Sea World Orlando

On Thursday, January 7 we went to Sea World. This day turned out to be the best weather day of the whole week. I think it got over 60 degrees that day.

Trevor decided to see if he was tall enough for the big roller coasters: Manta and Kraken.

Trevor was very bummer that he was not tall enough for the roller coaster especially given what happened at Universal Islands of Adventures the other day.

The beautiful flamingos greeted you as you walked into Sea World. What a stunning thing to see in my opinion.

We went to the Whale/Dolphin show first. It is called Blue Horizons and was filled with so many things relating to the sea and sky.

Here are two dolphins pushing the trainer through the water. You can see it from the pictures, but the dolphins were spinning as they were moving through the water.

Just amazing!

The show did not just have the dolphins performing, but a whole story as well. This parrot flew in and landed on the trainers arm and then...

It flew away and a real parrot appeared on the stage area.
She flew high above the water and soared.

While the "parrot" flew around the arena guys were climbing to the top of the tower getting ready to dive/flip off the diving board. There were also ladies doing acrobatics at the same time. A lot to look at, but very intriguing.

Here is the whale from the show. I didn't realize how good of a teeth shot we got until we look at the pictures when we returned home.

I should have had the camera turned up and down so you could actually see the trainer on the whale. If you look closely you can see the trainer's legs. Still pretty impressive though.

Another view of the whale. Very different looking than a Killer Whale.

The finale involved all 6 dolphins.
This was a great show to see and one of my favorites of all time.

After the show Sean, Grandpa Jeff and the kids went to feed some other dolphins.

Trevor and Hayley really enjoyed feeding them. Trevor's favorite part was when one of the dolphins got a little rowdy and splashed him with water. His shirt was soaked and he LOVED IT!

Next we went to the Whale show entitled Believe.

Before the actual show started the whale we swimming around the water playing. They would gather in groups and do something and then take off on their own and jump, roll, flip, etc. It was a really cool thing to see. I really liked when the mommy and baby whale were jumping out of the water at various points in the pool.

Getting ready for the show.
I am not sure how many whales there were in total, but here is 4 of them.

This sequence was amazing. The trainers dove under water with the water and then came up with them, but were able to stay on their nose/mouth. The whales just kept moving closer and closer until the trainers could touch.

After the trainer jumped off into the water it was time to reward the whales for their behavior. I was amazed at how far the trainer put her hands in the whales mouth.

This is one of my favorite picture because of the whales tongue. It looks like the whale is smiling and laughing. Isn't that what some of us look like.

There was a lot of stunts/tricks where the trainer was on the nose of the whale.

The whale and the trainer came up out of the water together and the whale just kept spinning ever so slow. It was great because it went very well with the music.

How amazing is this picture.
Check out the trainer sitting on the whale's nose.

Now on to the sea lions. This one was my favorite.
He/she just looked as though it was sunbathing.

This was one of the many birds in and around the sea lion exhibit. I just found it to be very cool and had to take a picture. What a beautiful tail and beak.

This is Kraken and according to Sea World's website it is Orlando's tallest fastest, floorless roller coaster. Trevor was too short to go on it, but not Sean, Papa Bear or myself. It was way more instense than the 3 of us thought while in line and had the others not been waiting for us we would have rode it again.

The Penguin Encounter. Although this is apicture showing just a few penguins there were tons of them. Some standing on the rocks, some walking around and many many more swimming in the water. Penguins can swim very fast.

Not sure what type of penguin this is, but if I lived in the snowy I would want to wear a fur coat too.

Mantatees.
How can an animal this big have such a cute face?

Of course an amusement park is not complete without Trevor and Hayley getting tattoos.

This roller coaster, Manta, had too long of a line so we did not get to go on it, but check it out anyway. A head-down, face-first roller coaster. Crazy I know!

To end our day at Sea World the kids asked to have their picture taken with Shamu.