Monday, December 19th
Today was set aside to be our SeaWorld day: one of my favourite places to celebrate the holiday season in Orlando
. Their Christmas Celebration events are, in my humble opinion,
the place to celebrate all things Christmas when visiting central Florida
.
We were no strangers to their festive offerings……we have spent two previous Christmas vacations here, both with Jake along for the fun……but we were super excited about today’s itinerary because it included a few new things that we had never done before. That excitement helped get us up and moving at an early hour (despite still being tired from our late night prior) and we managed to make it to the park in time for the national anthem before park opening.
Admission and parking were both free today, the last entitlements we’d use on our annual passes that would expire just a few days later. We also still had our Photokey annual pass (also due to expire on the 22nd of the month), so all of the park photos we had taken would also be no charge
. We had purchased our annual passes on the 2015 Blue Friday sale, where they offered them on a buy one, get one free basis. We had amassed an amazing value from those passes, squeezing in visits to both SeaWorld and Aquatica on our trips in December 2015, April 2016, October 2016 and now SeaWorld again in December 2016. While we chose not to renew for 2017 (opting instead for AP’s to Universal for the year) we hope to purchase the SeaWorld passes again on this year’s BF sale. We adore SeaWorld and Aquatica, and have truly missed having those parks on our 2017 itineraries.
Once inside the gates, we decided to grab some breakfast while we waited for Kerry, Robert and David to arrive. We stopped on the way to have our picture taken by the Photokey staff next to the huge Christmas tree just inside the entrance:
......as well as by the SeaWorld Orlando display:
Though we had tickets to Santa’s Fireside Feast for later that evening, we had opted for the all-day dining passes for the balance of our food needs for the day. Kerry was able to purchase them at a significant discount on the Black Friday sale (I think they were offered BOGO to Florida residents) so we’d easily get our value on bottled water and other beverages alone. Yet again, the day was shaping up to be hot and even a touch humid despite the calendar reading mid December
.
Breakfast was offered at the Seafire Inn. Breakfast is now pretty basic on the all-day plan…..muffins, pastries, fruits, and cereals…..but it was ample enough to sufficiently fuel us for the busy day ahead. We had a lovely view of the lagoon as we ate, and the restaurant was virtually deserted so it was a relaxing, peaceful meal. Their muffins, in particular, were absolutely fabulous: fresh baked that morning and monstrously HUGE. Perhaps not the most nutritious start to the morning, but OMG were they good.
We texted back and forth with Kerry as we ate, working to determine their estimated time of arrival so we could plan out what to do while we waited. She noted that they were having a bit of a slower start, so we opted to stroll over to Pacific Point Preserve to visit the seals, sea lions and another Orlando friend (a Dis-er who has my ultimate dream job of working with the various animals at SeaWorld).
I can’t help but adore these adorable creatures, even though they make enough noise to wake the dead
. Those faces…….oh, I could just kiss them!! (if their breath didn’t stink like raw fish, that is
). They were apparently quite the hungry bunch, and they were all excited to see us approach: those pinnipeds are pretty smart cookies. They know that guests often equate to their food source and they worked very hard to earn our attention. We had bought a three-tray feeding pass online before our visit (at the discounted pass member price) so we redeemed one of the entitlements for a tray of food, and enjoyed a few minutes of fun tossing the fish to the plethora of wide open mouths begging loudly below.
A few were still pretty sleepy, though: apparently even sea lions can have an aversion to mornings
. Despite the ruckus and noise of the other residents, a few just snoozed away in the warm morning air.
Around 10, our friend (who I will simply identify as “T” …. she prefers to keep a low profile) emerged carrying huge buckets of fish to feed the residents en masse. Not only is this girl one of the sweetest young women that we are privileged to know, she is also super knowledgeable about the animals she works with at the park. So, when we meet up with her on our trips to Orlando, she almost always leaves us with a ton of cool bits of knowledge about many of the animals we visit…..I can’t tell you how much we have learned from her, specifically, on our vacations.
So, as she tossed the buckets and buckets of food to the sea lions and seals, we got a little in-depth “who’s who” and some backstories on how they arrived at SeaWorld.
My favourite had to be Big Chris, a massive old fellow who we knew immediately was suffering from some sort of eye condition. Our hearts just hurt for the big, old guy as he barked out a deep, throaty call. T assured us, however, that there was no need to pity Big Chris: a senior sea lion suffering from cataracts, he would surely have long since fallen prey to natural predators in the wild.
Instead, he was living out a protected, safe life at SeaWorld Orlando, dining on regular healthy meals, and receiving regular treatment for his eye conditions. He was also one of two dominant males within Pacific Point Preserve, so not only was he being well cared for, he was sort of seen as “the boss” within his half of the sea lion enclosure. Life for Big Chris was pretty comfy, and unless something unexpected occurred, he was expected to live for a long time yet.
We riddled T with questions (and God bless her, she patiently answers them all with her trademark kindness) and she told us all about the new mommas and babies that had been born inside the exhibit. They made me lonely for my kittens back home…….seeing the new sea lion mothers with their babies kicked my maternal instinct into high gear, too.
Eventually, though, we knew we had taken up enough of T’s time, and she needed to get back to work as much we needed to get back to touring. We thanked her for all her kindness once again, and as she made her way to the backstage areas with empty fish buckets in tow, we made our way back down to the Waterfront area while we texted Kerry and the boys.
It was still crazy quiet in the park at that point in the morning, so we were surprised to see that the snow globe photo center was open already. Photos inside the snow globe have become a tradition on our Christmas visits, and with only one other family in front of us, we knew that this would be the PERFECT time to have them done. Later in the day…..particularly once the Christmas Celebration events were in full swing after 5 pm…..this would be a hot spot in the park. Lines would be lengthy and waits would be long.
We only had to wait behind one other family, who was just finishing up as we approached. Each year, the park has different props for the photo op and this year it was a huge stuffed candy cane. The photographer ushered us inside, we quickly had a few pictures snapped, and then we headed over to the adjacent kiosk to have them added to our Photokey account. I will bet that the whole process took us right around 5 minutes. Super quick and some truly fun and unique pictures.
More SeaWorld is coming up!