momof2n2
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 12, 2007
- Messages
- 4,771
I long to do a deep review, but it just isn't going to happen. We've been home three+ weeks and this is the first chance I have had to sit for any length of time at a real computer and photobucket is annoying me.
Anyway - DH, me, six kids, my mom and sister went to FL for two weeks. We went on a 4-night Disney Cruise and did one day at Aquatica, two at SeaWorld and two at Busch Gardens. I hope to do a deeper BG review one of these days because they are harder to come by. WE LOVED THESE PARKS. We eschewed WDW this trip b/c I didn't want to deal with FP+. We have always said we wanted to do these other parks, but we never made time. This was a wonderful way to go. We loved it.
The park is just beautiful. My husband had a SuperGrover pass which gave us free preferred parking. That was fun. I don't think it was all that necessary in May, but we didn't mind front row parking.
We got there as the park opened. The kids and I had the passes that allowed unlimited admissions for 14 days. We immediately grabbed maps and ask an employee where breakfast was being served. We did the All Day Dining and I highly recommend it. I can't say that it is a huge money saver or anything like that, but it is so convenient. I probably could have come out even, or even less by eating at our rental house and then just grabbing some counter service. But with a family our size and/or with younger kids it was so great to just have them go through a line, SEE something, and move along. As opposed to reading menus, tryinig to decide if they will really eat the chicken tenders here, etc.
Okay -so I just realized that while I thought I was making it easier for myself just to put all the photos in and then do the text, I have made it hard for me to tell which pictures goes where....
Day one we ate breakfast at SeaFire Inn (food pictures later b/c we actually ate breakfast there on day two, as well). We then headed straight toward Antarctica. We loved that area. My eldest son is wild about penguins and it did not disappoint.
After that we did the tower in the sky. That was my only disappointment. My mom wanted to do, but the line moved SO slowly. Some of the family went to the animal tricks show but my DD8 and I missed it... she had to go to the bathroom and they were serious about closing the doors on time. Ouch.
The park was pretty quiet and we walked onto rides for the first half of the day.
We bought the All-Day-Dining deal and each got a wristband. This allowed us to eat in any of 8 restaurants as often as we wanted. Each trip through the line we could have one entrée, one drink, and one side. A side can be a dessert, a bowl of fruit, a muffin the size of your head. Seriously, I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures of our meals. Mealtime is a bit busy for us, though.
Antarctica is one of their newer areas. They have a sweet ride where you follow a baby penguin named Puck.
At the end of the ride you get out of your little car thingy and see a bazillion penguins. It is 32 degrees in this huge room.
After our Polar Vortex this winter this chilly room was nothing.
Do you see how close we could get? The rule is don’t touch or try to feed. It seems to work and I loved being that close.
I encouraged our group to move purposefully toward the Shamu stadium to catch the whale show. It was marvelous. Kids got soaked.
We then visited the Wild ARCTIC zone.
Longest winter in the history of the world and we hang out it polar regions. Go figure.
We watched a fantastic dance/acrobat show. It was seriously awesome. Hard to take photos of fast moving acrobats in the dark…
Lots of aquariums.
Manta was the Best ride ever. As a friend described it, it is ELEGANT.
I’m good for about one crazy roller coaster a day. I’m glad I picked this one.
Some food pics.
I have to say these three desserts looked magnificent. I only give the chocolate cake and the cheesecake a 6 out of ten. The carrot cake gets a 7. But - they were so much fun to buy b/c they were on our dining plan. I'd have been UNhappy if I paid out of pocket for them, though.
these pics are from our second day there. A Thursday. There were a LOT of school groups there that day. That was NOT a lot of fun. And we had some rain to contend with. We did enjoy ourselves, but I was so glad we'd had a more productive day the first day.
These are from breakfast. The muffins were very good. The Danish was no Panera Bread danish KWIM? But - they were huge and that was fun. They also offered bowls of strawberries which were delicious.
Okay - my computer time is up for now. I hope to post more pictures someday soon... Have to get the kids to bed.
Please ask questions if you have any. I was so blessed by all the help I got here (especially from Gina) - I'd love to pay it forward if I can help out at all.
