It's alright, I'm still alive! a TR -- Day 11: Aquatica-- Updated 27/4

[Dimplenose]

I'm really enjoyng your report and photos. (You do look a tad pink - I hope you didn't burn.)

 

[DisneyJo]

Just catching up Laura and I'm so sorry you've been ill, gladyou're feeling better now though

Wow you did a lot today, AK, BB, AK and DHS Amazing!!!!

 

[Tink2312]

Wow that was one packed day! You certainly used your hopper well
Glad to hear you're feeling better

 

[arieljasmine]

Cheers Laura(i do kow what you mean)-she would really like a cuddly George,so she can cuddle him in bed-hopefully they will have one of those.Looking forward to your next instalment .x.

Hi Laura and Michelle

Just in the middle of catching up with your reports, Laura, but saw this from Michelle and wanted to say that I bought myself a cuddly Curious George last time we were at Universal so hopefully you should have no problems! I love mine, he is just so cute

Laur's xx

 

[arieljasmine]

Brilliant updates, Laura

I am so jealous of your picture with Jiminy Cricket, we have never seen him.

Laur's xx

 

[Snowy-girls]

Hi Laura and Michelle

Just in the middle of catching up with your reports, Laura, but saw this from Michelle and wanted to say that I bought myself a cuddly Curious George last time we were at Universal so hopefully you should have no problems! I love mine, he is just so cute

Laur's xx

Thaks Laur's,dd4 will be very happy with one of them.x.

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Appreciate the time you have spent writing your trip report and uploading photos. I enjoyed reading it and seeing the things that you saw. I am glad you had a lovely day.

Sorry to hear you have been poorly.

Glad you enjoyed it Sorry for the incredible delay, I havent had any internet for the last weekish

Glad you are feeling better.
Excellent trip report and photo's as usual.
Keep up the good work.

thankyou

Ooh i hope so the girls will be VERY happy .x.

Sorry to hear you was'nt well+glad you are now better .
Great update,we love the Lion King show-it is amazing.You got quite a bit done today.Food looks yummy,we have a ressie for TRex Cafe so hoping that this is also nice .The main reason we are going is the girls,especially Dd4 LOVE dinosaurs.x.

thanks for your well wishes Oooh let me know what the TRex Cafe is like, we saw that being built when we were out there and from what I've seen it looks fantastic! I hope you have a fab time!

I'm really enjoyng your report and photos. (You do look a tad pink - I hope you didn't burn.)

I burnt quite badly on the first day unfortunately due to a mixture of my hair colour and a complete system shock with the strength of the sun, but I didn't burn at all after that so I guess that's kind of alright!!!

Just catching up Laura and I'm so sorry you've been ill, gladyou're feeling better now though

Wow you did a lot today, AK, BB, AK and DHS Amazing!!!!

I was immensly surprised at how much we got done today as well, it didn't feel like it at all though, we were just as relaxed as before. We definately love the fact we can park hop!!

Wow that was one packed day! You certainly used your hopper well
Glad to hear you're feeling better

thanks I love park hopping, it suits us so well so we were very happy with how much we got done!!

Hi Laura and Michelle

Just in the middle of catching up with your reports, Laura, but saw this from Michelle and wanted to say that I bought myself a cuddly Curious George last time we were at Universal so hopefully you should have no problems! I love mine, he is just so cute

Laur's xx

Brilliant updates, Laura

I am so jealous of your picture with Jiminy Cricket, we have never seen him.

Laur's xx

Awww I can't believe you never see him, we always see him! He's one of the regular characters they bring out with Rafiki at Rafiki's planet watch, if you go there you're sure to see him!!

Thaks Laur's,dd4 will be very happy with one of them.x.

I'm glad she managed to help you more than I could!! I sure you're DD will love her Curious George plush!!!!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Yet again another apology!! I've been internet less for the last week, I came home from uni for easter and we were in limbo land without the internet whilst we visited my grandparents and then when I got home my laptop decided to break!! Not good! But I'm all fixed now so I'll get writing another update and it'll be ready by this evening!

Oooh I also found some more pictures of backstage MK from the 4th when we were taken that way before the fireworks, it's from Main Street to Tomorrow Land! Here they are...

