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You are here: Home / Archives for Aquarium

My First Visit to SeaWorld

April 18, 2014 by Beeb 6 Comments

SeaWorld Group Photo

Group photo with our tour guide – photo courtesy Experience Kissimmee & SeaWorld.


All travel consideration, including park admission and dining, provided by Experience Kissimmee.

My Florida trip was full of firsts, including my first trip to SeaWorld. Carrying on our theme from the previous day, we arrived in the morning and started off with a thrill ride as our very first activity. Despite the fact that I don’t usually get much of any sleep during trips, nothing jolts you awake more than a heart-pounding ride at 9 AM! We started off on the Manta, an extreme roller coaster that speeds you around and around in every direction. I don’t usually enjoy even mild roller coaster rides, but my attitude on this vacation was that I wanted to challenge myself and have as many new experiences as possible, so I got strapped in, turned upside down, and began my flight through the park:

Waving hi from the Manta!

Rochelle waves hello from the Manta! Photo courtesy Meredith at Suburban Coupon Mom.

I kept my eyes shut for most of this ride. Why, you ask? Just watch this first-person video of the ride and you’ll see why. Aaaahhhh!! Not that you could tell I was scared or anything:

Terrified on the Manta

This priceless photo courtesy SeaWorld & Experience Kissimmee!

Later that day, we also took a ride on the Journey to Atlantis. When the ride started, I was expecting another steep drop and let out a scream as soon as it started. The ride then proceeded to gently go straight. 😉 All my buddies on the ride were cracking up!

The ride DOES have some big drops that happen later on, though:

Our ride down Journey to Atlantis

Thanks to Meredith of Suburban Coupon Mom for this photo!

Let’s get a closer look at that:

AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

AAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

This is a water coaster, so you get splashed at the bottom, which feels good cooling off in the warm Florida climate!

Antarctica: Empire of The Penguin

Much less intimidating ride to me was Antarctica: Empire of The Penguin. This ride spins you gently around as an interactive cartoon penguin movie plays and leads you to the exhibit of real, live penguins which you then get out and take a closer look at.

Melissa loves penguins!

Melissa was so excited when she saw her favorite animal, the penguin!

This penguin looked like he had a mohawk.

Penguin keeper

When we weren’t twirling around on rides, we were walking through some of the many, many aquarium exhibits on hand:

Fish

Stingrays

Oh, the huge manatee!

Tip For Parents:

Each member of SeaWorld’s educational staff carry trading cards about animals, with each person being assigned their own animal. When your children see one of these guides and ask them a question, they can get one of these cards and try to collect them all.

Sea turtle

Their sea turtle exhibit, TurtleTrek, includes a 360 degree 3D movie experience. As you stand inside this dome, you watch an animated movie made from the perspective of a turtle swimming through the ocean. It’s really interesting to watch the effects in this setting – it gives your brain the sensation that you’re actually moving at times, and it’s cool to turn around and see all of the panoramic action.

Dolphins

We also got to meet several dolphins!

Dolphin Nursery

We watched mommy & baby dolphins swim and jump at the Dolphin Nursery – talk about cuteness!

Mom and baby dolphins

Dolphin closeup

Dolphin swimming

I also got to feed a dolphin:

Beeb pets a dolphin

Here I am feeding a dolphin! Photo courtesy Experience Kissimmee & SeaWorld.

There are boxes of fish available for purchase so that visitors can feed and gently stroke the dolphins; it was a really neat experience for me.

Dolphin show

SeaWorld is perhaps most known for its shows, and we saw “Blue Horizons” while we were there. I didn’t really know what to expect, and wasn’t aware that the show was also full of aerial acrobatics, music, birds, and costumed performers with a script. It’s pretty over-the-top!

Aerial acrobat

School of dolphins jumping

Birds in the show

Dolphin jump during show

Acrobats

Dolphin trick

Costumed acrobat

Dolphin jumps out of the water

Acrobatics at Dolphin Theater

Two dolphins jumping

Riding dolphins

Blue Horizons finale

Tip:

Download the Seaworld Discovery Guide app for iTunes or Android to do a scavenger hunt around the park and earn a little prize. The app also has information about the parks, maps, and other helpful information to make your trip easier.

