My absolute favorite time of year here is Halloween. Spring opening is nice; everything is fresh and new again. Summer is great (but too HOT this year) because Summer Nights gives us new shows. Sea Lions Tonight is funny! Our new Christmas and holiday season is pretty cool—snow in South Texas!
But Howl-O-Scream is a blast. It’s cooler (literally and figuratively), the sets and props are fun and our scare squad is on top of their game. This year Howl-O-Scream is going to be bigger and better than ever before with two new areas and new ideas. We are way into Howl-O-Scream planning now; we just need some ghastly talent and the time is now to get your “ghoul” on.
If you or your friends think you’re scary, you might want to join our Scare Squad. Auditions are taking place every Friday and Saturday through September 5 from 5 – 8 p.m. Participants should register at the Human Resources office. Scare Squad team members must be available for all trainings and Howl-O-Scream dates.
Current Sea World team members are eligible to audition and can probably even work in both your current position and for our Entertainment department.
No experience is necessary. If anyone thinks they have zombie qualities or can howl at the moon, call our Entertainment department at 523-3309 to have all your questions answered.
If you are a SeaWorld San Antonio annual pass member, plan to come out to Lost Lagoon water park, August 19th from 7 – 9 P.M. and enjoy some free time in the wave pool, lazy river or watch the movie Surf’s Up in Castaway Café while you munch on some popcorn.
Yes, popcorn will be available for this one time event in Lost Lagoon along with most other regular menu items. As always your 10% discount will apply. This special evening is just for you and your family, so enjoy.
Guests enjoy a complimentary cup of water at the Operation Hydration Station in front of Shamu Theater
San Antonio is known for its hot summers and 2009 has been no exception. Actually, it has been one for the record books! With thirty-five days of 100°+ temperatures, San Antonio is within one day of surpassing an all time record.
Here at SeaWorld, we know how important it is to find a way to beat the heat. Even though our guests can get a chilly 55° splash by Shamu or stand in the splash zone at Journey to Atlantis and get drenched by a tidal wave of water, we want to ensure that our guests had a way to stay hydrated and cool between shows and rides.
This summer, SeaWorld San Antonio has added several “cool zones” to the park. One of our biggest additions has been our Operation Hydration stations that provide free ice cold water to our guests. Our main station can be found in front of Shamu Theater; here guests can refill souvenir mugs, personal bottles or enjoy one of our complimentary cups. Additional stations are set up on the weekends in the queue lines at Rio Loco, Texas Splashdown, and Journey to Atlantis.
Another great addition that is loved by guests and team members alike is the Port-o-Cool Walkway in front of the Animal Connection Center (formally known as Shamu Too)! This walkway is lined with six outdoor air conditioning units that stand almost six feet tall and give off a continuous breeze of cool air. Not a bad place to visit when temperatures are hovering around 104°!
We also added extra fans in the queue houses at Texas Splashdown and Rio Loco to help keep our guests cool while they wait in line. You will also find misters in the queue lines of Steel Eel and Great White as well as the entrances to Viva and Sea Lion Stadium!
While we can’t turn the heat off in Texas, SeaWorld has found multiple ways to help keep guests hydrated and cool so everyone can enjoy their visit. Remember to drink plenty of water and wear your sunscreen! We look forward to seeing you around the park!
Have I told you lately that I am honored to be the military rep for SeaWorld San Antonio?
We receive so many letters of thanks from families that have enjoyed their complimentary visit with us through the Here’s to the Heroes offer. Below is a photo of one of those Heroes that visited with us in April and a letter from his mother, Ulli Dunn…
U.S. Soldier sharing a little SeaWorld with children in Iraq
“I thought you would enjoy this picture of Shamu in Iraq. Shamu was purchased when my son was using his “Hero Salute” tickets in April.
This is my son. He is getting ready to board his helicopter. They have stuffed animals, candy and school supplies in their helicopters and when they fly over children; they drop these articles out of the helicopter.
I wonder who is holding Shamu today; it is a heartwarming feeling to think that these children will no longer think of a helicopter as something bad.
Thank you and everyone at SeaWorld etc. for all you do for our heroes.”
When I called Ulli to get permission to tell you this story, she mentioned that her own first piece of candy was from a U.S. Soldier when she was just a child in Germany. It touches her heart, and ours, that her son is now extending the same act of kindness for a new generation of children. Her son said that they are now seeing entire families coming out waving at them.
SeaWorld San Antonio will be sending more items to be dropped to the children by this hero, we are calling it the “Operation Shamu Rocks Iraq” mission.
I’ll be sure to keep you posted as we hear back from Iraq.
And along the same lines, click here to read a story about a mom that brought her children here to spend some time with us before deploying again.
