Clearskies photographic Journey to the World and Beyond - 8 theme parks & much more

[clearskies]

Intro


As the title has indicated, this TR is going to take you on a whirlwind trip through 8 Orlando area theme parks and much more. Ok, yes, 8 theme parks means that this TR is not all Disney related. Actually, to provide full disclosure, as far as "park time" is concerned we actually spent more hours in "other" parks than in the Disney parks on this trip. Whoa, wait a sec, back up the truck. Before you run away screaming, please stay with me a bit longer. I promise that there is plenty here to quench your thirst for all things Disney. Now, I must say that I did go round and round with the following questions in my head; "Should I post in the Disney TR forum?", "Should I post in the Universal TR forum?", "Should I not even bother with a TR?", "Don't I have better things to do with my time than to sit around worrying about such things?". Ultimately I ended up here since overall we spent more of our waking hours within the realm of Disney than outside. This is due to the fact that we stayed on Disney property and we were also on the Disney dining plan so we spent a good deal of time in various Disney resort areas. We also did visit 3 of the 4 major Disney parks as well as excursions to Downtown Disney. Think of it as an added bonus that I am throwing in, at no extra cost, ventures to areas outside the world. Beyond the confines of the mouse we experienced our very first visit to that other pair of major theme parks in Orlando and we saw the new castle on the block. We also had visits to Sea World and Busch Gardens Tampa and a brief excursion to Sea World Atlantis. Ok, let's check my math 3 Disney + 2 Universal + Sea World + Atlantis + Busch gardens, yep I have enough fingers to handle the math and that's 8 parks. Albeit, the Atlantis park should probably count as a half a pinky since we only were there briefly. If this just won't do and you and you need only full-bore Disney content, well you can skip past my non-Disney installments since I will try to keep them separate or you can read an all Disney all the time TR from me from 2009 using the link in my sig to get your fix. If however, you are ready to expand your world and broaden your horizons then read on and welcome aboard for the full journey.


More than anything this TR is going to be about photos of our experiences. Photography is a hobby of mine that I love but I wish I had more time for in my everyday existence. My camera does not come out to play as often as I would like to back at the home front but When I get away from it all I can go a bit hog wild with it. I took over 5000 photos on this trip. Yikes, don't worry, I will try not to have you endure picture after picture of the same thing from 10 slightly different perspectives. I weeded down the pictures to the somewhat better ones (which are about a quarter of the overall pics) that will hopefully keep you entertained. This TR is not solely about pictures though. There will hopefully be some semi-coherent, pseudo-interesting writing as well. Ok, perhaps not from me, but as long as someone can write interesting comments back to hold the other readers interest then that will help the cause. Now, Back to the photos. Here is my preview of some of the things you will experience with me on this journey.

Come along as we visit these resorts and more

We'll spend some time in these Disney Parks

As well as parks outside the realm of Disney

We'll visit Downtown Disney

We met up with some familiar old friends....

...As well as some new friends

There will be some great shows

As well as awesome nighttime entertainment

You'll see plenty of animals

and experience some good food

and of course good times on rides

I've reach my pic limit for a post and that's enough pics to give you a flavor of what is coming.

I suppose I should give you the low down of my travelling posse. We have me, the project manager and photo journalist of the trip. I spend more time than I want to admit to anyone other than perhaps some of my brethren here mapping out details of our trips with intricate spreadsheets and plans. Of course I get a ton of useful info on these boards to assist my planning needs. We also have my Wife, our outgoing ambassador and the glue that hold us all together. We have two fantastic children. my Son (age 12 on the trip), who has changed so much in one year that it is mind boggling. Once puberty has hit, my gosh this growing up train has been moving at full throttle. Despite his changes one thing has remained constant and that is the fact that he is a great kid. We also have a daughter who just turned 10 before the trip. She is such a sweetheart. She can spread magic in her eyes and make you smile just looking at her. Don't get me wrong, they can both have their moments sometimes but 99% of the time they are truly wonderful kids. I give my wife all the credit for that.

