...
We strolled around a little while after Pets Ahoy, and ended up in the ray Feeding Place. We didn't know about the deal , but if you paid something like $10 pp you get to feed rays, Sharks and SeaLions - so we went for this.
Feeding the Rays was really odd - it was like it hoovered up the prawn from your hands, and they were all so eager and fast - i was a little scared if i'm honest!! But the funniest thing happened here - Roy was bent over to feed the manta's, with his sunglasses leg tucked into his tshirt...
well he came back up after feeding and looked down and realised the sunglasses had fell into the tank!! He rushed to get them and luckily he did - and luckily we managed to get this all on video - it was just sooo funny
From here we headed to the shark experience , the tunnel is REALLY cool to go through, but the feeding experience was a little bit of a joke - i didn't really expect to go right up to a shark and feed it
scared1
but you just throw bits of fish from a height into a big pool, with about 5 little sharks in it and 50 rays - so i just fed more rays
We then headed over to feed the sealions and WOW
it was probably a highlight of the trip doing this! Sealions are my favourite animal after Penguins. So, after you avoid the crazy jurassic looking birds that try to steal the fish, the sealions know EXACTLY whats going on, and are all competing to look the cutest and are waving and slapping the water clapping there fins and everything for you to throw them the fish! We loved it so much infact, we spent another $15 or something to do it more! Must be very good fish for the price you pay, but the experience makes it worthwhile.
By this point we realised a dolphin feeding was about to start, so we headed to that - in our
animal feeding adventures!!
We were all given a tray of fish and the dolphins came up and you could pat them and feed them. It certainly was magical being so close to these animals, and at some point in my life i would love the opportunity to swim with them, but to be able to get so close for something like $7 is a great opportunity that people going to Sea World for the first time shouldn't pass up.
(But feeding sea lions was much more fun !)
After feeding dolphins we decided to rest our feet, in safe knowledge the animals of SW were fed
we went to see Blue Horizon show. I expected this to be ... well more of a dolphin show! but it was more of an acrobatic show which is something that doesn't really appeal to me. And I had no idea there was going to be so many Parrots (a major phobia of mine) so I was huddled into a ball for most of it
And there was an odd moment where the lady dressed as a parrott flicks water from her feet onto the audience... I wasn't sure what to make of that
After this we walked through the Manatees (WOWS!) section and sea turtles before me and scott decided we really really wanted to reride Manta. Leanne and Roy were both not up for it after the morning, so they decided to stroll along to the Wild Arctic and we'd meet them there.
Well after spending the past week as a group of 4 it was nice to just be a 2 - as we realised theres a major perk of being able to fill up rows! we literally just walked in, and as everybody else seemed to be a group of 3/4 , we could just walk right on to Manta!
So we were able to head to Wild Arctic, and we must have only been about the ride after Leanne and Roy, so we met them by the Polar Bears, and explored that area, which I really enjoyed - i loved flying to where you were going, and the whole inside was so immersive! Then I looked at my watch and realised the Shamu show was away to start!!
So we rushed over to the Shamu stadium which wasn't too far away and got some beers to watch the show.
This was a good show, but for all the hype etc - I can honestly say I've seen better / longer killer whale shows! The previous year me and Scott went to Tenerife and to an animal park called Loro Parque. I believe this is partially owned by the same company who own Sea World - but the killer whale show in Tenerife is honestly breathtaking and I
believe there is no comparison. Which really really shocked me
After Shamu we had a little look at the happy harbour, and the park was closing. It was at this point I realised how much walking we had done and my feet were SOOO sore!! But we decided this night would be good to head to the Cheesecake Factory - which one of my friends said we had to go to - a must do !
So we headed back to the hotel to freshen up, and get directions to the nearest Cheesecake Factory, we drove there and parked at the totally WRONG end of the mall oops! - it was ok when we arrived, but after the meal, the mall closed and we had a long walk all the way around the mall to get to the car.
Anyway we were seated straightaway and our server kind spoke us through the menu. WOW they must serve everything - I had a tomatoey/pasta dish, scott had a burger, roy had steak and leanne had a chinese orange chicken dish - all quite different but all cooked like it was the restaurants speciality, so with our small sample of the menu I can only imagine that all dishes are perfect there!
I had to stop eating my main, as I knew i NEEDED room for cheesecake!
I had a cookie dough cheesecake - YUM, it wasnt just little cookie dough chunks - it was giant! so so good!
The others had an Oreo cheesecake, a chocolatey one and White Chocolate and Macadamia (After tastes - my fave was the cookie dough and the oreo)
So after our amazing meal , we eventually got back to the car, after being stopped by Mall Cops to ask why we were wondering about there
Another Fun Day!
Coming Up Next: Day 8 - Magic Kingdom / DTD