Florida Holiday--Day Four

Monday, day four, dawned and we got up to get ready to head out. We had breakfast of waffles and strawberries at the villa before leaving for....SeaWorld!


It had been 20+ years since I was in SeaWorld, and then it was the brand new SeaWorld in San Antonio and I was a camp counselor responsible for 12 eleven and twelve year olds. This was a different experience. :-)

We got there just before the gates opened. They open the gates with the raising of the flag and playing the Star Spangled Banner. Maybe that gets old to those of you who are in the States, but not hearing our national anthem very often makes any hearing of it special. I never cease to get goosebumps when it is played.

We then went through the gates and met Shamu.


Then we headed toward the sealion show. It didn't start for a little while but we knew from friends that this is a show that you don't want to enter late (or even within five minutes of it starting). We did stop at Kracken, the big roller coaster, because there was no wait and we knew there would be a wait later.

German would ultimately rate this his second favorite roller coaster of the entire trip!

We got to the show and took our seats. The pre-show entertainment is a mime.

He was actually quite good. His main focus is to make fun of the folks that are entering late. Hilarious! He would "show" people to open seats by escorting them out the exit on the other side. He mimiced behavior, and he even sat a lady in a wheelchair in the splash zone motioning that it was a "little splash". (To be fair she was on the edge of the splash zone so didn't really get wet but the antics and audacity were funny.) The show itself was over the top, slapstick fun.

The girls loved it and the bad puns kept the adults laughing.

From there we went directly to the dolphin show. This was hands-down our favorite show. The artistry of the choreography was great. There were 2-6 dolphins performing at a time along with acrobats/divers and trainers, plus whales and exotic birds added to the show. Amazing show. Flower will also say that the dolphins were her favorite part of the day. Jewel wavers between them and Shamu.





After the dolphin show, we went to Shamu stadium and had lunch at the food place next to it. After lunch, we went in to take our places. Another amazing show! The size of the killer whales is amazing. We thoroughly enjoyed this day.




We went through the kids area for rides. Flower was just under an inch too short to ride the Shamu rollercoaster, so she was disappointed. Jewel and German rode. Then I rode the teacup ride with the girls and German took them on the carousel. By now it was raining so we decided to head for the gates. The rain quickly let up but we were ready to call it a day. We bought a few souveniers then went back to the villa to swim and relax before dinner.