Animal Kingdom/ SeaWorld: behind the scenes.

[marlfox_21]

To start our day out, we went to Ponderosa Steakhouse next to Disney's Animal Kingdom, Sea World, etc. I had not ate at one of these restaurants in years, so I thought that I would give it a chance. And it turned out to be good, so from there, I went to Animal Kingdom, and took the ( secret entrance ) to avoid the crowds. Me and my fiance rode the Safari Tour, and we rode Expedition Everest a couple of times, both front seat with the time saving tool of the "Fast Pass". We also chose to watch "The Lion King" and "A Bugs Life" in the "Tree of Life". This as well as walking around and simply getting a chance to take in the sights is really all that we accomplished at Disney's Animal Kingdom. We went to this park for only half a day. Then our journey took us from this park to SeaWorld Adventure Park.

Upon arriving at Sea World, we first met up with students from a college course in Gainesville Florida majoring in "Zoo Animal Technology" (ZooBiology) This program is incredible for students considering that students get placement in Zoological Facilities all over the country following graduation. Disney's Animal Kingdom employs 20% of it's staff from this program, and SeaWorld has a fair number of graduates working for them too! In fact their is a museum outside of Charlotte, North Carolina that is making a new design of .5 Natural History, and .5 Zoological Park that employs its keepers exclusively from this college program.

In case you have not guessed, I am also a graduate of this program. Anywho, after meeting up with the college seniors, and their Teaching Zoo's Director/Professor, we made our way (QUICKLY) into the heart of "SeaWorld Adventure Park". Upon our arrival, the park was closed to the public, so it was a very quiet and somewhat creepy experience. ( Theme and Amusement parks always seem to have an overwhelming feeling of lonliness when they are empty. ) But when we met up with one of the Curators of SeaWorld for an after hours ( behind the scenes ) tour, it became quite lively. We got to walk behind the scenes and on a very slim walkway over a shark tank. ( One small shark was actually trained, and we all got to pet this animal. ) Otherwise, it was a very overwhelming experience to walk just about a foot over sharks swimming around directly under your feet. Following the shark encounter, we were all treated to pizza. Then we were taken to their "Penguin" exhibit, where we were all taken ( a few at a time ) actually INTO the exhibit and were given the priveledge to pet a King Penguin. This was just incredible to me. I absolutely love penguins, and as a side note, it really made me want to go and see the movie "Happy Feet". Then we were taken to "Dolphin Cove", where the dolphins went completely crazy with squeaks, and flippers. As these animals are not use to having people around them after hours, they were very excited, and more than willing to be petted, even without fish! It was totally amazing! All of the dolphins came to one corner of the pool to us to be petted. One baby actually grabbed hold of one of the students hands, and simply would not let go. It was more funny than anything, because it was not big enought to hurt, and they do this simply due to the fact that when they are young, ( in captivity ) they tend to think that everything that has to due with a human is a fish. ( kind of a dolphin maturity issue, to make an anthropomorphic comment out of it. ) After our time on the outside of dolphin cove, it was time to pull out our sleeping bags, as we were allowed to sleep in the bottom viewing area of dolphin cove. Which if you have never been there, is about the size of a classroom. I placed my sleeping bag right next to the glass window, where I could hear the dolphins squeak all night. At about 5 in the morning they really go crazy with singing. And at that point they were so loud that it was impossible to sleep. But it was alright. The animals were simply amazing and beautiful.

The next day, when everybody was up, one of the dolphin trainers ( another graduate from the program ) presented us all with fish, so that we could be the very first people that the dolphins got fed from for the day. This like everything else, was simply incredible. During this day, we went behind the scenes with a big Walrus, and with the Sea Lions. We got to go backstage for the whale and dolphin show, and we got to watch this show from the stands as well. On top of all of this, we also saw the new Shamu show "BELIEVE".

After a long 2 days of walking and eating free pizza, we were exhausted, and made our way home. But trust me, these are experiences that I will cherish and remember for the rest of my life!

[faeriewench]

sounds like ya had fun and hopefully you had a whale of a time hope ya didn't sit in the front row of Believe and got wet by Tillikum hehe he's the big fella

[Avatar]

marlfox 21; I really do appreciate that you took the time to share with us your unique experiences with your group. As most of us or in that fact none of us here will never have the privilege to go do what you got to do. Sounded like a blast and it seems that your were so excited about everything that you did, that I can’t pick out your favorite in the report.

[marlfox_21]

thanks for viewing. It's just nice to find a clean website, with nice people, and fun topics. Keep viewing. I'll have more after Thanksgiving. I plan to attend the Thanksgiving Celebration Parade at Disney.