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SeaWorld’s Shamu-tastic Christmas!

                             

Christmas at SeaWorld is so awesome, it’s Shamu-tastic! The park is brilliantly decorated with brilliant LEDs, several extra-large christmas trees, Polar Express, and awesome music! Did I mention that you can get your picture with Shamu.. in a Santa Hat?! How awesome is that!? The park itself was absolutley beautiful during the day. We arrived around 4pm on Sunday. All the rides had a fairly short wait time, but we weren’t there for the rides.

Infact, we only rode Manta and Polar Express.

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We missed the Sesame Street show while we rode Polar Express, which was awesome! The first time I rode Wild Artic, it was absolutley gut-wrenching and I couldn’t finish the ride. Polar Express is completely different and a great experience. I’ve never seen the movie, so I can’t tell you how accurate it is. The Team Members at Polar Express are dressed just like the train conductor in the ride’s film, and the entire ride is decorated to Christmas. One of the rooms even smelled like fresh cookies fresh from the oven. After the ride, you can still see the Walruses, Beluga Whales, and Polar Bears as usual, but you can get your picture with Santa! There’s also a huge Christmas tree and a projection of the Northern Lights on the wall. The ride’s atmosphere is just amazing. Seaworld really did an awesome job transforming Wild Artic into The Polar Express Experience.

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After Polar Express, we headed straight to Clyde and Seamore’s Christmas Countdown to find a pretty packed house. By this time, the park was dark and getting crowded! This is probably my favorite version of Clyde and Seamore that I’ve seen all year, probably because Clyde and Seamore just felt like doing their own thing. As one of the performers was getting into her Taxi to go to the mall, she slipped and fell. Clyde decided he was going to do his own thing. He also threw the Christmas bulb at the mime! The performers played along and this one was just hilarious. Great show, although there were some slight changes to the show, it seems!

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We followed the entire crowd to the Shamu’s Christmas Miracle show.. And it seems like everyone made it there ages before we did! The show was packed, but we still got some pretty good seats.. in the splash zone! I really adored the guys and girls selling the light up stuff, towels, and ponchos.. One of them had a Shamu tail hat with white fur on the bottom.. Just like a Santa hat. How jealous was I? They should sell those. This show really touched my heart.. With all the singing and just how different the show was from Believe. You can’t have a Shamu show without a bunch of Shamu! Shamu does tricks to all your favorite christmas music.. and then some! At the beginning of the show, there’s a guy who plays the saxophone. Great musician, however he played four songs. I felt it was a little much. The show was great.. and no, we didn’t get soaked.

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The Ice show was extremely packed and we were unable to get good seats, so we didn’t stick around for this show. The decorations on the stage looked really nice though. We caught the first few minutes of the show, which is a group of guys who come out and sing. The show looks really good and I’m hoping we’ll be able to check it out and get some great pictures. I’d still love to know.. How they keep ice to skate on.. in Florida!

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Overall, I really enjoyed the decorations in the park. I thought they did a really good job with everything. It was pretty busy on the Sunday night we went and there’s only one show time for each show. Basically they’re back-to-back, giving you enough time to walk from one show to the next with a few minutes to spare. Plan for crowds if you visit SeaWorld on a Friday or Saturday night when theme parks are typically busier. The entire event isn’t about the rides (except for Polar Express), so if you want to check out the non-christmas attractions, I suggest you get to the park earlier in the day. What a Shamu-tastic event!