Seaworld, Disney, Celebrities, Friends, and a Hurricane Aug 16 to 26 - Update Dec 1

[declansdad]

Since they're both just 'cute as buttons',
(not sure where that phrase came from - I'll have to research)
and since Declan is soon going to be taller than Ma and they won't look like this much longer,
and since we won't see her in many pictures,
I just had to put this one up again.
This is a great picture of your two favorite people, Dad.

I just had a parent at school ask me about SeaWorld, and I told her I had not been in many years. I'd love to hear your quick answer now so I can share with her. They have five children from 1st grade through about 8th. They are going to Orlando, doing possibly one Disney day, but are thinking about SeaWorld and some other things. What's your opinion of SW for the value for them?


That's scary. Florida lightning can be frightening, for sure!

Thanks MeMom, I think they are pretty cute too!


I think your friend would enjoy SeaWorld. There was lots for all ages and the Shows we saw were good. If they were willing to put in a full day they could do it in a day for sure. My favorites were Shamu (simply amazing), the Manta coaster and the dolphin and ray feedings.

The other good thing about SeaWorld is they always seem to be offering the 2nd day free so that does help with the planning.

 

[declansdad]

a little late, but joining in!

Not too late, we're just getting started, Welcome aboard!

 

[declansdad]

Smart kid you've got there!

As a rule, I try to follow any TR with a picture of monkey on a guy's head. So far, you're the first!

Shhhs, don't tell him about the smart thing.

I should point out the monkey is also wearing a diaper, that must get me extra points.

 

[declansdad]

Pretty good description of why I HATE flying. If I could just jump on a plane and go without all the other people, that would be fantastic!

I'm glad you guys made it to Orlando safely and you avoided the lightning dangers.

Thanks. I wish more gate agents would enforce the zone seating assignments. It is always fun to watch the ones that do. The other thing is the airlines need to enforce their carry-on rules. Leaving Orlando was ridiculous.

 

[declansdad]

Certain Winnipegger chiming in...to not stop at Tim Horton's is just wrong on so many levels Mmmm, I can just taste it now....will have to stop when I drop Jasmine off at work this morning

We both had "crazy" people at the airport when we were trying to depart....I will be starting my TR later today to fill you in. I have no idea why people storm the gate ... that too makes me crazy!!! I found people for the most part on this trip didn't follow rules that we all learned in kindergarten... I thought last years trip was bad for rude people, boy was I wrong...this one far surpassed last.

Great hotel room....not great about that lightning That would have scared the beejeebees outta me too!!!

So did you stop and get your "fix" this morning? The lightning was pretty scary, especially since I was in the pool at the time.

 

[Happy Elf]

I'm here and ready to hear about your adventure! Awesome car!

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

Off to a great start!

Pooksma you look lovely!

I would be game for putting a monkey on my head too.

Love the car! Declan looks very happy...wishing he could drive it!

I was tempted to book the convertible but I picked a cheaper one instead.
You just reminded me I have to call them to add on an extra day.

I havn't flown in a long while...I'm hoping we have a better airport experience.

I'm hoping you have time to get the SeaWorld part of the trip done in the next week.
Pretty please! (I know you are busy. )
I'd love to see your pics and hear any tips you have for us.
I think I'm most excitted about seeing Shamu.
Lexi is most excitted about getting a stuffed Shamu.
I am curious where you would recommend to eat at SW...you had the free dining, right?

 

[Jazzabelle508]

You never know there may be a timmies coming to a town near you. Personally I not a big fan, I think there are better places for coffee but they do in a pinch and up here they are everywhere.

The hotel was called Springhill Suites Orlando at SeaWorld. It is located on International Drive, between SeaWorld and Aquatica.

We didn't go to Discovery Cove, sorry. Just did 2 days at SeaWorld.

I live in the general chicago area so there isn't alot of room for a timmies near here. I just think it sounds good. I love starbucks and caribou and it sounds like those places. We have a bigby's coffee that is good 2. I just have heard so many good things about timmies that i just want to see what all the fuss is about.

ok, thanks I don't think we will ever stay off disney property but we will look into it if necessary.

i meant sea world but i accidentally typed discovery cove. opps!

 

[jenneth79]

I'm in going back to read...who *wouldn't* pick a Mustang? I figure my DH would manage to make it the "only choice" in a lot full of cars, tho!

 

[declansdad]

I'm here and ready to hear about your adventure! Awesome car!

Welcome back. The car was pretty cool to drive around. I have never had a convertible and mustangs are one of my favourite cars.

Off to a great start!

Pooksma you look lovely!

I would be game for putting a monkey on my head too.

Love the car! Declan looks very happy...wishing he could drive it!

I was tempted to book the convertible but I picked a cheaper one instead.
You just reminded me I have to call them to add on an extra day.

