Orlando, FL - Seaworld & Aquatica

#199 (February 15, 2023): SeaWorld is the last family of Orlando’s theme parks we visited during our Orlando Mania. While Neil slept in (he and Chris joined us a few hours later), Emily and the girls met Rachel and her family at SeaWorld. This is one of their favorite places since they live so close and have season passes. It was great and so fun to spend time with them; plus, they were like our own personal SeaWorld tour guides! Fantastic!

SeaWorld has fabulous animal exhibits and numerous hands-on opportunities such as animal feedings for those interested. We enjoyed throwing fish to the sea lions (and some fast, sneaky, intercepting birds)! Some of our favorite animals were the beluga whales, penguins, harbor seals, manatees, walruses, turtles, sawfish, and hammerhead sharks. Of course, we loved the dolphin, sea lion, and orca shows, which were entertaining and informative and what SeaWorld is probably best known for.

Although Chris, Lily, and Joanna enjoyed the animals and shows, they LOVED SeaWorld’s unique and exhilarating roller coasters! Manta, Mako, Ice Breaker, and Kraken were all fantastic! Who knew that out of all the theme parks in Orlando (Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, all 4 Disney parks, and SeaWorld) that SeaWorld would win the prize for Orlando’s Best Roller Coasters from the thrill-seekers in our family?!!

In Emily’s opinion, the coolest thing in all of SeaWorld was in a small dark tank off to the side in the Shark Encounter that she probably would have completely missed had Bethany not slowed her down and shown her. In the tank were three mermaid purses (aka shark egg sacks), each at a distinctly different time in their development (gestation period). By pushing a button, a red light would come on behind the egg sacks, shining through them so that we could see the yolk and the developing baby shark inside. The first had a tiny shark inside swimming around and eating a large yolk. The second showed a slightly bigger shark with more details in the shark tail, moving around and eating a smaller yolk. The third had a much bigger shark inside, not swimming much because it was so big and not enough room to move about so freely, but its breathing was very apparent, and we couldn’t see the yolk anymore because he had eaten it! What a testament we have witnessed firsthand today! These hard, leathery black seed-pod-looking objects contain moving, growing, breathing life inside! Even though the sharks were not otherwise visible (without the dark environment and red lights), they were still very much alive inside! Incredible! Absolutely amazing!

At night we re-watched Harry Potter #2 since Neil finished listening to the audiobook. (We re-watched #1 while we were at Disney’s Fort Wilderness after he finished the first book).

#200 (February 16, 2023): Today we spent the day at SeaWorld’s sister water park, Aquatica. Our favorite slides were Ray Rush and Roa’s Rapids. The Commerson’s dolphins were fun to watch swim in their tank; they are like a cross between an orca and a common dolphin. Very neat and a new species we had not heard of before! On our way home, we did a little shopping at an outlet mall. Evidently, the kids haven’t stopped growing, and they are all needing the next size up in clothes.