 A few months ago I went to SeaWorld San Diego for their Seven Seas Food Festival. While I did enjoy the day, and have some great food, the overall experience left me a bit frustrated. This past week we were invited out to the park to experience Electric Ocean and enjoy a day at the park. This time I took my daughter with me for a fun day. There were still some issues with the day, but I'm happy to say that they are "getting there", while not fully back up to full speed. As for Electric Ocean, it's amazing, as you'll see below. Happy reading! Written by Gregg Condon  Welcome to SeaWorld San Diego   The Submarine ride is now completely gone, and they are advertising their events for the rest of the year. Including Howl-O-Scream.  After looking for/waiting for food for over an hour, we had a visitor for our late lunch. Food service is definitely one thing the park needs to concentrate on. Only the 3 main restaurants were open, and not much else. In addition, they were all staffed very low.   Hey Manta!  We took in the Sea Lion show, always a favorite, but it does need an update.   The Shark Encouter is great as always   They should do a Howl-O-Scream maze down here  Later in the afternoon, the park really died down and it was great being able to just walk around and spend some time admirinig the animals     Remember when you used to be able to get closer to the dolphins, until people ruined it?   Somebody should get fired for this  Hi again Manta!  We had a fun ride on the Bayside Skyride! Always a favorite!   Not sure if this guy was in a timeout or what   Remember when you used to be able to feed the Sea Lions directly until people ruined it?    What's up dude!
 It's winter time for the Penguins, so not a whole lot of quality pics in here.    One of these days I'll get one them to jump in my bag! (just kidding SeaWorld)  As crowds continued to die down, we had Wild Arctic pretty much to ourselves!  Hey Emperor! Hopefully we will get to ride you soon!   This Beluga was posing for us!    A few sunset pics of Atlantis and Electric Eel   Atlantis had the longest wait all day, and wasn't included in the Quick Queue we bought. Oops.  The new Cirque Neon World was absolutely fantastic!    Some really great Electric Ocean lighting all around the park.  We did finally get on Atlantis just before the park closed.  Thanks again to SeaWorld for having us out, we had a great time and can't wait to come back for Howl-O-Scream. They definitely are slowly but surely getting back up to full speed, with the food locations needing to ramp back up capacity sooner rather than later. Hopefully they had more people working on the weekends. The park is looking great, and Electric Ocean isn't to be missed! Related Videos
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 Now that things are starting to return to normal in Orlando we thought we'd take a look at Halloween Spooktacular at Sea World Orlando. This is a great family friendly event that is amazing for kids of all ages. Enjoy!! Written by Renée Girard It's a beautiful day at SeaWorld Orlando   It's also very hot and very humid, even in October  SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular has begun and runs every weekend in October   A look at the Silly Spooky Fun  Escape the heat with the penguins in Antarctica  Pumpkin Fish are all over the park!  Another way to beat the heat and also check out an awesome aquarium is right next to Manta  Had a great time trick or treating at SeaWorld's Halloween Spooktacular  Be sure to check out some additional event photos sent by the park. Related Updates:  What can you say about crossing something off your bucket list? When that thing is even more amazing than you could have ever imagined? The only word that comes to mind is Wow, and that's just what the Penguin Up-Close Tour at Sea World San Diego is. Simply ... Wow!! (Click on any of the pictures below to see a larger version) Written by Gregg Condon Those who have known me for any length of time know that I'm a Penguin freak. I've been known to go through the Penguin Encounter many times a day during our visits to the park, much to my families dismay. I have Penguin snow globes, stuffed animals, pillow cases, shot glasses, Penguin Web-Cams saved to my internet favorites. So it's safe to say I love Penguins. When I decided I wanted to go to Sea World San Diego for my 40th birthday (eek) my wife took it upon herself to help me to knock "meeting a penguin" off my bucket list.  After checking in what followed was about an hour and twenty minutes of penguin lover bliss. Not only did I get to meet an awesome Macaroni Penguin (#156) but also the staff that cares for these amazing animals, and that was really the unexpected reward from the entire experience.  We were first led through the Penguin Encounter by our guide Lori where she talked about Penguins and what we'd be experiencing during our tour. Not only was her knowledge of Penguins great, but she made the tour fun and exciting for everybody who was in attendance.   Before heading inside we had to wash our feet and our hands "if" we wanted to actually touch a penguin. Lol, "if".  Once inside they had to make it a bit darker as the Penguins are still coming out of their winter where we met Sonia, one of the amazing people who care for these amazing animals.  To say that Sonia has my dream job would be a gross understatement. There's just something about Penguins that is simply fascinating, from their demeanor to the way they behave individually and as a group and of course as a breed. There's just so much to learn from these guys. Sonia and Lori also talked a bit on how the Penguin Experience and breeding programs began and how much they've learned about Penguins since. It's truly a fascinating story. After a few minutes Sonia stepped away and came back with a very special guest.
And then I became absolutely giddy. The only thing that I didn't care for about the tour was having to wait my turn to pet #156. Turns out I was last in line, which was totally fine because it gave me some time to calm down and plot my escape with my new best friend. =) 
Below, pics of my giddyness, I know I look silly, I don't care. I was excited and in heaven.
 Yeah, I was plotting here. =)
 I was also baby talking to the Penguin. I don't even care. =)
Once we had our 1:1 time with 156 they took us into the actual Penguin Experience in two groups, I was in the second group so we had some time to talk more with Lori where she showed us some of the Penguin Feathers, Eggs, etc which was completely amazing.  And then it was time to head into the actual Penguin Experience. It was amazing, it was cold, it was amazing, it was loud, did I mention amazing? Knowing that my family was on the other side of the glass watching the huge smile on my face was pretty cool, having them with me would have been the only thing to make the experience even better.
 Penguin Selfie!!
I didn't really think you'd be able to see the people on the other side of the glass but guess what, the Penguins can see you, so remember that next time you are in there. =)  We were inside for about 10 minutes or so, given that it was about 25 degrees probably meant that any longer would have gotten uncomfortable. Most of the people in our group were getting rather cold, I was not and would have loved to stay a bit longer, did I say a bit, I mean all day. =) Once back outside we were able to ask a few more questions and then were led out to see the Magellanic Penguins which are actually able to live in warm weather, so once again the plotting was taking place and I wouldn't even have to greatly modify our house to do it. =)
At the end I was sad for it to end, but excited to see that my wife and kids were so excited that I'd had the experience. It was absolutely amazing and I would totally do it again. I'd love to do a "trainer for a day" experience where I could spend all day at the Penguin Experience sometime and feed them and all the stuff that the trainers do, you know, for the site and stuff. Yeah, that's it. Maybe when I grow up I'll actually figure out how to make my dream job happen. =) Thank you to the AMAZING staff at Sea World, The Penguin Experience and the amazing Lori and Sonia for taking such good care of us and more importantly, taking care of my little friends. You are all amazing. And of course, thank you to my amazing wife and my two amazing kids for letting their husband/father go and be silly with Penguins for an hour. If you'd like more info on Penguins or pretty much ANY other animal visit SeaWorld.Org. If you'd like more info on the Penguin Up-Close Experience in San Diego, Orlando or San Antonio click the individual links. Not sure I know how to recommend the tour more than I already have. You won't be disappointed. |
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