San Diego - Day 3 Trip Report
Day 3 - In which large aquatic mammals fly through the air with the greatest of ease!
Friday of our trip was scheduled for Sea World. We didn't have that many specific goals for this particular day, one was to see Shamu and the other as many dolphins and penguins as possible. I am a huge Dolphin and Penguin fan, deciding between the Dolphin and Penguin backstage experience was one of the hardest choices I had to make. But, Epcot has Dolphins and we will be there in 2013, so....
Breakfast was at the Broken Yolk again, then a cab ride to Sea World. We turned in our city pass page and checked in for our afternoon Penguin Encounter, and were given directions on where to go. It's not a huge park but can be confusing.
Based on some tips we had read, we headed for Wild Arctic first. Wild arctic is a simulator ride that emulates a helicopter trip to a remote arctic base. Of course, something goes wrong, winds, etc make for a bumpy ride. If you have ever done Star Tours at Disney? Same ride. Actually I think they might have just rethemed an old ST simulator. It was ok, but its what's after that's cool.
After you land (you can skip the ride portion, BTW), you walk into the arctic base at which you supposedly arrived. They did a GREAT job with the theming, and located back here are viewing areas for the beluga whale and walruses, along with an ice wall, exhibits on arctic exploration, etc. We got lucky and they were feeding/training a few of the belugas when we came in, so we stopped there for a while.
After watching the Walrusii for a bit (they are so graceful for their size and bulk), we left. As if an omen, the penguin exhibit was right there, and even though we would be back later, I dragged my wife inside. I mean, after all, PENGUINS.
They have two display areas, one for penguins (a mixture of Emperor, Macaroni, and some other breeds) and one for Puffins. Finally my wife dragged (literally) me away from there and we headed for Shamu stadium to see Beleive.
The stadium wasn't open yet, but we found a vantage point where we could see some of the whales being exercised and then went down to the underwater viewing area, where they swam right by. A nice Sea World trainer was there to name the various whales (time to burst your bubbles - there is no longer a 'Shamu'. Shamu is whichever main whale they are using that day for the Shamu soak the crowd tail slam).
Heading back up, we were among the first in line and got great seats in the shade, center area, above the soak zone. The soak zone is about 2/3 the stadium mind you.
Even for a slow day, the stadium filled in almost 100%, this was the first show, we were told the second would be a lot slower. Vendors were out selling everything, and I do mean everything... I think I could have made an offer on one of the whales...
BTW, a friendly reminder. Wear sunscreen. It doesn't SEEM like the sun is baking you in SD, but oh yeah, it is. I forgot to do the neckline of my shirt and that night it was RED....
They had some videos and trivia to warm up the crowd, then the show started. The story is hokey, but the show is amazing. These incredibly huge animals leap higher in the air than I thought possible, with amazing grace. The trainers do get some kids from the crowd involved (and soaked). The last bit is the Shamu Slam, where the crowd chants Shamu and the whales BLAST water with their tails into the crowd. Great fun, and they do reach up the whole 16 rows of the soak zone!
After that we grabbed lunch of some surprisingly decent BBQ and headed to the Penguin Encounter, with me grinning like a schoolboy.
There were 12 of us in the group, including a young female couple very attached to each other and even more insanely fond of penguins than I am!
The penguin tour starts in the area that we saw before, with an explanation of the different kinds of penguins in the exhibit and some basic penguin facts. Then, you go backstage to the penguin keepers area where they show you the different types of eggs each species produces. You are taken into a kitchen area. Over the fridge was mounted a TV monitor that immediately grabbed the attention of everyone in the group. BABY EMPEROR PENGUIN! OMG LITTLE FUZZY BUNDLE OF ADORABLE CUTENESS. We all thought it was a video playing until I realized the hands in the video were attached to the person bending over we could see in the room next to us through a window. That was a LIVE little BABY PENGUIN. When I told the two girls I think they almost fainted.
The tour guide promised us a look at the baby if we promised to let her get through the first part, and when she brought out the Macaroni penguin, we managed to tear our eyes away from the BABY PENGUIN. Macaroni 153 (they don't have names) was very curious, a little nippy, liked to snort salt water all over you and had the softest feathers I have ever felt. He loved being petted too.
