allie5
<font color=blue>WARNING! DHL men should be cautio
- Joined
- Apr 12, 2002
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Part 23 Last Day, Sea World, Chef Mickeys
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Wednesday, December 29th 2004
Get out your hankies, wipe the tears of relief from your eyes, as today folks, is our very last full day in Orlando, and naturally the penultimate of my trip reports. Sit down, stop cheering, you have still got around 20,000 words to go!
At the beginning of our epic adventure, we allocated one of the spare bedrooms as a dumping room for all our shopping and suitcases. This seemed a mighty good idea on day one, but here on day 21 we are faced with Mount Carrier Bag. The suitcases should be at the base of the pile, but they are as yet unseen.
Nanny Sylvie volunteers herself the task of tackling the Everestian sized heap as she isnt keen to revisit Sea World today.
Given the choice between packing and smelly marine creatures, even I decide the better deal is as far away from the villa as is possible. Do feel ever so slightly guilty, but Nanny Sylvie has already started and is ushering us out so she can get on with it. Helpfully pass on the info that she will find several holdalls cunningly packed inside each case and not to put anything with batteries in the hold luggage and we are off!
Blimey, I cant believe she isnt coming with us this year - Im gonna have to pack AND look after my own kids
. Maybe if I offer her an Upper Class seat and a suite at the Grand Floridian? Anything..just come with us Nanny Sylvie, please come with us (do I sound desperate
well I should!).
Its a slow crawl to Sea World as we pass yet ANOTHER accident on the 192 which delays our arrival till 9.35. Cannot believe that there are actually cars backed up the entire length of Sea Harbor drive and heading up I-Drive. Its even busier than it was last week!
We pay for Preferred Parking again and get an even better spot, perfectly adjacent to the entrance! Hooray for the lazy gang!
We have to queue for 20 minutes to even get IN the park, thats how busy it was and we do start to have a very bad feeling about this.
I decide straight away that we had better book somewhere for lunch NOW, as we wont get seated anywhere by the time Noon comes around. As I dont fancy standing with our mouths wide open waiting for a few fish a la Shamu, I head to the Guest Services booth to book something.
There is already a board up saying that Dine With Shamu is sold out till after the New Year, so Im not brimming with confidence it may well be a dish of dead fish for lunch yet!
Sea World could do with putting their senior management on the number 50 Lynx bus and sending them over to Disney, to see how to do things PROPERLY. They do not have any sort of reservations system for restaurants, even though it says on the sign Make your Dinner Reservations Here.
Surly SW person merely informs me that I have to go to the restaurant to make a booking. Thats a brilliant idea isnt it? Not. Fruitlessly point to the sign and all I get in response, is Thats only the Shamu dinner thing. But thats sold out.
Well, there is not much point paying YOU minimum wage to sit behind this window then is there, Mr grouchy Sea World Employee???
Honestly, there are men (and they must be men
) paid probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to run this park and they can get even get a simple reservation system set up. I am available at very good rates to come in as a consultant if one would like (just in case any Anhauser-Busch Senior execs just happen to be reading this
.well, you never know!).
Slowly meander towards the Dolphin Nursery (anything OTHER than a slow meander is not possible due to the ever increasing tourist invasion) and the wee ones spend 10 minutes watching the mother and babies at play.
Go with the flow up to the Shark pool and I decide to see if there are any lunch reservations left at the Sharks Underwater Grill. Leave Neil in charge of the kids and I get in line at the podium.
The only thing they can offer me is an 11am slot. As we hadnt eaten brekkie this morning (well, the young uns had toast) I decide to take it. Brunch with the sharks it is then.
We have time to go and do the walk through before lunch this used to be called Terrors From The Deep, but I have an idea it has changed now, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is.
We are caught in a big snaking line for this, so dont get much opportunity to examine the scary, smaller predators before the sharks. This is probably just as well, as Daniel freaked out when a particularly mean barracuda gave him the evils from his tank. I certainly wouldnt fancy putting my toe in that particular body of water.
