I like sea life and I’m a big fan of Free Willy. (Not the sequel, though. That crap is whack.) Aeroplan offered me a free day pass to check out all the creatures living under the sea at SeaWorld, so my buddy Camile and I headed on over on my last day in Orlando (SeaWorld/Aquatica combo passes are redeemable with 13500 miles).
Welcome to SeaWorld!
The Animals
Not too many of my days have started with feeding stingrays. In fact, none of them had until this trip to SeaWorld. I stuck the dead fish between my fingers and placed it low in the tank, and squealed like a little girl when the stingray sucked it into his mouth like a vacuum.
The photo says it all.
My main point of interest, however, was the killer whale show. After our intimate encounter with the stingrays, Camile and I immediately ran to check out da Shamu crew. Being a midday show saturated with children, the opening was sometimes squeamishly cheesy, and the pro-military message downright uncomfortable.
BUT I had never seen killer whales before, despite their regular appearance around the coast of Newfoundland lately. The show was impressive, and in between stuffing my face with a massive bag of pink cotton candy, I snapped photos like a paparazzi. Dance, Free Willy! Dance!
Big fish
(We had to sit WAAAAY in the back to avoid the splash zone. Them whales are BIG. Thank god for laser eye surgery.)
My next mission was to visit the polar bear and the walruses, two more animals I had never seen before. You’d think while fleeing from the Canadian winter the last place I’d want to be is in the Arctic Kingdom.
Aww, sleepy bear.
Naturally the polar bear was sleeping, and the unbelievably massive walrus kept hiding behind a large pillar in the underwater tank. I kept trying to snap photos but small toddlers and seven year olds kept butting in front of me despite my efforts to shove them forcefully out of the way. You can imagine my frustration.
AAAAND flamingos!
The dolphins were kinda nifty too.
The Rides
I didn’t do any. Time did not permit.
But Kraken and Manta look absolutely freaking terrifying (probably cuz I don’t do rollercoasters).
And the Journey to Atlantis ride was pretty entertaining.
I just prefer to have my feet on the ground, you know.
Camile and I!
Unfortunately I only had about three hours to spend inside SeaWorld, and so I missed some key highlights like the penguins and the underwater shark grill. No, they don’t grill sharks.
Next up: Getting drunk at Disney, alone. It happens.