Have you been the park lately and taken photos of your family? Then you can play the game now! Upload your photos on seaworldfansearch.com, then click the “Share” button with friends and family so they can vote. Pictures with the most votes will be turned into billboards around the city.

And we’ve made uploading your photos easy. You can submit the old-fashioned way by visiting the site and browsing your computer’s hard drive for images. Or, you can connect the game to your Facebook account use photos that you’ve already uploaded to your account.

The game is free to play and you can submit as many photos as you like. And if you haven’t visited SeaWorld San Antonio lately, be sure to bring your camera so you’ll have a chance to play along.

Ready to dive in? Learn how to playor start playing today.

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Pete's Pinwheel in it's new location

Well, you’re not alone. We’ve had a lot of questions regarding the whereabouts of Pete’s Pinwheel and Jumpin’ Jungle and if they’re coming back for all of our littlest SeaWorld guests to enjoy. Luckily, I have good news for you! Both of these great rides will be making their grand re-appearance this weekend on May 22^nd!

Why were they gone you ask? Well, our Happy Harbor area is currently undergoing some maintenance and rehabilitation and during this time, we conducted the annual inspections for Pete’s Pinwheel and Jumpin’ Jungle as well as created the new locations for these rides. They are still in Happy Harbor, but have been relocated right in front of SeaStar Market, making them more accessible. The new locations have shaded queue lines, perfect for those hot Texas summer days.

New play area in Happy Harbor

If this isn’t enough to get the kiddos excited about a visit to SeaWorld, we’ve also added a brand new play area right next to Happy Harbor! This area is designed for children ages 2 to 5 and 5 to 12. It incorporates tunnels, slides, interactive and climbing elements.

And the best part? It’s located in a shady area surrounded by tables, perfect for a little rest for mom and dad during a busy afternoon at the park.

We are all very excited to have these rides ready, and are looking forward to creating wonderful new memories with all of our guests.

Hope to see you around the park!

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Little Known Facts about Being on the Animal Training Team at SeaWorld San Antonio

The most important type of training that we do is called husbandry. It is the science of training animals to cooperate with us to that we can give them excellent care. Husbandry behaviors include voluntarily allowing us to withdraw blood samples, perform sonograms, and collect bodily fluids.

Katie gets a fluke present from Sikku. From this position we can collect blood, urine, or even milk.

Although many think that we have college backgrounds in marine biology, most trainers studied psychology in college. One aspect of psychology is behavior modification and it’s those principles that we use when training animals.

The people who perform in the shows are the same people who train the animals. There are not separate training and performing staffs. Animal trainers do it all! Before each show we have a meeting to discuss show roles, animals, behavioral goals, and troubleshoot and plan for challenges.

We spend a lot of time with fish and even after multiple showers and repeated hand washings we still smell like the capelin, herring, squid, and salmon that we feed to our animals. Occasionally we’ll even find a scale stuck to us hours after leaving work!

Jason prepares several pounds of herring to be fed to the belugas in the Beluga Interaction Program.

On the average, it takes an animal about two years to perform all roles in a show. In contrast, it usually takes a trainer three years to begin performing the most basic roles in a show. Realize that when you watch us in a show, what we do is not as easy as it looks. For every successful sea lion dance or beluga ballet there are many that are less than graceful and many are downright hilarious. Practice makes perfect though and we spend a lot of time practicing. (I wish you could see some of our rehearsal footage. You would be ROFL!)

At any given time we are surrounded by a collective 60 to 150 years of animal training experience. This makes our jobs much more accessible to professional collaboration. Our oldest animal trainer is in his 50s with over 30 years experience in the field and our youngest is 19 and still in college.

"Old man" Joe mentors Jenny on the finer points of training animals.

All trainers must pass a rigorous swim test demonstrating freestyle swimming, a difficult underwater breath hold test, and be able to swim to the bottom of the beluga pool which is 25 feet deep.  (BTW… “Old man” Joe is one of the most fit people in the department.  He does better on the swim test than some of the trainers half his age.  Way to go, Joe!)

Working with the animals accounts for only a small portion of our work day. We’re also busy serving on various park committees, doing computer work, and tons of cleaning. We not only clean fish buckets and pools, but our toilets and shower facilities as well!

It’s a small price to pay for having such a wonderful career.

Editors Note: Read more about the benefits of animal training on SeaWorld.org

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Sea grass communities are home to small, delicate species and often serve as a haven for juvenile fish before they make the journey into the open sea. The sea grass itself can also be food to many larger species of marine animals.

Banggai Cardinalfish inhabit sea grass beds in Indonesia.

Our sea grass exhibit features Banggai Cardinalfish, Pterapogon kauderni, a beautiful black and white species that can only be found in a remote part of Indonesia. You’ll see them hovering still in the water column in a small school. Also, don’t miss the Shrimpfish, Aeoliscus strigatus. You may need to look hard for these, they don’t much look like a fish at all at first glance. Shrimpfish avoid predators by camouflaging themselves around the tall sea grass. They actually swim in a vertical position with the head down.

