Trip to Orlando - Day 4 (SeaWorld)

Today we went to SeaWorld and took a break from Universal. 

We got there around 08:45, but it didn't open until 9. 

The first half of our day was quite disappointing. We really couldn't see what all the SeaWorld fuss was about. After lunch, we went walking around and discovered that we were on the wrong half of the park! We came across all the fun, interactive parts! 

I'm too tired to really blog today, but here are some of the photos from today!

Hanging with the flamingos while waiting for the park to open

The Journey to Atlantis. We didn't actually get on this ride, but it would have been nice as it was a HOT Florida day!

Antarctica part of park.

We went on a silly little penguin ride, but at the end it came out at the penguin habitat. David and I were wearing summer clothes, so it was chilly in there. We definitely were able to hang out longer than some of the other folks though! We asked one of the staff, and they said it was 0 degrees Celsius. That's not so bad! Certainly not like Antarctica!

King Penguins. I was shocked how small the penguins are! I realize now that when we see them on TV, there is no frame of reference for us to size them up. They're actually quite small and cute!

Next it was off to the dolphin show. What struck us most about this show was how easily the dolphins seem to be trained. They are such amazing, intelligent creatures. 

If you look closely there's a dolphin in the centre of this photo!

Doing a front flip

Show off

We were impressed and surprised by the use of birds in the dolphin show. There were many colourful parrots such as these, as well as a giant bird that flew through the arena. I'm not sure what it was. Sort of like a pelican slash flamingo slash vulture. 

One thing I do wish they had done more of in the shows was educating the crowd. The shows were very theatrical, with music and dancing, but no education. That is more why I like to see the animals; I like to learn about them. 

Next we headed to the Shark Encounter area

Infamous tunnel!

He's got ugly teeth!

At 12:00 we watched the Shamu show. During this show, I started to struggle with my feelings. I love animals and wildlife, but I also watched Blackfish this past year. It was hard for me to take the trainers seriously; feeling very cynical. I don't know how much has changed since the documentary aired, but it's tough to see these magnificent creatures in such small areas. I also couldn't help but notice all their dorsal fins were flopped, except the youngest one. Again, I wish the show had focused a little bit on education about the creatures instead of purely performance.

Instead of dwelling on the negative, we tried to focus on the whales in a different light. We paid attention to how intelligent and powerful they are. You can really see them thinking and processing throughout the show.

Before the show began there were three whales swimming around in this pool. They were doing a musical introduction of the show, and the trainers were all still back-stage. When the music came on, I'm positive the whales recognized it. The three all of a sudden got very restless and started to seem excited.

For lunch we ate at the "underwater" restaurant. We had a great view of the shark tank. You definitely pay for the experience here though! Our food was much less than satisfactory, unfortunately.

Gorgeous weather in Orlando!

We were off to stingray lagoon after lunch. You could touch all the stingrays in the tank. They were quite slimy, but under their mucus coating, they were actually rather rough, like sandpaper.

If you wanted to, you could buy some fish or prawns to feed to the stingrays. We didn't purchase any, but the people around us shared. The video above is the first time I fed one. It's scary because they come right over your hand and sort of suck the treat out of your hand. Your fingers get sucked up a little as well, but their teeth are very small and don't hurt. Later on, we came back and I got to feed them some fish. There is one ray in the tank that is leopard print and has a 5 ft wing span. From top of nose to tip of tail it was probably 10 ft long as well. The others were closer to a 2 ft wingspan. I had my fish under the water and this giant leopard ray swam up and took it from me. I was overly intimidated and freaked out before I could even get to it's mouth. At the same time, some other rays realize I had good treats and they all mauled my hand even though I had nothing. I had a good scream and everyone around had a good laugh as well.  

There's an area called the Dolphin Encounter, where the dolphins all get to swim free in this large pool. It's hard to tell in this picture, but there were a couple goofy dolphins playing with these buoys. They play like puppies. Pushing the floaties towards the trainers and each other. As if to say, "Come on! Throw it! I want to fetch!"

There's a small area at the end where there is no fence. If the dolphins swim up close enough and express willingness to play, we're allowed to touch them. There were a couple times they came right up, and we got to have a good pet! That was one of my highlights of the day. I love how interactive dolphins are. 

We went to the "Pets Ahoy" show, partly to get out of the heat for a bit. I thought it would be similar to Superdogs at the PNE, so we almost opted out. I'm really glad we went though! They had dogs, cats, pigs, rats, ducks, and even a skunk doing tricks! All the animals at SeaWorld are so well trained. It inspired me to work more with Sherlock when we get home. 

There is a sea lion habitat where you can also buy fish to feed the animals. 

You can see in this video how playful these creatures are as well. The sea lion in the top is playing with the fish it caught.

Our last show of the day was Clyde & Seymour's show. They are both sea lions, and again are amazingly trained. 

The trainers work with them all day, every day to train them to do all these fun tricks. At the front of this photo is the walrus they brought out at the very end. He stole the show with his loveable face.

Clyde and Seymour exhibiting their core strength

Mr. Walrus loving all the attention

I remember doing a project in elementary school about manatees. It was fun for me to see them in real life for the first time!

After we had seen everything we wanted to see, we rode this roller coaster called the "Manta" twice. It may be difficult to see in this video, but you get in the cart like most roller coasters, except the track is above you. That makes the ride more intense, but then they throw in a twist... They tip the whole car so that you're facing the ground - you're horizontal. This throws a whole new aspect to the ride. Instead of going down hills perpendicular to them, you're going down head first! This is definitely one of the more fun coasters we've been on.