Hurry past the piranhas, Jellyfish and blowfish to the main attraction the tunnel of teeth (or whatever its called now). Daniel is a little wary, but only being 2, he hasnt yet seen Jaws, so doesnt see these creatures as anything more than bigger versions of his goldfish, Nemo, but with teeth.
Jessie is more curious, wanting to know if sharks eat people and if so, when is feeding time? Decide not to pursue this topic any further and leave hastily at the first opportunity.
Wander round to the Clydesdale horses, but en route there is one of the big Budweiser sponsored Powerboats on display, which Daniel is very keen on.
Stop to admire this and let Daniel get a little closer to the boat and the equally impressive Bud liveried truck that was parked next to it. Leave the boys here for awhile whist I take Jessie into the stables to see the horses. This wasnt the easy option I thought it was going to be.
Suffice to say, that several of the horses where most definitely MALE, add a curious 4 year old into the mix, light the blue touch paper and stand well clear!
Make a swift exit trying to avoid more probing questions than is necessary .
Meet up with daddy again, who surprising declines an offer from his daughter to check out the horses with the big thingies
Its now almost time for our brunch at the Sharks Grill. Unsure as to what the procedure is, I get in line for the podium to announce our arrival.
Woman looks at me as if I am mad You are already ON my list she helpfully informs me. Well, yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, you see at Disney you have to come back and and At this point she cuts me off and bids me to go and wait for my name to be called. Flippin AMATEURS at this park! You wouldnt get such shoddy treatment at Disney World (nor, I warrant, would you get horses with their bits dangling in the wind ).
Predictably, its CHAOS in the area surrounding the podium. They have one weedy voiced person trying to shout out names over the roar of 300 hungry would be diners. Tres surprise then, that no one hears their name called.
Decide to take the bull by the horns and go and ASK weedy voiced person if they have called Martin, party of 4 yet. This catches her out and she checks the clipboard frantically. I guess, as we are the only people to have responded to her cries, she decides to let us in! Result!
Being the first ones in, we get a great table down by the tank. Jessie is suddenly nervous, but we gently explain that its all quite safe, and she is soon enjoying herself immensely. Daniel is quite happy, helpfully commenting Biiig fishy every time something menacing swam past!
Pretty soon our server shows up, and he is about as engaging as the sharks swimming in the tank. Very abrupt and didnt seem keen on serving a family with children (or maybe it was because we were Brits and thought we wouldnt tip). He brings the drinks order and stood tapping his feet and sighing loudly when the kids couldnt decide what to order.
Eventually, the order is placed and we pass the time by watching the action in the water.
Jessie suddenly announces LOOK! Its feeding time! and we all strain to see what juicy morsels are being fed to the predators. Puzzled, we cant see any chum floats or even some unlucky dead fish.
We suddenly twig, when we spot a shark cage being lowered in, full of divers. Jessie had assumed (due to our vague answers about her question regarding Do sharks eat people?) that the cage contained lunch. Oh dear, we had better do a better job of explaining me thinks and hastily assure her that sharks much prefer fish to people!
Kids meals arrive, which are hot dogs and fries. Neil and I had ordered a starter of Chicken Spears. Having heard such good reports about the food here, we were sorely disappointed. The kids meals were atrocious. I took a bite of the hot dog as neither of them ate more than a mouthful, and it was SO salty! ECK! Our starter was truly awful as well. The chicken spears, were basically kids chicken tenders (over cooked and tough) speared onto a burnt pineapple with a hideously sticky sweet marinade. Horrid.
For our mains, Neil fared slightly better than me, with crab cakes, which he said were nice. I had the Filet, which suffered from being just far too salty (and I am the crown princess of salty foods, I LOVE em bring on crisps, nuts, trail mix..mmmmmmmm) but this was too much, even for me. I did momentarily wonder if our grumpy server had tipped on a quart of salt out of spite, but the whole piece of meat seemed infiltrated with a mysterious salty taste. Maybe they dunked it in the shark tank for an authentic marinade?
