A Trip to Sea World

Last week my mother and I took Baby M to Sea World.  Growing up in San Diego I took a lot of school field trips to Sea World.  It was basically a zoo for aquatic animals-- a few aquariums, tanks for dolphins and sea lions, the Penguin Encounter, some corny shows, the Sparkletts Water Show and, my favorite, Captain Kids World.  Captain Kids World was a playground with nets to climb on, giant bounce houses, and a maze of full size punching bags where inevitably a 12 year old would barrel through leaving a string of injured 3 year olds in his wake. 


It's been at least 15 years since my last trip to Sea World, and while much of it has stayed the same (the Penguin Encounter, the dolphin tanks), it definitely has more of an amusement park feel now.  The park has added a roller coaster, a raft ride and replaced most of Captain Kid's World with the Sesame Street Bay of Play.   They've also updated their ticket prices so that they are more Disneyland and less zoo.  An adult ticket costs $69, kids tickets (ages 3-9) are $59 and parking is $12.  It's definitely worth searching out discounts.  We got 20% off our tickets by showing our Southwest Rapid Rewards card and thankfully, Baby M, being under 3, was free.  Also, you cannot bring food into the park, so plan on buying your lunch or heading back to your car for a picnic.  I did bring in some snacks for Baby M and no one objected.


We got to the park around 10:30 and ended up waiting 30 minutes just to get into the park.  Buy your tickets in advance if you can.  We started out at The Sesame Street Bay of Play, which has Sesame Street themed rides and characters as well as some of the climbing nets from the old Captain Kids World.  Baby M enjoyed the spinning teacup ride and getting his picture taken with Elmo, but I have to admit I kind of miss the old unbranded, non-motorized, probably more dangerous playground that I grew up with.  We hit most of the exhibits breaking them up with lunch, the sea lion show (still as corny as ever) and the 4-D theater presentation of Sesame Street's Lights, Camera, Imagination.  The 4-D theater shows movies in 3-D but also has squirting water, vibrating seats and air jets.  Baby M managed to keep his 3-D glasses on and enjoyed the show, happily yelling out "I need an umbrella!" when it started "raining" in the theater.  There was one scary moment involving a giant flying cookie, but overall he did really well sitting through the 20 minute movie. 


We had fun at Sea World and since Baby M is particularly interested in sea creatures (and still free!) it was a great time for us to go.  But it was also a long and tiring day.  We were there for 8 hours on a hot day during Spring Break.  Some of the exhibits were crowded and the shows were very full. Baby M was pretty good about riding in the stroller, but still needed to be carried through some exhibits.  I'm definitely glad we went  but I don't feel a need to back again until he is older and can get more out of the shows and rides.