Everyone got a chance to pet the penguin, then we were taken in 2 groups into the penguin display area to see if any others wanted to come up. Hindsight - going into a damp freezer with a cold? Not the greatest idea. A few of the macaroni's came over for a pet or a peck as their mood warranted, but the emperors couldn't care less about us. It was also fun waving at the people on the other side of the glass, who I am sure were wondering what the heck we were doing...
After the freezer, they took us past the incubator and there, in the window, doing a little dance was BABY PENGUIN (gender undetermined yet, code was EMP-082. I am calling her Peep). Peep was born about 7 weeks prior and had just been announced to the public that week. This was the first emperor penguin chick born there in 8 years and was going to be hand raised, otherwise the females would fight over her and she would get hurt.
She was so cute. They had a beanie baby 'friend' in there for her, along with a block of ice, some snow, some towels.... All of us just crowded around the window and made collective aww sounds (some of the staff too!) It had only been 5 days since she came out of isolation, we were some of the first non Sea World people to see her. Finally the other group came out and we had to move along. Reluctantly. Very reluctantly.
The tour concluded with a quick trip to the aviary and then back into the park.
A little tired, we made our way to the Blue Horizons theater to wait to get in. Blue Horizons is a dolphin show mixed in with Cirque style acrobats and some black whales. Fun to watch, and some of the stunts with the Dolphins were really cool. Honestly though, I just kept squeaking 'Baby Penguin!!!'
Once the show was over we checked out some of the rest of the park. Pam wanted to ride Journey to Atlantis (a basic flume with an elevator in the middle) so she did that, we also checked out the sea turtles and some other exhibits before heading back to the cab stand, totally pooped.
I had promised my wife on Wed that we would go back to the Hello Kitty store we found in the mall, so we dragged ourselves over there and had some good organic burgers before buying HK stuff and then heading back to the hotel to pack for our 3rd hotel of the trip..
Pictures from Day 3:
http://loonbeam.smugmug.com/Travel/2010/Southern-California-2010-Day-2/14206542_U5D4d#1049244516_PWUPc
Next Up - Avis makes me quite unhappy. But there are Giraffes.
Friday of our trip was scheduled for Sea World. We didn't have that many specific goals for this particular day, one was to see Shamu and the other as many dolphins and penguins as possible. I am a huge Dolphin and Penguin fan, deciding between the Dolphin and Penguin backstage experience was one of the hardest choices I had to make. But, Epcot has Dolphins and we will be there in 2013, so....
Breakfast was at the Broken Yolk again, then a cab ride to Sea World. We turned in our city pass page and checked in for our afternoon Penguin Encounter, and were given directions on where to go. It's not a huge park but can be confusing.
Based on some tips we had read, we headed for Wild Arctic first. Wild arctic is a simulator ride that emulates a helicopter trip to a remote arctic base. Of course, something goes wrong, winds, etc make for a bumpy ride. If you have ever done Star Tours at Disney? Same ride. Actually I think they might have just rethemed an old ST simulator. It was ok, but its what's after that's cool.
After you land (you can skip the ride portion, BTW), you walk into the arctic base at which you supposedly arrived. They did a GREAT job with the theming, and located back here are viewing areas for the beluga whale and walruses, along with an ice wall, exhibits on arctic exploration, etc. We got lucky and they were feeding/training a few of the belugas when we came in, so we stopped there for a while.
After watching the Walrusii for a bit (they are so graceful for their size and bulk), we left. As if an omen, the penguin exhibit was right there, and even though we would be back later, I dragged my wife inside. I mean, after all, PENGUINS.
They have two display areas, one for penguins (a mixture of Emperor, Macaroni, and some other breeds) and one for Puffins. Finally my wife dragged (literally) me away from there and we headed for Shamu stadium to see Beleive.
The stadium wasn't open yet, but we found a vantage point where we could see some of the whales being exercised and then went down to the underwater viewing area, where they swam right by. A nice Sea World trainer was there to name the various whales (time to burst your bubbles - there is no longer a 'Shamu'. Shamu is whichever main whale they are using that day for the Shamu soak the crowd tail slam).
