For family fun and some great animals encounters, head over to SeaWorld Orlando. Here you will find 200 acres of sharks, whales, animals, shows, and unique experiences.

The park is owned by the Anhesuer-Bush family, who brew up the Bush beers. They also have SeaWorld in San Diego and San Antonio. They also have the Bush Gardens in Tampa and Williamsburg, as well as Discovery Cove and Sesame Street Place in Pennsylvania.

The innovative park combines rides, shows, and animal encounters in a theme park environment. Guests can enjoy encounters with whales, turtles, manatees, dolphins, sharks, and rays. You can also head on over to the farms and see the world-famous Clydesdale horse that also make appearances throughout the day. Rides include Kraken, Journey to Atlantis, and Wild Artic. And, of course, everyone wants to see Shamu. There are several shows throughout the day. Just pick up a park map when you first arrive.

For an even closer encounter, SeaWorld offers a variety of education programs, including dolphin, whale, and shark encounters. Unfortunately, the shark encounter is not a dive with a program. You simply go down in a cage and have an underwater helmet on. They also offer behind the scenes tours, including garden tours, penguin encounters, and park tours to name a few. The educational programs need advance reservations. For the behind-the-scene tours, you simply sign up when you arrive at the park. They also offer camps and sleepovers for children.

Now, if you are concerned about animal safety, then rest assured that SeaWorld loves and takes care of their animals. They are accredited by the AZA. They are involved with educational and breading programs to enable the future of many of their charges. They are recommended by the Human Society, who only gives their okay if the park keeps animals in their natural environment when at all possible and provide education to help educate people about the plight of many of their animals.

The park opens at 9am, the closing hours are seasonal, and they are open 365 days a year. They do have restaurants within the park with everything, ranging from vendor carts to fine dining. They do have stroller, wheelchair, and locker rentals. They offer indoor climate-control pet kennels to assure your wildlife is happy while you’re playing. They do have first aid, a currency converter, an ATM, and a baby changing/nursing station. They also offer some pretty unique meeting spaces. And, of course, they offer gift shops so you can load up on the Shamu souvenirs. For more information, give them a call at 800/4-ADVENTURE or go to their website at www.seaworld.com. They offer a variety of packages for your vacation plans. If you have a SeaWorld passport, you can use it at this park.

Shamu is an amazing creature that gets you wet from head to toe, the dolphins are the gentlest of creatures (that is, unless you decide to feed them and they bite you), and the polar bears… nothing comes close to standing against the glass window with YOUR hands up against their paws!!!!

The snorkeling area is a little chilly at first, but you get used to it. They have to maintain a certain temperature for the fish. There is a lazy river that is kind of nice to float down. Warmer water here. You float through the bird sanctuary in one part. There are no fish here, but they have decorations under the water if you want to snorkel. We spent less time in the warmer pool/lagoon area between the snorkel lagoon and the dolphin swim area. This is where most of the younger kids were.

The lunch that was provided was a buffet-style and not bad. Overall, it's not a bad deal, especially if you can spend time at Sea World, since your Discovery Cove fee includes 7 days at Sea World.

For an extra $6 per boat, (per half-hour) you can rent a paddle boat and paddle out on a pink flamingo in a little lake. We did. What the heck? We had already spent a fortune, so $12 certainly wasn't gonna kill us, and it was something to do there.

Again, we have seen a lot of sea life up front and personal, and this attraction simply wasn't worth the money because, although the park is huge, there is nothing much to see. The kids were too small to go on the scary coaster, which they wouldn’t have even if they were tall enough.

If you have never had the opportunity to see these types of sea life up close, like dolphins, etc., then I guess it's worth the money to some.