Get the kids an ice cream to share, which, surprisingly, Mr grumpy waiter actually served up on two separate plates. Neil and I share a brownie, which again wasnt anything special. Kids LOVED their shark cup holders which they could take home (and use everyday I might add!) and to be honest, they were the best thing about the meal!
Check was $100 inc tip. I would imagine we chose the wrong dishes here, as the seafood IS meant to be very nice. Personally, though, even with the unique setting, we wouldnt rush back.
Jessie has decided she wants to Dine With Shamu this year, so I dont think we will be revising the sharks in a hurry.
Exit the restaurant and go and watch the Pearl Divers at work for a little while. Decide this might be a nice gift for Neils mum, and we plan to get one after we have seen the Clyde & Seamore show.
As we are making our way to the stadium, we are very surprised that they announce that the 12.30pm Shamu show is now FULL! There is still 20 minutes to show time as well! That may give you an idea how busy it was today!
When we arrive at the Sea lion & Otter stadium, we are actually not surprised to find that there are only about 4 seats left, right up in the gods.
Shove the gods over a bit, and claim the very last seats in the stadium. To be honest, this is a bit of a waste of time, as we can barely see any of the close up detail going on try spotting an otter at ½ a kilometre away and the kids are soon bored.
There are two children of similar ages seated next to us, the youngest seems to be a clone of Daniel, and they soon team up to cause chaos. It all ends in tears when their gymnastic turn on the bars behind us, ends in a tumble onto the concrete, so I decide to take Daniel out. Jessie is still enjoying the parts of the show she can see, so Neil stays with her.
I reclaim the stroller and take Daniel around to the dolphins for 10 minutes.
He isnt as interested as he was last week, so we head back to find Neil and Jessie at the Pearl Divers.
I will explain a bit about what happens here, so if you already know, you can safely skip the next few paragraphs!
First up, there is a great big tank, which contains two diver type persons think Action Man Scuba Diver, and Snorkel Barbie. You get to pick which one you want to dive for your clam. Naturally enough, an army of teen girls are clamouring (ooh, nice pun!) for Action Man, and many a titter is heard regarding the tightness of his trunks. Not to be out done, Snorkel Barbie is proving popular with the menfolk (as is her rather skimpy bikini).
Jessie decides she wants Action Man to dive for her clam (or are they called oysters? Im not sure. I dont tend to get too technical with shells).
So, off he goes, swimming all the way down to the bottom and collecting a bucket full of clams/oysters/shells. He then deposits them in a soggy heap by Jessies feet, where she has to pick one.
Jessie duly picks out a nice big specimen and then we proceed to the Opening Table. Here we find the Sea World equivalent of two Butlins Redcoats, paid to turn the rather dull task of prising open a clam, into fine, first class entertainment. To do this they have an assortment of bells, hammers and silly hats.
They do string this out rather longer than is necessary, but Jessie enjoys herself with all the silliness, and the upshot is, she is the proud owner of a nice sized pink pearl.
The next stage is to take it into the shop for valuation. You pay $14.95 for one clam /oyster thingy and you get to keep whatever is inside it (though if there is nothing, they do let you have another go). There is a chart inside which tells you what you may find inside, ranging from the commonest white pearl, to the rarer pink and blue ones and finally, the rarest prize of all, the black pearl (wouldnt this make an excellent name for a pirate ship? ). The value also depends on the size of the pearl.
Jessie is quite chuffed to be told hers is a 7mm one, worth $52! We also buy a white gold setting for it and it will make a nice present for her Nanny Helen, back home. She does want one for herself, but the pearl divers have quite a queue now, so we promise she can do it next year and keep hers.
I will also add, that you get a lifetime guarantee and if your pearl is lost, stolen or plundered by ghostly pirates in a night time pillag
, rest assured, it will be replaced free of charge! You just send your receipt back to Sea World and they will send you another back. Thats pretty cool.
