My second dolphin/cetacean trip of 2018. The weekend was coming up fast, and SeaWorld was on my mind. There was no reason not to go, and I had really been wanting to see the pilot whales, now in the Killer Whale underwater viewing tank.
This may be more of a photo gallery post, since, unlike my wild dolphin watching trips, there's not a whole lot of adventure to tell, action to record and scenery to describe when visiting a marine park. You go from one exhibit to the next, photographing, watching performances, etc. While this is a lot of fun and provides wonderful photos, there isn't much of a story to tell.
I have nearly a hundred photos, at least. I'll try to only post my best ones here...
It was a great trip. The very first thing we did was go straight to the pilot whales. My last visit to SeaWorld was in July 2017, and though they had moved the pilot whales from the dolphin stadium then, guests could not see them. When we reached the underwater viewing window, we found that the whales were lining up by the side of the tank. Obviously, they were about to begin a training session. We wanted to ask if guests were allowed in the "Dine With Shamu" area, but the door was closed and nobody was there. So, we walked around, found a section of fencing with somewhat widely spaced bars, and watched from there. Although our view was slightly obstructed by the bars in the fence and a few tree branches, I did managed to capture some nice photos.
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| Ava and Ace |
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| Ava and Ace |
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| Piper |
After the pilot whale presentation, we headed down to the underwater viewing. The whales were logging, and at first they didn't seem interested in the toy balls and slinky that I had up at the glass, but eventually
Ace the pilot whale showed some interest and switched between logging and coming to look at my toys. He didn't seem to like my sticky ball. When I bounced it against the glass, he would kind of jerk away, as if he were expecting the ball to hit him. Then he made a seemingly irritated jerking motion with his head toward the glass, so I put the ball away and pulled out my slinky. He seemed quite fascinated with that, and would follow its up-and-down bouncing motion with his eye.
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| My favorite photo of Ace! |
Next, we went to the Dolphin Nursery, and caught part of a training session.
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| Ariel |
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| Ariel |
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| Ariel |
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| Ariel |
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| No clue who these dolphins are |
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| Tinker? Or maybe Haley? |
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| Ariel |
After the training session, I went straight to one of those single-person dome shaped underwater viewing windows, and began to pull out toy balls and bounce them around or make them stick to the glass. The dolphins, of course, were fascinated with this, and several swam up to watch.
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| Tinker |
I'm used to people always wanting to come crowd around me when I encourage the dolphins to swim up to the underwater viewing window. During my last visit to SeaWorld, when I was in one of those little dome-shaped underwater viewing areas, a young girl asked if she could come in and get a closer look. Of course, I said yes, and together we had a great time. I let her use and get the dolphins' attention with one of my toy balls, and we both had a great time playing with the dolphins. This time, however, two kids - a little girl and her sister - just came barging in beside me and started asking if they could use a ball too. I let them use one, but they weren't bouncing it or anything - just holding it up to glass as if simply "showing it off." So, I kindly asked for it back, and began making it stick to the glass. Well, it just so happened that these kids came in at the perfectly wrong time, for just as I began bouncing the ball again, the dolphin trainers at the side of the tank tossed some floating toys into the pool, and the dolphins lost interest in my toys, which they could only look at, but not touch and toss. To make things worse, the younger of the two little girls kept beating her hands against the glass and screaming. I kept asking her if she would please stop, since the dolphins don't like those kind of noises. Once she (mostly) stopped, she began reaching in to my backpack and pulling things out. Every time she pulled stuff out I would just set it down on my other side, until everything was out of her reach. Then, the little girl starting trying to snatch the ball right out of my hands, saying in a demanding way, "I need that!" Finally their mother called them away.
Here's the only good photos I was able to capture as I tried to protect my belongings and ask the little girl to stop screaming and beating the window.
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| Ariel |
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| Ariel |
Next, we were off to Dolphin Cove!
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| Archer - those kids in the background seemed really grossed out about touching a dolphin the entire time |
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| Griffith |
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| Archer |
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| Griffith |
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| And here's me photographing the action! |
After that, it was time for the Dolphin Days show.
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| Clyde |
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| Starbuck |
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| Alenjandro |
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| Alenjandro |
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| Alenjandro |
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| Baretta and Trainer |
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| Baretta |
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| Clyde |
Immediately after Dolphin Days, we raced over to Shamu Stadium to see the One Ocean performance.
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| Kayla and Trua |
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| Malia |
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| Trua and Kayla |
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| Malia |
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| Katina |
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| Nalani |
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| Katina |
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| Nalani |
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| Makaio |
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| Malia |
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| Malia |
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| Malia |
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| Nalani |
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| Trua |
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| Katina |
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| Kayla |
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| SPLASH |
The last thing we did was stop by the Dolphin Nursery. This time I played with the dolphins at the bigger, wider "main" underwater viewing window. This time, a little boy came up beside me to see the dolphins. Thankfully, he was nice and didn't scream or beat on the glass. At one point, the child stood up, and one of the younger dolphins spyhopped by the glass as he did so. He sat down again, and the dolphin came down at the same time. They both did this several times in a row. It was really cool.
I know this has gotten really long due to all the photos. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed!
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