Dolphins weren’t the only animals we got up close and personal with – I was surprised to learn that at Stingray Lagoon, you can actually pet and feed stingrays.

Stingray swimming

Petting a stingray!

Stingrays are so cute and have such smooth skin. As they swim by, they’ll flap their fins towards you and splash you with water! This is another activity where you’ll get soaked, but again, it feels good in the Florida sun since you dry off pretty quickly.

Feeding the stingrays is an odd sensation, as you can see in this video! It was so much fun and one of the highlights of my visit.

Baby stingray!

Right by the feeding station, you’ll find a display where you can observe baby stingrays. Awwwww!

SeaWorld veterinarian

We also took a behind-the-scenes tour of SeaWorld where we saw the in-house veterinarian and heard about how they handle things like a walrus’ dental appointment! The animals are checked for a wide variety of things during their medical appointments, and much of this information is also used for research. Many of the employees are also working on their PhDs, and use their findings in papers. One recent project was researching sea turtle digestion by examining samples that were taken in order to check up on the health of the turtles.

During this portion of the tour, they talked about some of the processes that go into maintaining the facility, such as the myriad of water samples which must be taken three times a day, every day.

SeaWorld rescue boat

They also took us to see some of the vehicles used for transportation between facilities and also animal rescue projects.

This is how you move a whale!

What you are looking at here is a portable aquarium that is used to move whales, usually due to a facility closing or to avoid inbreeding. This one is decommissioned, so it doesn’t have glass panes on the sides as it would when being used. This “Whale mover” has been loaded onto planes. Forget snakes on a plane – imagine a whale on a plane! It’s pretty incredible what modern inventions can do.

Manatee hospital

This truck is a “Manatee Hospital”! The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, a local government agency, will contact SeaWorld when there is an animal in distress and either transport the animal to them or have SeaWorld dispatch their crews on-site. SeaWorld then cares for and rehabilitates the animal in this area “Behind the scenes”. When the animal heals, the government will dispatch someone to examine them and decide if they can be released back into the wild or are too injured and should remain at SeaWorld; this final decision rests with the government.

Manatees

The goal with these rescued animals is always to rehabilitate them to where they can be released back into the wild. We were instructed to stand behind a specific yellow line when we observed these animals, so that they won’t get too acclimated to people and interfere with their release. We were lucky enough to visit the manatee pool at feeding time, and observed the carers quickly dumping the lettuce into the water and retreating so that the animals wouldn’t have too much human exposure.

Manatee feeding time

SeaWorld’s rescued manatees are purposely kept in a pool without too much stimulation, as they want them to use all of their energy on healing. Manatees are commonly injured in collisions with boats.

Baby manatee snout

This is a special holding tank for rescued baby manatees, where we caught an adorable peek of a baby manatee snout popping out of the water.

Rescued sea turtle

We also saw the tanks for rescued sea turtles.

Rescued tortoise

This tortoise had plaster applied to fix his broken shell!

Earth day tip

While we toured this section of the facility, our guide shared an interesting conservation tip with us. She recommends cutting the tops off plastic water and soda bottles prior to recycling them, because loose plastic trash is easily blown out of dumpsters and into the water; small sea animals will crawl inside plastic bottles that end up in the ocean and end up trapped. Many of these creatures are babies that grow up with a plastic bottle around them, causing deformities. I had never heard this before, so I told her I was going to share it with everyone and that made her happy!

SeaWorld’s practices regarding conservation, ethical treatment of animals and human safety has been the subject of much debate and controversy recently after the release of the documentary Blackfish. For further information on this topic, you can click here to watch Blackfish on Netflix, then click here to read SeaWorld’s point by point rebuttal posted on their “Care For Killer Whales” page.

