Beluga Whale Interaction At Sea World San Diego (June 2, 2016) – Part 1 (Getting In The Pool)

July 3, 2016

Aurora laughing at the whale with a group of peopleMy goodness gracious! This was fun and majestic and everything you think hanging out with a whale would be.

The experience starts out by getting your own private personal locker room/showers (with your name on them).

They have your wet suit and shoes in there. And they even give you this cool Beluga whale program towel that you get to keep.

(You don’t need the towel yet. That’s for after your shower… But it’s in there.)

Each whale tour group (I guess tour is maybe the wrong word…but each experience group, or whatever you wanna say) takes a maximum of 8 people that are then split into two groups. (So, for us, there were three of us with the trainer and then the second group was two people and a trainer.)

Aurora laughing with a whaleBoth groups go into the pool at the same time, far enough away from each other, and then we play with two different whales. (And there are two photographers across from us to document the moments.)

[Side note: If you’re hoping to be with the whale alone, or with just a partner, or what have you… apparently, they open up more times for whales as other times get full… So, if you book way in advance, that time’s likely to get full at some point.

Then the next one will open up (which will be empty). When I was there (buying my pictures), Sea World opened up a 4:30 that had no people in it, and a family came in and was able to go by themselves… Of course, if you do this, you run the risk of everything selling out, or Sea World not opening up another time. So, try this at your own risk.]

Aurora in a wetsuit outside her areaOnce we all got in the pool, we walked over to our spot and were shown the yellow line – the lip on the wide shelf we were standing on. Past that, the water was 18 feet deep… So… don’t go in there.

We were told though that if we were to fall, our wet suits were basically flotation devices.

Also, there were life buoys (life rings, life preservers… I actually didn’t know what they were called and there are a bunch of options on Google)…

The point is, we seemed pretty safe. I felt good.

Okay, so we’re changed. We’re safe. We’re in the pool. Time for the whale, baby!

And this is where I’ll pick up next time.

I'd love to hear from you! So whaddya say?