The back of the (now deceased ) Galaxy Palace Theatre, on the left of the picture by the white bars is a little fenced off area where all the food carts are kept, there were some there for hot dogs, coca cola and popcorn

and here is the one I already posted.. it fits in between the above 2 and the car is the car they take those lucky enough to win the stay at the cinderella suite in!

 

[wicket2005]

It's nice to have something to look forward to reading.

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Today was a day I was quite looking forward to, it was the day we had allocated to go to Sea World, I loved Sea World last time we visited so I had high expectations for today!!

We arrived at 9:15, a little later than we usually did for Disney, partly because we forgot how long it took to drive there and partly because we knew we didnt have to get there as early!!

We made our way through the gates having no trouble with our fingerprints unlike at US and IoA (and Aquatica) I wonder why we had no problem at Sea World.. or rather why we had so much problem at all the others?! Annoyed me stupid!!

Anyway... we wandered in and made our way to the tutle pool, it was still to early in the morning for them to be fully up and about so we didn't see too much which was a shame, but they looked pretty cool!! Next were the stingrays and I couldn't help but sing the 'lets name the zones' song from Finding Nemo!! I got some funny looks!

My (nearly) favourite animals came after that, the dolphins, they were as amazing and graceful as usual but I was gutted that you couldn't get up close like you could last time, they had roped it off so you couldn't get upclose unless you had paid to feed them and as they weren't feeding at this time we could only see them in the glass area below. I hate how everything is about money now a days!

After the dolphins my favourite animals came up, the manatees!! I love these creatures, they're so graceful and just look so peaceful, it's such a shame they're dying out.

We nosied round the exhibit for a while to get out of the insane midmorning heat and into the airconditioning when we came out we were greated by these quite menacing looking creatures....

and then randomly by a flock of flamingoes walking past just out of the blue, like they were being taken for a mid morning walk, was a truly bazairre thing to witness!

(I got so frustrated with this Brazillian girl, she kept obstructing everyone's view, not just mine, grr!)

Next we felt it was time for a ride to break up the constant exhibit seeing, so off we trotted to Kracken. I love love love this ride, it goes so high and is so thrilling! Only dad and I ride it though, so we left mum and my brother wandering near by and ran off to ride. The queue time was only 10minutes and remained that all day so we took full advantage and rode twice. It was so much fun!!

The dolphin show Blue Horizons was just about to begin so we made our way to that. I remember good things from this show last year, but they had changed it so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was actually really good and the story was, although a tad cheesey, quite good. The things the dolphins they were able to do were fantastic and took my breath away!

We were getting highly peckish after the show finished so off we went to the bakery. This was where I got my favourite cake from in 2004 so I was very excited, and it did not disappoint. I walked into the store and was faced with this...

Heaven!!! I chose (of course) the chocolate cake, it's my all time favourite desert and the Americans make it so good I just couldn't resist!!

The other cakes were good too, but I dont remember what my family got, I was too engrossed in my amazing cake!!

We wandered a bit more and ended up at Shamu Stadium in time for their show 'Believe'. Oh my goodness it was so unbelievably cheesey! I was trying to supress my laughter, I'm surprised the trainers weren't laughing as well, whoever came up with the story needs a serious reality check!! The 'stunts' were amazing as per usual though, and I loved the fact that at the beginning they asked al the members of the armed forces, including the British, to stand up and they thanked them and praised them so much, it was so moving, made me kind of ashamed we don't do the same for our armed forces here.

well if you do insist on sitting in the splash zone...

Next came the Arctic Exhibit, I loved this because it was so cleverly set up, you had to get on a 'helicopter' (a simulator) to fly to the Arctic before you arrived at the exhibit and as soon as you 'touched down' it was set up as an arctic base. Very cool!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

I felt so sorry for this polar bear, he looked so unhappy

This walrus was hilarious, he just stayed like this for about 20minutes, I have no idea how he managed it!

We also saw Beluga whales but apparently I didn't take any photos!

The exit was slightly less glamorous, we walked down a ramp and out into the park, maybe the helicopter just flew around in a few circles?!

We came across sharks next, there was a massive pool just filled with them, I had no idea there were that many sharks!!

A short walk across from the sharks were the penguins, this was a wierd exhibit, you jumped on to a slow moving conveyer belt and sort of moved across the exhibit! I also found it completely wierd that it was snowing in the exhibit, I couldn't comprehend the immense heat outside and the apparent freezing cold inside the tank, it didn't make sense!! The tank in my mind was wayyy too small too, it was so thin and there wasn't that much room to swim, I hope that they had a place out back they could spred their wings in!

