First timers trip to the magic - Day 13

[MorningGlory]

Cast

Me. Paul. 34. Chief planner and taxi driver. Scared and excited at the thought of the big coasters.

DS9. Paul (now called junior for the sake of this report). Absolutely bursting at the thought of Disney. As scared as his dad of the coasters but isn't showing it (yet).

Dad. 60 something. Doesn't know how he is going to handle 9 hours without a cigarette!

Brother. John. 45. Possibly the most excited of us all. Definitely looking forward to meeting Mickey.

Day 13 – Tuesday 26th June 2007

We decided on another day at SeaWorld today, on account of the fact that we still had a spare day left on our SW tickets and my dad isn’t one to let something go to waste, so he was determined he was going to get the use of it before the holiday ended. Never mind the fact that me and junior still had 4 days left on our Disney tickets, and 2 on our Universal that we couldn’t hope to get full use of now!

In all honesty, I was quite happy to have another day at SW. It is a little more sedate than the other parks, we had really enjoyed the first day we had here and there was still quite a few things we wanted to do in it including – just maybe – a go on Kraken! So, with this in mind, we set off around 9:30 and made the short journey to SeaWorld.

Thankfully, Dad agreed to hire one of the electric scooters today at the park, and it had enough space in the baskets that the rest of us could dump all our stuff in it which made the walk around the park that much more comfortable. Following no specific route, we came across the ‘Shark Encounter’ aquarium and spent some time looking at the different types of shark in the pool outside;

We then went into the attraction itself and began our journey around, taking our time to have a good look at some of the weird and wonderful sea creatures that inhabit this part of the park;

We then stumbled upon this strange looking creature of the deep;

The fishy thing in the background wasn’t too pleasant looking either


Next up was the travelator thing that takes you through the underwater viewing area of the stars of this particular show;

Not exactly Jaws, but I still wouldn’t share a bath with any of them!

Back outside, we decided to buy some of the trays of fish to feed to the sharks in the pool. Had I realised how stinky this actually was, i’d have gave it a miss. After a good scrub of our hands (still the smell seemed to linger though...), we decided to go to the hospitality deli and have an early-ish lunch as we were all fairly hungry at this point. Some roast beef sandwiches and juice later, we wandered at a sedate pace down to the extreme zone, as junior had been wanting to try out the climbing walls they have there;

After this, junior caught sight again of the ‘Pearl Dive’ near the Sky Tower. This is the part of the park where they breed oysters for pearls, and they actually dive down and select oysters for you to take your pick from. Junior had been rueing the opportunity to get one as a present for his mum on our last visit here, so he wasn’t about to let the chance slip by him again. We stood and watched for a bit, and noticed most of the people would get a silver pearl. Blue pearls were slightly rarer we were told, and the rarest ones in SeaWorld were black pearls. I suppose I should have realised how lucky Junior can be at times, especially after getting a ball at the baseball game, and sure enough he came up trumps when the girl opened his oyster and let out a little scream on seeing he had a black pearl! She rang the bell loudly and shouted out so everyone could hear that Paul had got a black pearl! Once again, junior was beaming with happiness – they really made a fuss over him because of it especially in the shop where he had to get it sized and weighed. You would have thought he had a Wonka’s golden ticket or something lol. I think it cost him around $20, so it was well worth it as you can imagine.

Buoyed by junior’s success, I now decided to set a cunning plan in motion, one that even Baldrick himself would have been proud of. Everyone else happy to just go a wander, I led the way in the general direction of Kraken hopeful that junior might now be willing to give it a try. The plan worked a treat, as junior agreed it would be a good time to try out a coaster a last!! Before he had a chance to change his mind, we dumped all our stuff on dad and John and joined the fairly short queue to get on Kraken. 15 minutes later, and we were strapped into our seats in the middle of the train and set off on the climb up the hill. This part is probably the worst of rollercoaster rides, i’d rather just get shot up like the Hulk ride at IOA. After the initial climb and drop though (I shut my eyes at the top end of the drop lol!) it is truly an exhilarating experience! I asked junior a few times as we hurtled round it if he was okay, and he assured me he was so I was a bit surprised when we got off the ride and got the photo to see that the poor wee soul looked like he had been staring death straight in the face!!;

I can’t talk I suppose – I don’t know how you would describe the look on my face hehe!

cont.

 

[MorningGlory]

cont.

We decided on a sit down for a bit after this, as the excitement of it all did seem to take alot out of Junior and after the initial rush from it, he was starting to look a wee bit shaky. Assuring us he was fit to continue, we took a slow walk round to the alligator enclosure and snapped (pardon the pun!) some pics of them;

Before we headed round to Manatee Rescue for a look at these docile looking creatures;

 

And junior now looks as if he has some colour back in his face (come to think of it, he was closer to the colour of a manatee just 20 mins earlier);

I remember reading something about how they were the sea creatures mistaken by seamen of old as being mermaids. The only thing I can say to that is, I wish I had some of what they had been drinking!!

The manatee area means we were handily placed for the next showing of the Dolphin show, so we hung around and had a cigarette and frozen lemonade and before long, we were being let in for the next show;

Yet another great show put on by SeaWorld! It amazes me that we can train animals to such an extent that they are able to perform with such grace, beauty and timing. And the animals obviously enjoy what they do, regardless of the ethics of keeping creatures in captivity.

After the show, we decided we would head back to the hotel as junior still wasn’t feeling 100% and said his head was really hurting. Back at the hotel, junior deteriorated even more to the point where he was crying with the pain in his head. I think it has been the culmination of 2 weeks of heat, excitement and being on the go so much, coupled with the thrills and fears on Kraken today. He has been really missing his mum and wee sister lately also, so we decide to just have a quiet night in the room and order some pizza and juice and a short trip to the pharmacy for some junior painkillers, then settle down to watch some cartoons before turning in for an early night, hopeful that he is feeling better in the morning.

Tomorrow: Winding down the holiday, and a last night get-together.

 

[scottishsue]

I've really enjoyed reading your trip reports Paul. (Love the alligator photos).

 

[arieljasmine]

Poor Junior, I think the excitement can get to us all if we're not careful. I hope he was feeling much better the next day. I thought you were both very brave going on Kraken.

Laur's

 

[Minniespal]

Another brillant report with lovely photos.

 

[carolfoy]

you're very brave to try the kraken (or daft maybe!) well done on keeping the reports going paul, they're great

 

[mark&sue]

Amazing photo of you both on Kraken


susan

 

[cazzie]

Brave of you both to try Kraken. hope Junior is feeling better tomorrow.