Even though it doesn't look the part, this is a fish.

Don’t miss some of the fascinating invertebrates (animals without a backbone) featured in the exhibit, such as shrimp, sea cucumbers, and hermit crabs. One of the really cool shrimp is the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp, Lysmata amboinensis, which gets the skunk portion of its name from the white stripe on its back. They are called cleaner shrimp because of the service they provide to other animals.

Cleaner shrimp can occupy many different habitats and fish will recognize that they are not food and allow the shrimp to pick parasites and dead skin off the fish. The fish will even let the shrimp clean the fish’s mouth out. This not only helps the fish remain clean and healthy, but also provides the shrimp with a snack. You may even be lucky enough to see this behavior in our exhibit.

Like a fish car wash, the Skunk Cleaner Shrimp runs a "cleaning station".

So, next time you stop by the aquarium at SeaWorld San Antonio, don’t miss out on the fascinating creatures that call the sea grass beds home.

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It took awhile, but my wife has finally gotten used to me coming back from visiting a rest room while out to dinner and sharing my discoveries of a new kind of dispenser or a really cool fixture of some kind.

I also am always quick to discuss how clean or dirty it is, but I don’t get real descriptive with the latter.

The truth is, rest rooms, how they look, smell and work is very important to my job. I have a great job at the best marine life park in the world, but no matter how great it is, if the one thing our guests remember is a dirty, smelly rest room it takes away from the experience we hope to provide.

It starts at midnight with the Night Park Quality team, they go through the all rest rooms top to bottom to make sure they are not just clean, but sanitized and they also make sure everything works. Then there is a smaller detail team that only does one or two rest rooms each night, taking extra time to deep clean floors, walls, light fixtures, etc. with heavier power equipment and chemicals.

Once the park opens, the Day Park Quality team takes over, they are responsible for keeping things stocked (running out of paper is a bad thing) and doing their best to keep all 32 men’s and women’s restrooms as clean as possible.

This can be a major challenge on a Saturday in July, when the crowd from Shamu Theater rushes over after the show.

Rest rooms are a big deal with me and my team.

Even though I can’t get all the latest toys, the hand dryer that vacuums water off your hands are awesome and I am still waiting for an automatic toilet tissue dispenser, but the dedicated team I have makes all the difference.

As you get soaked by Shamu or become a little green after riding the Great White inverted coaster, you can be at ease knowing there is a dedicated team day and night working to make sure the next rest room you visit for whatever reason is ready.

Got to go “burning daylight!”

Geoff Baldwin

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1. Tips from the Inside: SeaWorld with Toddlers and Babies

One of the best things about coming to SeaWorld San Antonio is that there is always something new in the park. We are a living park, and people who buy Annual Passes know there is always something different to see or do.

One of the things that we do is invite music artists to perform concerts in the park at our many festivals. We have our Bands Brew and BBQ; Praise Wave; and Viva La Musica series, for starters. These concerts are FREE to those who have a ticket or pass for the park. However, due to space constraints in our Nautilus Amphitheater (the location where we usually hold such concerts), we require people to get a wristband to get a seat inside the theater.

Lots of people want to know how to get a wristband. So here are our tips:

1. Arrive early, the park opens at 10:00 and the wristbands are available starting at 10:00 a.m.

2. The wristbands are issued at the Nautilus Theater, people usually line up to get them.  Early on we will be distributing wristbands at a tent named “Wristbands.”

3. Everyone who will attend the concert must be present to get a wristband, we will only put them on an actual person!  Once they are gone that means our concert is full!

4. After you get your wristband, enjoy your day at SeaWorld until concert time!

5. Nautilus Amphitheater is an open seating venue.  This means when you get inside you can pick your seat where ever you want or stand right down front near the stage.  Lots of guests like to dance at the back of the theater as well! We open the theater one hour prior to the show for general wristbands to allow everyone to get in and choose their seat prior to the show.

6. One of the best ways to enjoy a stress free day is to purchase a VIP Package for the concert.  You can do this ahead of time online or over the phone, or you can purchase your package the day of the concert as availability allows.  Purchasing this ahead of time assures you a wristband without having to get to the park early, is sold at a lower price than day of,  AND it includes a great meal at the park.  You simply show up to the festival area to pick up your order! The VIP wristband gets you into the venue before any of the general wristbands too, which gives you your choice of a place to stand or sit.  During the early entry process we recommend you stand at the stage or sit halfway up the seating area as the entire bottom section usually fills as standing/dancing room.

As our concerts and festivals grow and become more popular these insider tips will help you make the most of your day here at SeaWorld San Antonio!

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3. A Rockin’ Good Time at SWSA: Bands, Brew & BBQ

SeaWorld San Antonio is now heading into our third year of Bands, Brew & BBQ! We have moved locations, added festivals, street entertainment and made lots of adjustments over the last couple of years. This year’s festival should be a great one!

