SeaWorld Christmas

Sunday December 5th 2021

The day began without yesterday’s fog, but the cloud level was still close to the ground. It cleared off by 9AM and eventually the temperature approached eighty. A front without any associated rain brought clouds midway through the afternoon, but it didn’t result in any real cooling.

Ever since I got back to Florida at the end of October I’ve been seeing ads for Christmas at SeaWorld. It has been more than twenty five years since I’ve been to SeaWorld in Orlando, so I have been planning a return visit. The Christmas celebration seemed like a good time to visit. I chose a Sunday to get the extra Weekend events without the extreme crowds a Saturday might bring. I was wrong on two counts. It was still very busy and one of the added events wasn’t worth the effort.

SeaWorld does Christmas in a big way. They have Christmas trees in the lake with light shows, an ice skating show, a Rudolph the reindeer area, plenty of Christmas lights all over the park, a Parade in Sesame Street Land, an Elmo Christmas Wish show, fireworks at the end of the night and a Sounds of the Season Performance Series. The Performance Series is a concert with “B” list celebrities singing holiday songs, or so I thought. Today’s celebrity was 80s “star” Tiffany. She started her set with one poorly executed Christmas song, then went into her “hits” from the eighties. I don’t know what she sounded like in her prime, but right now her voice isn’t up to it. By the start of her fourth “hit” from the eighties a third of the audience was heading for the door. I was with them.

I saw all the classic animal performance shows. Both the sea lion show and the dolphin show had “issues” with their performers. One of the young sea lions that was only supposed to make a cameo appearance wanted to linger in the tank. They tried a few things to lure him out, but eventually went on with the show. At the dolphin show they also had an issue. One of the dolphins didn’t want to return to the back stage tank when he was expected. The dolphin trainers also took some time to let the dolphin have her fun. The Orca show from all outward signs went off without any issues.