SeaWorld San Diego

After spending half the day at the San Diego Zoo we arrived at Sea World!

Upon entering the park we were promptly greeted with a parade of flamingos taking their daily walk through the park!  I think Beckham was so tired at this point that he really didn’t even pay attention but we were amused to be sure.

It has been a while since I have been to Sea World so much to my surprise they have rides there now.  I honestly do not remember if they were there the last time I was there, but there are rides now.  The first ride that we saw was The Journey to Atlantis is a water ride that begins with a splashy 60 foot plunge and ends face-to-face with fascinating sea animals, and quite frankly it looked awesome.

Manta is a coaster ride that looked insanely fun, but unfortunately we didn’t go on any because we had our little one with us.

Total bummer because we were tired and hot and would love to have been sprayed and soaked on the Atlantis ride.  I am not 100% certain, but I imagine these rides also come with a price, so it could get a tad pricey depending on the ride and how many times you went.  I think a good idea would be to pick one ride that you want to go on and next time go on another.

We enjoyed walking around and going to the exhibits, and it was refreshing to not have to wait in line as the exhibits were pretty large and fairly open.  Some of the Exhibits we went to were the Wild Arctic:

Penguin Encounter, which was brief but offered a good look at the rotund little birds.

The Turtle Reef, where numerous sea turtles lazily listed about.

And Pacific Point, an intense Shark Encounter.  This was particularly cool, as you get to view the sharks from above, and then go through a walkway under the water where you can see the sharks and their menacing mouths.  Scary.

At this point we were all getting a little hungry, and so I pointed out the fish taco cart.

At Sea World. Seriously.  Our Conscious dictated that we pass on those and we were then off to see the dolphins.

They have the blue horizons dolphin show, but unfortunately we had just missed it, so I slapped my hubby across his face as it was naturally his fault. (It’s always the husbands fault, right???) haha!  Luckily after the show they had the dolphins out and were doing a dolphin interaction, so we were able to see then dolphins up close and watch them do a few tricks. It was pretty amazing seeing the shiny, enthusiastic little swimmers doing various tricks and flips.  Beckham got a kick out of this and really enjoyed it, particularly because we were literally within touching distance of the fishy inhabitants.

Sadly, because we arrived at Sea World so late we pretty much had missed all the shows.  But we didnt miss the big dog!  And by “dog” I totally mean killer whale!  The show we thankfully didn’t miss was One Ocean, the Shamu Show!  ahhh unnghh ah ah ah  yay  omg omg omg!!!    Alas, our little 25 lb sidekick had clearly had enough and was relentlessly restless.  After a few thrown baby shoes, we luckily made it through the whole show and were thoroughly impressed.  The “choreography” if you will was very slick, and the 3 whales moved seamlessly through their routine.  Some of the highlights included Shamu Splashing the adventurous patrons unmercifully, leaping straight out of the water probably 25 feet or more in the air, and my personal favorite, Shamu doing a side spin on a shallow platform.  I guess I didn’t know that like…. Whales can apparently break dance and junk.

With all the exhibits, shows, rides, and premier experiences there is so much to do and its definitely worth making a day out of it if you want to experience it all.  We would have really liked to take Beckham to the Sesame Street Bay of Play.  There is rides and Sesame street pals walking around that you can take your picture with and I think he would have enjoyed it.  Either that, or been totally freaked out. Pretty much a toss up.  For going to both the Zoo and Sea World in one day I have to say we had a great time!  Thoroughly exhausted but totally worth it.