I havn't flown in a long while...I'm hoping we have a better airport experience.

I'm hoping you have time to get the SeaWorld part of the trip done in the next week.
Pretty please! (I know you are busy. )
I'd love to see your pics and hear any tips you have for us.
I think I'm most excitted about seeing Shamu.
Lexi is most excitted about getting a stuffed Shamu.
I am curious where you would recommend to eat at SW...you had the free dining, right?

I plan on getting some of the Seaworld stuff up tomorrow. Tonight Declan has a football practice and I have a soccer game so tonight is a bust. All the SeaWorld pictures are in the Disney 2011 folder on Photobucket if you want to see all them.

We did have free dining on the first day at SeaWorld but to be honest there isn't a lot of choice. We ate at the Voyageur Smokehouse on the first day. It was comparable to a counter service at Disney. One good thing was that you could go back and get water and snacks but you couldn't get it everywhere and some employees didn't seem to know where you could use it. The other problem is nothing was open until noon except for one spot at the very front of the park.

I live in the general chicago area so there isn't alot of room for a timmies near here. I just think it sounds good. I love starbucks and caribou and it sounds like those places. We have a bigby's coffee that is good 2. I just have heard so many good things about timmies that i just want to see what all the fuss is about.

ok, thanks I don't think we will ever stay off disney property but we will look into it if necessary.

i meant sea world but i accidentally typed discovery cove. opps!

If you like strong coffee (like me) Timmies is not the place; it is pretty middle of the road in my opinion. Great donuts and sandwiches though.

 

[declansdad]

Evening all,

No practices or games tonight so time for an update. But before that, on this first day of the NFL season, I got to see the Grey Cup today. For our friends from south of the border, it is the cup that goes to the Canadian Football League champion. Teams have been fighting for this cup for 102 years. Here is what it looks like.

Oh yah, there were a couple of Hamilton Ti-Cats cheerleaders there too.


OK, let's head back to Orlando.


August 17th

So today was our first visit to SeaWorld and we knew the one thing Declan and I wanted to Ride was Manta (Pooksma was still on the fence). Before heading our we needed to have some breakfast and get our front-of-the line passes.

First stop, 8 am - the concierge desk. Here they gave us our coupons for the passes. These were free courtesy of the hotel. They gave us coupons for both days so we wouldn't have to stand in line on day 2. They also asked us to sign up for the Marriott Vacation Club presentation. If we did it, they would give us $100 gift card. We passed on this one.

Free breakfast was next and it was a bit busy. We found a table that had a Starbucks cup sitting on one end so Declan and I grabbed the table. (Starbucks was a hotel selling point for Pooksma and she became good friends with the lady working the counter.) As soon as we set down, this lady came running over saying it was their table, she had set her cup there to save it. I didn't want to get into to it so I said we would move but it looked like nothing more than an empty Starbucks cup to us.

Quick breakfast and back up to the room but the key wouldn't work. I took the elevator back down and the clerk reprogrammed the key. Back up to the 6th floor, key doesn't work, back down to the front, clerk checks the key and says it is a good key, she have maintenance meet me at our door. Back to the 6th floor, 5 minute wait for maintenance, tries our key with no luck and no light on the lock. Uses his key to let us in and says they will need to send someone to fix the lock. We decide to try our other key that we had left in the room and it works. We tell him not to worry about it, we will just use the one key.

We grab our stuff and hurry down to catch the 9 am shuttle because there isn't another until 10:30. We could have walked but we were on the opposite side of SeaWorld from the gate. Takes abut 10 minutes to get to the park with an stop at Aquatica and one other hotel. We stop at one of the kiosks on the way to the gate to get our park and free dining passes. We get our front-of-the-line bracelets just inside the entrance.

We skipped by the Shamu picture and headed into the park. The first thing we come across is this:

This is an amazing ride! A bit scary at first with the climb and the laying on your belly position you are in but once you hit that first drop the excitement doesn't stop. The wait time was listed as 20 minutes but our bracelets got us on right away. I don't think we ever waited for a ride at SeaWorld.

Couple more Manta pictures:

This is the opening climb

This is the bottom of the first drop.

We grabbed our stuff from the locker and headed towards Journey to Atlantis. Along the way we came across this trainer and her friend.

We found another locker and headed to the front of the line. Pretty good ride but it was showing some wear and tear. After the first ride Pooksma retrieved the camera from the locker and Declan and I went for another journey. This time we were in the front row.

On this ride it isn't the big drop that gets you wet, it is the people on the water canons and a much smaller drop just around the corner from the big drop.

