In the middle of my grocery shopping at HEB, a familiar face came across from the register. You know the tear off coupons at your local store? Well, HEB is benefiting environmental groups this month, and Bat Conservation International is one of them. BCI, one of the partners of the SeaWorld-Busch Gardens Conservation Fund, has coupons for customers to donate to BCI via your normal trip to the store. I am so excited to have friends at BCI and hope that the donations at HEB are a huge success! Every summer, team members from the park go out to Bracken Cave, which is owned by BCI and The Nature Conservancy. Bracken Cave is twenty minutes outside of downtown San Antonio-and home to over twenty million Mexican free-tailed bats. That means that the cave is home to the largest grouping of mammals in the world! Check out what other environmental organizations are benefiting from this campaign this month at Earthshare‘s site.
April 27, 2009 by AnnaLisaAguirre • Comments Off Posted in Earth Day Every Day
As the San Antonio City Manager, Sheryl Sculley, made the official declaration of Stage One on April 10th, SeaWorld was listening. Several of SeaWorld’s management had already developed the park’s Water Conservation Plan and had submitted the plan to the San Antonio Water System.
Drought restrictions for San Antonio, which already has a year-round conservation ordinance, are quite stringent. Many of the restrictions, however, are everyday practices for our park. Under restrictions, water waste is prohibited; at SeaWorld we are always watching how our water is being used and we are always finding new ways to reuse our water or reduce consumption. SeaWorld reduces our landscape watering by at least 20% in our formal park area, and our “back of the house” area goes without water. Instead of going green, we go brown!
We also use the drought to our advantage to help educate our team members and our visitors. We use our condensation water in our park fountains and have signs placed in front of the fountain that lets our team and guests know that we are in drought conditions and encourage them to conserve water.
Sign in front of our main park fountain, Compass Rose
This life-giving natural resource has always been an integral part of our park and we consistently look for new and innovative ways to save our water. We love the opportunity to spread the word on how others can conserve water too! What are some of the ways that you can save water?
April 22, 2009 by FranStephenson • Comments Off Posted in Events
Happy Birthday Earth!
Let’s all join in celebrating Earth Day by sharing the wonder of our natural world, just like these two kids caught in a moment at our Sharks/The Coral Reef exhibit. In San Antonio, many businesses are looking at new ways of going green. Here are some Earth Day specials in our community. Farther afield, USA Today has a great portal for green news, with some cool widgets for downloading green news to your computer desktop or cell phone. If you’re thinking of doing some activities with your kids, check out the US Government’s Earth Day portal . Every action, no matter how small, will help to preserve the earth for future generations.
At SeaWorld San Antonio, camping is a JOB! And there’s no one more passionate about our animals and programs than Chance Sanford, Manager of Education and Conservation. Chance has been with SeaWorld as a team member for more than 10 years, but his first experience at our park goes back to when he was 15 years old and came to a SeaWorld camp for the very first time. He’s in charge of everything camp – day camps, resident camps and sleepovers. He even met his wife here. Last year, he successfully worked with the Alamo Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America to offer a combined sleepover/badge program. We have had such great success with local Girl Scout programs that it was a natural progression. In case you were wondering if a summer job can lead to a career working with animals, the answer is a resounding YES! Chance is just one of 20 team members whose voices will be heard in What’s Under the Sea in the coming months. Enjoy Chance’s video profile.
About 1,000 kids from Catholic schools all over San Antonio are pouring through the front gate of SeaWorld. I heard the kids chanting to their chaperones and teachers, “Dolphins, dolphins, dolphins.” Carefully examining the map, the chaperones and teachers abided to the students’ requests and started their day by visiting Dolphin Cove.
While SeaWorld may be closed to the public, the Education & Conservation department still has programs going on year round. Today we are conducting the Instructional Field Experience (IFE). “IFE’s are a truly educational experience,” Kelly Morales, Education & Conservation department manager of the IFE programs, states. “Only the animal venues staffed by our education team members are open, and two animal presentations discussing ecosystems and adaptations are performed.” In fact, Kelly sends schools who are participating in the IFE education information including activities, book lists and more that are all aligned with the TEKS to be used before, during and after their visit.
St. Thomas More is one of the schools attending the 7th Annual Catholic School Day IFE. Michelle Allen, Vice Principal and 4th-grade teacher at St. Thomas More, expressed the following about the IFE, “Most of the students that attend would not normally have the opportunity to visit SeaWorld, and you can’t replace the experience of seeing the animals in person versus reading about them in the classroom.”
It was obvious as I visited the killer whale presentation; these students are experiencing something that just can’t be replicated in the classroom. I think Rick Gray, the educator conducting the presentation, said it best, “It’s the reactions on the kid’s faces the first time they see Shamu that makes this job so rewarding.” I most certainly agree.
Today I proudly showed off two of our coasters. We had a visitor from our sister park Busch Gardens Africa in Tampa visiting SeaWorld San Antonio this week for training. Since we had a few minutes to kill today before his training started, I took him to ride the Steel Eel , which he’d been eyeing since the last time he visited for training. It was a blast and, as usual, the team members working the ride were wonderfully friendly! We also took a ride on my personal favorite SeaWorld San Antonio coaster, The Great White . I had so much fun comparing coaster stories and even having some friendly banter about who has the better rides and rides teams.