 

[wicket2005]

Thanks again Laura I enjoyed your report and photos.

I know Universal and Islands can have problems with their scanners which holds everybody up. Sometimes though they just have a man on who just scans the ticket, if we see this we head for that line as it is so quick.

I just love the Kraken, front row is my favourite.

The polar bear and walrus also look so sad and their viewing areas look ever so small. It is the one area I wish could be changed to accommodate larger living areas. It would do my box in being in there all the time. I am hoping they have an area where they can breathe fresh air and be outside.

That chocolate cake looked yummy.

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Thanks again Laura I enjoyed your report and photos.

I know Universal and Islands can have problems with their scanners which holds everybody up. Sometimes though they just have a man on who just scans the ticket, if we see this we head for that line as it is so quick.

I just love the Kraken, front row is my favourite.

The polar bear and walrus also look so sad and their viewing areas look ever so small. It is the one area I wish could be changed to accommodate larger living areas. It would do my box in being in there all the time. I am hoping they have an area where they can breathe fresh air and be outside.

That chocolate cake looked yummy.

We worked out your trick after a couple of days, it's just so frustrating waiting for ages for a scanner to attempt to read your finger!! I hope the polar bear and walrus have an area too, it seems sort of cruel otherwise!!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

After rolling (quite literally in my case) off the moving walkway belt from the penguin exhibit we headed towards 'Clyde and Seymour Take Pirate Island', a show about a sealion and a otter which is always hilarious fun! We were slightly early so we stopped by the sealions and seals briefly, they were so loud and constantly calling for food!!!

Soon the show was open to find our seats so we wandered in and took up some places near the centre of the theatre in a perfect position to see everything! If you have seen this show you will know that whilst everyone is being seated there is a mime artist that walks around generally taking the mickey out of anyone and everyone, he had my family and I in stitches, so much so I didn't take any photo's of him but I would see the show again and again just for him!! I think the funniest thing he did was offer to seat a family when the stadium was getting quite full, he would ask them how many they had (mime of course) and then lead them up a few rows towards empty seats but stop before them where people were already sitting, count out the number of people sitting in accordance with how many was in the party he was trying to sit and then tell them to move. It was very very funny! He also decided to take a ride on a woman's ECV (whilst she was driving it!)

Soon the show began and out came the main characters

and of course there was the inevitable soaking... it just so happened to be his birthday, and this was his present from Seymour!

Out of the day time shows this was definately my favourite, it didn't try too hard and relied mainly on comedy instead of cheese! I think it makes it far more fun when the animals actually interact with the show by talking and doing actions instead of just performing tricks all the time, in my opinion anyways!!

After the show had finished we rushed over the dolphin exhibit where there was a box of fish with my name on it! (On a side note, in the queue we happened to bump into a family we knew were out in Orlando at the same time as us, we hadn't arranged to meet up and we didn't know each other schedules so to see each other was a complete surprise! It's a small world!)

I loved feeding the dolphins, they're so friendly and so loving, I'd love to do Discovery Cove at some point, but seeing as both my brother and mum just aren't fussed to do it it's an awful lot of money that we could put to use somewhere else as a family.

(I've just realised how bad my watch mark is in this picture, I'm so proud of that mark, I NEVER tan!! )

We were getting peckish ourselves by this point and wandered off to find somewhere to eat that was quick and easy... it's not all that easy as in WDW. Sea World pride themselves on their seafood tableservice restaurants (as they probably should) so we struggled to find somewhere, eventually we found a CS place and had a fairly decent meal.

My brother and I got the chicken breast and tomato pasta meal

My dad a caesar salad

and mum a pizza slice and chips

We headed back round to visit the sealions again (via the turtles where i took a photo!!)

the seals were apparently even more hungry than before and were making such a racket, it was quite funny to watch, there was one who was obviously one of those seals (personifying the seal somewhat) who annoys everyone their friends with! He was barking like mad and went for every piece of food thrown at him (you could feed these too). The other seals were getting very frustrated with him!!

The night time shows were due to start so we once again made our way into teh Clyde and Seymour stadium only this time to watch 'Sealions tonight', possibly one of the funniest shows I've ever seen. All they basically did the whole time was take the mick out of the dolphin and shamu shows, and it was very very accurate, they had the cheese down to a tee and were even commenting on how it was too cheesey!!! (Warning if your planning on seeing this I wouldn't read this next bit, it sort of spoils it and half the fun is the surprise!!)

