End of Summer Holiday - Sea World

Final Stop - Sea World San Diego

One of our first stops (after we left Bay of Play, where we spent the first hour), was the Ray touch tank

K touched the Rays, e would not.  

Sorry, no pics of that.

 E was riding Manta, so I was alone with the kids.  

 Blue Horizons is still the kids' favorite show.  

K asked today how she can swim with the dolphins.  I told her that she has to become a REALLY strong swimmer, save money to do the trainer camps in San Diego in High School, then go to College in San Diego and Audition for one of the trainer jobs at Sea World once she's in College.  I'm not sure she liked my answer.  She wanted to do it that day.  

She also wanted to know how Cousin A and I got that job (she's seen the pic of Cousin A and me with a dolphin), so we had to explain the dolphin interaction program.  Naturally, she wanted to do that.  Then came the explanation that not only is she too young, but that she is also too short and will be even after she is no longer too young.  Time to eat your veggies, girl!

 To take some of the sting out, we let her feed the sea lions.  She liked that (well, other than touching the slimy fish, but she got over that!)

Both kids love sea turtles, 

although e definitely has more love for them than K,

and both love this interactive game in Turtle Reef

BTW, e's Green Sea Turtle won this time.  K's Pink Loggerhead Turtle came in second. The Orange turtle and the Blue turtle were played by other children.

Note to anyone heading to Sea World San Diego - 

DO NOT go to the new Madagascar LIVE: Operation Vacation show.  

It was pointless.  You cannot see.  They put a live show in a theater designed for movies and did not adjust the seating area.  Adults can kind of see.  Kids can't see at all.  

K had a kid in front of her and that kid kept standing so that he could try to see, so she couldn't see at all.  I put her on my lap, but with the adult in front of me, she could only barely see a quarter of the show (which was about all I could see).  They need to either regrade the seating area (so it is at a greater slope) or put the stage MUCH higher (thus causing a need to remove the first row or two b/c they would be too close to see).  We waited 45 min to see the show and 20 min during the show and could see nothing.  If there had been a way to leave without climbing over people, we would have left.  It was that bad.  Lots of other people were grumbling as they left too.  

I complained (the powers that be won't change it if customer complaints don't reach them), but I don't know how many other people did.  The CSRs at Guest Services seemed unsurprised, so I'm guessing that this isn't the first time they've heard this complaint.  The staff at the show were apologizing left and right to angry people, so I know they'd heard it before.