My wife's sister and family were also coming along some of the ride as well. My own family is more of an "on the go family" though and they prefer a more relaxed pace so in most cases we went our separate ways and caught up together for meals. It really works out better that way so that we prevent their exhaustion from trying to keep up and our angst at moving at slower pace. We also spent some time with my sister and her family who were also visiting Universal for the first time when we were down there. But wait..there's more. We also spent a couple days with some friends from our home town as well. So, out of 8 park days we only had 2 where we were completely on our own.

As far as where we stayed, we were at All Stars Movies this trip. In 2009, we stayed at POP with my SIL family. We were more of an every other year Dis family since we like to experience other places as well and we had visited in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009. Thus we originally had no intention of visiting in 2010. Then in 2009 I got wind of the upcoming changes in the area and that Harry Potter was moving into the neighborhood. I started to think that it would be a good time to succumb and finally visit "that other set of parks" in orlando. Though we are not HP ultra fanatics, my son and did I read all the books together and I figured it would be exciting to see the new digs. Then during our Dis 2009 trip I saw the bounceback flyer for free dining for 2010 in our room. Now, one thing to know about me is if you throw a good deal in front of me I am happy as pig in excrement. The free dining deal that they offer now is a very good deal now but it was an insane deal before they changed the offer in 2010. So the gears in my head started to whirr in overdrive and I thought hot diggity how's this for a plan....I can get a decent place to put our heads down at night while we go visit other parks in the area during the day and get a good sit down meal to come back to at night and even a get breakfast before we head out for the day all for about $130/night and that also included a day's ticket in Disney for the family. This was crazy. I was not sure if Disney was making any money off of us but who cares, where do I sign up? So I took advantage of the bounce back offer for 2010. I was still not sure we were going to stay there since I was also thinking about Universal hotels in order to get express Pass as well as possible off site hotels but we signed up with the bounceback so that we could have the deal reserved just in case. Since we were at Pop and SIL wanted to try a new place but wanted to keep it at the values we opted for All Stars Movies since we thought their kids would enjoy the theming.

Come 180 days out I started making meal reservations and though I still had not settled on staying at Disney, planning the meals definitely helped solidify the deal in my head. I am not sure if it was because they had not announced Free Dining to the General Public yet or what but it was not too hard to get all the restaurants I wanted and I did not get up at the crack of dawn on 180 day mark to make them. I even snagged Le Cellier for one EPCOT day if we decided to go there and it was after my 180 day mark. I was still worried about crowds in Universal and the need for Express Pass but I found that you could buy a form of Express Pass separately and I figured if I needed it I could just buy that when we were there. Eventually, I settled on keeping our resort reservations and we would hope the universal crowds were not too insane.

Well I think that covers most of the pre-trip history for you. We'll start in the next post our arrival on 8/25/10. Yes, that's right I said 8/25. I neglected to mention there is a bit of a delay in me getting started on this. Mea Culpa. Time has not been on my side lately and carving out some precious time to weed through pictures and write this has not been a happening thing for me the last couple of months. Fear not though, I don't plan to leave you hanging now that I have started the ball rolling.


Talk to you soon,
Clearkies

 

[clearskies]

Tap, tap...is this thing on...
OK, I am going to forge ahead for now...

8/25/10 is the start of our adventures. We flew into MCO courtesy of Allegiant air which truly a no frills airline. I won't be surprised next year if they will have installed coin slots to pay for the overhead lights and air jets. Here is a pic of the only thing that is complimentary.

Note that it is a cup of ice that is complimentary, not the beverage that would go in it. I am fine with the no frills travel though and ok with a la carte options if it keeps the fare under control. It is a decent direct flight from Allentown Pa to MCO and even though we live a little closer to Newark Airport, this is an easier way to travel for us.

