DEC 28, Saturday, 2013: Seaworld San Antonio
SeaWorld San Antonio is a 250-acre
marine mammal park, oceanarium, and animal theme park, located in San
Antonio, Texas, 197 miles(300 km) from Houston.
Drove down from Houston after Christmas—started off
at 7.20 am and reached our hotel Ramada at 10.30, had an early
checkin and drove to Seaworld.
The holiday timings for the park are
12—9 PM. In winter, the park is open only in weekends; holiday
season being the exception of course.
Mariarchi singers creating holiday
mood here.
Water park is open only Mar—Sep.
Separate tickets for the water park when it's open.
Seaworld tickets are priced at $64 for
single day entry. We had a holiday discount of $15 when we bought
online.
There is a nice promo as tickets are
valid for a year but of course only the locals can use it.
Fairy topiary of yew plants here...
Saw the lovely Sea Lion, Walrus and
Otter show: Clyde and Seamore's Countdown to Christmas.
In this comedy sea lions Clyde and
Seamore, and the rest of the crew, complete a list of tasks to ensure
Santa makes his way to The Cannery Row, their home. here's a short video:
Sealions and the Walrus performing their tasks...
Our 2nd show was Azul—with belluga
whales, dolphins, aerial act, synchronised swimming and diving.
Aerial act seen here.
Aerialist on lyra, harness, and bungee in “Azul,” the acrobatic/whale and dolphin show.
Julia Langenberg performs her aerial act on silks attached to a lyra above a pool of synchronized swimmers, divers, and marine mammals.
The 1st 3 rows are splash zones and were empty. the rest of the auditorium was packed. We arrived just when the show was starting and bravely sat in the splash zone.
Had the best view and were NOT splashed !!
There is a statue of killer whale in the park; they have stopped shows featuring them as a trainer got killed in 2010.
There are 5 rides— The Great
White, Steel Eel, Journey to Atlantis, Rio
Loco and Shamu Express.
Marina -there are 1 hour cruises in
summer.
They check bags at entry and don't
allow food, drinks but we took in our bag of home made puris, relish,
tortilla chips, fruits and chocolate.
Their website shows this condition
regarding food. They allow entry for a year, they make their
money through the restaurants scattered all over as people have to
necessarily eat inside.
Quite a difference from Disney parks
where eats are allowed.
On our way to penguin encounter.
More than 100 penguins of various
types, including the king penguin.
The rockhopper penguin has white side
whiskers.
The chinstrap penguin has a prominent
black line on chin.
King penguins are the ones with
yellow/orange spots. The king penguins grow to 3 feet height.
Emperor penguins are 4 feet tall.
Gentoo penguins are smaller.
Penguins were on the rocky cliffs and icy
waters .
It looked too crowded esp after
seeing them roaming freely on an island in Argentina and near Cape town Soth Africa.
A guide gave an entertaining and
informative talk from inside the penguin enclosure and they threw
fish for the penguins causing a frenzy.
We went on to see the Puffins.
Puffin species have predominantly black or black and white plumage, a stocky build, and large beaks. The beak is brightly colored during the breeding season. The colorful outer parts of their bills are shed after the breeding season, leaving a smaller and duller beak.
Puffin species have predominantly black or black and white plumage, a stocky build, and large beaks. The beak is brightly colored during the breeding season. The colorful outer parts of their bills are shed after the breeding season, leaving a smaller and duller beak.
Their short wings are adapted for
swimming with a flying technique under water. In the air, they beat
their wings rapidly (up to 400 times per minute).
Next we were at the Dolphin cove lagoon— home to a pod of
playful Atlantic bottlenose dolphins.
They have special tours where one can
touch and feed the dolphins.
This building houses huge tanks with all sorts of marine creatures; entrance fittingly is "teethy". 450000 gallons of water here with all species of marine plant/animal life.
We took several videos inside as the
interior is dark and not suitable for stills.
Extracted a few grabs from the video
files which are presented next.
A coral "head" is a colony of polyps. Each polyp is a spineless animal a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in length. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. An exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species.
Individual heads grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon.
Although some corals can catch small fish and plankton, using stinging cells on their tentacles, like those in sea anemone and jellyfish, most corals obtain nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular algae that live within the coral's tissue called zooxanthella.
Seahorse is the title given to 54 species of marine fish in the genus Hippocampus. "Hippocampus" comes from the Ancient Greek hippos meaning "horse" and kampos meaning "sea monster"
Although they are bony fish, they do not have scales but thin skin stretched over a series of bony plates, which are arranged in rings throughout their body. Each species has a distinct number of rings.
Seahorses swim upright, another characteristic that is not shared by their pipefish relatives, who swim horizontally. Razorfish are the only other fish that swim vertically like a seahorse.
Unusual among fish, seahorses have a flexible, well-defined neck. They also sport a coronet on the head,
We went to see the Sea lions and seals sleeping on the
rock. This side of the park closes at 6 pm
Sealions are one of the 34 species of Pinnipeds, the "wing" or "fin-footed" mammals.Sea lions are sea mammals characterized by external ear flaps, long foreflippers, the ability to walk on all fours, and short, thick hair. Sealions have a life span of 20–30 years.
The female sea lion weighs 100 kg (220 lb) and is 6 ft long.
Sea lions consume large quantities of food at a time and eat 5–8% of their body weight (about 15–35 lb (6.8–16 kg)) at a single feeding.
Otters below. Earlier on the show, they
had performed quite well, getting on a ball and spinning it and
reacting to the commands of actors.
We had a ride on shamu express near
here.
The park timings were from 12-9 PM, There is a sing along with special effects at 9 but we did not wait.
They make people exit through the gift shop... a clever ploy. We took a couple of pics and moved on.
End of a long happy day. Reached our hotel and slept off
.
Fun in SanAntonio Part 2 continues here:
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