SeaWorld San Antonio is kicking up the heat with a Latin-themed music celebration
SeaWorld San Antonio is preparing to heat up the stage at Nautilus Amphitheater for Viva La Musica, presented Sept. 12, 19 and 26. Viva La Musica celebrates the best in Latin-themed music and cuisine with street festival flare.
Banda El Recodo,aMexican folk music band, plays at SeaWorld Saturday, Sept. 12 at 6 p.m. David Lee Garza will perform avariety of Tejano music with his accordion Saturday, Sept. 19 at 5 p.m. as the opening act for the Kumbia All Starz, aCumbia music group, who take the stage at 6 p.m. Make sure to come back to the park on Saturday, Sept. 26 to hear the famous Latin pop singer, Gloria Trevi at 6 p.m.
Viva La Musica’s menu includes chicken and beef fajitas, Mexican-style rice, chicken and cheese quesadillas, sausage wraps, sausage-on-a-stick, corn-on-the-cob, fried jalapeno poppers, Budweiser borracho beans, pastries, fruit cups with chile, along with Pepsi products, Anheuser-Busch products and more.
Make sure to get your *wristband on the day of the event at Nautilus Amphitheater. Check out www.seaworld.com or call (800) 700-7786 to learn more about these great concert opportunities.
*Wristband is required and will be issued day of concert at Nautilus Amphitheater beginning at 9 a.m., while supplies last. Seating is limited and on a first-come, first-served basis. Concert times, dates and talent subject to change without notice. Additional charges apply for food and merchandise.
SeaWorld guests are used to seeing flips, somersaults, and jumps from whales and sea lions, but since 2001 the VIVA show has showcased these same behaviors performed by human. These talented artists come from 11 states and two countries and are a separate group from the people who train and perform with the animals. The beauty of this blog is that you have the opportunity to meet team members and get to know them. And that’s what we’re going to do today! Here are some interesting facts about the awesome artists who perform in VIVA.
* There are 6 divers, 4 synchronized swimmers, 1 comedian, and 1 aerialist per show.
* There are 3 cast members who have been with the “Viva” show since its first year, 2001.
* Our youngest performer was born in 1989 and the oldest was born in 1976.
* Performers are so committed to their physical fitness that they often do sit-ups and push-ups backstage between acts.
* If it gets too cold outside the diver’s have difficulty gripping the Russian swing. We therefore will eliminate the act from shows in which the temperature drops below 55 degrees.
* The boots the performers wear last an average of 10 days. That’s about 240 pairs of boots to outfit the cast for the entire year.
* Underwater speakers pipe music in so the synchronized swimmers can stay on beat and remain synchronized.
* It takes an average of 3 months for our EXPERIENCED divers to learn Russian Swing.
* The rig that carries our aerialist will carry her about 7 miles throughout a season.
* During a six show day each diver can do up to 54 dives.
* The entire cast is fond of camping and frequently goes on group camping trips.
* After meeting on the set of VIVA, one of the comedians and one of the aerialists fell in love and are now married.
So the next time you see the VIVA show, come down and meet these incredible team of artists. Once you get to know them, you’ll love them as much as I do.
Special thanks to Elizabeth (aerialist and bungee artist) and the rest of the Viva cast who helped contribute to this blog.
Pressure Washer tank being filled with AC Condensation
As you can imagine, keeping a park the size of SeaWorld clean is a constant challenge. Maintaining cleanliness while conserving water – well, we’ve had to get creative. Cleanliness isn’t an option. Add to that caring for our award winning landscaping and water conservation seems monumental. Not so! I have the good fortune to work with a group of people that have a “can do” attitude that never ceases to amaze me with their ingenuity.
After hours the Park Quality team washes pathways, patios and stadiums, to ensure that the park is clean upon opening the following day. They accomplish this using water from our Ski lake, re-claimed filtered water and water collected from air conditioning condensation. Along with these methods of conservation we have worked to reduce water usage by 50% during drought. Using a reduced schedule, less hosing, more pressure washing, (which uses less water than regular hosing) and increasing water reclamation, we are able to maintain the quality of our park and use less water.
On a typical night our trailer mounted pressure washing units with a 200 gallon water tank will fill up at one of several AC condensation collection tanks. Once full, they head to the area to be cleaned and get set up. This includes placing sand bags to block drains and create collection ponds. Using a simple canister filter and pumps, they vacuum the waste water from the pressure washing, filter it and back into the tank it goes for re-use. Under good conditions, they can collect 50% – 70% for re-use and will do that until they re-fill with either more condensation water or water from the lake. So far, we have re-claimed over 70,000 gallons using this simple method and over 100,000 gallons from AC condensation!
Our Landscape department hand waters pots and baskets, (up to 1,000) and depends on our irrigation system to handle the rest. Now the Landscape Team comes in at 4:00 AM to begin hand watering our 165 acres of landscaped park. They also use condensation water when available. Just like the rest of the city, we have reduced use of our automatic irrigation system, reduced some plantings, and increased hand watering to maintain our quality.
