Spring Break- Day 3: SeaWorld

On Saturday, we went to SeaWorld, and this day was just plain fun... and EASY.  We discovered that our hotel offered a shuttle that went directly to SeaWorld (which eliminated parking costs/hassle for us), and that we were able to get QuickQueue passes that allowed us to go to the front of the line for every ride at the park.  There was no giant bag to lug around, as we didn't take our big camera and only used our phones to take pictures.  Also, I didn't pack snacks/water bottles as a result of our big surprise:  We purchased All-Day-Dining Deals for our family, which meant that once each hour, we were able to get an entree, side, drink, and fruit cup/dessert at numerous restaurants within SeaWorld.  In fact, when we told the kids about our dining plan (before we left home), it was the thing that they were most excited about re: our entire Spring Break vacation!  If you know Luke, you'll understand that he is the PERFECT candidate for All-Day-Dining, and the best part is that he was still eligible for the discounted child-price (ages 3-9).  Our little foodie appreciates eating more than any person I know, and we certainly got our money's worth out of the deal, as we ate at 5 different restaurants throughout the day (and calculated that we had $250-$300 of food...). 

Only two members of our family donned themed attire for SeaWorld (much to Daddy's relief), and I loved their shirts:

We spaced out our day among animal attractions, live shows, and rides.  Actually the day went more like: food, animal attraction, food, show, food, ride, food, repeat.  We were able to see all 4 shows that the park offered (dolphins, killer whales, sea lions/seals, and pets), and it was hard to pick a favorite, as we loved them all.  The kids insisted on sitting in the Splash Zone (front rows) for every show, and were delighted to be splashed and sprayed with water each time:

We were impressed with how close we could get to the animals in their enclosures.  Here are some of our favorites:

Penguins!

This was so cute!  They were playfully interacting with one another.

Mommy loved the sea turtles!

Luke: (pretending to be) terrified by the sharks swimming over his head!

Sea Lion basking in the sun.

This seal made us laugh with his facial expressions!

The Dolphin Nursery was amazing.  The dolphins were very playful and slid up onto this rock right beside us to say Hi!

Journey to Atlantis was the kids' favorite ride, and they went on this one more than once!

We ended up staying at SeaWorld until after 7 p.m., which is a long time for us to be at an amusement park!  It was a perfect ending to Spring Break, and on Sunday morning, we drove home to NC.  We're so happy that we were able to take this fun trip last week, and we made so many great memories of Spring Break 2018!