The flight was uneventful and we arrived in Orlando Int'l between 4 and 4:30PM. I was hoping to make a quick escape from the Airport to get going. I feel that I should impart some wisdom to you on our rental car process. We used Alamo Rental Cars. After getting our checked bag I saw the Alamo counter and started walked towards it. Before I could get near the counter though the man behind it gave me a wearied look and pointed his finger to his right. He did not say anything but his expression and actions said it all. He mentally said said "Look buddy, I have had a long day. If you open your eyes more you will see that long line of about 25 people over there waiting to get to me. Get over there an get in line and I'll get to you when I can. BE prepared for a long wait though." I did not say anything back but gave him the "Oops sorry" expresion with an added "fortunately I am tad more resourceful than those poor unfortunates souls over there and I am going to go to this ingnored machine over there and I will at least not add to your burden". So, alamo has these kiosk machines that you can use to check out with as do may other rental companies. All I had to do is enter my reservation number and the screens led me through the checkout. Now, I need to warn you that these machines are a bit spiteful from being ignored and they try to trick you. They default you to every option imaginable: GPS, extra insurance, personal backseat driver. You name it and it is there on the screen checked off for you as a default. I had to go through a few pages of checking off options so that the cost of my rental was not the price of a new car before I was ready to check out. Still I was out of there before the other line had moved. So my public service announcement for today is that you should use these machines. The can be dastardly devious if you don't keep an eye on them but they can save you loads of time. Thus were on the road in our PT cruiser in no time.


Yah, we are on our way but We have a problem. Our first night is 2 hours away from Orlando. we are headed in the south east direction to the coast where we will stay overnight at my friends house. The next day I am scrambling futiley after a little white ball with my friend while the rest of family goes to Vero beach. The problem though is how can you fly in and be so close to the action only to get in a car immediately drive away from it all. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to see my friend but heck I can feel the pull of the parks beckoning me. So, I figured I had to feed my family anyway before we hit the road so why not go to SeaWorld and eat at the sit down restaurant there before we headed off. Note that we have Busch Gardens Platinum Season Passes which gives us access to all the Busch Parks as well as parking so it was not costing us anything extra other than the price of the meal.

Sea World is only about 20 minutes from the Airport so we got there quickly and got a great spot in the preferred parking parking and we were soon in the Park.

I was a bit worried about whether we could get into the restaurant without reservations since we were srtolling in there late in the day but figured what the heck it was worth a try. I tried checking at the guest services at front of the park for availability but they told me I had to go over to the restaurant to check so we made our way to the back of the park but were not rushing to get there and we stopped to see sights along the way. We weren't seeing any shows today though, just looking around at animals. I really hope you like birds because you are about to see a bunch of them

Yeah, I am not a bird but here comes the flock....

I'll stop here for now. Will we get into the restaurant? Could I possibly show you any more birds? Will anyone actually read this TR to see?
Stay tuned to find out.

 

[Antigua08]

I'm in! Your photos are fantastic I too will be visiting the other parks on my trip so love reading trip reports with them in. I look forward to following your trip

 

[clearskies]

Antigua08

Thank you very much for joining in.
Please ask me any questions as I go on about the different parks.

PS that is an adorable baby in your signature. What a cutie!!

 

[mom of 3 (or 4) boys]

Great pics! I just went back and looked at your previous TR as well. What you carry around in equipment is admirable!

Heading to see the Mouse this coming Saturday on a weekend solo trip with my DSLR. I am quite the amateur, but so excited to practice in Disney.
I hope I can come back with some shots as good as yours.

 

[Antigua08]

Antigua08

Thank you very much for joining in.
Please ask me any questions as I go on about the different parks.

PS that is an adorable baby in your signature. What a cutie!!

Ah thankyou very much.
That pic is from l first joined these boards so my little girl has changed lots since then, just haven't yet worked out how to change the photo though

I'm sure l'll probably have a few questions for you about the different parks, although l have visited them just once before this will be the first time with children. And that kinda changes things!

 

[eugeniuss]

Subscribing as well.... love pictures and love WDW, so I really enjoy these types of threads...

I've got 11 months til my next disney trip where I plan on taking lots of pics... Sadly, the only park near me to practice is a pathetic Six Flags...