Next up we headed to the other side of the park for the Clyde and Seymour show with a stop at the Penguin Encounter along the way

 

[declansdad]

August 17th - Part 2

After the penguins, we found seats for the Clyde and Seymour show. Declan wanted to be in the "Splash Zone" so we compromised on the last row of the zone. We were there in time to see the pre-show which is a pirate mime. I'm not a big fan of mimes but this guy was hilarious!

Here is a video of part of his routine. The show itself is cute and entertaining. The sea lions are pretty fun and very well trained.

Our next stop was the Shark Encounter. It was really cool to watch all these sharks swim around you but it was really creepy when one shark seemed to follow along beside us for most of tube.

The last two pictures are of the one that seemed to follow us.

After this we decided to grab some lunch with our free dining passes. To be honest the choices were limited and the food was ok but nothing fantastic. After lunch we headed to the dolphin feeding but something would come up to stop that from happening.

Stay tuned.

 

[Queenofallthings]

Well it is a done deal now...we'll definitely be heading to SeaWorld on our next trip! Great pictures! Manta looks so good...I can't wait to see my sister on that one

 

[CanadianWDWfan]

Thanks for sharing the first part of the SeaWorld day.

I will not be going on Manta....no way, no how...

Glad you got front of the line passes! Awesome perk!

Journry to Atlantis, is on our to-do list.

What no pic with Shamu?

The mime is hilarious! I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Those sharks don't scare me.
I may feel different if there wasn't all that glass protecting me.

Your pics are getting me excitted.

 

[declansdad]

Well it is a done deal now...we'll definitely be heading to SeaWorld on our next trip! Great pictures! Manta looks so good...I can't wait to see my sister on that one

YOu will have to buy the ride picture of all of you on Manta and share it with us.

Thanks for sharing the first part of the SeaWorld day.

I will not be going on Manta....no way, no how...

Glad you got front of the line passes! Awesome perk!

Journry to Atlantis, is on our to-do list.

What no pic with Shamu?

The mime is hilarious! I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Those sharks don't scare me.
I may feel different if there wasn't all that glass protecting me.

Your pics are getting me excitted.

We did Shamu on our second day and don't worry, there are lots of pictures. It truly is an amazing show.

 

[afwdwfan]

First stop, 8 am - the concierge desk. Here they gave us our coupons for the passes. These were free courtesy of the hotel. They gave us coupons for both days so we wouldn't have to stand in line on day 2. They also asked us to sign up for the Marriott Vacation Club presentation. If we did it, they would give us $100 gift card. We passed on this one.

That's great that you get front of the line passes there. Probably a wise decision to skip the sales pitch though.

As soon as we set down, this lady came running over saying it was their table, she had set her cup there to save it. I didn't want to get into to it so I said we would move but it looked like nothing more than an empty Starbucks cup to us.

I guess it should be common sense and everyone should understand that a single cup on a table means it is being saved.

This is an amazing ride! A bit scary at first with the climb and the laying on your belly position you are in but once you hit that first drop the excitement doesn't stop.

Looks like an awesome ride. I've never been to Sea World, but I always love a good coaster. I'd love to go sometime and ride that.

We were there in time to see the pre-show which is a pirate mime. I'm not a big fan of mimes but this guy was hilarious!

I don't think I've ever seen the term "pirate mime" used before... ever.

Our next stop was the Shark Encounter. It was really cool to watch all these sharks swim around you but it was really creepy when one shark seemed to follow along beside us for most of tube.

You must have looked like a seal.

 

[Rozz]

I'm with Queenofallthings. We're going to add Sea World to our next Disney vacation. The Manta coaster looks fantastic!

 

[reelmom]

The SeaWorld pictures are great. We are going in June and I can't wait. Thanks for the pictures of the Springhill Suites. They have great deals but I was always worried it was a too good to be true kinda deal. Seems like it is safe to stay there.

 

[declansdad]

That's great that you get front of the line passes there. Probably a wise decision to skip the sales pitch though.


I guess it should be common sense and everyone should understand that a single cup on a table means it is being saved.


Looks like an awesome ride. I've never been to Sea World, but I always love a good coaster. I'd love to go sometime and ride that.


I don't think I've ever seen the term "pirate mime" used before... ever.


You must have looked like a seal.

I've never be called a seal before, it must be Declan that looks like the seal.

I'm with Queenofallthings. We're going to add Sea World to our next Disney vacation. The Manta coaster looks fantastic!

It was a blast, I think over the 2 days we rode it 5 or 6 times.

The SeaWorld pictures are great. We are going in June and I can't wait. Thanks for the pictures of the Springhill Suites. They have great deals but I was always worried it was a too good to be true kinda deal. Seems like it is safe to stay there.

Springhill Suites was a very nice hotel. Very clean, still looks new, staff were all friendly and the location was pretty good for SeaWorld.

 

[kthshh]

Enjoying your report. Following along.