An Unexpected Journey –Chapter 5
Friday August 31st
We kicked off our second week with a visit to Seaworld. I think I mentioned this in my reports last time around but I just don’t know what it is about this park – when you think about it beforehand it seems like well, I reckon we will last a couple of hours and then have seen all we want to see, especially as we’ve seen it all four times previously. But Seaworld never ceases to amaze…
We got there pretty early and just in time for the Pets Ahoy show. I don’t know whether this is a new show or whether we’ve just missed it on all our previous visits. A bit similar to the Universal Animal Actors show but very clever nonetheless!
When the show was over it was about 11.30am and we suddenly noticed how quiet the park was – unbelievably quiet in fact! We headed over to Shamu Stadium and I think pretty much the whole park was in for the 12.30pm show (and the stadium still wasn’t full). The kids sat in the splash zone and the show kicked off.
It was the first time we had seen the re-jigged show and it did feel a little bit like they just added more water jets and guys and girls prancing round in wet suits to compensate for the lack of trainers in the water. Still a good show and you can’t help but be impressed at those killer whales – they really are magnificent creatures. Oh, and the kids got soaked - not by the whale but by one of the trainers redirecting water jets in their general direction!
Might be a little bit controversial but do any of you feel a little tired of hearing constant messages about how wonderful our world is and how we should all live in peace love and harmony for ever more? Don’t get me wrong I do appreciate and admire what these parks do for nature and the environment but do we have to be reminded every 5 minutes?
Anyways, back on topic… After Shamu we headed for Journey to Atlantis. This was one ride that Jack was adamant he wasn’t gonna do. It had been the catalyst for his fear of dark rides with fast and long drops 3 years ago and he wasn’t quite yet ready to face his nemesis. So Ben and I did it and it was good fun – and, again, we got soaked…
The weather was so hot today that we quickly dried off. After the obligatory visit to the very impressive shark tunnel (it makes the local Sea Life Ctr at Tynemouth look very small fry) we headed for the Clyde & Seamore show. Whilst this is the fourth time I’ve seen this show I still chuckled at the clown, laughed at the jokes and went ‘aaaaaaahhh!’ when the big walrus with the giant ‘tache came out – never gets old!
Next was the Wild Arctic simulator which I can’t remember from before (and I felt like I had whiplash when I got off!) and then we hightailed it over to the dolphin show which we missed last time so it was all new to us and we all thoroughly enjoyed it; as others have said before it’s very spectacular and so much more than dolphins.
Looking at my watch it was almost 4pm, we had been here 6 hours – which isn’t bad for a park with not much to do! Before heading off we did new Turtle Trek 3D (another first). The wait was around 30 mins but it passed real quick. We got into a room with a look at the live sea turtles and the Sea World team member tried to tell us some interesting facts but was totally drowned out by a very rude Hispanic family who just kept talking over the top of her!
We got into the show and it started. It seemed a while since I’d seen a 360 degree cinema show – they seemed to have disappeared and become less common over the years but this one was in 3D!! Still don’t think it added a lot to the show and I think we all came out feeling a little underwhelmed. We stopped off at the Sting Ray pool on the way out where the boys stroked and fed them and that was us done.
After 7 hours, plenty of ‘firsts’, some old favourites and enough subliminal messages to make us want to join Greenpeace we had had a great day courtesy of Shamu and Co.
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