Sea World

Sea World

The last two staycations have been at lakes and far off the beaten path. This time we take you back to the coast to a popular destination, Sea World.

I hadn’t been to Sea World for years so I didn’t know of any of the new rides they had in the park. There are two water rides and a super fast roller coaster as well as the World Arctic Ride in a flight simulator.

One of the water rides

The popular sky ride has a view of the whole park and bay.

Because it wasn’t a hot day, we choose to bypass the water rides. Instead, some of us rode the Manta roller coaster and the flight simulator. The roller coaster was a fast spit ball of a ride that had the occupants twisting and turning around corners at various angles. There wasn’t that initial high drop but it made up for it in the speed!

The Manta Roller Coaster

Different reactions

The Arctic Flight simulator was held in a room of about 50 people and gave the illusion that you were in a helicopter in the Arctic. Of course they had to add in a fierce arctic storm which swept through and tossed the imaginary helicopter up and down and side to side! It is amazing how you can really feel like you are actually there.

Fun rides but neither are for the faint at heart.

At the beginning of the park they have various pools with different sea life that you can touch and feel. We felt sting rays and sharks, plus got to see seals playing.

Petting the sting rays

The turtle exhibit

I couldn’t get the walrus all in the shot with my telephoto, he WAS big.

Some of the shows were geared towards the holidays including the Seal and Otter Show and “Pets Rule.”
“Pets Rule” features rescued dogs, cats, pigs, ducks, and various other animals. It is a cute show for kids and adults alike.

I think she had too high of hopes for this pig to jump

The Seal and Otter show is a favorite by all and includes a cute skit of “Dancing with the Stars.”

“Dancing with the Stars” Skit

The park itself was dressed up in holiday style with beautiful decorations all around, as well as Christmas trees and tons of lights. We actually couldn’t wait until night when we could see them all lit up.

Besides all of the attractions and shows, there are plenty of things for kids to do at the Sesame Bay of Play. This section has rides and a play area that allows the kids to climb and swing in a giant jungle gym with ropes, bridges, nets and slides, etc.

They also offer interaction packages where you can get up close and personal with some of the sea life.

At an extra cost you can get up and close to the Beluga whales. Faces blurred out intentionally.

As the wonderful lights were coming alive at sundown we stopped on our way out to watch the huge Christmas tree light up for the first time of the season. This beautiful display of thousands of lights and different colors got us into the spirit for the upcoming holiday season.

One last ride and we were on our way home, on to the 400 ft tall Sky Tower. After a short wait we entered the revolving room for a 6 minute jaunt up the top. The park was illuminated with thousands of lights and you could see the lit up pools scattered about the park. The view was spectacular as you could see for miles in any direction as the carriage made at least three rotations before heading back to the floor.

The sky tower all lit up