Grand US Tour 2010: Sea World San Diego

With the rains falling heavily from our first day in Disneyland and the next 2 days, we have postponed our supposed consecutive trips back for Disneyland for after the new year.  Instead we were left stay mostly at home and hoping for the weather to go better.  And even with 2 days lost in our hectic 2010 grand tour, we had to proceed with our itinerary.  This is our trip to San Diego for the Christmas feast and to check out San Diego attractions.

So the day before Christmas eve, we departed the Los Angeles area to drive south to my aunt's place in San Diego.   The drive south takes about 2 hours long but we took more time as we were caught in a heavy traffic jam which I think cost us about an hour longer.   The traffic jam basically started from Carlsbad exit where a lot of cars are headed to the outlet center there.

And so upon arrival at may aunt's place, we just dropped our belongings and headed for SeaWorld San Diego.  My two cousins AC and Alyk are joining us.

SeaWorld has a variety of rides for kids and young adults that are mostly waterbased for fun and thrills.  Also, there are different marine animal shows around the park for everyone to enjoy.  And since we got kids with us, my sister and cousins Angel, AC, and Alyk opted to separate from us so they can enjoy the thrilling rides around the park while we go to kiddie rides for the kids.

And so we first took their brochures to check out the times of the shows around the park.  The we walked around to try out some of the kiddie rides.  And well nearest to the entrance of the park is Sesame Street's Bay of Play area.   So we took pictures around it and we queued up for one of its rides, the Elmo flying ride.   There were quite a number of kids queueing that day that it took us quite some time to have our turn.

Then we headed for one of the shows in the Dolphin Stadium.  The stadium was huge and the seats rose up so high and yet it was filled up that we already sat on the stairs along the aisles.  The show basically starred a number of dolphins doing all their tricks and jumps to wow the crowd.  Also they had acrobatic stunts performed by flying trapeze and trainers.   It was a facinating show and Janine liked it.

Then we took our lunch in Mama Stella's Pizza Kitchen.   But man, the queue was very long.  It seems like there were not that many food shops inside the park and with too many visitors, the queues were crazy.  It took us about an hour to actually get our order of pizzas and pasta.  We ordered a cheese pizzas for the kids.  It was quite a late lunch though.

After lunch we proceeded with going around the park.  We met up with my cousins near the Cirque Stadium.  And while there, we left the kids to them for us to try Shipwreck Rapids.  This basically reminds me of the Rio Grande ride of Enchanted Kingdom.  We basically ride this big round boat that run through a rapids with splashes of water and waterfalls along the path.  Also at one point, there were waterguns along the path where people can shoot you with water.  Well my cousins did that.

And lastly, we went to watch the main attraction of the night at the Shamu Stadium.  Shamu is an orca or a false killer whale and the star of SeaWorld.  They had a Christmas special show where they had a small choir that sang and a guy on a saxophone that serenaded the guests.  And of course it featured Shamu performing along with two other orcas and doing some stunts and splashes of water.   It was a beautiful presentation, but it was not as beautiful as the first time I've seen the show 3 years back.  Maybe that 2010 presentation is just not as good.