San Diego's Sea World

Thursday 30 August 2012 –

Day 140 and 18 days to go

Knowing we had a big day ahead of us we were up at 8.30am, having breakfast and then showering before getting ourselves organised for our day at the park. We picked up discount tickets at reception and then made our way to the bus stop to catch the bus to the trolley station.

Today we caught the blue trolley to the Old Town centre and then transferred to a number 9 bus to Sea World. By 11.30am we were finally at the gate and  ready to head on in.

Our first stop was Shamu the Killer Whale show due to begin at 12noon. We were able to find ourselves a seat off to the side but still in the splash zone.

Settled in we waited for the massive sea mammals to emerge and entertain the crowd. They were spectacular. The height they could attain when propelling themselves out of the water was mind blowing. They had 6 orcas doing different things, but of course the best bit was when they were splashing the crowd with their tails. Some people were completely soaked to the skin. It was so funny. We managed to come away with just a few spots thankfully.

With the show complete we went to look at the orcas from the underwater viewing area. Here they were easy to see as they swam around their enclosure. One was quite happy swimming upside down on the bottom of the tank, while another was scratching it’s head on the side.

We then wandered on to the Shipwreck rapids where we joined the crowd for 30min as we waited in line for our turn. The whole time I was thinking we should have bought the express pass to jump the queue. Oh well.

Once on the ride we sat in a tube and bounced around a circuit, splashing over rocks and under waterfalls, by the end of it we were saturated and laughing.

We then wandered towards Dolphin Point, a pool with many bottlenose dolphins in which you could put your hand in. Unfortunately they never came my way.  By now Paul had spotted the Mantra rollercoaster so we made our way over to it, put our things in a locker and then went in search of the line. To our surprise there wasn’t one and we were able to get straight on. The ride is only new and is designed to make you feel like you are swimming underwater with the rays. It was a lot of fun twisting and turning, ducking and weaving around the track.

With the ride complete we made our way to the next viewing area passing the otter and seal display along the way. Our stop was the Blue Horizon stadium to watch the dolphins and pilot whales as well as parrots, black vultures and acrobats diving into the water from trapezes. It was great to watch even if we had arrived a little late and had to watch from the very back. 

We then wandered to the sky tower where we could take the ride 203ft high to take in the view over Sea World and the Pacific Ocean. From here you had a great perspective of the park.

We did a quick wander through the animal encounters where they had some rescued animals kept before making our way round to the next ride; Journey to Atlantis. This was a log ride in which you were sent up a tower only to coming splashing down the other side and again get absolutely soaked to the skin. It was awesome and left us laughing lots.

We wandered over to the Wild Arctic where we firstly went on a helicopter simulator and then we checked out the beluga whales, polar bears and the walrus. It was so cold in this exhibit especially seeing we were all wet.

The next three exhibits were the penguins, turtles and sharks. They all had their own enclosures and you were able to stand on conveyor belts as you passed through each of the exhibits. The penguins were so funny bobbing around. There was even an exhibit of puffins, now they were funny.

After passing through the freshwater aquarium we hopped onto the chairlift to be taken across the bay and back. This was another ride where you could see across the park. Once we returned to the park side we made our way back to the Manta roller coaster for another turn and then we made our way for the exit. Completely worn out after a great day.

We located the bus stop and by 5.30pm we were heading back to the centre of town. We decided we would have dinner in town so we got off near Gaslamp Quarter and walked down the street looking for a Mexican restaurant to eat at.

We located one not too far away and sat down. Lucky for us it was happy hour so the margheritas began flowing. We watched the people go by. San Diego seems to be a magnet for odd ones. There also seems to be a lot of homeless, deformed Mexicans and people off their nut on booze or drugs or both. It provides for no end of entertainment. We even saw one guy with a pimped out ride that had his back tyres jacked right up and the car was bouncing down the road. Hilarious.

The Mexican dinner we ordered was absolutely delicious and so filling. I was glad I hadn’t had any lunch while at the park. We paid up and then made our way back to the trolley and then the bus before walking the final 500m back to the campground underneath a couple of highways.

Once in we dumped our gear, got into our bathers and made our way to the spa for a nice relax. We had a swim in between soaks and then returned to the van. I did some checking of things on the net and loaded photos before we finally called it a night.