Graham Brooks' Blog

Since the semester is over, I made a trip down to Orlando to visit a friend and visit a few theme parks. The first stop was SeaWorld Orlando, which I visited today (as of writing this). Upon looking at the forecast, Thursday seemed to have the best weather out of the other weekdays (with weekend plans already set) to make the trip. I didn't figure going in the crowds would be bad at all this time of year. The forecast called for a 30% chance of rain and for the morning only...

My girlfriend and I arrived at the park a little bit before eleven. The first order of business was to get Busch Gardens/SeaWorld combo annual passes. After getting those, we entered the park, took a photo with a costumed penguin doing photo ops at the large SeaWorld themed Christmas tree, and then headed to Manta.

Manta was only a couple train wait even though only one side of the station was open. We rode this time in the second row and there certainly is an intensity difference between the ends of the train; the back is quite a bit more intense. Manta was again a fun and enjoyable ride.

After Manta, we decided to try to find somewhere for a bite to eat before catching Believe at 12:30. We found a place and had some chicken tenders. After that, we headed over to Shamu Stadium to watch Believe for the first time.

Believe is something we missed back on our trip in August and was something we had marked to do. As one of two shows during the day, it was quite crowded. The show was impressive and having never seen any of the other Shamu shows, I do not know how it compares.

After the show, we headed over to Pacific Point and checked out how the seals and sea lions were doing. Along the way, we also stopped by and walked through the shark encounter. Then we headed over to Kraken for a couple rides, including a front row ride. There was basically no line however it was only running one train. Kraken was a great ride as usual, especially with the floorless effect in the front row.

After Kraken, it began to rain lightly. We decided to check out the puffins and penguins before trying to find some ice cream. We ended up at the Polar Parlor near the front of the park. After enjoying our delicious ice cream, we decided to head on home due to the poor weather and that we plan on visiting the park again on Sunday.

Overall, it was a pretty good visit to the park. The weather did not end up cooperating, but the park was a lot less crowded than our last visit and we could spend more time looking at the aquatic exhibits.