This year we decided to change it up a bit when the event was held over three weekends on Saturdays. We wanted to park to have that festival feeling all weekend long so we added a fourth concert and decided to have shows on Saturdays and Sundays for two weekends. We took a look around San Antonio and South Texas to see what was happening in the music scene. We reviewed guest surveys from the last two BBQ events and decided to make a change in music styles. This year we went with Classic Rock!

We fittingly kick off the event with The Commodores on Saturday, April 10. After all Motown is legendary for being the roots of what we now call Rock and Roll! The following day we have Bret Michaels. Bret was the lead singer from the hugely popular ’80s band “Poison,” has had his own TV reality show on VH1 and is now on Celebrity Apprentice. His solo work has proven to be very popular and we think this show will be a great one!

The next weekend we chose some ’70s Rock and Roll on Saturday with Grand Funk Railroad! These guys have been rockin’ for a long time with lots of classic hits like “We’re an American Band.” This show is going to be a blast.

Our grand finale for this year’s event is Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo. Pat has made a ton of hits and we are all looking forward to her performance. She recently played Bands Brews & BBQ at Busch Gardens Tampa and we hear it was amazing!

The concerts will be held in Nautilus Amphitheater which is nice because it has a roof, seating and standing areas for our guests to see the show. The sound and lights in this building are great so it is always an outstanding show. On the street in front of Nautilus there will be a festival featuring some very cool vendors, band merchandise, radio station remotes, ice cold beer, BBQ and of course, more BBQ!

You will need to get to SeaWorld early for these concerts for sure! As our events grow, so does their popularity. While the concerts are included in admission, we issue wristbands to each guest on a first come first serve basis. Once they are gone that means the show is full. We also have a VIP Package available that includes early entry into the venue and a meal! If you don’t get a wristband you can always sit in the grassy area around Nautilus to catch the show as well.

Check out our events page for all of our upcoming concerts, festivals and holidays! 2010 is going to be amazing!

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Sesame Street is back at Nautilus Amphitheater with Big Bird’s Beach Party.  This show is always a big hit and the kids go crazy.  There is tons of singing and dancing and the team members here at the park as well as the Sesame Characters love when the kids come down to the stage to dance and sing along.  Big Bird is even celebrating a birthday on March 20^th and we are all going sing him Happy Birthday at each of his shows!  If you want to get up close to the Sesame Characters we have a breakfast available too!

A section of Lost Lagoon will be open this year for spring break as a sort of sneak peek from March 13 – March 21.  We will be opening Castaway Cruisin’ River, Castaway Café and Lil’ Gators.  This will be a nice additional treat for our guests if they want to take a dip!

We have opened two new Animal Connection Centers in the park.  One is in the former Clydesdale Barn and houses Texas Native animals.  At this location we have a 2 Longhorns, an American Bald Eagle, 2 Nine Banded Armadillos and a Pinto Mustang! Be sure to stop by and take a look at this new area.  We have also created an Animal Connections Conservation Center at the Boardwalk Games area.  This area features all sorts of interesting animals including 2 Sail Fin Dragons, 1 Speckeled Mouse Bird, a Boa Constrictor, a Burmese Python, a Giant Tego named Ginobili (yes, after Manu), an Alligator, an Alligator Snapping Turtle, Tarantulas, some Emperor Scorpions, Madagascar Hissing Cock Roaches much more.  At this location there are often photo opportunities available with these animal ambassadors.

Our team members have been training, the park has been cleaned, the plants are planted, the trainers are ready for amazing shows, shops and restaraunts are primed and we are awaiting our wonderful fans and guests to come enjoy our park with us!

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This past weekend audiences got a sneak peek of “Azul.” Here are some photos from the first performances. This Friday, March 12, Azul officially opens.

Come join me and experience the lure of the sea…….

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In the aquarium department, preparing includes fixing up our animal displays, acquiring new animals, moving other animals to different aquariums, moving animals around in the exhibits and even overhauling some of our exhibits to prepare for the arrival of the new animals.

Red Sea Golden Butterflyfish

Some of our new additions can be seen right when you walk in the door to our Sharks/The Coral Reef building. Our first aquarium now houses some new fish species including many pink, orange and yellow Anthias, or Fairy Basslets. You’ll recognize them by their brilliant colors and their tendency to stay together in groups of about a dozen fish. The biggest and most brilliantly colored one in each group is a male and all of the others are females or juveniles.

Longfin Fairy Wrasse (left), Bartlett's Anthias (center and right)

We’ve also added some small fairy wrasses. There are many different types, with brilliant shades of orange, green, blue and red. You can always spot a wrasse by the way they swim. Wrasses swim by simultaneously flapping their pectoral fins (these are the fins on each side that are like the arms of the fish) and hardly ever use their tail to propel themselves.

Also, if you look close to the reef, you may be able to spot a Trunkfish. These look like a small swimming pyramid.

Big changes are also on the way for some of our smaller aquariums, such as a new type of jellyfish and another surprise that’s on it’s way in the coming months. I can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet, but we will have an entirely new exhibit opening soon. We’ve spent many hours overhauling one of our exhibits to house some new animals I think you are going to love.

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