Wet Wet Wet! (Seaworld Adventure Park (Florida))

Member Name: Tupps

Product:	Seaworld Adventure Park (Florida)
Date:	14/06/09 (38 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Lots of great shows; good rides; easy to walk around

Disadvantages: Animals cooped up when they should be free?

Another must see theme park in Florida and another one owned by the Anhauser Busch Group (part of the Budweiser brewing company).

This park is much more about animals than rides and there are lots of different shows to take in all day, the most famous of which is the Shamu show with the killer whales.

Pets Ahoy was the first show we saw on our arrival at the park, a show involving dogs, cats, geese and a pig. The animals in this show are all rescued from various animal shelters and given a new lease of life but many people are still uncomfortable about this kind of thing; about animals being used for entertainment purposes at all. Obviously this is a decision only you can make but Sea World remains a hugely popular place.

We bought day tickets to Sea World which cost around £40, however, if you have a ticket for Discovery Cove you usually get a day at Sea World included.

The dolphin show is popular, with dolphins and their trainers interacting with each other.

The sea lion show is good too, all the shows are good, but by far the best is the Shamu show.

The Shamu stadium gets absolutely packed, so arrive in good time if you want a good seat. Bear in mind however that the first 30 rows or so of seats get soaked and so will you if you're sitting there - the whales swim up and down their pool and flick their tails, sending tons of water flying up and over the seats. It's generally taken in good jest; the kids in particular love it.

It is an amazing thing to watch these HUGE creatures dive into the water with such grace that they barely make a splash; on the day we visited, there was a little baby whale that did not leave its mother's side and was quite adorable. But there is a feeling too of discomfort; discomfort that these majestic, powerful creatures are being enclosed and curtailed from being their true selves; an awareness that they should be swimming free in the world's oceans, not cooped up in an artificial theme park. Sea World, like many zoos and parks these days, is involved in conservation work but even so, it does leave you feeling somewhat sorry for the animals (well, it did me anyway but then I'm a bit soft about animals!)

There's a dolphin nursery and a bit called Dolphin Cove where you can go and "pet" the dolphins; there's an area where you can feed the sea lions by buying a small tray of fish to throw them; you can get up close and personal to things like stringrays and penguins and even a couple of polar bears.

For the rides, the best here (in my opinion) is Journey to Atlantis. It's essentially a log flume type ride but is much higher and has lots of twists so feels more like a roller coaster. When you hurtle down the final drop, as your boat travels along back towards the loading bay, people shoot you with huge water pistols that are fixed into the railings around the ride. You pay about 25 cents for this privilege!

Other rides are the Kraken, a roller coaster which you stand up on and which goes upside down about 8 times; a simulator called Wild Arctic which is supposed to take you on a helicopter ride to the North Pole; and (it's a kid's ride but it's good) The Shamu Express. This is a kid's roller coaster in the children's area of the park and I went on it about 6 times because my two nephews kept dragging me back on! It's good though; whizzes around enough for my liking anyway!

There are other things in Sea World such as a climbing wall, a flamingo park and of course loads of shops.

Sea World is a good place to walk around for those that may struggle with the more faster paced theme parks; it's easy to navigate and is a nice, slow paced park with a more relaxing feel.

Summary: A good park for all ages but not to everyone's taste