Stacy
Anyway - DH, me, six kids, my mom and sister went to FL for two weeks. We went on a 4-night Disney Cruise and did one day at Aquatica, two at SeaWorld and two at Busch Gardens. I hope to do a deeper BG review one of these days because they are harder to come by. WE LOVED THESE PARKS. We eschewed WDW this trip b/c I didn't want to deal with FP+. We have always said we wanted to do these other parks, but we never made time. This was a wonderful way to go. We loved it.
The park is just beautiful. My husband had a SuperGrover pass which gave us free preferred parking. That was fun. I don't think it was all that necessary in May, but we didn't mind front row parking.
We got there as the park opened. The kids and I had the passes that allowed unlimited admissions for 14 days. We immediately grabbed maps and ask an employee where breakfast was being served. We did the All Day Dining and I highly recommend it. I can't say that it is a huge money saver or anything like that, but it is so convenient. I probably could have come out even, or even less by eating at our rental house and then just grabbing some counter service. But with a family our size and/or with younger kids it was so great to just have them go through a line, SEE something, and move along. As opposed to reading menus, tryinig to decide if they will really eat the chicken tenders here, etc.
Okay -so I just realized that while I thought I was making it easier for myself just to put all the photos in and then do the text, I have made it hard for me to tell which pictures goes where....
Day one we ate breakfast at SeaFire Inn (food pictures later b/c we actually ate breakfast there on day two, as well). We then headed straight toward Antarctica. We loved that area. My eldest son is wild about penguins and it did not disappoint.
After that we did the tower in the sky. That was my only disappointment. My mom wanted to do, but the line moved SO slowly. Some of the family went to the animal tricks show but my DD8 and I missed it... she had to go to the bathroom and they were serious about closing the doors on time. Ouch.
The park was pretty quiet and we walked onto rides for the first half of the day.
We bought the All-Day-Dining deal and each got a wristband. This allowed us to eat in any of 8 restaurants as often as we wanted. Each trip through the line we could have one entrée, one drink, and one side. A side can be a dessert, a bowl of fruit, a muffin the size of your head. Seriously, I’m kicking myself for not taking more pictures of our meals. Mealtime is a bit busy for us, though.
Antarctica is one of their newer areas. They have a sweet ride where you follow a baby penguin named Puck.
At the end of the ride you get out of your little car thingy and see a bazillion penguins. It is 32 degrees in this huge room.
After our Polar Vortex this winter this chilly room was nothing.
Do you see how close we could get? The rule is don’t touch or try to feed. It seems to work and I loved being that close.
I encouraged our group to move purposefully toward the Shamu stadium to catch the whale show. It was marvelous. Kids got soaked.
We then visited the Wild ARCTIC zone.
Longest winter in the history of the world and we hang out it polar regions. Go figure.
We watched a fantastic dance/acrobat show. It was seriously awesome. Hard to take photos of fast moving acrobats in the dark…
Lots of aquariums.
Manta was the Best ride ever. As a friend described it, it is ELEGANT.
I’m good for about one crazy roller coaster a day. I’m glad I picked this one.
Some food pics.
I have to say these three desserts looked magnificent. I only give the chocolate cake and the cheesecake a 6 out of ten. The carrot cake gets a 7. But - they were so much fun to buy b/c they were on our dining plan. I'd have been UNhappy if I paid out of pocket for them, though.
these pics are from our second day there. A Thursday. There were a LOT of school groups there that day. That was NOT a lot of fun. And we had some rain to contend with. We did enjoy ourselves, but I was so glad we'd had a more productive day the first day.
These are from breakfast. The muffins were very good. The Danish was no Panera Bread danish KWIM? But - they were huge and that was fun. They also offered bowls of strawberries which were delicious.
Okay - my computer time is up for now. I hope to post more pictures someday soon... Have to get the kids to bed.
Please ask questions if you have any. I was so blessed by all the help I got here (especially from Gina) - I'd love to pay it forward if I can help out at all.
Stacy
Antarctica looks fantastic, and your pics have made me so excited to visit it (its new since our last SW trip).
.
SW was an excellent park. Yes, it is different that WDW, but never once did it feel less-than. It was stunning and we would love to do it again.
