I love going to SeaWorld. If I could live at this place, I would. This SeaWorld is really nice because it is like three parks in one. It has all the animal attractions like a zoo, a lot of roller coasters like an amusment park, and then a water park all under one name: SEAWORLD!!! We did the same thing that we did in San Diego: we bought a season pass and used it everyday. The first day we went to SeaWorld, we participated in the Beluga interaction. We put on wetsuits and jumped into the frigid water of their pool (which actully felt really nice because it was 100 degrees that day). It was amazing, the beluga whales are too cute and really fun to play with. I didn't want to get out of the water. We walked around SeaWorld the whole day and saw every show possible.

The next day we did just about the same thing; I had to see their new show "Believe" at least three times. Shamu is my absolute favorite. Later that evening, we actually had dinner with Shamu. We got to sit next to a table right by Shamu's tank while we feasted on some delicious food prepared by the chef. We also got to take some amazing pictures of Shamu and his friends while we ate.

The day after that, we came back to the park to go play in their huge wave pool and large water slides they have inside the water park. We also grabbed a tube and floated down the lazy river for quite some time.

The best way to prepare for SeaWorld is to do everything over the Internet and have a print out that they can scan at the door. It's very easy and quick. I recommend this place to everyone!!

There are two encounters each day. We chose the first one. We arrived at the park about a half hour before it opened and someone from the encounter was there to meet us and let us in. We then walked a short distance to the encounter area which is behind the scenes at the park (not available for casual visitors to see). Everyone who was actually getting into the water as well as anyone who came with them was seated in a room and a short movie was shown about the animals and how we should act and react while in the water. If I could boil that down to a few words it would be "have fun and OBEY the trainer!"

Those of us getting in the water then went to the changing room where a wet suit (a lined wet suit) was fitted. The water these animals are used to is Arctic cold. The water temperature, if I remember correctly, was REALLY cold, around 58 degrees! But the lined wet suit made it seem more like just cold. I enjoyed it, but then I have a bit more meat on me than several of the children there. Not to worry though, after the first shock everyone adjusted and the water seemed fine.

There are other interactions available. Currently you can swim with sea lions or have a close encounter with sharks or stingrays. Shortly before we visited the park they had a dolphin encounter as well. However, all the trained dolphins were shipped to Orlando for the opening of Discovery Cove which is a huge dolphin encounter theme park in Orlando. They told us that the dolphin encounter will be available again as soon as they train a new bunch of dolphins how to interact appropriately with humans.

Now just a word for a potentially worried parent. The trainers keep very good control of the situation. We had to stay on a ledge in the pool that was about 3 feet deep. The whales came to us. Try this with you family.