One of the things I enjoy most about my job is I getting meet new people and learn about the inner workings of our sister parks from the people who work there everyday. My new coaster buddy gave me tips for my Florida vacation planning, which coasters he thought I would like, etc.
While we were talking, I kept thinking, I’m glad SeaWorld San Antonio has a new site where guests can go to get the same kind of insider info I was now getting from my friend. We just launched What’s Under the Sea this week, the new SeaWorld San Antonio blog. Our blog team is made up of team members from areas around the park, including animal training, operations, education, even the park’s General Manager contributes to the new blog.
What’s Under the Sea will feature, among the many topics, a photo of the week, a column about community happenings and will even showcase green initiatives at SeaWorld San Antonio. The new blog site encompasses several social media tools including a live Twitter feed from our blog team. And best of all, you don’t even have to work here to get all the fun inside stories, tips and tricks about the SeaWorld San Antonio.
This week’s Photo of the Week was taken during the Alamo Area Hospitality Association and San Antonio Hotel and Lodging Association luncheon held at SeaWorld Tuesday. These two industry organizations are great partners for SeaWorld. Their monthly luncheons rotate around San Antonio locations and the beautiful spring weather and tropical setting of the park’s Lost Lagoon waterpark were perfect for the occasion. Lost Lagoon is now open. Enjoy the rest of the photos from this event.
Twenty-one years ago SeaWorld San Antonio opened its doors to the public. Today we open a new door, and a new chapter, with Under the Sea. We’ve been planning for this day for months, working with a team of incredible voices for SeaWorld San Antonio.You can meet the SeaWorld San Antonio Blog Team in our video.They come from a variety of departments: park operations, animal training, marketing, education, business analysis and communications, to name a few. Each of them has a passion for their subject and a keen interest in the technology that will drive this initiative in the coming months and years.
As you get to know the team, you will enjoy hearing about our park’s amazing internal culture and enjoy events as they happen here.
To create a lively and thought-provoking forum in which readers can get an inside look at SeaWorld San Antonio: its values, its culture, its animals and the personality of its team members. This includes covering the wider community in which SWSA exists; including San Antonio, its corporate parent and the wider travel, aquarium and entertainment industry.
Welcome to Under the Sea. We’re looking forward to getting to know you and hope to hear from you as we start our journey.
April 14, 2009 by admin • Comments Off Posted in News
We are glad that you have come to interact with us on our blog, “What’s Under the Sea?” At SeaWorld San Antonio, our team members consider our guests as a part of our big, extended family.
We hope this blog will be a lively and thought-provoking forum in which you can get an inside look at SeaWorld San Antonio: its values, its culture, its animals and its team members’ personalities. Conversely, we hope to get to know you, our guest, and interact more directly with you.
SeaWorld San Antonio is ready for this holiday weekend! We are ready to go for this and I wanted to let everyone know about just some of the fun things you can do while visiting with us at the park.
For the little kids in the family, this is the last weekend you can catch Big Bird’s Beach Party. The very last show is at 3 p.m. on Monday. Shamu’s Splashin’ Beach Party in Lost Lagoon has some new moves and will get the little ones up and dancing, spending some of that amazing kid energy.
For the whole family, including the big kids (some folks use the term grown-ups, but does anyone REALLY grow up? I don’t think so!) we plan to make sure all of the rides are open for those beloved thrills, chills and splashes. Lost Lagoon is now open for the season on weekends and there are plenty of great water slides to help any coaster fan cool off.
I also wanted to pass on a few tips and tricks for getting the most out of your SeaWorld San Antonio visit, especially during a holiday weekend:
* SeaWorld’s parking lot opens at 8 a.m. You can beat the crowds by heading to the park early.
* When driving to SeaWorld, consider departing earlier or allow extra time for the large volume of holiday traffic.
* The Entrance Plaza at SeaWorld opens at 9 a.m. You will be able to enjoy several park areas, including the Clydesdale Hamlet, Sharks/The Coral Reef exhibit and Dolphin Cove. Get in early and feed the dolphins before the heat of the day. Trays of fish can be purchased when Dolphin Cove opens.
* If you are planning on a day of rides, hit the park early and do the rides first. The latest any of SeaWorld’s rides open during this holiday weekend is noon.
* When planning your dining times at SeaWorld San Antonio, keep in mind that peak period for park guests to stop and eat is between 1:00 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.
* For more insider tips, as you enter our gates, tune into SeaWorld’s radio station – 96.5 FM.
Wave TV is SeaWorld’s bi-weekly video feature program created for team members. Wave TV debuted in 2005 and was originally conceived to showcase park events for team members as they rode the shuttle bus to their workstation. Last year, this award-winning communications program moved to the SeaWorld YouTube channel; now everyone can share the program. Check out what’s new behind the scenes at SeaWorld San Antonio.
