Penguins can be the stars of an animal exhibit as they are cute, active and playful. Many guests would love an up close encounter with these “cool” animals and you can do just that at SeaWorld San Antonio Penguin Encounter. Most people only ever see the main exhibit below, but the Penguin Encounter Tour lets you go backstage to see the animal care areas, meet some trainers and even pet a penguin! At just $45, this animal encounter is a great value too.

The tour lasts around 30 minutes and begins right near the entrance to the penguin exhibit. However, rather than entering the main door you instead go around back of the building into the employee animal care areas. You get a great view of the end of Steel Eel that isn’t visible elsewhere and then enter into the cool (quite literally) backstage area of the penguin exhibit. You’ll be asked to clean your shoes and hands to make sure to keep germs at a minimum and then go to a room with benches on the exterior. After a few minutes of intro a cute and adorable penguin will be walked into the room and take his or her place on a rock in the front of the room.

You can of course ask questions to your heart’s content, but the highlight is being able to pet a penguin! You’ll be warned not to stand directly behind them as evidently they can “projectile poo” several feet and you wouldn’t want to be caught in the path! Their feathers are super fine and very soft to the touch and the penguins seem to like and ham up the whole experience. Heck, they may be napping based on this article I saw about penguins taking thousands of 4 second micro naps. After everyone has had their turn and all the pictures are taken it’ll be time for the penguin to leave. You’ll then be escorted back out the way you came and the tour is over, but the memories will remain.

Note that we got our tour for free as a benefit of our platinum pass which can be a great value if you a frequent them park visitor and an especially good value at SeaWorld San Antonio. You can also get some super cute penguin merch like the T-shirt below. If you have a chance to do this or any other animal encounter at a SeaWorld park jump at the opportunity, from dolphins to the orca lunch, I’ve found them very much worth it.