Also, just to add, there was a girl next to us who got two rare blue pearls in her oyster, valued at nearly $200, so this can be quite lucrative! Pull out a few of these and thats your holiday paid for!
Well, all this excitement has left us thirsty, so we head to the hospitality building where we sample some Bud Ice as usual. Kids then want to play in the play area, so thats where we aim for next.
We are caught in the jet stream of folk heading for the 2pm Shamu show, and just as we reach the stadium area, they once again announce it is full (and there is still 30 minutes to go till show time). The air around us turns the same shade of blue as the water in Shamus tank as disappointed families curse their misfortune. Glad we saw this last week.
Let the kids run off some steam in the play area, but call time fairly quickly as we need to head back to the villa. We wonder if we will find Sherpa Sylvie has successfully conquered our packing mountain, or if she is still at base camp, enjoying her last day of HGTV.
Naturally enough, we arrive home to find a neat row of cases and bags in place of the mountain and Nanny Sylvie collapsed in a big heap beside them (only kidding, she was, as predicted watching HGTV!).
We are slightly shocked to find, that in place of the 4 cases we came out with, there are now an assortment of TEN cases and bags. Oooops. I think we shopped till we dropped, got up and shopped again!
Several of the cases appear to bordering on unliftable so we move the contents round a bit (Jessies wooden railway accessories are mostly to blame here). All in all, though, a STIRLING effort from Nanny Sylvie and she is to be rewarded by our last night slap up feast at Chef Mickeys tonight.
I do try and put Daniel down for a sleep, but its a bit late in the day and he refuses to comply. We decide to head out earlier than planned and do a final stop at the Wal-Mart this holiday. I managed to find several millimetres of space inside one of the cases, which I do no want to go to waste
.
Nanny Sylvie has also got some clothes to change, as she was caught out by the American sizes and ended up with 3 T shirts she could comfortably share with Pavarotti and still have room for more!
As usual, the returns department at the Wal-Mart still resembles the Spanish Inquisition and it takes a good 20 minutes before Nanny Sylvie is reunited with her cash. At this point, she hands me over a big fistful of dollars, telling me to use them on the meal tonight. When I count up, there is nearly $200!
She wont hear of taking them back, so this means the credit card doesnt need to be used again this trip. Is she REALLY not coming on our next trip???
Head over to the Contemporary Resort for around 6.30pm. Valet park as usual and go straight up to the 4th floor. Predictably, the podium is mobbed and Im told there will be at least a 15 minute wait. This isnt too much of a hardship, as Donald is doing the rounds in the lobby area, plus we have monorails gliding above us every few minutes! Kids are in heaven!
We do end up waiting probably 20 minutes, but the time passed very quickly! Eventually our pager bleeps and we all have the obligatory photo done before we are seated.
In another Twilight Zone moment, we are seated at the same table we had for breakfast here last time! Our waiter thinks this is funny as well, and offers to keep it reserved for our next visit! I bet Jessie will remember he said that!
This is our first dinner here and we are all impressed with whats on offer, Lots and lots of choice, all hot and fresh. The ONLY complaint was, that it was SO busy (darn Christmas tourists!) that popular items like the prime rib were running out so fast, it was hard to get any!
Daniel LOVED it here, which surprised me, as its very noisy. I think, because it was a character meal, this calms him down. He joined in the napkin waving with tremendous gusto and enjoyed all the characters.
Jessie managed to be in the toilet when Minnie came round, but fortunately, our server managed to get her to do a return visit! Actually, he misheard and we got Mickey back again, but Mickey came with a bodyguard and we explained the mix up to her. She was lovely and despatched Minnie over to us promptly! Lovely staff here.
All in all, a lovely Disney way to end the holiday. We all enjoyed it here, great fun and good food for a buffet as well.
We leave (via the shops) and as we collect the car from the Valet, Wishes starts. We watch it from the car park of the Contemporary (and had a better view than we did from the California Grill!!). You cant ask for a better end to the trip than Wishes, and we all head home, a little sad, but all warm and fuzzy!
