Fuse Academy Award winning animated feature Happy Feet with Disney's Star Tours: The Adventure Continues and you get Sea World's Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin. Sea World's newest attraction in Orlando, Florida features a motion simulation ride that journeys through a live habitat of real penguins from the Antarctic. This past Memorial Day weekend grand opening of Sea World's newest exhibit met with large crowds including my family. The icy South Pole meets the hot and humid Orlando, Florida!
The freezing temperatures of the exhibit gave much needed relief from the two hours and twenty minute wait in line for Empire of the Penguins attraction in the Florida heat. To be exact, that is 140 minutes of standing in line for a two minute theme park ride. Patience is definitely a virtue!
The long line just continued around the exhibit like a never ending Department of Motor Vehicles line. As Florida resident season pass holders, we came to Sea World just for the grand opening weekend of Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins and we expected the crowds and long wait!
With my smallest and lightest DSLR in the world, the Canon EOS Rebel SL1 paired with the Rokinon 8mm T3.8 Fisheye Cine lens, I captured almost the entire 2 minute ride to make a Full HD experience. The fisheye lens gave me a great wide POV perspective without missing any South Pole scenery. BTW, it was really dark and I had to push the ISO setting to 3200 and keep the lens wide open the whole time.
Sea World's Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin theme park ride is family friendly. My whole family including my two year old daughter could enjoy the icy experience without harm or fear. The only harm came to my sore legs and overheated body from the 2 hour and 20 minute wait in line!
So my Sea World's Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin verdict? Definitely wait for a couple of months for the crowds to wane, especially with families with young impatient kids. My Empire of the Penguin theme park ride experience adds another decent but not spectacular exhibit to a live animal theme park. Sea World brings the icy South Pole to Orlando, Florida but hold off to any immediate visits until the hoards of people trickle down.
Antarctic penguins are a tough sell to the Disney theme park dominated Orlando, Florida. My family enjoys everything that Sea World has to offer with their educational marine life entertainment. A bit of theme park advice here...enjoy the reduced crowds at the other Sea World exhibits in the meantime. No one was at Shark Encounter for the first time!
You can view more Sea World's Antarctica: Empire of the Penguins photos and videos shot with the Canon EOS Rebel SL1/100D in my Sea World's Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin Gallery.
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Looks great! But of you want to visit real Antarctic - you should choose something for this http://poseidonexpeditions.com/antarctica/. It's very good for adults, great impressions.
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