Visiting Sea World San Diego One Year Later

By: Andrew Bermudez

      Yesterday, my brother and I visited Sea World San Diego again, over one year after our last visit (meaning that it's been one year since the Vacation: Unlimited Animation Contest ended! Man, time flies!). I don't have a lot of pictures, but here are a few notes to point out from this trip.

     I don't have any pictures of it, but the original entrance is currently behind construction walls as it is transformed into Explorer's Reef. Here's to hoping that this entrance re-imagining is to the same caliber that changed Sunshine Plaza into Buena Vista Street at Disney California Adventure. Currently, you enter the park through a temporary entrance, located near the Animal Connections exhibit.

      When it's meal time, piranhas can certainly make quick work of their food. We happened to visit the piranha exhibit during feeding time (the exhibit is located in the Aquatica Aquarium located near Shipwreck Rapids) and caught sight of the wildest feeding frenzy we saw all day. The piranhas in the photo are blurred simply because of the sheer speed they moved at.

      Animals are animals, and this macaw caused Manta to shut down for an hour. You see, this parrot usually stays at the Blue Horizons stadium, but it somehow broke loose and ended up here, standing behind the very spikes that are supposed to prevent this very thing from happening. Some of the smaller walkways were closed during the downtime, so the trainers could entice the macaw to come down.
     Since the last time I was here, Journey to Atlantis was changed, with a new safety video and with new paint. The confusing narration was also removed, which improves the ride. Still not thrilled with it, though.

      Over at Rocky Point, the sea lions were very hungry, with lots of guests throwing sea lion food into the tank, conveniently available for sale right next to the exhibit.

      A new attraction, Madagascar Live! Operation: Vacation, has been added to the park, replacing Lights! Camera! Imagination! 4-D. Because of the crowds, though, I was not able to see it. However, my ticket gives me a second visit for free, so I'll be able to see it during my second visit. After I've seen it, I'll then review it here in a new edition of "What's New to Do."

      However, the best experience of the day were the hilarious antics of Clyde, Seamore, and OP in the show Sea Lions Tonite, where the aforementioned animal stars join human actors on-stage in parodying the park's other attractions, including One Ocean, Wild Arctic, Pets Rule!, Manta (pictured), Cirque de la Mer, Blue Horizons, and Club Atlantis. It only plays in the summer, but makes braving the summer crowds worth it.

      There wasn't a lot of animal activity at Wild Arctic, whose ride portion is looking dated these days. There were a few animals out, including this walrus. A baby beluga whale was also on exhibit.

      It's been just over a year since I've ridden on (and reviewed) Manta, and the ride is still just as enjoyable now as it was then. It's especially really cool after dark. As for the landscaping issues I mentioned in my review, those issues have now been addressed. While the plain grass planted around the back half of the attraction is a little boring, it is better than looking at dirt mounds.

     Of course, no visit to Sea World would be complete without seeing the Shamu show. For the summer, the show featured in Shamu Stadium is Shamu Rocks!. While there is not a lot of the killer whales, with the focus directed more toward the digital screens, it is still a cool show that combines signature Shamu tricks with rock and roll. After the show was a short, but nice, fireworks show.

     And with that, I have finished this trip report. Despite the crowds, we were able to "sea" a lot (*GROAN*, and I pulled this joke in the last Sea World trip report!). I will be visiting again soon, and I'll provide a review for Madagascar Live! Operation: Vacation afterwards. Until then, happy travels!

San Diego Vacation Part 5: Kansas City Barbecue and Old Town Temecula

By: Andrew Bermudez

     After several long months, I am finally finishing up this vacation report! Let's finish this up!

     For dinner that night after visiting the Maritime Museum, we took some public transportation down the waterfront to Kansas City Barbecue, famous for being one of the filming locations for the movie Top Gun.

     The restaurant serves up casual favorites, including burgers, ribs, fries, mixed vegetables, and more, as well as the actual piano used in the film. While the food was nothing to write home about, it is still cool to see one of the filming locations for a blockbuster movie. The restaurant is a lot smaller than it appears in the movie, though.

     On the way back to the car, we passed by the USS Midway, which is now a museum. We did not go inside during this trip (it's a museum that needs an entire day devoted to it; I'll get to that vacation at a future date), but we did take a few nice evening pictures of the ship, including this one. From there, we headed back to the hotel and settled down for the night.
     The next day, we packed up and headed back home. But on the way there, we stopped in the historic old town district of Temecula for some exercise.

     Now this is something that I was originally going to assign to its own part, but since I need to finish this up, I've grouped this into this part. Old town Temecula is actually, for me, a little surprise. I didn't know what to expect at first, but I found this side trip to be a nice one. We were not able to visit the museum (pictured above), but the antique shopping and the environment made it well worth it. The food was decent too.
     Later that day, we got home, ready to begin writing this account. Who knew it would take this long to finish!
     That's it. I got this account done! I'll admit that I should have fleshed out the Old Town Temecula portion better, but other than that, this account was pretty thorough. Now I'll be able to move on to other vacation accounts, including the one we'll be going on later this summer. What is it? Well, you'll have to find out when the time comes. It is the Summer of Surprises, is it not!?!