Heading back up, we were among the first in line and got great seats in the shade, center area, above the soak zone. The soak zone is about 2/3 the stadium mind you.
Even for a slow day, the stadium filled in almost 100%, this was the first show, we were told the second would be a lot slower. Vendors were out selling everything, and I do mean everything... I think I could have made an offer on one of the whales...
BTW, a friendly reminder. Wear sunscreen. It doesn't SEEM like the sun is baking you in SD, but oh yeah, it is. I forgot to do the neckline of my shirt and that night it was RED....
They had some videos and trivia to warm up the crowd, then the show started. The story is hokey, but the show is amazing. These incredibly huge animals leap higher in the air than I thought possible, with amazing grace. The trainers do get some kids from the crowd involved (and soaked). The last bit is the Shamu Slam, where the crowd chants Shamu and the whales BLAST water with their tails into the crowd. Great fun, and they do reach up the whole 16 rows of the soak zone!
After that we grabbed lunch of some surprisingly decent BBQ and headed to the Penguin Encounter, with me grinning like a schoolboy.
There were 12 of us in the group, including a young female couple very attached to each other and even more insanely fond of penguins than I am!
The penguin tour starts in the area that we saw before, with an explanation of the different kinds of penguins in the exhibit and some basic penguin facts. Then, you go backstage to the penguin keepers area where they show you the different types of eggs each species produces. You are taken into a kitchen area. Over the fridge was mounted a TV monitor that immediately grabbed the attention of everyone in the group. BABY EMPEROR PENGUIN! OMG LITTLE FUZZY BUNDLE OF ADORABLE CUTENESS. We all thought it was a video playing until I realized the hands in the video were attached to the person bending over we could see in the room next to us through a window. That was a LIVE little BABY PENGUIN. When I told the two girls I think they almost fainted.
The tour guide promised us a look at the baby if we promised to let her get through the first part, and when she brought out the Macaroni penguin, we managed to tear our eyes away from the BABY PENGUIN. Macaroni 153 (they don't have names) was very curious, a little nippy, liked to snort salt water all over you and had the softest feathers I have ever felt. He loved being petted too.
Everyone got a chance to pet the penguin, then we were taken in 2 groups into the penguin display area to see if any others wanted to come up. Hindsight - going into a damp freezer with a cold? Not the greatest idea. A few of the macaroni's came over for a pet or a peck as their mood warranted, but the emperors couldn't care less about us. It was also fun waving at the people on the other side of the glass, who I am sure were wondering what the heck we were doing...
After the freezer, they took us past the incubator and there, in the window, doing a little dance was BABY PENGUIN (gender undetermined yet, code was EMP-082. I am calling her Peep). Peep was born about 7 weeks prior and had just been announced to the public that week. This was the first emperor penguin chick born there in 8 years and was going to be hand raised, otherwise the females would fight over her and she would get hurt.
She was so cute. They had a beanie baby 'friend' in there for her, along with a block of ice, some snow, some towels.... All of us just crowded around the window and made collective aww sounds (some of the staff too!) It had only been 5 days since she came out of isolation, we were some of the first non Sea World people to see her. Finally the other group came out and we had to move along. Reluctantly. Very reluctantly.
The tour concluded with a quick trip to the aviary and then back into the park.
A little tired, we made our way to the Blue Horizons theater to wait to get in. Blue Horizons is a dolphin show mixed in with Cirque style acrobats and some black whales. Fun to watch, and some of the stunts with the Dolphins were really cool. Honestly though, I just kept squeaking 'Baby Penguin!!!'
Once the show was over we checked out some of the rest of the park. Pam wanted to ride Journey to Atlantis (a basic flume with an elevator in the middle) so she did that, we also checked out the sea turtles and some other exhibits before heading back to the cab stand, totally pooped.
I had promised my wife on Wed that we would go back to the Hello Kitty store we found in the mall, so we dragged ourselves over there and had some good organic burgers before buying HK stuff and then heading back to the hotel to pack for our 3rd hotel of the trip..
Pictures from Day 3:
http://loonbeam.smugmug.com/Travel/2010/Southern-California-2010-Day-2/14206542_U5D4d#1049244516_PWUPc
Next Up - Avis makes me quite unhappy. But there are Giraffes.