We did not feel the the same pressure of getting to Sea World real early like we did with IOA but we still arrived at the park fairly early at a little past 9AM. OK, that may not be early for some of you but it is an accomplishment for my family. First thing we ran into was SeaWorld's attempt at getting into the character game. Hmm...somehow this dosen't quite live up to the excitement of seeing Mickey or one of his gang.
OK, perhaps Sea World has to throw something out there for the little kids. A killer Whale may be a bit of a stretch though? I wonder if they gave this character some time off for a while after the Tilikum incident. This particular whale seemed pretty nice though and I must say that I was impressed with the stunts it was able to perform such as being able to walk upright.
As we made our way further into the park my wife and the other family's daughter split from us and decided to head for some action at the Manta rolercoaster while the rest of us made our way over to see some Stingrays.
Along the way we met up with some more of our fine feathered friends,
The Stingray Lagoon is a pool of sting rays where you can pet and/or feed them or just watch them swim around if you are so inclined. You can buy little trays of fish to feed to the rays. I think they were about $4-$5 per tray. Its not really that dangerous. Only a few people have lost a finger there. OK, just kidding. Seaworld is not going to put you in harms way. They remove the stingers from them at a young age and their mouth is more like a suction tube without teeth. Note that their mouth is actually on their underside so they will swim over your hand to suck in their food. There is someone there who will instruct you on the proper way to feed them and will also answer any other questions that you may have (pertaining to rays that is, not important questions such as "Why was it so bloody critical to protect the island in "Lost"? It is not like the island did much good for the people associated with it?).
Anyway, I purchased a tray of fish for each of the kids and they had a blast with it. So much so that our friend bought each of the kids a second tray when they were done.
After giving the Singrays a good breakfast we made our way over to the Dolphin cove for a brief visit. You can feed them as well but you need to line up for that and we had to meet up with our Manta coaster contingent at the Whale and Dolphin stadium to catch the first show. One thing to note is that they apparently did not allow any loose items on that ride so they had to leave their cell phones with us. Also note that there is a cost to feed the dolphins as well but I don't recall what it was. YOu can go to an observation area if you are not feeding them.
So, we walked over to the stadium and found our the rest of our crew sitting outside waiting for us. They had a great time on the ride and decided that they were going to try to head back later for another run at it.
We made our way into the show and got seated. Here is a picture of the staduim.
The show is called Blue Horizons and it stars dolphins and false killer whales. They may have been the stars but there was an amazing superhuman swimmer that could zip along in the water as fast as the dolphins. Look at the wake she is leaving.
Not only that but she could jump out of the water even higher than the dolphins could.
Look at her. she is smiling away as she keeps up with the dolphins with hardly any effort.
In between dolphin stunts they had some entertainers. I can't say I am a fan but I was impressed that they were able to get Lady Gaga for the show.
Here are more of the stars. These are the false killer whales. I am not sure if they have a real name but I sure hope so. I am not thinking that they look that much like killer whales that they couldn't have been given their own real name. Seems like just laziness on the person who named this species. It also gives them a sense of dishonesty like these creatures are trying to pull the wool over our eyes. Do they really need to grow up with that stigma hanging over their heads.
Even with the whole name fiasco, this one seemed happy...
...or perhaps hungry
No this is not like superpower girl. He cheated by jumping from above.
Now this is some impressive height. This may have been even bested superpower girl.
I won't get one of these for home for the same reason I won't get a dog. I know I'll be the one stuck all the time taking them out on their leash.
I am reaching my picture limit. Need to continue in the next post....
I "revisited" WWoHP thru your photos, again I have to say AWESOME!!! My 10 y/o son and I went to US primarily for WWoHP and to ride Spiderman. We spent the whole morning at Harry Potter and then rode Spiderman before we left the park. I agree, it is one of the best rides I've ever been on! I have lots of photos on my camera, but none as clear and artistic as yours. I am gonna have to show your TR to my DS later we can both relive our Hogwarts/Hogsmeade experience. We are the only Potter fanatics in our household (DH hasn't even seen all the movies nor read any books). I cannot wait to see your second round of WWoHP photos. 
Your captions/commentary is hilarious! Keep up the excellent trip reporting! Btw, since this is your 2010 TR, I was just wondering if y'all going back this year?
I haven't been to Sea World since I was little.