SeaWorld lighthouse

For More Information:

SeaWorld Orlando
7007 Sea Harbor Drive
Orlando, Florida 32821
Phone: 1-888-800-5447
Click here for park hours & show time information
Admission varies depending on when you visit, what package you buy and what sales are available – click here for current ticket prices.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | YouTube

Filed Under: travel Tagged With: Aquarium, Florida, Florida Vacation, RockYourVacation

Finding Nemo in 3D: Visiting the Seattle Aquarium #2DaysInSeattle

February 6, 2012 by Momstart 9 Comments

It’s been a while since our family has visited the Seattle Aquarium. It’s grown quite a bit since our last visit. They have a new indoor entrance and so many more hands on opportunities to play with the sea life.

image

After buying the tickets we were able to catch the end of the diver feeding the fish and her interview. My kids were fascinated and amazed, it reminded me of how much my kids loved going to the aquarium in the first place. Of course Finding Nemo brought out a love of aquariums in all kids (which by the way Finding Nemo comes out in 3D September 14, 2012), but my kids loved looking at fish way before they saw the movie..

clip_image001

The aquarium used the familiarity that children have and created an activity where the kids had to find different fish from the movie. Not all the fish we had to find were prominent in the movie but Nemo and Dori were both on the list. My kids had a blast searching through the fish and different tanks to find Nemo and the other fish on the list. What a great educational opportunity taking your kids to the aquarium was. 

image

After our fish hunt we went to see the baby otter. To get to the otter l we had to go through the puffin house. Wow!! there was a puffin in there that was going a little crazy I think. Quoting Finding Nemo, “Fish don’t belong in a tank, it does something to them”….I was thinking that actually applied to this crazy puffin. The kids loved it though, they thought he was just putting on a show for them. Seriously, I’m happy the aquarium does what they do, the educate the kids and myself in so many different ways.Look at this seahorse it’s amazing!

image

Through stories, hands on exhibits and information we had a very fun and educational day. I learned that the Great Pacific Octopus can get up to 400 lbs, at least that’s the largest recorded weight. And they can get into as small as a quarter size hole as long as their beak isn’t that big. It’s their only limitation.

image

We ended our day with fish hats and I leave you with this trailer of Finding Nemo in 3D.

image

 

 

Travel and Expenses were covered by 2daysinseattle, the Seattle CVB. And yes I do have an ongoing relationship with Disney and DreamWorks. I have permission to use their artwork.

Filed Under: personal Tagged With: 2daysinseattle, Aquarium, Finding Nemo, Finding Nemo 3D trailer, personal, Seattle

Season of Giving Day 26: Help Zoos And Aquariums

November 26, 2011 by Momstart 2 Comments

By Summer:

If you have a house of animals lovers like I do (my sons, 2YO and 4YO), give to your local zoos and aquariums. Zoo and aquariums don’t only offer entertainment but they offer animal care to creatures both domestic and foreign. Ways to give to your zoo or aquarium include:

· Attendance – GO! GO! GO! By simply showing a zoo or aquarium to your children you’re supporting their animal causes. If you want to take your attendance to the next level support your local zoo and/or aquarium by purchasing a membership. Memberships also make a great eco gift.

Omaha-0058-20110614

· Adopt – Many zoos and aquariums offer animal “adoption” which is actually more like sponsorship. This helps support a specific animals for a year; you’d help feed and maintain the animal with your adoption. Your zoo or aquarium might also offer thank you gifts for your support, such as a picture and profile of your animal, a stuffed animal representation of your animal, special membership admissions and packages, year’s calendar, and other swag.

· Education – Through camps and special programs your zoo and aquarium will not only help peak the interest of animal lovers, but they will inform them as well. Thus helps the cycle of loving it so much you want to help which usually means giving, whether that’s of time or money.

· Volunteer – Nothing is really more valuable than time. Time is money but almost anyone can give money; to show you really care, give time! Check with your local zoo or aquarium for information on how you or our family can volunteer. Keep in mind so dedicated hours of training may be required. There is also usually a minimum age requirement due to responsibility.

  1. Woodland Park Zoo-0019-20100430

If you’re not sure what is available in your area check out the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). AZA also offers the same opportunities presented above though if you get or give a membership the pass applies to all the associations’ partnering zoos and aquariums nationally.

Get involved locally and give to your zoo or aquarium. This is a great cause as it’s fun at ANY age!

About Summer:

Summer is very active in our Local MOMS Club chapter, she is the mother of two adorable active boys, and is always thinking of ways to help others. She is a friend, a wife, and always busy as all mommies are. She is very active on Facebook, addicted to Geocaching and very interested in organic and green living while cooking up a storm

Filed Under: charity, Summer Tagged With: Aquarium, Association of Zoos and Aquariums, season of giving, Summer, Zoo

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