San Diego: Stay at this resort and hop a water taxi to SeaWorld

SeaWorld San Diego is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year with all kinds of splashy doings -- penguin, sloth and flamingo greeters and an Explorer’s Reef where visitors can touch shark pups and rays.

Paradise Point Resort & Spa on Mission Bay offers water taxi service in July and August for visitors who want to go to the theme park during its Sea of Surprises celebration. Guests hop the boat, skip entrance lines and instead enter through the theme park’s back gate.

If you visit on Sundays, costumed characters will be waiting to greet you too. Paradise Point offers two packages this summer for those with SeaWorld in mind.

The SeaWorld San Diego Adventure Package includes two two-day adult tickets to the park and daily breakfast. Room prices for a garden or lagoon view start at $320 a night, excluding $24 daily resort fee and tax. (I checked online for random August dates and found prices from $376 a night on weekdays and from $446 a night weekends, excluding tax and fees.)

The hotel also offers a VIP package called the Ultimate SeaWorld San Diego Adventure. In addition to the basic package, it adds a premium waterside bungalow at Paradise Cove and s’mores to toast at a beach bonfire. The VIP package starts at $976 per night, excluding tax and fees. (You must call to reserve.)

Also at SeaWorld, the half-century festivities that began in March will continue for 18 months.

Info: Paradise Point Resort & Spa, (800) 344-2626