Trip Report and Beluga Interaction Programme - SeaWorld Texas - 30th December 2009

Wuhay. We went to SeaWorld today. Finally done all the SeaWorld's!
Hm, this one had the least there tbh. There's a dolphin feeding pool. God, there was this really fat dolphin, t'was huge! But there was a Wolphin! That was pretty rad. A false killer whale/dolphin hybrid I presume. But yeah, I hate the whole feeding concept. I didn't participate.
Yeah, there's also sea lions, horses, alligators, otters, penguins, fish and rollar coasters. The beluga habitat was under construction apparently, so no show.
The only show there really was, was Shamu stadium. Me, mum and Dave got a seat right infront of the right slide out. The show was Miracles rather than Believe. Lool there were all these pre-show carol singers.
Yeah, so in the show were Unna, Tuar, Keet and Kyuquot. Weirdly no Takara. Tuar mostly and Keet were used on our side of the slide out. I noticed Tuar had what looked like a new cut across his right eyepatch. And there looked like blood came out of his mouth, at the start of the show. Weird huh? Maybe it was fish...?
Huh, the show was alright. Thankfully we didn't get wet :P. So after the Shamu show I did a Beluga Interaction Programme :). We went round the back of the Viva stadium and saw the Pacific White Sided Dolphins. There was a really young calf too, so cute! So we got wet suited up, there was a group of 4 of us, and we got divided into 2's. I was weith a girl called Kristen. Our 'luga's were Oliver, Sikku and Luna. Sikku was Oliver's mom, Oliver was only about 2 and Luna was 9. OMG the water was freezing! Lol.
We got to do plenty of rub downs and tossing fish. It was alot of fun, we got to make them wave, sing, splash, find tickle spots, 'walk like a dolphin' and 'cat walk' and photo opportunities - like a kiss from a 'luga, holding their fin and posing. There was also a few in-water encounters. I had to step off the ledge, hold on to Sikku's pecs and she spun me around. It was rad :). And I layed on my front and back and kicked and the 'luga coped too.
At the end, both groups combined to say bye and the 'lugas completely soaked us lol. And there was this young baby, Keano?, having his own session and kept knocking around a bit lol.
Yeah so after the encounter, I got dressed, picked up the photos and then left!

Beluga Encounter - Mystic Aquarium - 19th August 2004

Place: Mystic Aquarium
Date: 19th August 2004
Species: Beluga
Main Cetacean Name: Inuk
Other Cetacean Name: -
Trainer: Justin
Time in pool: 20 minutes

At 2:30 it was time for my Beluga Encounter! Our trainer, Justin, took the six of us to a room. We put our waders on, but mine was too small >.<. We then talked about Belugas, Cetaceans and stuff, and finally we went in the water at 3:05.
Our Beluga was Inuk, he is such a sweetie! A few weeks before, during an encounter, someone fell on the poor guy and he got totally spooked out, but he did an awesome job with us!
We got in the water with him and then gave him a rub down and then gave him a pat on the tongue. We then got to stroke his teeth, they were quite blunt. We then got to choose if we wanted to be splashed or feel him suck your hand. I wanted to be splashed, but Justin made me do the other thing. I clenched my fist, put it by Inuk's mouth, and then he sucked my fingers in his mouth! I didn't expect it at all, it felt so funny! We then got to look inside of his mouth and watched him swallow some fish, and then Justin made him sing. He sounded so cute! We then got to have a pose photo with Inuk, got to wiggle his rails and touch his fluke. After 20 mins in the water we got out. It was such an awesome experience!!!