Saturday, November 28, 2009

Sea World

We went to Sea World yesterday. We have annual passes, so we usually go 3 or 4 times a year. The vibe at Sea World is so different from Disney. Disney is so much over stimulation with everything, and Sea World is a lot more mellow.

First thing we did after purchasing the all you can eat passes ($22 with our passholder discount), was go to the Pet's Rule show. All the animals in the show are rescue animals and it really is a fun show to watch.

After that show, we ate lunch at one of the food booths. We had barbecue chicken, brisket, and spare ribs. Yummy. Then we headed to the "Believe" show (Shamu). I really miss the old Shamu shows which were more whale and more educational and less cheesy showmanship. "Hey, , what do you want to be when you grow up?" "I want to be a Shamu trainer!" Ay yi yi!

The dolphin show is closed. Apparently they are re-creating the show and refurbishing the "stadium". Somewhere in the early part of our day we also rode the Sky Tower. We love the Sky Tower. During our ride, I sat next to this guy who was on his phone for the entire ride, talking some sort of construction business. He was going on and on about "I called the polack about that and the crane should be there and ready to go". UM, polack is really not a nice thing to say about a someone of Polish descent. And gee, nice quality family time there. Not to mention the fact that I really do not wish to hear about your business when I am having a mini-vacation with MY family.

We went and saw the flamingos, and went to the bat ray tank. There was a bat ray that kept sticking its head out of the water and splashing everyone in the vicinity. It was really funny to watch.

One of our favorite shows is the sea lion show. The sea lion show does not take itself too seriously, unlike the Shamu show. They also had a "holiday" sea lion show, which we stayed in place for. I put quotes around holiday because the only holiday they were honoring was Christmas. Not even a mere tip of the hat to Hannukah, or any other winter holiday. I would think they would be a little more ecumenical than that, but oh well. The sea lion's Christmas show was really quite funny (in a physical humor sense) and we really enjoyed it.

We then went and ate dinner, hung out at the tide pool (with the sea stars), and got our "Shamu photo". The Shamu photo consists of getting up and straddling a large plastic orca and having a photo taken. Our photo turned out really cool.

We then went to the Shamu "holiday" night time show. In my humble estimation, the show was almost painful to watch. It was all Christmas with no mention of other winter holidays. It was as if the management at Sea World believes that everyone who attends Sea World is Christian. There was a choir that also doubled as an "interpretive dance troupe". The lead male singer was unable to keep pitch (he was singing about 1/4 step flat the entire time). There was much human performing with a little bit of orca performing thrown in, seemingly as an afterthought. I guess when I go to see the Shamu show, I want to see more of the orcas. And I would like to actually learn more about the animals. And the show was seriously cheesy, and not in a fun way. I found my brain giving the entire show the MST3K treatment. It was bad.

Overall the day was good. I enjoy going there, but I found the Shamu Christmas show disappointing.

1 comment:

Carole May said...

Perhaps it was so bad because people are realizing in their hearts that the majestic orcas do not belong in tanks. If you want to see and really learn about orcas, come to Washington for your summer vacation and go on a whale watch cruise out of Anacortes, Bellingham, or from one of the San Juan Islands. You will see the orcas in their natural world, with their youngsters, in their families, and the marine naturalist on board will tell you all about them, and you are able to ask questions :)