For years, Joe and I had talked about visiting SeaWorld but had never made the trip. For this visit, I was determined to get there and made sure I bought the tickets beforehand and planned which day we would go so that we’d have no reason for cancelling it. If we’d only known how wonderful it was, we would have gotten ourselves there years earlier!
When you first look at the map of SeaWorld, it looks quite manageable in a day, especially when compared to the Disney parks. However, looks can be deceiving and we quickly discovered that there is no way to see each exhibit and attend every show in a single day. If you are planning to visit and want to do things right, the best thing to do is to schedule two whole days so that you don’t miss anything.
The first thing we did when getting into the park was head to Shamu’s Stadium for the One Ocean Show. My goodness, that was a fantastic show. We had great seats near the handicapped railing and were amazed by the things that the whales had been trained to do. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed the types of jumps and turns they were capable of doing. The pictures below explain it better than I can with words.
Jumping and Splashing!
Give me food now!
Yes, you are going to get wet!
Yep - you are getting wet again!
After the incredible whale show, I wasn’t sure that anything could top it. As we headed to the Blue Horizons dolphin show, we stopped by Stingray Lagoon and we had a lot of trouble getting the boys to leave that area. They were fascinated by the creatures, who they claim felt rubbery to the touch. I’ll have to take their word for it, because I was not putting my hand in there with them. They got a kick out of feeding them and seemed sad when we finally forced them to keep moving. But they weren’t sad for long, because the next stop was Dolphin Cove.
Stingrays!
My crazy boys touching Stingrays!
We got to Dolphin Cove and my boys instantly fell in love with the creatures. I was starting to feel bad for being cheap and not doing the Discovery Cove interactive experience, but figured that I now had a reason to visit again. As we made our way to the Dolphin Theater, I could tell the boys were getting excited about the show and the show did not disappoint. While I loved the whale show, I also loved that this show was a bit more interactive and the trainers could be in the water with the dolphins. I was surprised by all the aerial performances and the divers were great too. Again, I wasn’t sure how anything could top it. And yet, they managed to do it again. And with the most surprising of creatures – the sea lions.
Doesn't he look happy?
Spinning and Twisting...
I would love to try this...
If you would have told me that sea lions were trainable, I probably wouldn’t have believed you. I’d only seen them in aquariums and hanging out on the San Francisco pier, so I was not prepared for the last show we saw during our visit. While One Ocean and Blue Horizons had been beautifully choreographed to music, Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island was a pure comedy. The pre-show had a mime up front, imitating audience members as they came into the auditorium. He was hilarious and had most of the audience laughing non-stop.
Once the show actually began, I was amazed by how well the sea lions had been trained and how funny the entire show was. My boys thought it was great too and they kept yelling out things to the sea lions during the show, which luckily no one seemed to mind. Overall, I think this was probably their favorite event of the day. Make sure you don’t miss this show if you’ve only got one day to visit SeaWorld.
This dude was about 10 feet away from me!
Playing a silly game!
Dinner time!
After the sea lion show, we made sure that we got over to the shark encounter. That was a nice exhibit and everyone really seemed to enjoy it. We also made it over to see the penguins. Be warned that this exhibit is a little on the smelly side, but once you get past the initial stench, your nose should be okay.
We ended our day back over by Shamu’s Stadium and the kids area behind it. We found a bunch of kiddie rides and all of the little ones in our group had fun running around and riding things over and over again. Because the park closed at 6 PM, we didn’t have time to see the polar bears and we never made it to either of the regular roller coasters either. Even though we missed a few things, we still had a great day at SeaWorld and were awestruck by the beauty of the animals. We will definitely be returning during our next trip to Kissimmee!
Laura…
Blogger Malise Terrell will visit Kissimmee next week! Want to share your Kissimmee story? 
Brilliant review – my husband and I visited SeaWorld during our honeymoon in Florida (we’re from the UK) in June and this brought it all back!
Loved your vivid descriptions – the way you walked round the park was pretty similar to what we did.
LOVE SeaWorld, love Florida, love America and want to come back asap!
Thanks Rachel! I’m glad you enjoyed the review. We found SeaWorld to be fantastic. I can’t wait to visit again!
Went here in 2009 with my 11 year old on a cheerleading competition. I was speechless as this place is really amazing. U can’t describe it to anyone as it is a place to be seen for yourself!!!! It was a wicked place.
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It is a wonderful place. I found it hard to find the right words, hence all the pictures!
[...] The Beauty of SeaWorld [...]
8 triips to seaworld in 14 visits to florida.. seaworld beats all of the parks put together
sea world beats all the other parks put together 8 times been to seaworld in 14 trips to florida no9 next may love it