And my hands still smell like fish
I highly recommend dropping the $3-$4 to feed the dolphins, rays, and seals and sea lions (though watch out in the seal/sea lion feeding, a greedy water bird stole the whole tray of fish right out of my boyfriend's hand).
I had a fabulous time, I hadn't been since I was 12, and boy what a difference! We took advantage of the 2nd day free ticket, and we still didn't get around to everything.
We are usually huge thrill ride go-ers, but didn't feel in the mood at all for Krakken today. When we went on Atlantis we were rather disappointed. The sound in the ride wasn't right, so the "storyline" would have been completely lost on us if we hadn't read reviews of the ride beforehand. It has rather a steep drop, and then has a few thrill ride surprises, so if you aren't up for such things, don't feel like you are missing anything. There are plenty of other things in Sea World to keep you happy and busy.
We went to the Shamu show twice and sat in the soak zone and didn't get wet, BUT we did pay attention to where the trainer was telling Shamu to go next so we were ready to move if we saw the trainer pointing our way. By the way, the LAST Shamu show of the day is definitely the best, (it was at 5:45pm today), luckily a friendly employee at the Tropical Reef interactive pool gave us the good advice on that one.
We also took the Polar Exhibition backstage tour, and it was excellent! Our tour guide Shaun was very knowledgeable and enthusiastic and it was obvious he loved what he was doing and wanted to share his love for the animals with us. You get to pet a penguin at the end of the tour, which will make me smile thinking about it for ages. The tour itself was only $8.00, and when we got our tickets in the mail, included were coupons for $1.00 the tours, so it is a REAL bargain. Get there early to book in for a tour time though, they fill up quickly.
The Clyde and Seymour show was CLOSED however, and will be till December. I feel like a doofus for not checking in here first about that, but I just assumed it would be open. Ah well, something for next time!
It's all so fresh in my mind I could write for ages, but I tend to babble on anyway. Suffice it to say I wish I was going back tomorrow!