As a park with a passion for animals large and small, SeaWorld is able to combine education and entertainment in a way that connects people to the natural world around us like nowhere else. But don’t just take our word for it! Check out this letter that one of our young guests wrote after an amazing trip with his family to SeaWorld Orlando.
Nine-year-old Zachary, an avid animal lover, has been visiting SeaWorld since he was only two years old! His love for animals began at a young age and his frequent trips to SeaWorld have allowed him to get a closer look at many different creatures. Let’s take a look at what he had to say about his last trip…
My mom and dad buy annual passes for the whole family every year. My twin brothers, Dylan and Dalton, who are 6 years old, love Sea World, but I don’t think anyone can love it as much as I do. SeaWorld is my favorite amusement park because I love animals. Watching the animal shows and going through the exhibits has made me want to learn as much about these animals as possible. After every trip to Sea World I come home and read books, watch animal shows (especially Sea Rescue) and search the Internet for more information.
I was very excited when my mom won the Facebook contest that allowed us to have dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill with Mr. Terry (President of SeaWorld) and Ms. Crystal (Director of Consumer Activation). The dinner was great, but I loved getting to hear about the park, the animals and about the Antarctica attraction that is opening next year. I love all the cold weather animals because I wouldn’t be able to see them in Florida and my mom likes going inside where there is air conditioning.
Now let me tell you about my tour… Our first stop was the new TurtleTrek attraction. The 360/3D movie was very cool, but it scared my little brothers a little. I enjoyed learning about some of the turtles, especially the one who lost a fin after it got hit by a boat propeller. I also learned that some of the turtles at TurtleTrek are almost 40 years old! (That is almost the same age as my dad, which sounds kind of old to me.)
Next was Shark Encounter where we got to pet a small sand tiger shark. We learned that many more people die from mosquito bites, deer and bees than sharks and that most shark attacks are accidents.
We then went to Wild Arctic, my favorite! We learned about polar bears, penguins and beluga whales. The beluga whales are my favorite of all the animals at SeaWorld. When we entered the back area we were behind a glass wall that was the back cave for polar bears. Here we saw a trainer feeding the polar bear. He was dropping fish from the roof of the cave and the polar bear sat on his back legs and waited for the fish to drop into his mouth. He caught them all except one. When he was done, we turned out all the lights and the polar bear came right up to the glass. I had never been so close to a polar bear! Here I am imitating a polar bear and have my small foot in his very large one and making my loudest ROAR!
After the polar bear went back to sleep, another keeper came into the room carrying a penguin from South Africa. She taught us about the penguin, how cold the water has to be and about their new home --Antarctica, Empire of the Penguin – that is opening next spring. We all got to touch the penguin and had our pictures taken! It was so cool!
The best part of the trip was getting our picture taken with a beluga whale! Like I said, these are my favorite animals at SeaWorld. When we went to get our picture taken, I got to be one of the beluga trainers. She had me and my brothers stand in front of the glass and have a beluga come down and do behaviors behind us. It was hard to concentrate on staying still for the picture when a beluga is doing things behind you, but we did our best!
The entire tour and experience was AWESOME. I would recommend anyone who loves animals as much as I do to take the Behind-The-Scenes Tour, and even if you don’t love them as much yet, this a great place to start. I will keep coming back as much as I can and keep bugging my parents to take me and my brothers! Thank you, SeaWorld, for such a great experience and memories.
