Sea World (13)

Sea World, up close to International Drive and Universal is well worth a visit when you are in Florida, be sure to get your map with times of the shows and plan your day around the shows that you want to see.

The Sea Lion show is well worth watching with the antics that they get up to, a very amusing show full of audience participation involving the Sea Lions, their handlers and a mystery animal guest who you may see running across the arena.

The aquarium is also worth a visit, here you can see all types of marine life swimming together including sharks, together with individual displays of smaller fish or crustaceans. Perhaps a visit to see the penguins being fed, these lively little birds are superb in the water and yet out of it they appear to be awkward and ungainly. Watch the seals being fed, these lithe creatures are like flashes in the water and it appears effortless.

You must go and see the Manatees, these have an outdoor as well as an underwater viewing area, you can easily see why so many get damaged by boat propellers as they are ponderously slow, in fact if my memory serves me correctly, they have some that are boat damaged.

You can get buy food for some of the animals and feed them, Stingrays and Dolphins are two that I can remember, it is a really weird feeling with the Stingrays passing over your hand and taking the bits of fish that you are offering them. The dolphins come up to the side wall of their feeding tank and gently take fish that is being dangled from your hand, their skin is not what you would imagine it to feel like, it is very soft and smooth, they are lovely animals.

When there, you really must go to see the Killer Whale show, I suppose really that is what everyone goes to see, everyone gets seated and waits in anticipation, suddenly a bow wave of water comes from the holding area, the Orcas are entering the show area. Whoosh, a huge Killer Whale leaves the water and must jump at least 10 feet clear of the surface, crashing down with a splash, they, (two of them), go through their repertoire of tricks which includes swimming around the tank with their handlers feet on their noses and launching the handlers into the air, ad then their secret trick, they are sent around the outside of the tank, swimming on their sides, with their bellies to the crowd, with every tail stroke thirty or forty gallons of water must come over the side of the tank soaking people up to six rows back, and then they take their bow, and disappear back to their holding tanks.

A fabulous day out and well worth the visit.