The Real SeaWorld Experience: Toddler Edition

Taking a toddler out of the house is a challenge, at least my toddler anyways.  If you don't have kids here's a trusted tutorial on what life is like: Parenting Illustrated by Crappy Pictures. Last fall we planned on attending my second cousins wedding the weekend after Christmas.  We had to abruptly change our plans due to unforeseen circumstances so I picked Orlando!  I planned Evan's second trip to SeaWorld!

The flight down was a total nightmare.  I "thought" Evan would nap on the plane.  He has napped in his car seat before. I was wrong. So very wrong.  He screamed for at least an hour.  My head was in my hands, silently questioning what I was doing and sort of wishing we were still home.  I was trying to keep myself together.

Once the nightmare was over, we were able to get him to his happy place right away: the pool.  The following day we were up early and on our way to Discovery Cove.

THIS was our view!!!!

We were ecstatic and Evan was enthralled watching the dolphins!  He spent the first part of the morning playing in the warm water.  Once I got in, I spent my time with CJ, a bottle nose/common dolphin who was quite the chatterbox! Swimming with him made me feel as though I was flying! At the end, they let Evan join us in the water.  I'll let the picture do the talking:

His little mouth couldn't have been opened any wider!  We were all in love and I was so thankful that Evan was able to touch them! 

Childhood dream to scuba dive-actual scuba license+Discovery Cove SeaVenture= PROBLEM SOLVED!!!

At the end of the day and almost time for the park to close,  I didn't want to leave.  Before we left, a little moment happened between a dolphin toddler named Finn and a human toddler named Evan:

This day could not have ended on a better note!  The animals are so well taken care of and so happy.  We all left with smiles on our faces and all I could think of is how I cannot wait to bring Evan back here!

Our second vacation day was spent at SeaWorld.  We spent the first part of the morning with the dolphins and that was a little rough for Evan as he's a plan maker, not a plan follower.  As a mom, I usually anticipate the worst and hope for the best.  He was interested in the dolphins again however he had his own agenda in mind.  We took a break to regroup and I was a bit nervous that our penguin encounter would be rough.  

Prior to this, we tried practicing with stuffed penguins.

Not too bad but we discussed the whole "don't grab the beak" concept prior to the real deal. Finally, it was time to meet Skippy and Sherlock!

And yes... he did try to ride Skippy.  But most importantly, his little heart has now found a love for yet another species.  We all fell in love with them!  None of us had ever discussed penguins at least not nearly as much as we discuss orca's and dolphins.  My entire family couldn't stop talking about them!  Andy and I even raced back to SeaWorld (thank you mom for watching Evan's monitor), one hour prior to park close, ran all the way from the entrance to the Antarctica ride and spent the last moment of our day watching the penguins!!

After the penguins we decided to walk over to see if we could see any orca's as we knew Evan's nap time clock was ticking!  As luck would have it, we stumbled across a technical rehearsal for One Ocean that quite literally started right at the moment we arrived!  Evan has been watching this on DVD for the past year.  He was THRILLED! He spent the entire time jumping up and down on Andy's lap!  He was over the moon with excitement and promptly crashed for his nap before we even left the gates!

Our last park was Aquatica.  I knew this would be a hit as Evan loves the water.  It was a great way to cap off our time at SeaWorld.  Evan played his heart away in the water while Andy and I randomly snuck away for some adult time.... WATER SLIDES!!!!  Evan even stalked out a mallard who quickly left the scene.

At the end of the day another little special thing happened!  Evan started trying to walk like a penguin.  I KNEW that this experience would stay with him just like the last one and he had expanded his love of animals to include penguins! 

The toddler penguin waddle:

SeaWorld has done such a tremendous amount for animals and conservation!  The employees take their job seriously, the animals seriously and most of all, SHARING these animals with all of us very seriously!  A few people who read my first blog The Real SeaWorld Experience  asked me if I'd seen Blackfish.  Yes, I did. If your child has an ear infection, who would you talk to?  A pediatrician of course.  If you need legal advice, who would you speak to?  A lawyer.  If you want to learn about orca's, dolphins, penguins, sea turtles, sharks and all other sea dwelling creatures, who would you ask? SeaWorld.  A $10 movie will not buy you a cheap education and you should question everything!  You should do your OWN research and not let someone else do it for you.  I guarantee anyone affiliated with SeaWorld parks will answer your questions.


Below is a photo montage of our trip.  It is viewable on mobile device via this blog or computer on my youtube station, just not via youtube from a mobile device. FYI :)

You may ask yourself, as I often do, how can I help the ocean when I don't live anywhere near it?  First off, visit your local zoo and ask!  Most zoo's are more then willing to tell you how you can help and many have volunteer opportunities: Association of Zoo's and Aquariums.

You can adopt an orca and contribute to the continuing education and research of orca's:
Whale Museum
World Wildlife Fund
Vancouver Aquarium

You can adopt dolphins here:
World Wildlife Fund
Pacific Whale Foundation
Oceanic Society
Ocean Conservation Society
Adopt a Wild Dolphin

You can adopt humpback whales from numerous recourses:
World Wildlife Fund
Pacific Whale Foundation
Whale and Dolphin Conservation 


All of these are ideas you can do as a family!  We have a zoo membership and visit all the time.  The more interactions children have with animals, the more they love them and want to care for the world we all live in.  Yes SeaWorld parks also has fun things like games and rides because kids need to expense energy.  But at the end of the day, it's all about fostering the relationships between animals and people to secure the future of our planet. Let me take you with us on our SeaWorld parks adventure and I hope you too will fall in love with the animals as we did!

By the way, Evan did not cry one single tear on the flight home.  We truly did leave our vacation on top of the world!