Day 4 - Thursday 5th October 2006

Up early today for our trip to Sea World. Tried the hotel cafe for breakfast and it was impressive and then onto a bus for the 1hr45min trip to San Diego. As usual it was a short trip for Toni as she fell asleep almost imediatly and the old girl wasn't far behind her. I stayed up to look at the sights as they drove past, like the golf course Ronald Ragan was a member of while he was president and past a nuclear power plant that didn't look anything like the one in the simpsons.
Finally made to Sea World and without too much fuss made it inside. We started walking around the park and it was basically deserted, not a soul to be seen. Then the shows finished and there were people everywhere. We learned very quickly that other then the shows (2 of which weren't on today) there isn't much else there. We went and watched the Sea Lions show which was ok, but to go and watch a show, seen as everyone else wanted to do the same thing, you had to be there at least 25mins early else you were in the bleaches.
We were more then a little disponded when we lined up for the Shamu (the killer whale) show 30 mins before it was to start. By the time the show started at 1, we had been in the park for 2.5 hours and seen about 30 mins of entertainment. We decided to sit in the 'Splash' zone, where the whales are directed to hurl massive amounts of water with great force at the patrons. I was more then a little sceptical about this seen as it wasn't a particularly warm day but went onlong with it.
The Shamu show was AWESOME!! Makes those pansy dolphin shows you see at SeaWorld on the gold coast look tame. They had 3 whales in the show and seeing them do flips and deliberatly throw as much water as they can into the crowd is a sight to behold. The show goes for about 30 mins and is very very well done.
We then went to the main reason we came down to Sea World for the day, the Dine with Shamu Experience. We were ushed to our table, which was table number 1 (in the absoulte prime position) and then got to eat from the most amazing buffet while watching the trainers conduct a training session with the whales no more then about 6 feet away from us. We got to ask plenty of questions and we took heaps of photos. And the food was so yummy, fresh and plentiful. Toni even had some of it before she hit the extensive desert buffet. I think we have all been feeling like Jabba the Hutt now for a few days with the enormous quanities of food you get over here. Thankfully we have been doing plenty of walking to try and work off at least a part of it.
Sadly the dining experience had to end and we were effectivly trapped in the park for another 3 hours without much to do. Exculding Shamu, Seaworld San Diego is a pale imitation of the one on the Gold Coast. They only have 2 rides, one is a rapids type ride that is pretty much the same as the one at Dreamworld (Except we got completly soaked, denim + coldish day + soaked is not fun) and a rollercoaster type ride that splashes into water which was ok but farrrrr too short. The only other interesting things they had were a set of Beluga Whales, which are completly white and very cute and some black and white dolphins that sort of looked like mini killer whales.
Finally 6pm arrived and we boarded the bus and took the 2 hour ride back to the hotel. We stepped next door and got served by the rudest people we have met so far in America at Subway, grabbed some beers and went back. I tried a Red Steel beer which was 8.1% and it was crap.
Anyway tomorrow is our big LA/Hollywood trip so stay tuned......