Every now and then I love being able to offer my blog up to a talented friend and today is one of those special days! I’m excited to welcome my friend, April Mayrath, to The sTORIbook! She recently visited Seaworld San Antonio Halloween Spooktacular event with her beautiful family and was gracious enough to share her experience with us!
SeaWorld San Antonio has a special place in my heart – I remember dressing up with my best friend to go see a Paula Abdul concert at SeaWorld when I was 11 and it being one of the most exciting events of my young childhood! I’ve always loved the interactive animal exhibits and shows, and of course, Shamu. But what I’ve been the most excited about lately is being able to share these types of fun experiences with my son Miles (now 20 months old). So naturally, I jumped at the chance to attend SeaWorld’s Halloween Spooktacular last weekend, and it did not disappoint!
As soon as we entered the park, we noticed that everything was all decked out for Halloween – from the characters dressed up in theme to the hay bales and pumpkins placed throughout the park for the perfect photo op. We stopped at several of the designated food and merchandise vendors that were handing out candy for trick-or-treaters. It was a little too hot for Miles to wear his lion costume, so we opted for his snoopy Halloween t-shirt instead. He loved trick-or-treating!
Along the way, we ran into the Ports of Skull pirates, who were cracking jokes and mingling with the kids. Next stop was the Sesame Street Bay of Play, where we caught one of the Halloween-themed shows featuring Elmo, Zoe, The Count and Cookie Monster. Miles had a great time dancing along with the characters.
Then, we checked out the “Pets Ahoy” show. This was definitely the highlight of the day. The SeaWorld staff trains shelter pets to do tricks and choreographed stunts, and you could tell by the crowd’s reaction that everyone was so impressed by what these animals could do!
Then we hit up the hay maze, complete with scarecrows, a Halloween princess and big “snow” (leaf) globe at the end for photo ops. Miles was really unsure about the hay maze and scarecrows, so we didn’t actually make it to the end!
The icing on the cake was the SeaWorld Express Halloween train. Miles is absolutely obsessed with trains, so we knew we couldn’t miss this one. It was a bit of a trek, located all the way over by the Howl-O-Scream exhibits near Shamu stadium, but so worth it. Miles went 3 times around, and cried when we told him we had to leave!
Next year, we will definitely pick a costume that he can wear on a hot day, and enter the Spooktacular costume contest – we really saw some creative costumes!
SeaWorld’s Spooktacular occurs select days this year from Sept. 30 – Oct. 30 from 10am – 7pm. Children over the age of 13 can attend the more intense “Howl-O-Scream” starting at 7pm. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.
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