Belugatastic! - Yesterday I had the great pleasure of going on the Beluga Whale Interaction Program at SeaWorld in Orlando, Florida. At $119 it’s one of the dearer up close tours that they offer, but wow was it worth every penny!
I was booked onto the 12.30 tour and was asked to meet at the bronze polar bear outside the gift shop at Wild Arctic, 10 minutes prior to this time. The park was quiet so we managed to sneak the first 15 minutes of the noon Shamu show and still had plenty of time to get to the meeting spot on time. It was 12.20 and I was the only one there! Added bonus nobody else had booked the same time as me – private tour for one…. don’t mind if I do!
Firstly I was taken to be fitted for a wetsuit and boots, it’s not a swim with program, but you will need it! The water in the beluga whale habitat is a very chilly 55F!
They have separate mens / womens changing areas which have warm showers for you to use after your experience, you are also given a locker to secure your items whilst on the tour, they are not large so hold off buying the 6 foot Shamu until after your tour! They will provide you with a towel, but you must bring your swimsuit.
The weather was looking a little dicey at one point, to which I was told that rain is fine, but should there be any lightning in the area, the tour would need to be rearranged as the habitat that the belugas are in is joined to an outside pool, as well as the one you see in Wild Arctic. If you are going in the summer months, for this reason, make sure you try to book one of the earlier tours in the day.
Once fitted with my highly flattering wetsuit and beluga safe hair band, we went across to see the behind the scenes of Wild Arctic, I was introduced to two beluga whales that were in the outside pool, and three very adorable harbour seals, one of which is a rescue that’s currently being rehabilitated.
As part of the tour you are shown the incredibly clean kitchen, and talked through the diet plans for each of the animals in Wild Arctic, from this kitchen they also look after the commerson dolphins that live at Aquatica. The trainer’s day starts a 3am when they start to prepare the meals for each of the animals, and breakfast is normally between 5-6am!
The beluga whales love to play and are given lots of different toys to stimulate them throughout the day, a favourite of which is an oversized bowl which they love to make into helmets, during the interaction Maple decided to fetch and return hers to the trainer, which you will see in our video.
My interaction was with Aurek and Maple, both were great fun and real characters, getting up close you really get to see their smiling faces. It’s hard to describe what a beluga whale feels like, but if you deflated your gym ball and made it wet, it would be very close! They are very blubbery!
Having earned the nickname “sea canaries” you get to experience all there different sounds from the fog horn, to the very deep gorilla or to Maple’s high pitched squeal (which is incredibly cute!). They will perform tricks from simple hand gestures that you do alongside the trainers - Expect to get very wet! They can hold a gallon of water behind those lovable smiles!
Where else in the world can you hug and kiss a beluga whale? A great experience that left me grinning for the rest of the day! Can I go again tomorrow?
If you are based in the UK and would like to purchase your SeaWorld tickets in advance check out our Orlando tickets partner for some great deals. One of the great things with this partner is there Buy Now Pay Later offer. Just a £20 per person deposit secures your tickets and you don't have to pay the balance until 4 weeks before you go on holiday!