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Day 7 - Thursday, July 29, 2004
Plan for the Day: Marine Mammal Keeper Experience at SeaWorld
Today, we're doing the Marine Mammal Keeper Experience at SeaWorld - an eight-hour behind the scenes program where, basically, you are
taken around by a guide to work with the people who take care of the various Marine Mammals in the Park. You actually work and interact
alongside the animal care specialists in each area and get to see and do what they do to take care of animals. You don't have a set
schedule as you do what they do. If their schedule changes, so does yours.
Anyway, when the wake-up call goes off at 5:30am, I don't even listen to the thing. It's not Mickey today anyway - just some dope
promoting the ESPN Weekend. Josh & I get up and quickly get ready. I think he ate breakfast but I know I didn't. Eating breakfast that
early just is not for me!! Anyway, it's a few tick tocks before 6am, so we head off to the main building to meet Roger from Sunray
Transportation. As expected, he is already there waiting for us and we're quickly on our way.
When we arrive at the Staffing Center parking lot, there are tons of people around waiting for the Employment Center to open. Roger drops
us off, and Josh & I head in to the Security Building to wait for our "guide" to come get us.
Promptly at 6:30am, our guide, Barb, shows up and after a quick bag search, takes us off to put our stuff in a locker and put on
our wetsuits. LOL After trying on 3 wetsuits, I finally get one that fits enough to allow blood to circulate to my hands and feet. I
think I burned off more calories getting the thing than I did the rest of the day!
I started out writing this not wanting to give away too many details, but since it was my favorite day all week, it kind of got long
winded. There still aren't too many details of what we actually did with the animals, but let me say, it was incredible!
For most of the morning, we worked with the dolphins in various places behind the scenes and in the Park. Basically we got to do SO
much more than we did at Discovery Cove. The one thing we did at Discovery Cove that we didn't do at SeaWorld was an actual "swim",
but everything else we did more than made up for it, in my opinion. We did a lot of different things with the dolphins, but my favorite
thing was feeding the expectant moms over in the dolphin nursery. It's not like they did anything but swim and eat, but working with
Calli (sp?) was just SO cool and she was just SO beautiful. There seemed to be something different between her and the other dolphins I
had worked with over the two days.
Of course, the people we worked with were wonderful, too. Honestly, I can't remember everyone's name and if I mention those I can
remember and forget some of the others, I'll probably get chewed up for it. ;) They were a great group of people and we were treated
differently at SeaWorld than we were at Discovery Cove. At Discovery Cove, we were paying customers. At SeaWorld, they acted like we
belonged there, made us feel comfortable, and that we were more than just customers.
Barb had left us for part of the dolphin parts, but eventually she came back and took us over to get in the water and feed some carrots
to the manatees. Very strange, but very cool, even though one kept trying to eat me! ;) lol This one manatee kept nibbling on my
boots and sucking at my knees, trying to find more treats I think. Barb told us that their teeth are further back in their mouths, so it
never could really bite me, but it just felt so funny I couldn't help laughing. Josh, once again, found an animal he didn't like too much
and was out of the water rather quickly.
When we were done, it was around 10:30ish? so we headed back to shower and change out of our wetsuits. Thank heavens for
that! A bit after 11am or so, we headed to have lunch with the employees and Barb brought us our boxed lunches. It was pretty good,
a drink, turkey lettuce and tomato on a croissant, potato salad, and 3 beige desserts. The sandwich was more than enough for me and Josh
had fun playing, I mean eating, the rice krispie squares. We hung out there for a while having lunch with a bunch of people, some of
whom we had worked with earlier in the day.
After lunch, we hopped on a golf cart and went over to do some stuff with the sea lions. We went behind the scenes first and there was a
harbor seal, Jessica, behind a "gate" in the hallway waiting for the vet to come look at her eye. When we went to the other end of the
hall, they "gated" her near the entrance, where there was a push cart with stuff on it. While we were at the other end of the hallway
working with Otis, she climbed up on the bottom shelf of the cart as if to say, "I'm ready to go, get me out of this hallway!" It was so
adorable.
Anyway, after we worked down there for a bit, we went up to the exhibit. If you've ever been at SeaWorld at the Pacific Point
Preserve when all of a sudden, all the sea lions take off to the other side of the exhibit because the trainers are feeding them the
big fish - well, we got to do that feeding. And if you're the family who thought it'd be great to stand close to us and watch us feed
them, we're really sorry about hitting your boy with the slimy, cold, dead fish and when you didn't move after the first time it happened,
and we accidentally did it again, we're still very sorry. (tee hee hee)
Around 1:15ish? we made our way over to Wild Arctic to do the last of our last animal encounters. After the introductions, and figuring
out which guy with the mustache was Jeff so I could sing Happy Birthday to him, we put on the Wild Arctic Base Station red coats. I
know, in Florida, in July you don't need coats, but we because after all, we were going into the "Arctic". LOL Anyway, we got to do a
bit of work with the Beluga Whales who were a bit skittish but still neat to work with. We shed our red coats and headed over to the
Polar Bears, behind glass of course as there is NO human contact with the polar bears. Did you know polar bears hair isn't white?? Next
we went to visit the Walrus, Garfield. Wow - Very Cool! Jeff did a great job showing us around and talking to us about everything, but
like with everything else, if it wasn't hands on, Josh seem to be off in another world. Oh well, I still found it all very interesting! I
am surprised how quickly I fell in love with each animal we worked with. Kind of like when you go to the pet store and go "awww, look
at that one" over each and every animal, but on a much BIGGER scale! :D
It was around 2:15ish? when we basically finished our program. All we had to do was head back to get our stuff out of the lockers, then
go to the front of the park to take a peak at our pictures. Getting our pictures was THE WORST part of the day. The photo staff was very
unorganized, unfriendly, and it took at least a half an hour for us to get our package. There are no words to express how awful it was.
Once we got the pictures, Barb walked us out the main entrance and over to the taxi/bus pick-up area. Roger was, once again, waiting
there for us and Barb walked us right up to the van. We said our thank yous and goodbyes and headed back to the hotel and napped for a
while.
We went to the food court for supper and when we got back to the room to change to go swimming, I ask Josh to get his key for us to take to
the pool since it has no charging privileges. After some searching, he informs me that he can't find it or the ziplock pouch it was in.
Oh and his park pass was in that too. ggrrrrrrrr Since we got his ticket replaced on Tuesday, I didn't have a copy of the back of it.
I figured it was as good as gone, so I sent him to the pool while I went to the front desk to get a new room key. I told them about the
pass, that I didn't buy it on property, didn't have a copy and they said to check with Guest Services at one of the Parks anyway,
sometimes they work miracles.
When I got to the pool, I told Josh what they said and told him that if they couldn't replace it, I would buy him tickets for Epcot &
Magic Kingdom for Saturday, but that he would have to pay me back when we got home. He asked how much that was going to be and I told
him around $125. You should have seen his face! LOL
We went swimming and I actually hit the hot tub tonight. Though it was hot and humid all day, and still pretty warm at night, after a
half an hour in the pool, the hot tub felt great. Back to the room, a quick call home for Josh, and lights out by 10pm.
Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
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