After spending the day at Disney yesterday we figured we’d go to Legoland today, as it’s only a few minutes down the road. As I was about to walk up to reception to buy the tickets, the small but fatal flaw in the plan was revealed: Legoland is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday! So, a quick change of plans and off to Sea World instead.

First impression: There is no one here!

After the massive crowns of people at Disney, Sea World seems deserted. Even Campbell commented that it was really quiet. No queues for rides, in most cases you walk straight on.

As for the rides… There are three:

• Journey To Atlantis is a roller coaster boat ride, with a massive plunge into water. You get wet. Pretty cool, lots of fun.
• Wild Arctic is a helicopter motion simulator that takes you over the polar ice cap. Not bad. Leads into the polar bear enclosure.
• Shipwreck Rapids is a white water rapids ride. More wetness. Lots of it, in fact. You will get soaked on this ride. Lots of fun!

I think that due to it being off season at the moment they have dropped the number of shows. We only managed to catch two:

• R. L. Steine’s The Lighthouse in 4D is yet another 3D movie with the added dimension of water being squirted at you in sync with the movie. Quite well done, we all enjoyed it.
• Shamu Adventure is the live show with Shamu, the killer whale (and a few friends). Pretty good as wildlife shows go. Oh, when they say that the first 16 rows are a "soak zone," they’re not kidding.

All this aside, the best part (for those with young kids) is Shamu’s Fun Zone. This is a huge area of play equipment (some of which is constantly sprayed with water), fountains and climbing nets. Campbell was gone for ages scrambling through tunnels and bouncing on the jumping castle.

A few of the activities are disappointing in that you have to pay extra on top of your admission price, such as the Sea World Tower, the chair lift over the bay and the rock climbing and trampolining in the "Xtreme Zone". We didn\’t bother with any of them.

Overall, Sea World was pretty good. It’s very easy to spend a day here, and the atmosphere was quite relaxed.