Tomorrow: Going Home & Final Thoughts[/b
Main Players
Allie
Neil
Jessamy (4)
Daniel Noah (2)
Nanny Sylvie
Wednesday, December 29th 2004
Get out your hankies, wipe the tears of relief from your eyes, as today folks, is our very last full day in Orlando, and naturally the penultimate of my trip reports. Sit down, stop cheering, you have still got around 20,000 words to go!
At the beginning of our epic adventure, we allocated one of the spare bedrooms as a dumping room for all our shopping and suitcases. This seemed a mighty good idea on day one, but here on day 21 we are faced with Mount Carrier Bag. The suitcases should be at the base of the pile, but they are as yet unseen.
Nanny Sylvie volunteers herself the task of tackling the Everestian sized heap as she isnt keen to revisit Sea World today.
Given the choice between packing and smelly marine creatures, even I decide the better deal is as far away from the villa as is possible. Do feel ever so slightly guilty, but Nanny Sylvie has already started and is ushering us out so she can get on with it. Helpfully pass on the info that she will find several holdalls cunningly packed inside each case and not to put anything with batteries in the hold luggage and we are off!
Blimey, I cant believe she isnt coming with us this year - Im gonna have to pack AND look after my own kids
. Maybe if I offer her an Upper Class seat and a suite at the Grand Floridian? Anything..just come with us Nanny Sylvie, please come with us (do I sound desperate
well I should!).Its a slow crawl to Sea World as we pass yet ANOTHER accident on the 192 which delays our arrival till 9.35. Cannot believe that there are actually cars backed up the entire length of Sea Harbor drive and heading up I-Drive. Its even busier than it was last week!
We pay for Preferred Parking again and get an even better spot, perfectly adjacent to the entrance! Hooray for the lazy gang!
We have to queue for 20 minutes to even get IN the park, thats how busy it was and we do start to have a very bad feeling about this.
I decide straight away that we had better book somewhere for lunch NOW, as we wont get seated anywhere by the time Noon comes around. As I dont fancy standing with our mouths wide open waiting for a few fish a la Shamu, I head to the Guest Services booth to book something.
There is already a board up saying that Dine With Shamu is sold out till after the New Year, so Im not brimming with confidence it may well be a dish of dead fish for lunch yet!
Sea World could do with putting their senior management on the number 50 Lynx bus and sending them over to Disney, to see how to do things PROPERLY. They do not have any sort of reservations system for restaurants, even though it says on the sign Make your Dinner Reservations Here.
Surly SW person merely informs me that I have to go to the restaurant to make a booking. Thats a brilliant idea isnt it? Not. Fruitlessly point to the sign and all I get in response, is Thats only the Shamu dinner thing. But thats sold out.
Well, there is not much point paying YOU minimum wage to sit behind this window then is there, Mr grouchy Sea World Employee???
Honestly, there are men (and they must be men
) paid probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to run this park and they can get even get a simple reservation system set up. I am available at very good rates to come in as a consultant if one would like (just in case any Anhauser-Busch Senior execs just happen to be reading this
.well, you never know!).Slowly meander towards the Dolphin Nursery (anything OTHER than a slow meander is not possible due to the ever increasing tourist invasion) and the wee ones spend 10 minutes watching the mother and babies at play.
Go with the flow up to the Shark pool and I decide to see if there are any lunch reservations left at the Sharks Underwater Grill. Leave Neil in charge of the kids and I get in line at the podium.
The only thing they can offer me is an 11am slot. As we hadnt eaten brekkie this morning (well, the young uns had toast) I decide to take it. Brunch with the sharks it is then.
We have time to go and do the walk through before lunch this used to be called Terrors From The Deep, but I have an idea it has changed now, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it is.
We are caught in a big snaking line for this, so dont get much opportunity to examine the scary, smaller predators before the sharks. This is probably just as well, as Daniel freaked out when a particularly mean barracuda gave him the evils from his tank. I certainly wouldnt fancy putting my toe in that particular body of water.
