Sea World Surprise

Our oldest son graduated preschool last Tuesday.   What a wonderful experience to see how much he has grown.  He has accomplished so much over this last year. It went by so fast, I feel like he's become a big kid overnight.
On our way to the ceremony our neighbor, Mr. Bill (who I've mentioned in another story here), stopped by to congratulate him.   The exchange of words almost broke my heart it was so sweet.  After some 'wows', 'thank yous' and 'my how big you've gotten', Ryder looks up and says, "And my mom is so proud of me."  I melted.  You can imagine the emotions that ran through me knowing he knows how I feel.  It was a moment all parents relish in.
The graduation production was great.   He received a medal for his knowledge of dinosaurs, "most likely to become a paleontologist."   So smart.  I really have an amazing boy.  A special feature was the whole group singing songs that they had been practicing as a surprise for the parents.  Also, very sweet.
Afterwards the 4 of us, Aunt Cindy, Devin and MomMom went to a celebratory dinner.  Ryder got a some graduation gifts.  One of which was a surprise to both he and I...
A trip to Sea World!!!
Yes!
We visited the park last November while I was pregnant and it was amazing.  Ever since we have been talking about going back.  We think it's a great place to take a baby, because there are so many shows.  Between that and the many aquariums we would be able enjoy it together instead of waiting or taking turns while the other takes Ryder on the  attractions.  Not to mention, Ryder's knowledge of sea creatures is fantastic.  He knows the names of fish I have never heard of.  He's quite enthusiastic to learn more, so, of course, we want to encourage it.

If you live in Florida I would recommend getting the Fun Card.  Basically you pay for a day and can come back all year.  We got one of these and one year pass.  The year pass is about $30 more but you get free parking and 10% of food and merchandise.   If you only use them twice it's worth it.  They offered a free year pass for preschoolers in the beginning of the year, which I had printed up just in case something like this came up.  Bonus.
The Hubs had set it up so we were staying in a hotel Thursday and Friday night,with plans to go to the park on Friday.  We ended up getting to our room around 1 on Thursday.  Since we had the passes we decided to do a dry run to the park.  The hotel offered a shuttle so I wanted to be sure with the bags, the stroller and all the other goodies that come with a baby that we were prepared.  The ride was smooth and so was our entrance to the park.
We hit the Dolphin Show first.  These animals are so magnificent.  I get goose bumps and teary eyed every time I see this show.  It is incredible.  You can't help but smile.

I was up top for this one.  They have a special area for sleeping babies if you don't want to wake them up and take them out of the stroller.  Extra Bonus.
The highlight of the trip for me was feeding these spectacular mammals.  I feel like you can see how smart they are by just looking at their eyes.  They are so fast, yet so graceful in the water.  I just love them.

$7 extra per person.  So totally worth it, we did it again the next day! 


The highlight for the Hubs was feeding the sting rays.  They are in a tank were you can pet them and they come up to the side if you have food or not.  But, after feeding the dolphins the interaction was too hard for the boys to resist.

Ryder had a lot of favorites.  On his list along with feeding the dolphins and sting rays was Shamu's Happy Harbor.  They have a huge rope/slide/play/obstacle/climbing area that is probably 3 stories high.  Like a pumped up fast food playground, all kids love it.  Add a splash zone, carousel, mini roller coaster, and several other kid friendly rides and what child could resist.

 He also loved Turtle Trek, which is a new attraction.  You follow the journey of life with a sea turtle in a 3-D dome.  It was very entertaining for all of us, even the baby.  Although he did not wear the glasses, he was so alert, really taking in all the images and sounds.  On the way out there is an interactive video game and a view of the live turtles and manatees you saw while waiting for the show underneath.  More reasons to love it.
 
Besides offering a shuttle, another awesome perk of our hotel was that was got a quick queue card with out stay.  The quick queue is Sea World's version of the fast past that is offered at Disney.  Although, in my opinion,  Sea World's is better because you get one card to use for the whole day on all rides applicable at any time.   I'm so glad we decided to get them even though we weren't sure if we would use them.  After walking under Manta a couple of times, the Hubs wanted to check it out.  The baby was sleeping and Ryder was entertained with a stuffed sting ray he won so it was perfect timing.  He headed up the quick queue line and discovered that they also have a single rider line.  Which basically means no line.  He came out so fast, ranting and raving about how awesome it was.  Obviously, I headed right in.  Another girl was walking up with me and I guess the guy thought we were together so we got to ride in the same row.  Whether you are two or more you should always check out this line, you may get to ride together anyway. I feel like this is a huge secret that no one knows about.  The Manta is such a system overload that you aren't talking or even looking at the person next to you anyway.  No line. What an amazing discovery, right?!
Although, I'm not sure I can really give a more accurate review of the actual ride.  System overload is my best description.  When you get in you are sitting like a normal roller coaster.  By the time you realize your legs are pinned, the floor drops out and the whole coaster is tilting until you are laying face down at the ground.
Laying.
Face down.
Staring at the ground.
Totally freaking out on the inside, trying to look cool on the outside.  Once that baby starts down the first drop, Boom, system overload.  The G-forces are indescribable.  You can't help but scream/yell.  It's a mixture of excitement and fear so intense that I hope I can bring myself to ride it again.

So as you can see the trip was a huge success!
What a great surprise for all of us.
And this is a short list of all there is to do.  
Oh, and if you are curious what Tyce did most of the time....

But he was sure to flash his happy baby smiles at everyone and anyone who would accept them.  He was quite the entertainer in the few lines we did have to wait in.  I wish I could capture more of them on video, but lately every time I aim the camera at him I get a look like this...

But don't worry, I'll keep trying.  The Meat is hilarious when he really gets his arms and legs pumping while giving belly laughs.

So, Congrats again to our Grad!  We love you so much and couldn't be more proud!  You definitely earned your trip to Sea World and the many more to come!

Update:  I have not seen the movie Blackfish and these trips to SeaWorld were well before it came out.  But I am an animal lover and felt obligated to comment.  I don't plan on watching because I know it will be horrible.  And for the record we have not been back to the park or renewed our passes. Just hearing about it was impact enough for us.  The reason I loved SeaWorld was because I felt like it was such a huge educational experience for the kids.  The shows are great, but Ryder got much more out of the aquariums.  He loved walking though ALL of them and reading up on the creatures.  He loves anything to do with the ocean and is constantly giving us fun facts about different marine life.  They did a wonderful job with constantly talking about recycling and educating families on the effects that litter has on our oceans.  Did you know that sea turtles eat jellyfish?  A discarded plastic grocery back looks just like a jellyfish when floating in the ocean.  It kills the already endangered innocent turtle looking for a meal.  All improperly disposed trash eventually makes it to the ocean, even if you live in Kansas.  We learned that and other great information watching the 3-D movie Turtle Trek.  They also have a manatee rehabilitation center.  This is huge in Florida because manatees are such slow moving creatures that they often get hit by boats.  There are many of these centers scattered throughout our state.  Many people would never know that because they don't visit our local Wildlife refugee park, they go to SeaWorld.  I always felt that even if a fraction of the people at the park on any given day absorbed one of the positive conservation messages or started recycling when they went home that was HUGE.  Getting such an important message to such a large scale of people should not have to be at the expense of such magnificent creatures.