Sea Life Park - Hawaii
Written: Jun 20 '00 (Updated Jun 23 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great for kids
Cons: Expensive
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| hikini's Full Review: Hawaii |
Sea Life Park is a fun place to go if you have your kids with you in Hawaii. It's on the Southeastern tip of the island of Oahu, about a 30 minute drive from Waikiki.
After you've paid your admittance price of about $25 per adult and $12 for children 4-12 (3 and under are free) you will come to the reef tank.
In the reef tank you can watch the divers feed the thousands of fish, etc. that live in this 300,000 gallon aquarium. The neat thing about this is that you enter at ground level and begin to descend in a circle. So you have the feeling of being in the aquarium. You exit the reef tank and have a choice of several directions to go.
When you enter, you are given a show schedule which can help you decide which direction to go. The different shows are as follows:
Hawaii Ocean Theater
Sea Lions, Penguins and Dolphins entertain you by doing tricks and little acts in this open-air theater. There are several trainers who are there and they speak in both English and Japanese if there is a large number of Japanese tourists in the audience. When we were there, they asked for volunteers to play volleyball with the Dolphins. 3 Japanese women volunteered and went down to the edge of the tank. A trainer threw a large beach ball to a Dolphin and he promptly slapped his tail hard on the water and the 3 volunteers got more than a little wet.
Kolohe Kai Surf Club
This was one of my favorite shows of the day. 3 trained Sea Lions did most of their tricks on a 'surfboard' or with a surfboard theme. They were very entertaining with their little antics, especially so when the audience laughed and clapped, the Sea Lions would nod their heads and clap for themselves.
Whaler's Cove
A man-made lagoon is the setting for this performance. A replica of a whaling ship is in the lagoon and there is a little island where there is a grass hut. There are several dolphins who perform here, some of them jumping high into the air. There is a small outrigger canoe on the little island and 2 people posing as young lovers get pulled around the lagoon in the canoe, by the dolphins.
There are several areas throughout the park where there are birds and turtles and sea creatures who have been hurt or become ill out in the wild and brought here for sanctuary. Some of them are treated and released back into the wild, others are here to stay for good, as it would be too dangerous for them to be released. (Birds missing a wing or a foot, etc.)
The kids will like the Sea Lion feeding pool where the Sea Lions noisily wait for guests to throw them a herring. They compete with each other by getting louder and louder or slapping the water as they anticipate the next herring to be thrown. This can be quite funny.
The touch pool is a place where you can feel the little sea creatures if you desire to do so. Sea Cucumbers, Seastars, etc.
There are a couple gift shops, albeit, they are expensive. There are also a couple of restaurants - again expensive. I can't say anything about them as far as the food goes because we didn't eat there. They have a few fast food stands throughout the park where you can get shave ice or soft drinks and other such fare.
I recommend this park if you have kids. It's not as entertaining for the adults, in my opinion. It is a wonderful place for the kids to learn about sea life and to get a close-up, even hands-on education.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hikini
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Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 218
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Taking a long sabbatical.
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