Hurry past the piranhas, Jellyfish and blowfish to the main attraction the tunnel of teeth (or whatever its called now). Daniel is a little wary, but only being 2, he hasnt yet seen Jaws, so doesnt see these creatures as anything more than bigger versions of his goldfish, Nemo, but with teeth.
Jessie is more curious, wanting to know if sharks eat people and if so, when is feeding time? Decide not to pursue this topic any further and leave hastily at the first opportunity.
Wander round to the Clydesdale horses, but en route there is one of the big Budweiser sponsored Powerboats on display, which Daniel is very keen on.
Stop to admire this and let Daniel get a little closer to the boat and the equally impressive Bud liveried truck that was parked next to it. Leave the boys here for awhile whist I take Jessie into the stables to see the horses. This wasnt the easy option I thought it was going to be.
Suffice to say, that several of the horses where most definitely MALE, add a curious 4 year old into the mix, light the blue touch paper and stand well clear!
Make a swift exit trying to avoid more probing questions than is necessary
.Meet up with daddy again, who surprising declines an offer from his daughter to check out the horses with the big thingies
Its now almost time for our brunch at the Sharks Grill. Unsure as to what the procedure is, I get in line for the podium to announce our arrival.
Woman looks at me as if I am mad You are already ON my list she helpfully informs me. Well, yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, you see at Disney you have to come back and and At this point she cuts me off and bids me to go and wait for my name to be called. Flippin AMATEURS at this park! You wouldnt get such shoddy treatment at Disney World (nor, I warrant, would you get horses with their bits dangling in the wind
).Predictably, its CHAOS in the area surrounding the podium. They have one weedy voiced person trying to shout out names over the roar of 300 hungry would be diners. Tres surprise then, that no one hears their name called.
Decide to take the bull by the horns and go and ASK weedy voiced person if they have called Martin, party of 4 yet. This catches her out and she checks the clipboard frantically. I guess, as we are the only people to have responded to her cries, she decides to let us in! Result!
Being the first ones in, we get a great table down by the tank. Jessie is suddenly nervous, but we gently explain that its all quite safe, and she is soon enjoying herself immensely. Daniel is quite happy, helpfully commenting Biiig fishy every time something menacing swam past!
Pretty soon our server shows up, and he is about as engaging as the sharks swimming in the tank. Very abrupt and didnt seem keen on serving a family with children (or maybe it was because we were Brits and thought we wouldnt tip). He brings the drinks order and stood tapping his feet and sighing loudly when the kids couldnt decide what to order.
Eventually, the order is placed and we pass the time by watching the action in the water.
Jessie suddenly announces LOOK! Its feeding time! and we all strain to see what juicy morsels are being fed to the predators. Puzzled, we cant see any chum floats or even some unlucky dead fish.
We suddenly twig, when we spot a shark cage being lowered in, full of divers. Jessie had assumed (due to our vague answers about her question regarding Do sharks eat people?) that the cage contained lunch. Oh dear, we had better do a better job of explaining me thinks and hastily assure her that sharks much prefer fish to people!
Kids meals arrive, which are hot dogs and fries. Neil and I had ordered a starter of Chicken Spears. Having heard such good reports about the food here, we were sorely disappointed. The kids meals were atrocious. I took a bite of the hot dog as neither of them ate more than a mouthful, and it was SO salty! ECK! Our starter was truly awful as well. The chicken spears, were basically kids chicken tenders (over cooked and tough) speared onto a burnt pineapple with a hideously sticky sweet marinade. Horrid.
For our mains, Neil fared slightly better than me, with crab cakes, which he said were nice. I had the Filet, which suffered from being just far too salty (and I am the crown princess of salty foods, I LOVE em bring on crisps, nuts, trail mix..mmmmmmmm) but this was too much, even for me. I did momentarily wonder if our grumpy server had tipped on a quart of salt out of spite, but the whole piece of meat seemed infiltrated with a mysterious salty taste. Maybe they dunked it in the shark tank for an authentic marinade?
