To Sea World or Not to Sea World?

While we were in Florida, Jeff and I decided to make a visit to Sea World. As we got into the car to leave, we plugged the GPS in to find out how to get to our destination. It was not working. Hmm... we both fiddled with it a bit, and could not get it to work. This was a GPS that we borrowed from my sister. Yikes. We studied it and realized that the connection pieces (whatever the term is for those thingies!) were not sitting in there properly anymore. We decided to make a stop at Best Buy to replace the part. Unfortunately, they didn't have that part and so we had to purchase an entire new system. I felt so guilty, not only because it was my sister's GPS, but also because I thought I had not taken good enough care of it. Oh! And I felt guilty because Jeffrey had to buy a new GPS. (We could've just avoided the whole problem by buying one before we left for vacation instead of borrowing!)

Well, this delayed our trip to Sea World quite a bit. I was frustrated and upset. But Jeff reassured me that all was fine and we could still have fun...

We arrived at Sea World and walked up to the ticket booth. We looked up at the sign to see what the cost was. I felt like the dad on Father of the Bride. You know, the part where he's on the phone with the wedding planner (Franc, I think is his name), and he said "I'm sorry, I thought you just said '$150 a head'." And then Franc replies with "No, no, no... I said $250 a head!" I blinked my eyes a couple times because I thought the sign said $24.99 for each adult. When really, it said $74.99! And I thought the almost $25 was a little high! I mean, I was willing to pay $50 for the two of us to visit Sea World... you know, as a once in a lifetime opportunity. But hello? $150 for the both of us!?! That was just a little over the top! Jeff and I discussed our shock and what we could do. Mind you, we spent about $5 in tolls on our way there (and there would be another $5 on the way back). And I guess my ignorant (or naive) side didn't even consider that there would be taxes included as well. Yes, almost $200 later, Jeff and I reluctantly entered the park... little did we even know what we were getting ourselves into.

Well, it was the hottest day of our vacation, so that in itself made Sea World a little less than enjoyable... but in addition to the heat, there was actually a bigger crowd than I had expected. I was sort of bummed.

We saw an area where you could feed the stingrays. My only problem was that I could not find anywhere posted instructions on how to touch the stingrays. In all serious, we only found a sign that said "Lay your hand flat (with the food in it!?!) on the bottom of the pool (which we could hardly reach anyway), and the stingrays will swim right over it and take the food. Okay? So... where are you allowed to touch them? And what if you can't reach the bottom of the pool? Needlesstosay, we did not do any stingray touching or feeding.

And really, there was not a whole lot posted to educate us about any of the animals. That was sort of depressing. We're used to our Chicago zoos that tell you everything you want to know, everything you didn't want to know, and everything in between about their animals. There were some "interesting facts" here and there, and even some "did you knows?" But really, it was so not an educational experience.

Did I mention that even though you had to pay a bazillion dollars to get into the park, you still had to pay to do pretty much everything cool!?! Like to feed dolphins (or any of the animals) it cost extra. It was so outrageous!

Oh! And speaking of paying... our lunch was basically a joke. Jeff got a turkey sandwich for $8. He got a Pepsi for another $3. I got a kids' meal (the cheapest thing on the menu) for $7. It came with a tiny drink and they did not give refills. My meal consisted of a room temperature hot dog, very small and very plain... oh, and a handful of room temperature fries too. Yummy...

One thing that irritated me about Sea World (as if I haven't named enough already) is that they had shows that had human actors in it... and they were pretty lame. We stopped at one show because it said that it had trained sea lions and otters. Mmhmm... it had one sea lion, one otter, and about 6 humans. I have video footage of the only cool thing about the show (the sea lion was right near us), but after that, Jeff and I walked out... it was lame.

I saw a sign for a helicopter ride over the arctic area. We had been to all the areas except for the arctic region, and I thought the helicopter ride would be an adventure. And as far as we could tell, it didn't cost extra! So we got in line. I guess maybe I'm ignorant or naive or something, but we did not go on a real helicopter. It was a ride. And I got sick from it. But hello? Nowhere did it explain that it was fake. I was so angry.

Pretty much, the only things that we can't see at a zoo in Chicago are these cool lookin' sea horse type thingies and of course, Shamu...

On a happier note, I did enjoy the sharks. They had what I call a "moving sidewalk" (what is the real name for that thing?), where you stand still and it takes you from point A to point B, through a tunnel, which is clear, and you can see the sharks swimming... all kinds of sharks.

My other favorite part (which oddly enough has nothing to do with animals) were these strange guys. I'm not even going to try to explain it, just see for yourself:

Oh! And the lady that took the picture at the top of this post? Well, she stopped me at Sea World to compliment me on my hair do! She asked me how I did it... and of course, that made my day too! Here's how I had my hair done: