Sorry I haven't updated in so long, my job started a project and I've been working 50-60 hours a week...gotta save up for the mouse! anyway, here's day 2 of the Platinum Plan!
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Sometime the day before we had hit the quick service at wilderness lodge to use our snacks, and I picked up a bowl of potato soup. I decided to eat this for breakfast before our living seas extravaganza, and after packing up and getting ready for the day, I headed out to our balcony.
I realized that you could see a peek of the contemporary through the trees. It was a nice view unless you looked down, or up. I made the mistake of looking up while I was eating and I saw a spider heaven above my head. I hightailed it back into the room so fast I forgot my spoon...so much for enjoying our deluxe balcony.
While we were waiting for our express checkout receipt, I took a few pictures of the details of the room.
When our paperwork didn't come, I called the front desk. Apparently, you only get a receipt for the room if you also had room charges, and we were waiting for no reason. D'oh! We headed down the long trek to the elevator, where I took this picture.
Since we had all our baggage and had parked halfway to the Magic Kingdom, Danny went to get the car and I stayed at the bell services desk. I wish I had gone with him because he saw an armadillo! I've never seen one before and since I had the camera, he couldn't take a picture. A bell services cast member helped us load the car and he started talking to us, and he was completely surprised that we were from California. I guess we don't look like typical SoCal people?
Next up...
This was our first time parking at a disney park, and boy am I glad we got there early. The parking lot at Epcot is HUGE!! They have trams that take you to different sections, because the lot is so big. We had always used the Disney buses, so I had never even thought about how large the lots would need to be to hold all of the guests.
So we headed over to the tour guide waiting area and there was no one there! By this time it was 9:30, so I was a little surprised. Our Dolphins in Depth tour was supposed to start at 9:45, and back home tours almost always sell out.
I had to take a potty break, so I exited from the ticket area and went to the restrooms. On my way back in, I took a picture of this guy who seemed really excited about his upcoming tours.
I also had to take a picture of this sign for all my Disneyland friends.
Here in SoCal we don't have a no bag line, and we really should! The security guard got a little flustered that I had taken his picture while he was on his cell phone and told me he was talking to his boss, but I reassured him I was just taking a picture of a sign.
At this point the rest of the day was almost all backstage, I don't have anymore pictures until dinner at Victoria & Albert's...you will all have to use your wonderful imaginations.
We ended up not being picked up by our guides until almost 10am. We ended up waiting right next to guest services instead of under the tour sign. When they did come out, they pulled us right through the gate and 'processed' us there. Since we were platinum, they took our room keys and asked us a series of questions relating to our stay. We asked how our tours were going to work since we were doing the Aqua Seas tour right after this tour, and they informed us that since the last 30 minutes of the Dolphin tour are changing/showering and surveys, we just had to be quick and they would have someone escort us over.
There were 8 of us total on the Dolphin tour, two other couples and a father/daughter pair. I don't want to spoil too much of the tour, but we got to see the backstage dolphin area, the living seas facilities, and of course the living seas. We were also lucky enough to get to see a training exercise with one of the dolphins.
The aquarium itself is awe inspiring...I would have never thought that it was so large and intricate. We saw a video upstairs and then got to go down an air conditioning vent to the changing rooms. It was really fun to pop out of a door onstage in the middle of the viewing areas! We got our wetsuits and booties and went to change...for some reason I got a left size seven bootie and a right size five. I had to take them outside and get it changed, and the guide and I had a good laugh about it. They don't ask you for your wetsuit size, instead they kind of eyeball you at the beginning of the tour and if it really doesn't fit you can switch. I got a large and after some adjusting it fit perfectly. They also have a huge range of sizes, so if haven't taken this tour because you're worried about not fitting into a suit, don't. They'll take care of you.
After changing into our wetsuits, we got to go into the living seas and interact with two of the four dolphins. It was amazing,and so much fun. We received a blue disney conservation fund pin and a drawstring bag (either blue, green, purple or orange) when we did our surveys. I also got an autographed certificate for my birthday.
After we changed and showered, we met up with a guide in the hallway who told us that the Aqua Seas tour was still checking in and that we would be escorted out when they came close to our area. We caught up to the group at the dolphin area, so we hadn't missed very much at all. We did miss introductions, so I had no idea who anyone was since we didn't have name tags like the Dolphin tour. The Seas tour took us back through some of the same areas we had been in before, but we also got to see the backstage manatee area and the onstage viewing area. They walked us through the living seas exhibits as well, and did a quick overview before taking us backstage to change.
Instead of handing out the wetsuits, this time out wetsuits were waiting inside a locker that had our name on it, along with our drawstring bags and booties. We had more time to change this time because there were more people and younger kids on the tour, which was very fortunate as they gave me an XXL wetsuit. When I went outside to switch it, I noticed that Danny's wetsuit seemed a little...tight. It turns out they gave him MY wetsuit, and I got his, lol. We told the cast member we would switch but he insisted on getting us both new wetsuits, and also refused to give me a large even though that was the size I had worn an hour earlier.
When I went to put on my booties I had size 5 booties for some weird reason, and while I was waiting for them to switch them for a size seven, one of the girls brought out hers to switch too. It seems she had a left size seven and right size five. It was the exact same pair I had on the Dolphin tour!! I wonder if they give a set to someone on every tour?
We finally made our way out of the changing rooms, and we had to walk onstage back to that same air conditioning vent! Everyone was looking at us in our wetsuits and some people started taking pictures.
Once we got up to the platform on the living seas we had a brief demo and then we were given our air tank vest thingies and they took our picture. They reassured us that all the sharks stayed near the bottom, and that we wouldn't get eaten. The divers made a few adjustments, told us our boundaries and we were given the green light to go. We were also instructed NOT to interact with the sea turtles, no touching and to make sure we didn't get between them and the surface, as they will just ram into us so they can get to the air.
I swam off and was immediately freaked out by the huge streams of bubbles my respirator emitted. It took a few moments of just floating there to get used to it. I started swimming and made a slight turn, shifting my airtank, and I suddenly found myself floating on my back in the water. My vest was too big and kept shifting around and I was seriously off balance, so I went back to have a cast member help me fix it. They told me I could switch to a smaller vest which would take 5-10 minutes, or since we only have 30 minutes in the water they could attempt to balance me out right there. I chose the latter and the cast member pulled my pressure gauge all the way around me and tucked it in the side, and then pulled some straps around the back. Whatever he did helped a lot, but I still had to careful not to turn suddenly or else I found myself flipping over.
I looked out to find Danny and after checking for turtle looking for air, I headed off in his direction. I was almost to him when someone smacked me in my arm with a flipper. I thought it was a kid not paying attention to where they were so I turned to let them know they were kicking me and I came face to face with a giant sea turtle. I froze instantly and when it just stayed there looking at me I started grabbing for Danny's fin, trying to get his attention. He finally saw it as it started swimming away. It was bigger than I was, and I completely understood why we shouldn't get in their way.
Before I did this tour I thought that something like coming face to face with a turtle would be thrilling. I've been snorkeling in Hawaii and I loved it, I even saw a sea turtle then too. For some reason, this encounter made me terrified. I started freaking out and I had to float there and just concentrate on my breathing. I think it has to do with the fact that I couldn't see what was around me, only directly where I was looking. The bubbles from my respirator obscured pretty much everything else and because you're lying prone in the water you can't look behind you. You can't really hear anything either over the sound of the respirator. It was really eye opening to me, as I'm usually quite the daredevil.
After I calmed myself down, I swam around and it was amazing! I really recommend this tour very highly. After a while my mouth started getting very dry so I headed back to the platform to relax. While I was there a shark swam right between me and a little girl who had run out of air! The cast member commented that the sharks *rarely* come up that high and onto the platform.
It really felt like longer than 30 minutes in the water and I still wish I had more time! We were given towels and were escorted back to the changing area. Their showers have this amazing smelling conditioner, so I wrung out my hair and just left the conditioner in. I smelled good for the rest of the day.
Overall it was an awesome experience, and we had so much fun we're doing the Aqua Seas again on our next trip.
If you're going to do the back to back tours like we did, I recommend that you bring two sets of clothing along with your bathing suits. We were still wet from the dolphin tour when we changed, so our 'dry' clothes got wet too. Also, bring a quick snack or something because you won't have time to eat!
We were escorted out into the living seas because some of the tour participants had family waiting for them. I don't know if that is how they usually do it, but it worked out for us because we headed to Sunshine Seasons for a strawberry shortcake. mmmmmmmm....I want one right now!
We then headed back to the car, but we got stopped by the survey people. It was a little strange explaining that we had never scanned into the park that day, but the cast member said it was perfectly okay.
We went to Cici's for lunch because we were starving, and it was even better than the last time. I had no idea that you could request a pizza be made with the toppings you want, and that they'll bring however many slices you want to your table and the rest goes on the buffet. Someone had made a pizza with cheddar cheese and bell peppers and it was YUM, so I asked for more and they made it for me. I felt so special. For some reason we completely lost track of time and had to rush to check into our hotel (Rodeway Inn Maingate). The first room we were given reeked of mildew so we had to switch. The front desk clerk apologized and upgraded us to a pool view, which was nice of her. The new room was right by the pool, and we found a parking spot right by the room too. We didn't have time to change into our nice clothes before we went to La Nouba, so we just changed into pants and went.
Our certificates said that we had to redeem them before 5 or our seats would be given away, so Danny dropped me off and I RAN to the ticket lines. Make sure you have your confirmation number!! They couldn't find my reservation through the platinum plan, but they were able to pull it up through the confirmation number. We got our tickets and got in line just as they opened the doors.
We had awesome seats, right over the entrance on the second level. The show itself is wonderful, and we loved the live music. La Nouba is completely worth the time and money, and if you have the chance to see it I recommend it. The platinum plan comes with Category 1 seating, but there truly isn't a bad seat in the theatre.
After La Nouba we rushed back to our hotel to get ready for Victoria & Albert's. The review is
here.
After Victoria and Albert's we made our way back to our hotel, sad that the platinum plan was over. It was an amazing and tiring experience, but completely and utterly worth it. We enjoyed it so much that we booked it again for our trip in November. We'll be staying platinum at Yacht Club, November 29-30.
We ended up waiting for 5 more minutes, so he did it for no reason. 
I thanked her and ran to the bathroom. 