All of us at SeaWorld San Antonio want to do our part to conserve water, not just during drought, but always. We also want to maintain the highest level of quality during all conditions so that we can offer all of our guests a quality experience and a park we can all be proud of.
Well, got to go, burning day light!
To see more photos of how we conserve water, check out our Flickr photo set.
Yesterday, I shared my personal Flat Stanley story. We’ve had plenty of them at SeaWorld over the years, but I had no idea that an entire community has sprung up around this well-traveled flat person.
The Flat Stanley Project is a volunteer effort by Canadian schoolteacher Dale Hubert, who was looking for a way to engage his special needs students and integrate computer skills by building web sites. Dale has been reaching out with
Flat Stanley since 1995 and has kept the project going through a few grants and sponsorships.
The site is impressive – Flat Stanley at the Obama inauguration ball, Flat Stanley with Willie Nelson, Flat Stanley at the Pyramids of Egypt. There was even a Flat Stanley aboard the “Miracle on the Hudson” flight, the one that crash landed in the river, earlier this year. Any teacher or person who participates in the Flat Stanley project can register their experience on the Flat Stanley Project Web site.
I was intriqued, so I wrote to Dale to see what made him start the project. He took time during his family vacation in Scotland to share his story.
“I was going to teach Grade 3 for the first time and wanted to find an authentic and meaningful way to encourage students to write,” Hubert said by e-mail. “As far as I know, it’s one of the very few sites to have lasted 15 years and one of the very, very few literacy, community and interactive sites with such a long history to have survived.” (Historians please note: The Flat Stanley Project pre-dates social media by a decade).
When asked how many Flat Stanleys have traveled the globe, Dale couldn’t give an accurate answer, but said that by now “literally millions of people have heard of Flat Stanley either directly through my Flat Stanley Project or through some connection to it.”
Dale would love to see more Flat Stanley adventures registered on his site. So teachers, moms and Flat Stanley friends, please register your flat person’s adventure. I’m going to register my experience with Flat Josie, my “paper niece,” later this week and our team will keep posting to the Flat Stanley Project every time a new flat person arrives at SeaWorld San Antonio.
For the community, Fran
P.S. Dale Hubert is looking for ways to keep improving the Flat Stanley Project site. Take a look and see how you can help this wonderful project.
Flat Josie visits her aunt at SeaWorld San Antonio
A few weeks ago I opened my mailbox and a childish paper cutout fell out of the envelope, along with a letter.
“Please take Flat Josie on an adventure to SeaWorld in San Antonio and do not let any animals eat her,” it read.
I nodded my head with recognition. Every year dozens of these flattened figures enter the park, and when they do, we show them the time of their little paper lives.
Before you think I am totally crazy, let me explain.
These paper cutouts are based on the hero of a popular children’s book, Flat Stanley, written by Jeff Brown. In the story, which was originally published in 1964, Stanley Lambchop, the main character, is flattened when the bulletin board hanging over his bed falls on him in the middle of the night. Despite his altered state, he finds a way to have adventures and even saves the day.
Children have been sending flat versions of this character to have adventures all over the world. Being an adventure park, we get our share.
In this case, Flat Josie (who was renamed for gender reasons) came from my Grade 4 niece, Josephine Grady, who goes to school at St. Nicholas in Tamworth, New South Wales, Australia.
Normally, when a Flat Person arrives at the park from a school child, we give him or her to the “new guy.” Mainly because it’s the best way to learn to navigate our 250-acre park and to learn who you need to call to assist you with special projects. Flat Stanley’s have ridden the roller coasters, watched the shows and even played in our Lost Lagoon waterpark.
This time, though, I would serve as the adventure guide.
Flat Josie and I went to the Main Entrance, we met a beluga whale and her baby then had breakfast with an armadillo and a Tegu, by then we were already exhausted. The second day, we saw Shamu perform Believe and visited the play area. I sent the exciting adventure photos back to my niece, as requested by her teacher. You can see Flat Josie’s adventures in this Flickr photo set .
My niece’s project is due this week and she sent us a brief message saying “she wishes she could be Flat Josie.” I think that was her way of saying she wanted to come visit.
It was a really fun project and a great way to connect with my niece, whom I rarely see.
This is the allure of Flat Stanley…the challenge to make his adventure wonderful for a schoolchild we may never meet. Have you ever heard of Flat Stanley? I would love to hear your stories.
There are many chances to win and take home a cute and cuddly plush toy.
Head over to Boardwalk Games to win some great prizes and have some fun while visiting SeaWorld San Antonio. Check out our Flickr site for more photos!
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.
These paper cutouts are based on the hero of a popular children’s book, 
