We’ve managed to go to SeaWorld San Antonio three times now this year. Every time we go I fall more in love with it!
I received an email inviting me to attend the SeaWorld Christmas Celebration in exchange for writing and sharing about it, and jumped at the occasion to spoil my children and take them back to SeaWorld.
I took my 8 months pregnant self and the three oldest kids, 7, 7, and 4, with me, to check out the 8 million twinkling LED lights – the largest lighting display in the state of Texas – the Christmas-themed shows, and even to enjoy dinner with Santa and Mrs. Claus.
I made sure we arrived with plenty of time to catch the first Shamu show. My son hadn’t seen it yet, and it’s my absolute favorite show at SeaWorld. And the Christmas show was amazing.
They had live vocalists and musicians playing Christmas songs, had a beautiful message (presented by little kids via video) about miracles, and were definitely focusing on the true meaning of Christmas – the birth of Jesus Christ, which I thought was awesome (they also had a giant nativity display in the park too). I don’t know what it was exactly, but I got very emotional during the show. It could be the crazy pregnancy hormones, or the joy I felt watching my son experience these amazing and awesome animals in person (he loves sea creatures, especially huge ones) for the first time, or the beautiful music, but I found myself crying during the killer whale show. Which is not something that usually happens to me.
My kids were only disappointed when the killer whales didn’t splash huge amounts of water onto the crowd at the end of the show like they did to them back in April when we went for their birthday. I’m assuming they aren’t doing that since it’s “Christmastime” even though the day was super warm (up to 81 degrees) and sunny. I was fine not getting wet and loved our seats right in front of the side platform where the whales come out of the water. I loved seeing into their open mouths!
My daughter Alison wanted to ride their newest roller coaster ride Wave Breaker, which I rode back when it opened with Lisa but Alison was too afraid to get on at the time. She even rode it by herself (I’m very pregnant or I’d have joined her and Lisa decided she didn’t’ want to go this time). And she was super excited about and loved it! She wanted to go again!
At night the kids wanted to spend time in the mini rides part, so we stood in lines and they patiently waited for their turns to go on a mini Sesame Street themed Ferris wheel, the Merry-Go-Round, and the Shamu roller coaster.
The Shamu roller coaster was a big deal for my son, as it was his first roller coaster experience, at the age of four, as he was just tall enough to go on. The twins wanted to ride together, so he actually rode the ride by himself (no one sat next to him – again, I’m too pregnant) and had an awesome time. He’s been telling people he was super scared to go on it, but I assure you, he was only excited to go on it, and came off super happy and proud of himself. He also likes to tell everyone that it went super fast (it didn’t).
At 5pm we got to inside Mr. and Mrs. Claus’ home for a special dinner and story. I loved being able to sit down in air conditioning for an hour and enjoy an all-you-can-eat holiday dinner of carved turkey, roast beef, ham, delicious mashed potatoes, spinach salad, and a variety of desserts! Plus, there were soda and rich hot chocolate (which my kids guzzled down). Elfs and a mime mingled with us as we ate, and were eventually joined by Mrs. Claus and then Mr. Claus himself.
Santa sat down by the fireplace display and they pulled out some carpet squares and the kids sat down to listen to him read Twas the Night Before Christmas. It was pretty neat to be able to hear Santa himself read a story…. about himself! It’s not every day you get to hear Santa tell you a story. We were then able to get pictures with Santa too.
My daughter Alison told him that she didn’t need any presents because she already had the best gift – her family. My son asked for a big blue ball like he used to have.
We also made it to the Clyde and Seymour sea lion show, which was holiday-themed too. My son hadn’t seen this one before either, and it’s a fun, spunky cast so it’s very enjoyable.
The SeaWorld Christmas Celebration is awesome and the lights at night are everywhere and gorgeous and unique! They even have live reindeer, reindeer games, and photo opportunities with characters from the classic 1960’s “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” television special. You can even do a Dinner with Rudolph and Friends instead of the Dinner with Santa that we did.
If you are in Texas from now until January 2, 2018, I definitely recommend you head to SeaWorld Christmas Celebration in San Antonio!
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