT
$64.95 CHILDREN
For a $10 discount per ticket, buy online at www.seaworld.com.
MORE ABOUT SEA WORLD ORLANDO ANIMAL EXHIBITS, SHOWS AND
RIDES
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BLUE HORIZONS SEA WORLD
BELIEVE SHOW SEA WORLD
DOLPHIN COVE
CLYDE AND SEAMORE
COLBY THE KING
PENGUIN
PENGUIN
WILLIE THE PUFFIN
DRAKE THE
GENTOO PENGUIN
GENTOO PENGUIN
BLUE HORIZONS SHOW
UNDERWATERDOL
PHIN EXHIBIT
PHIN EXHIBIT
SEA WORLD SEA LIONS
BLUE HORIZONS
DOLPHINS
DOLPHINS
JOURNEY TO ATLANTIS
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SEA
WORLD
WORLD