Timing as to Multiple Tours in a Day? & Any Beluga/Walrus Reviews?

keishashadow

Proud Redhead...yes, I have some bananas!
Joined
Dec 30, 2004
Considering closing out our year of APs with a day including a tour or two, just 2 adults who have been to SW many times.

Called to verify my APH expiration date & inquired as to scheduling parameters they suggest.

Was told to leave a half hour between tours. IDK, worried they might run long or the meeting place too far to reach in time from one site to the other:confused3

Has anyone here done two tours in a day? Can you check in for both at the same time? Would you do so again? We've only done 1 per day in past.

Only reason I'm considering scheduling so close is get 'er all done. Will only be picking up APs this year if a BF special, of which last year's offerings didn't thrill me.

Anyway, my options as I see them:

Had wanted to do both the Sea Lion (DH a fan of feeding them) and the Behind the scenes tour but with a 10 am & 11:15 am start time, that surely won't work.

2nd plan to keep the Sea Lion tour & add

A) Beluga & Walrus (replaced the Arctic tour I assume? Looking for reviews on this modifed tour, only seeing the older ones with wet suits)

It's offered @ 11:45 am & 1 pm

Or

B) Penguins up Close @ 12:30 pm

Any suggestions most appreciate!
 
I did Wild Arctic, before the name change. It is awesome! I loved getting to interact with the beluga, and getting to feed a walrus. I plan on doing it again
 
I did Wild Arctic, before the name change. It is awesome! I loved getting to interact with the beluga, and getting to feed a walrus. I plan on doing it again

I put it off too long & the wet suit version disappeared wah.

Trying to figure out what the interaction consists of with the beluga now?

I'm reading the walrus is 'behind bars', guess u get to toss him food?
 
Walruses don't like to be touched at all that's why she's behind the bars for everyone's safety. When we did it in June 2016 they gave some people in the group squid and some people fish and you tossed in her direction and then posed for a photo with her.

I've done both the Wild Arctic Tour and the Sea Lion Tour and I honesty don't think the Sea Lion Tour is worth the money. It's cheaper to just buy the fish at the food stand by them as that's the same level of interaction you get with them.

I posted a review of the Wild Arctic Tour a while ago in another thread so I'll copy and paste it here too. Keep in mind that this was from June 2016 so some details might have changed since then like times etc.

"For the Wild Arctic tour our tour time was 2:15pm - 3:15pm. On our tour there was 12 people in total (our group of 3, a family of 4 and another family of 5 but the grandma of that group ended up sitting most of it out because her ECV couldn't get through some of the doorways of the backstage areas and she didn't want to be out in the heat in the outside backstage area which a lot of the tour takes place in)

The meeting place for the tour is by the bronze polar bear statue by the Wild Arctic shop and that's where it ends too. The only thing you're allowed to take with you on the tour is your sunglasses and a bottle of water. Everything else had to be put into a locker, which were one per family/group and you had to leave your sunglasses/bottle with the tour leader when you were interacting with the Belugas.

The first part of the tour was just an explanation of how they take care of the animals at the Wild Arctic enclosure and the second part involved interacting with two Harbour Seals (stroking & posing for pictures), then stroking & feeding a Beluga Whale (we did this kneeling on a platform in the bit where you view them after coming off the ride but the trainers told us normally they do this bit of the tour in the back enclosure, it just depends on where the Belugas want to be at the time) and then we ended the tour by feeding fish and squid to a Walrus that's kept in it's enclosure behind bars because they don't like being touched and then posing for some pictures with her.

Overall I definitely think it's one of the better tours that SW offers now."
 
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I put it off too long & the wet suit version disappeared wah.

Trying to figure out what the interaction consists of with the beluga now?

I'm reading the walrus is 'behind bars', guess u get to toss him food?

The wetsuit one (the Beluga Interactive Program) ended 2 years ago because the beluga used was moved to a different aquarium.

The interaction with the beluga now is getting to ask him (or her, if you get Whisper) to do behaviors, getting to touch him, and getting a photo (when I did the tour, it was taken backstage)
 
We did the wild Artic last year and it was awesome. Got the buy one get one free during blue Friday too. Better than our platinum pass discount. If want to know more, give a call or we can talk in a few weeks.
 
Walruses don't like to be touched at all that's why she's behind the bars for everyone's safety. When we did it in June 2016 they gave some people in the group squid and some people fish and you tossed in her direction and then posed for a photo with her.

I've done both the Wild Arctic Tour and the Sea Lion Tour and I honesty don't think the Sea Lion Tour is worth the money. It's cheaper to just buy the fish at the food stand by them as that's the same level of interaction you get with them.

I posted a review of the Wild Arctic Tour a while ago in another thread so I'll copy and paste it here too. Keep in mind that this was from June 2016 so some details might have changed since then like times etc.

"For the Wild Arctic tour our tour time was 2:15pm - 3:15pm. On our tour there was 12 people in total (our group of 3, a family of 4 and another family of 5 but the grandma of that group ended up sitting most of it out because her ECV couldn't get through some of the doorways of the backstage areas and she didn't want to be out in the heat in the outside backstage area which a lot of the tour takes place in)

The meeting place for the tour is by the bronze polar bear statue by the Wild Arctic shop and that's where it ends too. The only thing you're allowed to take with you on the tour is your sunglasses and a bottle of water. Everything else had to be put into a locker, which were one per family/group and you had to leave your sunglasses/bottle with the tour leader when you were interacting with the Belugas.

The first part of the tour was just an explanation of how they take care of the animals at the Wild Arctic enclosure and the second part involved interacting with two Harbour Seals (stroking & posing for pictures), then stroking & feeding a Beluga Whale (we did this kneeling on a platform in the bit where you view them after coming off the ride but the trainers told us normally they do this bit of the tour in the back enclosure, it just depends on where the Belugas want to be at the time) and then we ended the tour by feeding fish and squid to a Walrus that's kept in it's enclosure behind bars because they don't like being touched and then posing for some pictures with her.

Overall I definitely think it's one of the better tours that SW offers now."

Thanks. I had hoped for a huge bucket of fish to feed the seals PP. It's my DH's favorite thing to do @ SW :). He'd be thrilled. Normally, I just get a couple of the little dishes they sell, it goes fast.

We did the wild Artic last year and it was awesome. Got the buy one get one free during blue Friday too. Better than our platinum pass discount. If want to know more, give a call or we can talk in a few weeks.

Ok, thanks Lynne. Set aside the 2nd to do am into the afternoon @ SW. Was thinking perhaps the Sea Lion & Shamu lunch. Need to rethink now since so many positive reviews for Beluga tour.
 


Thanks. I had hoped for a huge bucket of fish to feed the seals PP. It's my DH's favorite thing to do @ SW :). He'd be thrilled. Normally, I just get a couple of the little dishes they sell, it goes fast.

For the Pacific Point part of the tour, you do get a huge bucket to feed the sea lions with
 
For the Pacific Point part of the tour, you do get a huge bucket to feed the sea lions with

Booked the sea lion tour, hopefully the mr will be pleasantly surprised :)

Also the shamu lunch, was going to go with sunday but noticed week days a bit less. Every little bit helps lol
 
Wound up doing Sea Lion tour & lunch with Shamu.

Mission accomplished :). DH said his favorite day @ SW - ever!

Food fresh & good & lunch

2 huge buckets of fishies

Couldn't ask for more, highly recommend both experiences
 

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