San Diego Bucket List: SeaWorld

SeaWorld! It's pretty touristy, and I didn't go for the first year I was here for that reason, but it's actually pretty fun. I think my favorite thing to do is the dolphin encounter, where you get to touch a dolphin! The Sea Lion show is hilarious, and I really like the Arctic Encounter, though it's totally corny. It's not as absolutely wonderful as the zoo, but it has a lot more sea life (duh) which is cool. I mean, where else can you see beluga whales? Also, if you want to feed animals (sea lions and manta rays, I think, maybe others), you can pay a little extra, and while I've never done it, it seems like a fun experience.

Here are some tips:

If you want to ride Manta, go either first thing in the morning, or when one or more shows is going on.
Make sure you show up to the Sea Lion show at least 15 minutes early. It fills up, and there's fun stuff to watch.
They let you sit on the stairs in the aisles during the shows (at least the outer aisles, and at least the Sea Lion show; I don't know about others), as long as you're all single file along one side. So, if you're late to a show and still want to sit near the front, that's an option.
It's about a 15-minute walk from the closest free parking spots, which is probably not worth it for most people, but it's what I usually do. The annual pass includes free parking, and you can get it for $99 at Costco (last I checked), so if you're planning to go more than a couple times, it's probably better to get the season pass than the fun card (which is $70, if you use a promo code). There's a bus stop that goes from the Old Town station, to a stop that's inside the SeaWorld parking lot, pretty close to the front, so that's another option (parking at Old Town is free, a 2-way bus pass is $5), but also probably not worth it to most people.
In case you're wondering, they do have security and they check your bags before you enter, but they're not very strict, and they usually don't look all the way to the bottom. You're technically not supposed to bring your own food into the park, but I think as long as you don't bring a huge cooler or flaunt a family-size bag of chips, you should be fine.

Ok, here are my photos!