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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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
UNDERWATER
DOLPHIN EXHIBIT
DOLPHIN EXHIBIT
SEA WORLD SEA LIONS
BLUE HORIZONS
DOLPHINS
DOLPHINS
JOURNEY TO ATLANTIS
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PHOTOS COURTESY OF SEA WORLD
CLYDE AND SEAMORE