This is the mime artist, he was dressed all rock (normally he's dressed as a pirate) and came out just before the show started with a guitar hero guitar miming/air guitaring to the music.

First up came the mick take of Blue Horizons (the dolphin show) In this picture they're taking the mick out of the main character who dreams she's swimming through the oceans with dolphins

This is supposed to represent the bird which flies up during the show (it's a person attached to wires in Blue Horizons)

It was made even funnier because it is the mime artist and the way he played the 'bird' just cracked us all up!

The screen from Believe... sorry Relieve

This is supposed to represent the standing on the back of whale in Believe...

This is a 'Shamu trainer' who comes into audience and selects someone to give a carved wooden whale tail too (symbolic in the actual Believe show). He was dressed as a gangster with a massive gold chain ending in a whale tail as in the show they wear the tail as a necklace

Finally it culminated in this

the signs reads 'Shamu can you do this?!'

 

[disneyhockeymad]

After the show we decided to go and watch the Bayside Ski Jam... which was interesting. I thought that it would be a lot of stunts on waterski's, but mostly it was about a group of actors singing songs and doing all these wierd dance routines. I don't know what's happened to make Sea World put in all these ridiculous storylines but it was very very bazar and almost not really worth it.

Anyways the stadium is right on the water front (as you would expect) and we had some spectacular views..

(this is me zoomed in)

I didn't take many pictures from the skijam, it was very very blurry, this is my only example!

After the show it was a mad dash to Shamu Stadium to catch 'Shamu Rocks' another cheese fest but definately miles better than that of it's day time counterpart! The stunts were unreal, I fail to see how a whale can jump as high as it did!!

Finally it was on to the fireworks Mistify, we missed teh beginning and therefore a good spot because we decided to go to the late showing of Shamu rocks, it was mainly pyrotechnics as you can appreciate for it being an animal park, but from what we could see and from the little audio we could hear it wasnt that good at all.

That concludes our day in SeaWorld, I think it's safe to say we weren't really impressed and we thought that it had definately gone down since we last visited it. We won't visit again I don't think if and when we go back to Orlando (although I really want to ride their new 'coaster so we'll see!!) It's a shame really because we remembered it being so good! We were planning on trying their new water park Aquatica tomorrow so we were keeping our fingers crossed that would be better!!

 

[wickesy]

We didn't rate Sea World either and it hasn't even been a consideration for our last two trips so I can't see us going back any time soon.

 

[DisneyJo]

I love the mime, he's so funny and your show sounded fantastic

The relieve show sounds hilarious but a pity you didn't think Seaworld was that good anymore!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

We didn't rate Sea World either and it hasn't even been a consideration for our last two trips so I can't see us going back any time soon.

Nah I can't see us going back either, although I love feeding the dolphins and I'd love to go on the new rollercoaster, so maybe we will, but only for a day

I love the mime, he's so funny and your show sounded fantastic

The relieve show sounds hilarious but a pity you didn't think Seaworld was that good anymore!

The mime artist was definately the best bit of the whole day, he made the entire experience, he should be working in Disney!! It sucks we didn't enjoy Sea World because that was always our favourite out of the non Disney parks. I only hope it gets better again!!

 

[Pegasus928]

Just caught up on this thread and it was - as usual - a very entertaining read.
My favourite picture up to now is the one of the huge slice of chocolate cake with the low fat milk strategically placed alongside it (or was that just coincidence )

Also good to hear honest views about what you don't like as well as what you do. It's this type of trip reporting that helps people planning trips to make informed decisions, hopefully helping them save some money in the process. Well done.

 

[raph_b]

The evening at Sea World looks amazing! Esp the shows. It's a shame you didn't love it yourselves though.

I agree with you about the mime, he was the best part of the day. When we walked in we had no idea he was taking the mick out of people, so when he showed us to our seats and everyone started laughing we were a bit confused, but after sitting down for 5 mins soon worked out why!

Its definitely worth getting to the show 10 minutes early just to watch him!!

You should definitely try to convince your family to do Discovery Cove one day, if you like dolphins you will absolutely love it

Looking forward to hearing your views on Aquatica......