SeaWorld Christmas Celebration 2013

Earlier this week Ron and I spent a delightful evening enjoying SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration. This was my 2nd year attending this event and my husband’s first. We arrived at the park at 4:30pm, most of the Christmas activities begin at 5:00pm or later. Due to the fact that it is impossible to see every Christmas show offered in the 4 hour time span we decided to focus on two of the shows I didn’t get to experience last year plus make sure Ron got to ride Antarctica. We headed to Antarctica and got in the 60 minute line for the ride. This totally broke our rule that we NEVER get in a line that is more than 30 minutes long. I warned Ron that the very short ride wasn’t worth the wait but he wanted to try it…when we left the Antarctica area 70 minutes later, he agreed that while the ride vehicle concept is cool, the ride itself is lame and too short and not worth a 60 minute wait.
Now it is 5:40pm and we have missed the only Countdown to Christmas show of the evening…oh well, maybe next year. We spent time wandering around enjoying the beautiful Christmas lights and decorations and popped into a few shops to see if there were any Christmas gifts we needed to purchase. We stopped by the waterfront for the 6:00pm Sea of Trees show. Here is a brief Instagram video of part of the show.

Next we got in line for the 7:00pm O Wondrous Night show. I’m glad we headed over there early because the line was very long and the doors open rather early. There are only 2 shows a night and they both fill up so make sure you arrive at least 45 minutes early, you’ll be glad you did.

O Wondrous Night

This show is AMAZING! Do not miss it. It has jumped up to #2 on my list of favorite Christmas shows. A beautiful telling of the Christmas story complete with 30 carols, puppets, singers and live animals is what you will find when you see O Wondrous Night. The singers were very talented and the performer on me really wanted to be on stage singing with them.

After the amazing show we wandered through the Christmas Market sipping hot chocolate on our way to Bayside Stadium for the 8:45pm Winter Wonderland on Ice show and the 9:10pm Holiday Reflections fireworks.

For the best viewing of the shows at Bayside Stadium I have found that the front row in the balcony area has the best seats. Here is a panoramic picture from our seats of the pre-show entertainment performing.

The other two big things you don’t want to miss are the Polar Express Experience and Shamu Christmas Miracles. I wrote about those last year so feel free to click over and check that post out too.

With everything from Santa to Shamu®, presents to penguins, and elves to Elmo, SeaWorld’s Christmas Celebration is where the season meets the sea. Events take place on select dates November 23 through December 31, 2013 and are included with park admission or annual pass.

Disclosure: We were guests of SeaWorld for this event. All opinions are 100% mine and my husband’s.