Seaworld is a Must on your next San Diego Visit (8/08)
I had the pleasure of spending a beautiful summer Sunday at San Diego’s world famous SeaWorld, and it turned out to be a great way to culminate my weekend. Although I arrived at about 12:30, the park was not overwhelmingly crowded, but it had a large enough amount of people to still reflect SeaWorld’s obvious popularity, even in these bad economic times. Amazingly, despite being a Los Angeles native for all of my 38 years, I had never even gone to this landmark Southern California attraction, but I’d love to go back.
The first exhibit I checked out was the Forbidden Reef, which was highlighted by beautiful and different types of bat rays. These large, but harmless, black bat-like fish (which I had previously learned are actually related to sharks) would actually stick their heads up out of their tank and could be touched by onlookers. This tank also included some moray eels, as well. The kids just loved petting the rays!
Right around the corner, I then went to the Sea Otter tank, and watched these adorable little guys do a back stroke that would beat any Olympic swimmer! And right across from these adorable ones were the equally cute dolphins in their Dolphin Encounter tank. You could get right up to the edge of the tank and watch these amazing creatures swim and easily hear them chirping away at their fans. As if that wasn’t enough, for an extra fee, you could even purchase a tray of fish to hand feed them in an even closer area! If you elect to do this, you had better be prepared to pet these attention lovers, and, one other thing……you had better be prepared to GET WET from their playful splashing!
No day at SeaWorld could possibly be complete without checking out that which it is best known for: Killer Whales! So, my next destination was the home of the most famous orca of all, Shamu, at Shamu Stadium. Here, you can observe not only Shamu, but a few other killer whales swimming around and being fed by their trainers. There is also a spectacular show with these magnificient creatures at various times. For those wishing to dine with Shamu, this can even be done via dinner reservations and an additional fee–I’m not joking, either, you can actually eat dinner along side his tank and watch him swim by! 
I then went over to the Aquarium de la Mer (one of several great walk through aquariums) and noticed a Cirque de Sole style show next door at Cirque Stadium complete with the type of world class acrobats that have come to make Cirque de Sole so famous and entertaining for many years. Just down the road was the Flamingo Cove, lined with dozens of beautiful pink flamingos standing in and out of the water and soakin’ up the sun along with their cute duck friends swimming by (I had never seen a flamingo in person and found it interesting to note that they are actually more of an orangish color vs the pink their name suggests). Forgot to also mention the Tide Pool just before the above mentioned aquarium, in which you can actually handle star fish (another great thing for the kids to do, I noticed).
Speaking of kids (and kids at heart like me, for that matter) SeaWorld now even has a 4-D (yes, 4-D) show starring all the famous Sesame Street characters, with frequent shows going on all day. This show was not only filmed in 3-D, but also had effects you could FEEL (hence, "4-D"), such as water sprinkling out from a muppet hose, and was great fun for every one. Another great filmed show I took in was the "Wild Arctic Interaction," in which the audience sits in a virtual reality style helicopter ride that explores much arctic wild life in and out of the water. It REALLY makes you feel like you’re moving above ground! And, after "deboarding" this ride, you can then explore actual arctic wild life, such as a Balluga whale, a walrus, a polar bear, and, of course, penguins (although they are actually at the nearby Penguin Encounter).
Being the shark lover that I am (though I have NO desire to actually swim with them, thank you), perhaps my favorite exhibit was next at the Shark Encounter, in which I observed White Tip and Black Tip Reef sharks nearly 7 feet long, a Lemon shark (which wieghed 400 pounds I was told), and a Nurse shark. You are able to view them looking down into their tank as well as looking up and around as you walk through a tunnel that THEY swim around. They can be a bit scary, even with all that glass around you. But just next door is the Manatee Rescue, which contains the extremely sweet, and anything but scary looking manatee, the only type of marine life that actually uses its front fins like hands to grasp its food!
As alluded to earlier, another stop I made was at the Dolphin Discovery show at Dolphin Stadium. This exciting show featured several dolphins and even a Pilot whale doing high-flying tricks, as well as an interaction with a very lucky random park guest and his daughter, who got to feed and pet them! For others wishing to have an up-close encounter with these dolphins, there is always the Dolphin Encounter, which is connected to the stadium, and allows a trainer-guided encounter without getting in the water (spaces are limited for this and can be pre-reserved).
As if marine and arctic wild life wasn’t enough, SeaWorld even now, thanks to its sponsorship by Anheuser-Busch, has a barn of Clydesdale horses (along with a cute donkey). It’s amazing to see how large these gorgeous horses actually grow. I was particularly flattered that one of them even shared my first name (not kidding—see the pics for proof!). You’ll probably get hungry at some point in your day, and I highly recommend the Deli connected to this area of the park for some great oven roasted turkey sandwiches on delicious beer bread! (Along that note, I also really enjoyed the turkey wrap I ate earlier at the Rocky Point Cafe, which offers great yet tasty healthy food alternatives to go along with the other traditional theme park food eateries, such as Mama Stella’s Pizza Kitchen).
Finally, my day ended with a thrill—a thrill ride, that is, in the form of the Journey To Atlantis roller coaster. But this is no ordinary roller coaster, of course being a part of SeaWorld—you get very wet, possibly even soaked at the end of this ride’s fun drop into the water. I do recommend that this ride, along with the Shipwreck Rapids ride, which looked great as well (unfortunately, I didn’t have time to take it) be done earlier in the day in order to dry off, though.
All in all, I had an obvious blast, and I know you will too. So be sure to include SeaWorld in your San Diego vacation, or simply take a drive down there for the day if you happen to be a Southern California resident. I only wish I had not waited this many years to go!
More info at www.seaworld.com