Sea World

Location: Mission Bay, San Diego

One of our favorite places on our holiday to America was visiting Sea World in San Diego. We got the tram and then a bus from the city centre out to Mission Bay where the world famous Sea World Park is located. Luckily Kenny got military discount on his ticket (it was free) and then had the embarrassment of the main gate attendant calling him “Hero Waddell”.

We started the day by going through a simulator ride to the “Wild Arctic”, you fly in a futuristic helicopter and land in the Arctic and then explore the Beluga whale and Polar Bear enclosure, the polar bears were sleeping but the whales were active and we saw them underwater thanks to the great viewing area. On to the penguin house next, where the cheeky birds tried to peck the women who was feeding them, it was funny and we managed to get a great shot of it. They love diving at high speed through the water which meant we got a great shot of them in action.

Moving on we ventured onto the Shark Encounter, the lighting was very dim so most of the pics weren’t that great but got a cracking shot of a sharks teeth right above our heads while we went through a tunnel in the middle of the shark tank. On the way out we spotted a small set of shark teeth and had to pose for a piccy. We found the dolphin feed area next and grabbed some fish so we could feed them up close. They come right up out the water and let you stroke them, they are very hard which was weird because we thought they would be a bit soft and squishy.

Unfortunately the dolphin show was shut for refurbishment so we headed to Shamu for his first show of the day. After watching the whales in action we agreed to stay and watch the second show at 4pm but to get better seats, and definitely not in the splash zone!!!

After Shamu we found a big pond full of Star Fish, there was literally was hundreds of them and of a type we’ve never seen before, we discovered the Sting Rays and downstairs were more rays and the evil looking Conger Eels. Once past the eels and rays we ventured into an aquarium full of tropical fish and found a Sea Horse, never realise how small they actually are until we saw one up close.

The next show was about to start so we grabbed our seats for the “Sea Lion Live” an amusing mixture of American Idol and various other talent shows. The star of the show for us was an otter who kept appearing with comedy fish bones and the results envelopes.

A mad dash was now required to get to the other side of the park to get a good seat for the last “Believe” (Shamu) show. Great seats and loads of great pictures from the show (more to follow on here soon, I promise). Very tired and a bit sunburnt we headed for the gift shop and bought them out of everything (kidding).

Check out the interactive map for the park.