Wild Days at SeaWorld

Clay talked about visiting the Painted Dog Conservation park in Zimbabwe, Africa.

Wild Days at Sea World, San Antonio

Jack is Back! No, not that Jack - you've got the wrong season! It's Wild Days, so of course, the Jack is Jungle Jack Hanna!

Jack Hanna is the Director Emeritus of the Columbus Zoo in Columbus, Ohio. Every year, he travels around the country with several unusual species. Usually, he comes to Sea World the week after he stops by ‎Late Night with Jimmy Kimmel, whic was previously hosted by David Letterman.

Here he is, holding court in the Nautilus Amphitheater. He did two show there this afternoon. The disabled bald eagle, shown below, was one of the guests he brought with him this year. Due to an injury, this eagle is flightless and cannot be released into the wild.

In the evening, Sea World hosted a chicken-and-barbecue dinner for Jack and about five hundred paying guests. The guests had the opportunity to meet, talk with and take selfies with Jack. This is the third year we have attended.

Vacation Time!!

It has been a while,again. Life gets so busy and I just forget to take notes... This weekend, we are heading south to San Antonio. Six Flags, later today, then Sea World tomorrow. Of course, the weather report says rain for both days.

Tonight, Six Flags is doing fireworks - their Sprint Blast! Their water park is supposed to be open, too.

Sea World is previewing their new Discovery Point area. This replaces the old dolphin pool. The new facility will allow visitors to interact with the dolphins in the water. In another area of the tank, visitors can watch the dolphins under water. It should be interesting. Tomorrow is also the last day for their annual Seven Seas Food Festival. We went to Sea World about a month ago and bought passes for the Food Festival and sampled some of the fare. Tomorrow, we will sample the rest.

Jack Hanna at Sea World

Well, it must be spring..... Jack Hanna came to Sea World to start their season for 2013! Here is a picture of Jack at the "Dine with Jack Hanna" event at Sea World's special event area.

He also brought a few friends with him. This first picture is a kukubera bird.

This second one is a desert fox.

The food was served buffet style from a small building with three permanent buffet tables. On the desert table was a confectionary albino python that looked just like the live albino python that resides at Sea World. I believe its name is Julius Squeezer.

Christmas - Head for San Antonio

The Christmas season is upon us. We decided to take a weekend off and check out the decorations at our favorite two theme parks, Six Flags Fiesta Texas and Sea World. We planned to visit Fiesta Texas on Saturday and Sea World on Sunday.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

As in previous years, they only had about two-thirds of the park open. For obvious reasons, all of the water rides are shut down. Hey, who wants to be wet when it is cold? Unfortunately, the train ride was also converted into a static decoration.

We got to the entrance gate and had our first adventure - a metal detector. Since we were wearing steel-toed shoes, the metal detector sounded off. This caused a minor delay which the staff handled both well and quickly.

Once we got past the gates, the difference was obvious. Christmas ornaments and strings of lights hung from the trees and balconies. Something new - bottomless hot chocolate! If you buy their souvenir mug, you get free refils all day! The cost is reasonable and whipped cream is included.

They replaced their standard shows with Christmas themed shows. Thankfully, only one required an extra fee, which we thus did not see. Over is the "Rockville" area, they set up a huge Christmas tree and did a daily "tree lighting" ceremony, just after dark.

It was after dark, that the decorations exploded with color. Each area had a differenc color theme - the "Los Festivales" area was multi-colored lights, the "Spassburg" area had blue and white lights, and so forth. They did a much better job of decorating the park this year than previous years!

Sea World

Sea World also did a much better job of decorating. They did this in spite of being in the midst of a major renovation of the park. They are rebuilding the water park area and are adding an animal interaction area where the log ride used to be. Both of these should be open next summer. Rumor has it that they are going to do away with the two-year season pass - this used to be their best deal and one which we have availed ourselves for many years.

The Christmas version of the Clyde and Seymour Sealion show was much the same as last year. The Christmas show in Shamu Stadium was new, as was the show in Azul theater. Over by the "Rio Loco" whitewater raft ride (which, by the way, was open!), they set up a small Christmas village with a number of booths selling Christmas-themed stuff and food, along with the traditional visit with Santa Claus. They also had a three-piece country band singing Christmas carols, some traditional and some more contemporary.

After dark, the place transformed. They had wound strings of lights around many of the trees, creating a candy-cane forest with red and white stripes. Other areas looked like peppermint sticks with their white and blue stripes. Over by the Penguin Encounter, they festooned the trees with strings of white lights. The effect was gorgeous!

Summary

If I had to give out awards for Christmas changes, I would have to give the award for decorations to Sea World this year. It was close, however. The award for food, however, has to go to Fiesta Texas for their bottomless hot chocolate and for their winter-themed funnel cake variations.

Happy Halloween

We decided to take a break from the ranch and, since it is October, that means Halloween fun. We decided to make a weekend of it. Down in San Antonio, there are two amusement parks: Sea World and Six Flags Fiesta Texas. We decided to visit Six Flags on Saturday and Sea World on Sunday.

We left on Friday night, rolling down US 281 toward San Antonio. We stopped at Marble Falls for dinner. After dinner, we rolled for San Antonio and checked into a motel very close to Fiesta Texas.

Six Flags Fiesta Texas

After we entered the park, we picked up a copy of the daily activities. It informed us that several of our favorite rides were not available. Although, they were advertising Halloween activities, which they call Fright Fest, we saw much less than in previous years. To top it off, their premiere activity required an additional fee. As usual, the water in the whitewater raft ride and in the fountains was dyed red. Some Halloween decoration were up.

Lunch, at the Fest Halle, was a comedy of errors. We selected two beers and got on line to check out. After we got to the front of the line, the clerk told us she was under twenty-one and could not check us out. We would have to get on another checkout line. We got on that line, but there was no one manning the cash register. By the time someone returned to the cash register and checked us out, our food was cold. A complaint to the manager got us fresh, hot food, but a simple sign directing us to the correct line and a cashier who was manning his post would have saved us time and frustration and would have saved the park money.

In spite of everything that went wrong, we had a fun day. We topped it off with a funnel cake - they had something unique: pumpkin funnel cake!

Sea World

On Sunday, we were welcomed with their Halloween theme: Jack is Back! and Howl-O-Scream. Pumpkins and other Halloween decorations were everywhere! Skeletons! Tombstones! A quartet of singing skeletons! Two animated skeletons who banter with the public! A special show at Shamu Stadium! Special food stands! After 6 PM, a whole section of the park became a scare zone!

They had not one, but two haunted activities! Up by the penguin encounter, they had a haunted house, Den of the Departed. Near Shamu Stadium, they had a longer, scarier haunted trail, Jack's Frightmare Forest. In the scare zone, they had staff members made up as evil clowns, zombies and other scary characters.

We had a much better time at Sea World.

In Summary

If you are going to San Antonio in the next few weeks, go to Sea World and skip Fiesta Texas. I wonder who will do the better job for Thanksgiving through Christmas? We will just have to come back to San Antonio and check both out.