Anyone done Shamu Adventure lately?

[mulchpuppy]

I've been wondering about this for a while, and thought I'd ask ya'll.

We went to Sea World in February and caught the last Shamu show. It was an uncommonly cold evening, and the park wasn't terribly crowded (the stadium was barely at a quarter capacity). Obviously all the screens had already been removed as they work on getting Believe up and running, but there was actually quite a bit missing from the show that surprised me and I wanted to see if this was a regular thing.

There wasn't a lot of interaction between the whales and the trainers as far as riding the whales. I believe one trainer rode to the front of the stadium and that was it. The usual section where a trainer rides around the stadium on the back of the whale was missing, as was any bit where the trainers spring out of the water on the whale's "nose." The "which gender makes a better trainer" bit was also cut (though this may be a necessity since few people would be able to see what was happening without the screens). In total, the Shamu Adventure Show barely clocked in at 15 minutes and no explanations were provided.

My guesses are:
A. it was cold, and no one wanted to get in the colder water
B. it was the last show of the day, and the time was cut back to provide more time for visitors to leave
C. they're trying to teach the whales new behaviors, so they've made these changes so they can get Believe ready as soon as possible.
D. they knew I was there and they don't like me

Has anyone seen the show within the past month, and if so was it also a truncated version? I had a few friends ask about going to Sea World, and I'm thinking of telling them to wait until Believe opens in May...

 

[ShannonRT]

We visited Sea World 2 different days last week. I hadn't been since 2002, but from what I remember, the Shamu show was greatly abbreviated on this trip. The schedule on the map said it would last 30 minutes, but it was just under 25 minutes. There was some "whale-riding" involved though. He rode around the stadium on it's back and did some dives off it's nose up high in the air.

The trainers did say there would be a new show in May and if it's anything like Blue Horizons, it should be AWESOME!! The set looked to be about halfway done with a HUGE tail fluke in the center. The trainers said the new show would have an unbelievable musical score and that they were working on new behaviors with the whales that had never been seen before. They also said there would be more audience interaction and they were sort-of testing it during the show. At the end, about 6 trainers swam across the pool and jumped out into the audience and ran around dancing and clapping to some music while 1 other trainer did some tricks with the whales. I believe that was the "wet" portion of the show.

We were so excited about the new show, we are seriously considering trying to build in a day to visit during our Disney trip in October just to see Believe. We normally don't visit Sea World during trips to Disney, simply because there isn't enough time during a week-long vacation. But we might have to make an exception here!

 

[mulchpuppy]

Completely agree with you on Blue Horizons. They may have set the bar too high with that show. Believe is going to have to be pretty darn amazing to top Blue Horizons.

Thanks for responding - I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed this (though it sounds like you got a longer show than we did)

 

[ShannonRT]

Believe is going to have to be pretty darn amazing to top Blue Horizons.

Trouble is.....I'm sure it will.