 

[clearskies]

Great pics! I just went back and looked at your previous TR as well. What you carry around in equipment is admirable!

Heading to see the Mouse this coming Saturday on a weekend solo trip with my DSLR. I am quite the amateur, but so excited to practice in Disney.
I hope I can come back with some shots as good as yours.

Thank you and
Fortunately you don't need to be as insane as me and carry around so much equipment to get good pictures. One recommendation though is to bring a tripod if you want nighttime pictures. I don't carry it around all day though. I'll keep it in a locker. Disney really is a great place to take pictures which is one of the reasons I come back. I hope you have a great time.

Ah thankyou very much.
That pic is from l first joined these boards so my little girl has changed lots since then, just haven't yet worked out how to change the photo though

You're welcome. I am glad my wife does not read these boards otherwise she would have looked at that picture and said she wants another baby. They really grow so fast.

I'm sure l'll probably have a few questions for you about the different parks, although l have visited them just once before this will be the first time with children. And that kinda changes things!

and how. My children are a bit older at 10 and 13 and I held back on Universal in fear that they had to be older to enjoy the park but I think they would have enjoyed many things at a younger age as well.

Subscribing as well.... love pictures and love WDW, so I really enjoy these types of threads...

I've got 11 months til my next disney trip where I plan on taking lots of pics... Sadly, the only park near me to practice is a pathetic Six Flags...

eugeniuss
We are kindred spirits. those are 2 of my loves as well.
I understand about Six Flags. It is probably the closest park to me and I haven't been there in years. It just doesn't hold too much appeal to me.

 

[clearskies]

We last left off on our way to see if we could get into the Sharks Underwater Grill for Dinner at Seaworld. Now, I had some trepidation about the place. Before our trip I had discovered Dis Unplugged podcasts on Universal and Sea World. Since I wanted to do some homework on Universal I listened to some of the previous shows and in one of them the host (Pete Werner) reviewed the Sharks Underwater Grill at Sea World and it was downright ugly. My gosh, he totally trashed the place. He basically referred to the food with words like swill and garbage and he declared it as THE WORST Theme Park restaurant. Ouch, Perhaps I should have steered clear of this but I figured I would take a chance and Sharks was the only game in town in SeaWorld for a sit down meal at that time so on we went.

Along the way through the park to the restaurant we came across an exhibit called the Penguin Encounter. My son loves Penuins so we were not going to be able to walk past this. Ha, and you probably thought I was done showing you birds. If you like penguins (and who doesn't?) then this is the place for you. There are 2 sections, the first section you go to contains puffins and the second section contains penguins. The lighting is tough though so it is not easy to take pictures. Here are some of my results.

isn't this little one cute.

After we got out of the Penguin Encounter we walked along until we hit the Pacific Point reserve. This is an area that contains seals.

I decided to leave the family there to look at the exhibit whil I walked the rest of the way over to the restaurant to see if we could get in without an ADR, er I mean reservation. I guess I should not have been concerned. Perhaps a lot of people had listened to the Dis Unplugged review and were steering clear of the place because they had no problem at all getting us a table. So I walked back to re-group the family and make our way over to the restaurant. Will pick up from here in the next installment.

 

[clearskies]

We are now at the Sharks Underwater grill ready to see if the food is better than the swill that it was described to be. First some words on the set up of the place. It is laid out in a very similar fashion to the Coral Reef. You get to dine overlooking huge tanks. The restaurant has 3 tiers of tables so that all tables can get a good view of the tanks. Here is a picture to give you an idea of the layout. We were on the lower Tier right next to the tanks but I took this from the middle tier.

here's my son at work

The tanks you are looking at are the same ones you travel underneath in their Sharks exhibit. The views are great and I think they are better than what you see in the shark exhibit.

Here are some pictures of the views.

Now on to the food. I ordered NY stip. It is normally served with mashed potatoes but I have dairy issues so I got it with a fried Yucca patty and some mixed vegetables. I have never been one to photograph food and I feel a bit strange doing it but I figured I would capture most of my meals on this trip in case I did write a trip Report. I did not go as far as taking pictures of the rest of the family member's meals though.

