March 30, 2017

Sea World San Antonio


3.30.17

Welcome to Sea World San Antonio.

The park has reorganized itself some.  This is now part of the new Discovery Point Section.

Explorer's Reef is the main aquarium building for the entire resort.

Potbellied Seahorses.

They were in some of the tanks cleaning this morning.


They had a bunch of rays swimming around in the same tank.


The shark tank was pretty impressive.


There were actually some pretty good sized sharks in the tank.


There were a lot of them too.


Three different types of poison dart frogs.


The moray eel was out swimming around.


The new dolphin lagoon is big on selling interactions now.


I did think it was neat that they have added an underwater viewing area.


Let's head into the main park now - you have to go through the turnstiles to go into this section.


Lots of flamingos.


They have a new show at the Whale and Dolphin Stadium.


Long gone is Azul with its cirque-style acrobats and costumes - they now have a show that focuses on the animals' "natural abilities and tendencies"


Apparently, riding the beluga whales is "natural"


Ocean Discovery is a decent show, but I feel they could do better.


Time for PETS AHOY in the Sea Star Theater.


This animal show is very entertaining.


It has a lot of the same characteristics as the pet shows at the other SeaWorld parks, but it also has some of its own character.


It ends with a great pig butt joke.  Who doesn't like a pig butt joke.


I always enjoy the penguins.


These are really some of the COOLEST animals out there.


You can't have penguins without puffins.


The Pacific Point Preserve is home to California sea lions.


They are pretty pathetic with their begging.


They also have some otters in this area.


Alligator Alley.


Clyde and Seamore's Sea Lion High is showing at Sea Lion Stadium.


The show is themed around a high school and the two stars have to go pass different classes.  Here they are in Drama and are doing a scene from Star Wars.


Now we are up in the Nurse's Office reading an eye chart.


The show ends with an explosion and a lot of the crowd getting soaked.


The park has some great attractions, including Journey to Atlantis.

The park has two rollercoasters - Steel Eel is the park's Morgan-built hypercoaster.


Hard to believe this coaster is almost 20 years old already (built in 1999).


Great White is the park's other coaster, an inverted built by B&M.


It was built in 1997 and is celebrating 20 years this season.


To celebrate the occasion, Guy Harvey painted a huge mural on the former queue line building.


The park also has a great rapids ride called Rio Loco.


People were getting off their rafts completely drenched.


Bay of Play is the kiddie section.  Here you can see Big Bird's Spinning Reef and Elmo's Dolphin Dive.


A nice carousel themed to Sesame Street animals.


There is also a huge climbing structure in front of the Splish & Splash water play areas.


They also have a mini-waterfortress.


The last ride in the section is Abby Cradabby's Rockin' Wave.

The final show of the day was One Ocean at Shamu Stadium.

I am always amazed at these magnificent creatures.

They jump and splash so easily.


Again, such amazing creatures.

Now for an added bonus - construction photos of the new Wave Breaker: The Rescue Coaster.

The load station for the ride will be right across from the arcade (which Great White exits into).

This ride is almost completely over the lake (the lake has been drained in this area for now).

I think it's interesting that the three larger coasters will all be in the same area of the park.


I also like how a part of the ride will circle one of the "islands" in the lake.  This is going to be a fun ride and I cannot wait to ride it when I return to the park next year.