Get the kids an ice cream to share, which, surprisingly, Mr grumpy waiter actually served up on two separate plates. Neil and I share a brownie, which again wasnt anything special. Kids LOVED their shark cup holders which they could take home (and use everyday I might add!) and to be honest, they were the best thing about the meal!
Check was $100 inc tip. I would imagine we chose the wrong dishes here, as the seafood IS meant to be very nice. Personally, though, even with the unique setting, we wouldnt rush back.
Jessie has decided she wants to Dine With Shamu this year, so I dont think we will be revising the sharks in a hurry.
Exit the restaurant and go and watch the Pearl Divers at work for a little while. Decide this might be a nice gift for Neils mum, and we plan to get one after we have seen the Clyde & Seamore show.
As we are making our way to the stadium, we are very surprised that they announce that the 12.30pm Shamu show is now FULL! There is still 20 minutes to show time as well! That may give you an idea how busy it was today!
When we arrive at the Sea lion & Otter stadium, we are actually not surprised to find that there are only about 4 seats left, right up in the gods.
Shove the gods over a bit, and claim the very last seats in the stadium. To be honest, this is a bit of a waste of time, as we can barely see any of the close up detail going on try spotting an otter at ½ a kilometre away and the kids are soon bored.
There are two children of similar ages seated next to us, the youngest seems to be a clone of Daniel, and they soon team up to cause chaos. It all ends in tears when their gymnastic turn on the bars behind us, ends in a tumble onto the concrete, so I decide to take Daniel out. Jessie is still enjoying the parts of the show she can see, so Neil stays with her.
I reclaim the stroller and take Daniel around to the dolphins for 10 minutes.
He isnt as interested as he was last week, so we head back to find Neil and Jessie at the Pearl Divers.
I will explain a bit about what happens here, so if you already know, you can safely skip the next few paragraphs!
First up, there is a great big tank, which contains two diver type persons think Action Man Scuba Diver, and Snorkel Barbie. You get to pick which one you want to dive for your clam. Naturally enough, an army of teen girls are clamouring (ooh, nice pun!) for Action Man, and many a titter is heard regarding the tightness of his trunks. Not to be out done, Snorkel Barbie is proving popular with the menfolk (as is her rather skimpy bikini).
Jessie decides she wants Action Man to dive for her clam (or are they called oysters? Im not sure. I dont tend to get too technical with shells).
So, off he goes, swimming all the way down to the bottom and collecting a bucket full of clams/oysters/shells. He then deposits them in a soggy heap by Jessies feet, where she has to pick one.
Jessie duly picks out a nice big specimen and then we proceed to the Opening Table. Here we find the Sea World equivalent of two Butlins Redcoats, paid to turn the rather dull task of prising open a clam, into fine, first class entertainment. To do this they have an assortment of bells, hammers and silly hats.
They do string this out rather longer than is necessary, but Jessie enjoys herself with all the silliness, and the upshot is, she is the proud owner of a nice sized pink pearl.
The next stage is to take it into the shop for valuation. You pay $14.95 for one clam /oyster thingy and you get to keep whatever is inside it (though if there is nothing, they do let you have another go). There is a chart inside which tells you what you may find inside, ranging from the commonest white pearl, to the rarer pink and blue ones and finally, the rarest prize of all, the black pearl (wouldnt this make an excellent name for a pirate ship?
). The value also depends on the size of the pearl.Jessie is quite chuffed to be told hers is a 7mm one, worth $52! We also buy a white gold setting for it and it will make a nice present for her Nanny Helen, back home. She does want one for herself, but the pearl divers have quite a queue now, so we promise she can do it next year and keep hers.
I will also add, that you get a lifetime guarantee and if your pearl is lost, stolen or plundered by ghostly pirates in a night time pillag
, rest assured, it will be replaced free of charge! You just send your receipt back to Sea World and they will send you another back. Thats pretty cool.Also, just to add, there was a girl next to us who got two rare blue pearls in her oyster, valued at nearly $200, so this can be quite lucrative! Pull out a few of these and thats your holiday paid for!