Here is a picture of my meal

I decided to make this a "watch out cholesterol, bring on the red meat" extravaganza trip so I will rank the steaks I ate at most of the restaurants we dined at during the trip. Contrary to the review I heard I was actually very pleased by the food. The steak was a nice size and thickness, cooked exactly as ordered (med rare), and it was tender and very tasty. The yucca patty was fairly bland but the mixed vegetables were good. The rest of the family enjoyed their meals as well. So far this was the best meal of the trip

We'll see about how it stacks up to the other restaurants on our trip especially the coral reef which is the obvious comparison. We are bookending the trip with aquarium eateries and were experiencing Coral Reef as our last dinner of the trip.

In case you were wondering about the price. Was this expensive? somewhat, but not out of line with Disney prices. For comparison purposes, the steak was $32 which was a about dollar more than the NY stip at Coral Reef. You'll have to wait unitl later to see how the quality stacks up to the competition.

Here are more pictures of the view as we ate.

So, if you find yourself in Seaworld for the day and you are looking for a sit down meal I would not rule out the Sharks Underwater Grill. The food was good and the Shark tank views were excellent.

After we finished up our meal, it was about 20 minutes past park closing (7PM closure). I should say that even though we were there until after the park closed, we were not at all rushed and when we left the restaurant we were not met by staff directing us out of the park. There were still other visitors making their way out as well. We somewhat leisurely made our way out of the park, stopped for a few pictures and then hit the road to the coast.

We will be back to Sea World another day during the trip so you will see a whole lot more of the park later.

we got in the PT cruiser and headed out to Vero Beach happy we made the detour to Sea world first. Along the way we were treated to a nice sunset.
My wife wanted to take a picture but I was not about to pull over somewhere so the results were not going to be as good while in a moving car. I dialed in some settings on the camera and handed it over to my wife. It came out ok but didn't really capture how nice it really was.

Well, that's a wrap on our first day. As far as day 2 is concerned, as I mentioned we are heading out of town so the action won't pick up until later in the day for you. In the afternoon We'll be driving back to the area to check into the ASM Resort.

 

[blabbermouth]

Ok, I like you, I'm subbing!

 

[blabbermouth]

Apparently I'm a bit slow, I didn't read your updates first!

After we got out of the Penguin Encounter we walked along until we hit the Pacific Point reserve. This is an area that contains seals.

Oh, a seal... now I know they come in a variety of colours Too bad I live on the ocean and you can't fool me! I saw a seal yesterday actually!

I look forward to your steak-fest. It's one of the things I'm always hesitant to order in (non-steakhouse) restaurants because they can be really good or reeeeally bad. Glad to hear this one was good and that they at least serve something semi-interesting like yucca patties!

Oh, and FYI, I did a report on puffins in about 4th grade, they're awesome! As are penguins. Other birds? Meh.

 

[clearskies]

Ok, I like you, I'm subbing!

You also get a big blabbermouth. Your username is too funny

Apparently I'm a bit slow, I didn't read your updates first!

Oh, a seal... now I know they come in a variety of colours Too bad I live on the ocean and you can't fool me! I saw a seal yesterday actually!

I look forward to your steak-fest. It's one of the things I'm always hesitant to order in (non-steakhouse) restaurants because they can be really good or reeeeally bad. Glad to hear this one was good and that they at least serve something semi-interesting like yucca patties!

Oh, and FYI, I did a report on puffins in about 4th grade, they're awesome! As are penguins. Other birds? Meh.

You got me on that strange picture of a seal. I meant to put a caption under that pic of a little known species of a seal.
Boy, I am jealous that you live on the ocean. How do you keep your house afloat though


You'll be happy to know that I am going to give you all a break and you won't be subjected to any more bird pictures for the next couples of days in the trip.

 

[blabbermouth]

You also get a big blabbermouth. Your username is too funny


You got me on that strange picture of a seal. I meant to put a caption under that pic of a little known species of a seal.
Boy, I am jealous that you live on the ocean. How do you keep your house afloat though


You'll be happy to know that I am going to give you all a break and you won't be subjected to any more bird pictures for the next couples of days in the trip.

