My girlfriend and I did this today and both really enjoyed it. The highlight of the tour by far for both of us was the penguin at the end. Each guest in the behind the scenes tour gets the chance to pet a very friendly penguin, and to have your picture taken with it. We asked and they were nice enough to take a picture of the two of us at the end with the penguin also!
The rest of the tour involved:
-Seeing the rescue facilities for sea turtles and manatees including the trucks and boats used
- Seeing a polar bear (behind glass and in a separate area from the normal wild arctic polar bear)
- Getting to touch a shark (very small shark but still neat)
- Seeing several "retired" (from the shows at Sea World) dolphins in a backstage area. They were being fed and this was fun.
During all of this, the tour guide shared MANY stories about various rescue stories and about the animals at Sea World.
I had initially booked the Penguins up Close tour and was called by Sea World to let me know it had been cancelled due to the construction of the new Antarctic exhibit to open next spring. They gave me the option to switch the tour to the Behind the Scenes tour and refunded me the difference.
We were definitely glad we did this. Everything was cool to see, but the penguin was everybody on the tour's high point, and REALLY great. I have never done the Penguins up Close tour so I can't comment on how this penguin encounter compares. The trainer shared some fun penguin stories with us as well, and was open to any questions.
Hope this helps!
