As a Platinum passholder for the SeaWorld Parks & Resorts for many years, mainly with Busch Gardens Williamsburg as my home park prior to moving to Orlando, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put another notch in my pass by visiting a park I had not been to before: the original SeaWorld in San Diego, CA.

I really only have SeaWorld Orlando to compare my experience to, but to compare these two parks is not entirely fair as they each have their own unique qualities that set them apart from the competition. As you may know, SeaWorld recently celebrated 60 years of operation, mainly celebrating the anniversary of the San Diego park. It’s the OG of the Seas!

Being that it’s the original, it’s refreshing to see that they’re still innovating and exploring educational marine biospheres among the traditional thrills. Their latest park exhibit is one of their most breathtaking.

SeaWorld has alwasys done a great job of taking the frightening and making it palatable through education. Take their Shark Encounter exhibits, for example. On both coasts, they do a great job of treating scary sharks with respect and teaching people how to help ensure the survival of their species as sharks remain threatned world-wide.

In this case, “Jewels of the Sea: The Jellyfish Experience” which opened earlier this month, SeaWorld takes on the fearsome jellyfish. I can’t think of a single type of jellyfish that anyone wants to meet in person since that interaction usually involves a painful sting to an extremity. Here, in SeaWorld San Diego’s brand new exhibit, jellyfish are presented for their beauty, as mystical as it is.

Upon entering this new experience, we’re greeted with projection-mapped jellyfish swimming along the floor… and a darkened space so that the only hightlights we see are luminescent jellyfish being lit from all angles by colorful LED lighting. The first exhibit is actually the most fascinating to me: a cluster of “upside down jellyfish” at the bottom of their tank – pulsating together with their tentacles spreading upward… but this tank is special, because it’s one you are encouraged to go UNDER. When beneath, you can look up and see this gelatinous cluster of nettles as they would appear if it was just a normal right-side-up jelly.

Moving on from that display, we are greeted with a hall of various moon jellies lit in soothing tones of blues, pinks and purple lighting… and tall column of moon jellies of various sizes showing how jellyfish migrate vertically rather than horizontally.

The biggest surprise of the visual feast that is “Jewels” comes with the last room. As you round the corner, you are greeted by a room wrapped in high-resolution LED screens awash with various jellyfish-themed motion graphics and circular jellyfish tanks showing off the best of the best.

In this room, my favorite tanks by far featured the barrell jellyfish as they bounced about their tank in a white or black color – like polkadots against the dark sea background.

Tons of inquisitive kids ran around the exhibit, wide-eyed in their fascination of these creatures we’ve always been warned to stay away from, lest you get stung. This new exhibit at SeaWorld San Diego not only lets you get up-close to these mysterious blobs of the ocean, but it helps us to understand how they work and why they do the things they do. There’s still a lot we might not understand about jellyfish, but one thing is for sure, we can certainly relish in their unwavering grace and effortless beauty.

“Jewels Of The Sea” is now open at SeaWorld San Diego and is included with park admission. I can only hope that SeaWorld has plans to bring this incredible exhibit to Orlando & San Antonio as I think it’s an unbelievably cool experience I wish everyone could see!