Well there are such things as HOUSEBOATS ya know. But I don't have one. I live on land... but near the ocean. I can't see seals from my house or anything.

 

[clearskies]

Well there are such things as HOUSEBOATS ya know. But I don't have one. I live on land... but near the ocean. I can't see seals from my house or anything.

In the interests of being a smart alec I played the odds that you didn't live on a houseboat on the ocean. If you were on a lake or something perhaps I may have though otherwise.

Regardless, I am still jealous that you live right near the ocean. It must be beautiful with some great photo ops.

 

[clearskies]

We left off with our family headed to my friend's house to stay overnight and my plans to play golf while family went to Vero Beach. I could be wrong but I am pretty darn sure you are not reading this TR to hear about my golf game. Heck people who know me aren't interested in my golf game (for good reason). So, I am going to fast forward to the afternoon while we are driving back to the area to check into the "Happiest place on earth". Oh, one thing to add though is that the report from the rest of the family is that actual beach at Vero beach was very nice in case you were curious. I imagine there are closer beaches to Disney though that are also nice.

I was anxious to check in and figured if we get to the resort quickly and didn't spend too much time with the check in process that we could have a couple hours before dinner that we could spend having some fun. During the drive my wife was reminding me that she has this blasted credit from Kohls that she must use because it will expire during the trip. In case you have no idea what Khols is, it is a department store. Apparently you spend some amount of money there a few weeks earlier and they give you credit towards purchases in future date which invariably she never remembers to use so it turns out to be an utter waste. Well, my wife picks this one time to be on a mission to use this credit even though we are on vacation. Lord give me strength. Note that shopping at Kohls does not fall into that category of "fun" that I was referring to earlier. What I thought I had going for me was that I had no idea if there even were any Kohls in the general vicinity so I told her sure, if we pass a Kohls along the way I'll be sure to stop for you. Note that I really didn't think this was going to happen. Well, wouldn't you know we get off the highway and are driving along and there it is on the right hand side jeering at me. I had not choice but to regretfully pull into the lot (cursing under my breath). Note that for the record it is I who saw the store along the road and pointed at it so I was good to my word. I told my wife to please, please be quick about this and she and my daughter flew in the store while my son (who also had no interest) and I waited outside. Well, let me tell you that there must be a God because there must have been some divine intervention when my wife and daughter were walking out of the store in 15 min with bags in hand. This is a new record in shopping that I will likely never see again. Thankfully we were on our way and everyone was happy.

We were soon at the All Star Movies lobby and fortunately there was no line so we got through check in process fairly quickly. We found out we were Ducks this trip and we were given a map to our room in the Mighty Ducks Section. This may not seem like a good location since it is fairly far from the main building but it turned out to be a pretty good location after all. It has its own pool and laundry facility and it is closer to the AS Music lobby than the AS Movies lobby so walking to the food court, gift shop, buses, etc was not that bad.

When we walked into the room we were greeted by this.

In our prior year we stayed at Pop and comparing rooms they seemed about the same size. Not large rooms but ok for us as a place to lay our heads down at night. Note that other than sleping we hardly spent any time in the room so the accomodations are not that critical for me. I will say that the TV was definitely smaller here compared to Pop but that was not that important to us either. Oh, and I think that the safe was smaller. In Pop I thought I could fit my laptop in the safe and here it was way too small for that. Everything else seemed comparable. I do have one more peeve about the room now that I think of it. For some mystifying reason they put the Internet port by beds. why not near the table? There was no good place for me to log in at night for work (yeah the fact that I am logging in at night for work is an issue unto itself but I won't get into that now). So, I would sit on the floor between the beds at night to use the internet while the rest of the family was sleeping. That was definitely an inconvenience. Come on Disney, what is the holdup in getting wireless internet in these resorts? Most hotels have wireless internet, the technology can't be that difficult for Disney to incorporate into their resorts.

