Frolicking with Fay TR **Updated 11/21 - SeaWorld After Dark** About This Page:

[disney_duke]

Great afternoon, love those photos from the tower. I'm a sucker for high-look-out views!!! And dinner looked really good too!

[PrincessSharon]

Just catching up, Rob. The Nick Hotel looks like fun. And so does Sea World. I keep saying I have to get there, but it never seems to happen. It looks like there's a lot to see there.

[CountryTink]

Those pictures from up on the tower are amazing. I would never be able to ride that so it is nice to see what the view is like. Can't believe how many times you all conquered the Kraken. Can't wait to hear more.

[Lemap760]

That's quite a view from the sky tower.

[KandJluvdisney]

great update rob
sounds like you are having a grea time at seaworld
can't wait to hear about the park at night
dinner sounds great
hurry back with more please

[my2girls]

Great update! Your food looks fantastic!!!

[minushka72]

More please. I miss Seaworld. Luckily I get to go back in May right before my 7 night Disney vacation.

[DyanKJ130]

Great update! Your meal looks delicious! Looking foward to more.

[LucyintheSky]

Just got caught up! The Nick hotel sounds fun, I bet my son would love it. I haven't been to Sea World in years, I miss it. Looking forward to reading more!

[lissybri]

Your dinner looks like it was wonderful. More please.

[RobDVC]

We were quite refreshed and energized after we finished eating dinner, which was a very good thing because the evening was just getting started and we still had four hours of fun to enjoy. During busier seasons, Sea World After Dark occurs. What’s Sea World After Dark, you ask? It’s their nighttime entertainment slate, which offers four shows that aren’t performed during the day: Shamu Rocks, Sea Lions Tonight, Bayside Ski Jam and Mistify.

Since the Sea World After Dark performances weren’t slated to begin for at least another hour, and we were 15 minutes late for the last showing of Blue Horizons, the boys thought it would be a good idea to see how iron-clad our stomachs were and asked if we could hit some rides, so off we headed over to Journey to Atlantis.

We put our backpack in a locker and got in the 20-minute line together. After about 15 minutes, we boarded a boat en route to the forgotten city. None of us had ever done this before, so we were all amazed at it. Let me tell you – it was nothing like I expected. It’s definitely a hidden treasure of the park and I can now understand why this attraction often has longer lines than it’s next-door neighbor, Kraken. It’s like a log flume on steroids, without the drenching plunge. We did get wet, but not nearly as bad as we’ve gotten on other flume rides. After our voyage was over, the boys decided they wanted to do Kraken again, so we left our backpack in the locker and all went on Kraken together. A 5 minute wait for our ride later, and we were again soaring upside-down and giggling our heads off.

After we were finished with our twilight thrills, we headed over to the Sea Lion and Otter stadium for the first performance of Sea Lions Tonight. On the way, we stopped and picked up some frozen lemonades and blue raspberry slushies to cool down while waiting for the show to begin, along with two packs of Cracker Jacks to munch on.


We arrived at the theater 15 minutes ahead of time, and it was already about 1/3 full.
Anyone who’s been to one of the Sea Lion shows at Sea World will know why there was a pretty sizeable crowd seated well in advance… There is a pre-show Mime who stands in front of the stage at the entrance who helps to usher people in (amongst other things).
If a visit to Sea World is on your agenda, I definitely recommend arriving early for a Sea Lions show and check him out.

A few minutes before the show started, he went back stage and came out about a minute later holding a guitar controller from the video game “Guitar Hero”. Thunderous applause ensued, and then the theater’s PA system kicked in with the song “Crowd Chant” by Joe Satriani. At this point, the mime begins “playing” the guitar and audience participation follows. (For those of you who have heard the song you’ll know what I mean about audience participation; for those who haven’t, it goes like this – Joe Satriani plays a bunch of notes on the guitar, then the “crowd” repeats the notes verbally, and this cycle repeats a bunch of times, with different notes and faster notes progressively being played/verbalized).



When he was done properly warming us up, the show Sea Lions Tonight began.
The show is a funny and somewhat irreverent look at all of the attractions and shows at Sea World, and well worth seeing.

I shot video of the show, while Margaret took a few pictures of a couple of the segments…

The performers parodying “Pets Ahoy!”



Their impression of riding Kraken:



There were also parodies of Believe!, Blue Horizons and Shamu Rocks.
The show is very entertaining.

When we departed the show, we headed over to Shamu Stadium for the first showing of Shamu Rocks. While walking, there was a DJ playing music (Rock-n-Roll part 2) and pumping everyone up, acting as an MC for the evening’s festivities. We only had about 10 minutes until the start of Shamu Rocks, so by the time we got to the stadium, the only seats available were all along the top and also in the extreme right and left sections. We grabbed seats in the right-center near the top and waited a few minutes for the show to begin.


















The show was neat, a totally different performance than Believe!, and thoroughly enjoyable. There’s a band playing on a platform in the center of the stadium where the display screens are, and they play all kinds of different rockin’ tunes. It’s a fun show to watch, and it certainly seemed that Shamu was having a fun time performing for the crowd.

When that show finished, we headed over to Bayside stadium for the first performance of the Bayside Ski Jam. This was a neat, energetic show featuring water-skiers, jetski races, speedboat races and even a high dive, against a background of Boys VS Girls.

We still had about an hour until the 10PM fireworks finale Mistify, so we headed over to ride Kraken and Atlantis. At this point in the evening, both rides were walk-ons, and sending less-than-half loaded vehicles out from the loading platforms. Margaret had had her day’s fill of excitement, so she held the backpack while the boys and I did one more ride on Kraken, and one more loop on Journey to Atlantis.





We walked back over to the gift shop by the Shark encounter, and the boys got a Shamu plush and a Great White plush, and a few t-shirts, and we also picked up a Sea World magnet to add to our refrigerator collection before staking out a spot for Mistify.

Mistify was reminiscent of Fantasmic (water-mist video screens) and IllumiNations (fireworks shooting from the lake). From what I could tell, the show is about a child’s adventures during a day at Sea World. The finale was very cool – Fireworks shot out from the top of the Sky Tower!

We then headed out of the park with the rest of the crowd.



Phew! What a day!


Thanks for bearing with me during this marathon daily report. Sea World isn’t reviewed much, so I wanted to make sure I provided as much detail as I could about everything that park has to offer. The rest of my daily reports won’t be nearly as lengthy as this one (but may still be weighed-down with photographs), and I’m sure you’ll enjoy them if you endured this one.


UP NEXT: AQUATICA

[my2girls]

Great update Rob!! SeaWorld after dark looks like a lot of fun!

[Colexis Mom]

Glad you had a great day at SW!! I admire your stamina!! Great pictures!!

[loubell]

Very ! We're going to have to give SeaWorld a shot one of these days...your evening report sold me!

Can't wait to read more, and love all the pics! Keep 'em coming!

[disneydani]

Wow, SeaWorld after dark sounds like a blast....how would you rank Mistify in terms of Illuminations, Fantasmic, Wishes?

Thanks for sharing,

danielle