Birthday Between Meals: SeaWorld

Also for my birthday, Chris took me to SeaWorld here in Orlando. They have this deal right now that if you pay for a day, you can go back the rest of the year without paying for another ticket. You just have to pay for parking ($14). I don’t know how often we’ll be going back. Parking is kind of steep.

I would go back at least once though because I screwed up on my camera. I took a lot of the photos on the wrong settings. a lot of the indoor shots were kind of blurry, but at the same time, I don’t know if it’s worth it. I don’t think they have enough exhibits to spend $14 on parking. Chris and I could watch a matinée for that price!

Pygmy Marmoset

As opposed to Disney, even on a weekday, SeaWorld seemed absolutely deserted. The people also seemed really angry. My brother said it’s because that’s where all the fired Disney employees go. Could be. They definitely weren’t all that interested that we were even around. I think they’d be happier if we weren’t there so they could go inside and enjoy the air conditioning.

It seems SeaWorld is trying to make more money. For a few extra dollars or fifty, you could feed the seals, the dolphins, the sting rays and whatever else won’t bite your hand off. And for a few hundred dollars, you can swim with the dolphins, the baluga whales and whatever else won’t bite your hands off.

Here’s a couple of people who did just that. I found it a little too money grubbing. Not only did we spend $80 plus tax per person, but we gotta spend some more to do anything else. I suppose this is normal since all the other zoos and animal parks do the same thing, but it felt like SeaWorld just laid it all out in the open. It kind of slapped you in the face whenever you turned around to do look at something.

We also watched the Shamu show, which they’ve changed since the trainer was killed. I remember at one point, the trainer would get in the water and one of the whales would launch them into the air. Well, the show now has none of the trainers going into the tank at all. I don’t know if this makes them any safer since the whales can choose to pull the trainers in by the arm if they wanted to, but apparently, it’s just the one whale that’s had a history of killing his trainers.

I’m glad I went and I had a good time, but I think if you’re coming to Orlando, you should save your money and do another theme park.

Crossposted to Samantha Ling, Dreamwidth and Livejournal