Anyway, lets move past this. After getting situated in our room, we still had a couple hours before dinner so I suggested we head out to Aquatica to get a look of it. In Case you are not aware, Aquatica is the Sea World Water Park that is across the street from the main Sea World park. The family was up for it so we headed out to get wet. Since I said I would keep my disney and non-Disney materials separate I'll pick up from here on our next installment. Also note that I don't have too many photos to share from this day. The pictures will realy pick up on our next day when we officially start our first full park day.

 

[clearskies]

We are headed to Aquatica. Since this is a water park, my SLR camera equipment is not allowed to come out and play and it reluctantly had to stay in the car sulking. I do have something else to use though since it is tough for me to go anyplace on vacation without some piece of photography equipment keeping me company. I brought along this little guy to fill the void.

This camera is more of a novelty item for me and it is very limited in the functions it provides. The images it produces are not as good as what I can get with my SLR but it does one thing that my other camera can not do and that is take pictures underwater. I took a picture with my new companion as we walked into the Park.

We had never been to this park but I already knew what my family would want to do. Their fav Water Park is Water Country USA near Busch Gardens in Williamsburg Va. The reason this is their favorite is due to only one attraction called the Hubba Hubba Highway. So what is this incredible attraction you ask? Well, it is basically a lazy river type layout but there are no tubes and the current is much faster and it pulls you along as you go round and round as much as you want. You can wear a life jacket but you don't have to if you can swim and you want to swim. I'll admit it is a fun attraction. Once I learned that Aquatica had something similar called Roa's Rapids I knew my kids would be all over it. When we got into the park though I realized we did not have a park map and I had no idea where this attraction was located. I stopped into a gift store to ask for a park map and they told me they do not provide paper maps. Perhaps this is their effort of going green or prehaps to be more cynical this is their effort to save $ in the name of going green. So, instead of handing out maps they have large boards placed in different areas of the park with large maps on them. This is similar to how malls have their Mall Directories scattered around the mall. Once we got our bearings from the closest map we were shortly at the Rapids ready for action.


Here is a picture to give you an idea of what we are talking about.

The problem with this attraction is that once I get my kids into this, there is just no getting them out. They can go round and round all day if they could. I would have preferred to see more of the park but I figured we would be back later in the trip so I would let the kids keep enjoying this. Here are a couple of shots from the camera to give you an idea what the underwater pictures look like.

After a loooong time going round I was finally able to get the kids out so that we could at least hit something else before the Park closed at 6PM. We headed off to a slide called the Dolphin Plunger which seemed like an interesting ride and I think it is the headliner attraction of the Park. You slide in a clear tub that goes underwater and in the water outside the tube is a pool with black and white dolphins that swim by. As we approached though my wife realized that there is no tube or mat and she is not signing up for a slide which does not have a protective barrier between her and the slide. She told us to go on without her but I said we would find something else we can do together. We saw another slide nearby called Tassie's Twisters which is a huge funnel shaped slide where you spin around until you come out the bottom. We decided to give that a run. You get to the slide from a lazy river and in the middle of the lazy river you can veer off to the side to experience the slide. This was a lot of fun but it ate up the rest of our time so that by the time we were finished it was time to clean up and head out. So we headed to showers to wash off and then headed out. Thus ends our short visit to Aquatica. I intended to come back later in the trip but we never ended up making it since there were other things my wife wanted to do instead on the day I planned to go back. So, we will have more to explore the next time we visit. It is tough for me to endorse the Water Park since we only experienced a small percentage of the attractions. It does not seem to be a big park and there are not too many slides but it seems like a fun park and as long as they have Roa's Rapids, my kids will want to come back again. I am ending this installment here. We are headed back to Disney to the Wilderness Lodge for dinner and will pick up from there in the next installment.

 

[clearskies]

Tonight is our first meal this trip on the Disney Dining Plan. We are headed to the Whispering canyon cafe. As with the Sharks Underwater Grill, I had some concerns going in based on mixed reviews I had read on this place. We have never been there before and actually we had never even been to the Wilderness Lodge. I really wanted to get a look at the lodge so I was hoping that the meal would be at least fun for the kids if the food was not the best.

