Sea World San Diego debuts new Dolphin Show

Sea World San Diego debuted a new Dolphin Show, Dolphin Days, a few weeks ago and they were nice enough to invite us down to the park to check it out and give our review of the show. 
Before we do, we'll have to warn you that this week is going to be kind of Sea World heavy. Our visit last Saturday was our first visit to the park since 2008, but trust us, it won't be long before our next visit

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So we had a LOT to catch up on such as Manta, One World, the new entrance, Turtle Reef and more. So much that we took over 700 pictures which is obviously too much to fit in one update. 

Plus, if you haven't noticed, we have a new section to the site dedicated exclusively to Sea World and Busch Gardens parks. For those of you who have been with us since the beginning you'll remember that this section of the site did exist at one point but was dedicated to "California Parks" that didn't last very long. We've had this page built for awhile but didn't want to launch it until we had immediate content and the ability to have ongoing content not only at the park in San Diego but at the parks in Florida, Texas and Williamsburg. And we have that now, at least at the parks in FL and TX. (if you'd like to cover BGW let us know). 

So even though that was a long intro to get into our thoughts on the new show we hope you enjoy the article below, because we absolutely LOVED the new show. 

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Written by Gregg Condon (Click on any of the pictures below to see a larger version)

As I mentioned above, our last visit to Sea World was in 2008, so obviously a LOT has changed. Not only physically at the park but with the "perception" of what Sea World is. It's fair to say that it's been a rough few years for the park chain, so much so that I actually found myself getting very emotional during the Dolphin Days and One Ocean (which we'll touch on later this week). 

Fair or not, Sea World has been blasted and that's translated to a drop in revenue, some changes at the top and more, but what hasn't changed is the feeling you get when you see these amazing animals perform and the love that is so evident between the animals and their trainers. How anybody could think the trainers don't absolutely love these animals is beyond me. 

We never got a chance to see Blue Horizons which from what I understand was a more "serious" show than the show in 2008 or Dolphin Days. And while all shows at Sea World do have a "conservation" segment, they all also like to have fun and that's just with this show is. 

The pre-show, well, it's the same pre-show as has always been there. You know the "soak zone" song by now. The only significant change since 2008 is the change from "Oh My Hair" to "Oh My Phone" which is more a sign of the times than anything I can think of. 

For the most part this show seems to be similar to the last show we saw 7 years ago, without the "parent falling in the water" gag which is fine. Because really, if you aren't entertained by these animals then I don't know what to tell you. Because they are truly amazing. 

The show did seem a bit shorter than past shows clocking in at about 15-20 minutes which was fine as the sun was quite warm even though the air temperature was only about 75 at the first show of the day.

As you can see, despite reports of low crowds plaguing the chain the shows here still packed them in during the late summer.  

At the end of the day the animals are the star of the show, and that's the way it should be. 

Be sure you head down to the park to check out Dolphin Days, it's a lot of fun and shouldn't be missed. You can read all about the new show here. 

Be sure to check back tomorrow as I'll be posting my update and review of the Penguins Up-Close Tour which was truly one of the most amazing things I've ever done. And oddly, there aren't a whole lot of reviews of this experience online. 

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