Since I have the day off so I decide to go and get Josie and Kyle and take them on a tour of SeaWorld!! I swing by to get Kyle first and then to aunt Susie's house and grab Josie and head back to SeaWorld. First we head to Dolphin Cove and I see my favorite dolphins Lilly and Jenever! I walk up to the fish station and show my trainer badge and hold up 3 fingers. the man behind the desk gives me 3 fish trays and I take out my whistle and let myself in the gate and tap the water and about 8 dolphins come over. Lilly, Jenever, Tiger, Turk, Aurora, Scott, Liko, and Roka. I give a signal to everyone but Lilly, Jen, and Tiger and the rest leave.
I have Kyle step up to the edge and then Josie. I give Kyle, Tiger and a bowl of fish.
"Josie, do you want Lilly or Jenever?" I ask her
"Lilly!!!" she says excitedly I bring Lilly over to my left and hand Josie the bowl of fish.
"Ok remember you have to hold their rostrum when you give them a fish." I turn around so my back is facing the dolphins."this signal is to jump" showing the check mark signal " this is to whistle, this is to breach on their side, and this is to spin," I say showing the different signals .
They give each of their dolphins different signals rewarding them after every time. We soon leave dolphin cove and head over to Blue Horizons for the 10:00am show. It's so nice being able to watch a show instead of be in the show! but I wouldn't trade my job for the world! We sit in the soak zone and Josie takes out her camera to take more pictures, this girl takes too many pictures!!
The show is beautiful as always and we take pictures with Chelsea and Kyle who played were the two main trainers in the show Marina and Delphis! we then head over to Clyde and Seamore! as we walk in the mime isn't there yet and the stadium is close to empty! we take our seats in the front row on the right part of the middle bleachers! The mine soon comes out to make fun of everyone and everything! we all have a good laugh before the show starts!
Then the show starts! It's great to watch,very funny, but I haven't seen this show is a few years! Oops! I didn't love this show as a kid but I always thought it was funny, but pointless.. so I'm not surprised I haven't seen it in forever. After the show Morgan, a sea lion trainer comes out to meet us! She brought out Conor the sealion and we got to interact with him! We took pictures of us holding his hand, getting kissed on the cheek and hugging him! I thanked Morgan and told her to come to Shamu Stadium tomorrow to return the favor! She agreed and we went on to our next destination.
It was 12:40 so we decide to have lunch at Sharks Underwater Grill! We all order off the kids menu and get chicken nuggets and Mac and cheese! After we eat I show the waiter my park badge and they only make you pay 50% of your meal! I pay the $10 and we choose to head over to Shamu Stadium. we get to the UWV and Tilikum, Taima and Malia are there playing with toys. I see a lot of people there so I decide to put on a show!
"Hi everybody my name's Jen and I'm a trainer here at SeaWorld! I'm off work today but would you guys like to help me interact with the whales!?" I talk to the crowd and Josie pulls a pad of sticky notes from her back and a bunch of pens
"This big guy is Tilikum, the smaller whale is Taima and the baby is Taima's daughter, Malia!" I ask Tili and Tai to wave their pecs. I blow my whistle and clap at them. I look over and Josie has pulled out everything from her bag, bouncy balls, frisbees, yo-yos, slinkies, 3 stuffed animals, the pad of sticky notes and pens and even some window paint.. leave it up to my sister to be prepared!
"Ok everyone! come over to my brother Kyle to my right and you can paint on the windows for Taima and Malia or stay here and get sticky notes and a pen and write to Tili!! These are all forms of EEDs or environmental enrichment device! Which is basically anything to keep them mentally stimulated! Like toys and other fun things!" The people move into 2 groups and take the fun things and start to write on the windows. Malia is watching a little girl paint a flower and Taima is watching a man write his name and drawn a whale. Tilikum is very interactive with this little boy who is taking his sticky note and running around with it, sticking it to the window, taking it off, then running around some more! So amazing to watch a giant with a little kid. soon everyone leaves and Josie gets her extra stuff back. we leave everything up on the windows for the whales to watch.
I put my hand up to the window and watch as Taima puts her nose where my hand is. My sister quickly snaps a picture. We say goodbye and head over to Wild Arctic. We do the ride which is always fun to do! After we go through the animals and we have a contest on who can keep their hand on the ice the longest. I win obviously because I'm used to freezing water, ice and frozen fish. We head down to the beluga UWV and interact with Maple and Whisper, which is a very rare experience. After that we were pretty bored so we left the park and went to KFC for dinner and then I dropped Kyle and Josie off. I head back to work and park in the employee parking lot, lock my car and head back into the park. I make my way to Shamu Stadium which was just finishing up the last show of the night. I go to the UWV and Tilikum is circling endlessly. I feel kinda bad for him so I walk over to the glass and sit down, tapping on the window. I see they took down our sticky notes and paint. Tili comes over curiously and I wave to him before pointing upwards and standing up and running up the stairs to the back pool.
I sit behind the little wall edge and Tilikum swims over to me vocalizing.
"Hi sweet boy, how are you doing?" I asking not really expecting a response. He spy hops to get a better look at me and a sit up on my knees trying to copy him. He sinks back under the water and blows bubbles. When he comes up I touch his nose and he opens his mouth sticking his tongue out at me. I do the same to him still copying him and he makes a high pitch sound and shakes his head up and down. I shake my head yes, seeing that he seems to find me copying him funny. I hold out my hands and he places his rostrum in them, I give him a quick kiss and wave goodbye. I head into my room and go strait to the shower. After that I put on a pair of comfy shorts and a very oversized tee shirt and lay on my bed. I grab my phone and see that Josie uploaded almost all of the photos she look, I look at each one before shutting off the lights and going to sleep for a long 18 hour work day tomorrow.
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Life of a Shamu trainer!
Random"Hi I'm Jennifer, everyone calls me Jen! This is my life as a Shamu Trainer!" Jennifer has loved whales since she was 5 years old and she first went to SeaWorld San Diego! She got to interact with a whale named Takara. For the past 18 years Jennife...