When we got there I saw they doing some construction outside so I skipped the photo op of the exterior of the lodge. It was still impressive though. I was however enlisted by my son to take a picture of a lizard outside. Yes, you see a zillion of them down there and they are nothing special but don't let my son hear that. You can add lizards to the list of little creatures that my son loves. Note that we took a trip to Utah in 2009 and you wouldn't believe you how many lizard pictures we came back with. Here is the little one we saw on the way in to the lodge that evening.

I also saw these creatures. They were a bit easier to photograph since they held a pose better.

Once we got inside I appreciated the impressive interior of the lodge. Wow, what a nice job they did architecting this resort. The restaurant was close by so we quickly made our way over to the podium to check in. Then I took a few pictures while waiting.

We were soon seated. Here is a picture of the inside of the restaurant.

We ordered drinks and they came in these great drinking jars. The bottomless milkshake option on the dining plan was a hit with my son. My wife and daughter enjoyed smoothies. Note that the smoothies are not refillable on the dining plan. I limit my sugar intake so I stuck with a diet coke. When I finished my drink and asked a refill, this is what the waitress came back with.

I could take a swim in that glass. I was definitely set for the rest of the evening.

For our meals I stayed true to my plan and ordered the ribeye steak. The rest of the family opted for the skillet.

Here is a picture of my steak

Doesn't look too bad right? Well I hate to say it but it was a disappointment. The steak was overly salty, thin and not as tender as I would have hoped. Was it horrible? No, I could still eat the meal but it was not that great either. I hope it was an anomaly or bad night because if this is what they serve people who shell out $28 for the steak, it would be a crime.

So after 2 days the steak rankings are pretty easy to determine.
1. Sharks Underwater Grill
2. WCC - by a wide margin

About the skillet...First of all this was way too much food for my wife and 2 kids. You are technically not supposed to share it amongst people who do not order it since it is all you can eat deal and you can order more of any of it. In the case of my family though they can't even eat what is put in front of them so I really did not feel any remorse about sampling the various items to see what I thought. We were not going for seconds on any of it anyway. It was actually better than I expected. I ate some of the chicken and it was very tasty with a nice rosemary flavoring. I prefer white meat so I had some of the breast and it was cooked perfectly and not dried out. The Brisket was also very good. It was better than some other BBQ places I have tried. The Ribs were good as well. Not ribs I would rave about but they were good. Finally the Pulled pork was a bit fatty but I guess that comes with the territory with pulled pork. Also note that my wife loved the corn on the cob. If we ever come back I would order the skillet over the steak.

I knew about the ketchup experience but did not tell my kids. I tried to get the kids to ask for ketchup but they were reluctant. For some strange reason they don't always trust me. Eventually my daughter agreed to ask for ketchup and the kids got the full experience.

When the next table asked for ketchup we were happy to reciprocate. We had a fun waitress and that really helped make the dining experience enjoyable.

After we finished up, we walked around a bit more.

We started to check out the outside and I took one quick shot which did not turn out as well as I had hoped before my wife said that the kids were getting tired so we should head back to the resort.

I would have liked to explore a bit more but I was ok with heading back to the resort. we still had not unpacked so it was best to get back to our Ducky Room. Overall, even though my meal was not the best we still had a good time and my family said that they would definitely come back again.

We are not quite done with the day. I'll finish off Day 2 in the next post.

 

[DISWolves]

Great underwater photos.
We visited Aquatica for the first time in August 2010 - I loved Roa's Rapids !
I have just purchased a Sony TX5 to attempt some underwater photography in August at Discovery Cove.
I like the detail in the last water shot

 

[Antigua08]

We plan on visiting Aquatica on our trip so always good to see pics from there, and l have to say they've come out pretty well. Much better than the ones you get with an underwater disposable camera that l would normally take. Would love to get into photography so may have to add one fo those to my list of wants!