Well, all this excitement has left us thirsty, so we head to the hospitality building where we sample some Bud Ice as usual. Kids then want to play in the play area, so thats where we aim for next.
We are caught in the jet stream of folk heading for the 2pm Shamu show, and just as we reach the stadium area, they once again announce it is full (and there is still 30 minutes to go till show time). The air around us turns the same shade of blue as the water in Shamus tank as disappointed families curse their misfortune. Glad we saw this last week.
Let the kids run off some steam in the play area, but call time fairly quickly as we need to head back to the villa. We wonder if we will find Sherpa Sylvie has successfully conquered our packing mountain, or if she is still at base camp, enjoying her last day of HGTV.
Naturally enough, we arrive home to find a neat row of cases and bags in place of the mountain and Nanny Sylvie collapsed in a big heap beside them (only kidding, she was, as predicted watching HGTV!).
We are slightly shocked to find, that in place of the 4 cases we came out with, there are now an assortment of TEN cases and bags. Oooops. I think we shopped till we dropped, got up and shopped again!
Several of the cases appear to bordering on unliftable so we move the contents round a bit (Jessies wooden railway accessories are mostly to blame here). All in all, though, a STIRLING effort from Nanny Sylvie and she is to be rewarded by our last night slap up feast at Chef Mickeys tonight.
I do try and put Daniel down for a sleep, but its a bit late in the day and he refuses to comply. We decide to head out earlier than planned and do a final stop at the Wal-Mart this holiday. I managed to find several millimetres of space inside one of the cases, which I do no want to go to waste
.Nanny Sylvie has also got some clothes to change, as she was caught out by the American sizes and ended up with 3 T shirts she could comfortably share with Pavarotti and still have room for more!
As usual, the returns department at the Wal-Mart still resembles the Spanish Inquisition and it takes a good 20 minutes before Nanny Sylvie is reunited with her cash. At this point, she hands me over a big fistful of dollars, telling me to use them on the meal tonight. When I count up, there is nearly $200!
She wont hear of taking them back, so this means the credit card doesnt need to be used again this trip. Is she REALLY not coming on our next trip???
Head over to the Contemporary Resort for around 6.30pm. Valet park as usual and go straight up to the 4th floor. Predictably, the podium is mobbed and Im told there will be at least a 15 minute wait. This isnt too much of a hardship, as Donald is doing the rounds in the lobby area, plus we have monorails gliding above us every few minutes! Kids are in heaven!
We do end up waiting probably 20 minutes, but the time passed very quickly! Eventually our pager bleeps and we all have the obligatory photo done before we are seated.
In another Twilight Zone moment, we are seated at the same table we had for breakfast here last time! Our waiter thinks this is funny as well, and offers to keep it reserved for our next visit! I bet Jessie will remember he said that!
This is our first dinner here and we are all impressed with whats on offer, Lots and lots of choice, all hot and fresh. The ONLY complaint was, that it was SO busy (darn Christmas tourists!) that popular items like the prime rib were running out so fast, it was hard to get any!
Daniel LOVED it here, which surprised me, as its very noisy. I think, because it was a character meal, this calms him down. He joined in the napkin waving with tremendous gusto and enjoyed all the characters.
Jessie managed to be in the toilet when Minnie came round, but fortunately, our server managed to get her to do a return visit! Actually, he misheard and we got Mickey back again, but Mickey came with a bodyguard and we explained the mix up to her. She was lovely and despatched Minnie over to us promptly! Lovely staff here.
All in all, a lovely Disney way to end the holiday. We all enjoyed it here, great fun and good food for a buffet as well.
We leave (via the shops) and as we collect the car from the Valet, Wishes starts. We watch it from the car park of the Contemporary (and had a better view than we did from the California Grill!!). You cant ask for a better end to the trip than Wishes, and we all head home, a little sad, but all warm and fuzzy!
Tomorrow: Going Home & Final Thoughts[/b
