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

[disneyhockeymad]

I've just caught up with your entire trip report
It's so crazy reading it, your planning reminds me so much of myself last year - and this year now too My parents are refusing to go to Disney with me again; they think I take things a bit too seriously Although I don't see what's wrong with stalking CMs when they walk you to rides and refusing to be distracted by the monkeys on the way to EE

I know what you mean about American pride and everything though - I remember when we went to see one of the Shamu shows in 2006 and they asked everyone who had ever served in the military to stand up and we all applauded and cheered - I felt so touched! I wish people felt as proud of our military here

Just thought I'd stop lurking and say hii and nice TR though!

My parents think I take things wayy to seriously too, they just don't seem to get it!!! I don't see what's wrong with stalking CMs either!! They still do that in the Shamu shows, I wish we had that too, it just seems wrong in some way for us not to be doing that! Glad you enjoyed my report though I've just written the next bit, so stay tuned!!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

(sorry for the slow update I've been really ill... had no energy to get out of bed at all so everything has seemed like an effort! I'm all good now though so on with the show!)

After missing out on a dream we decided that for the time being we had had enough of AK so headed on over to try our luck again at BB, crossing our fingers extra hard that there would be no school buses there this time, and there weren't I left my camera in the car again because I am a nightmare when it comes to technology/sand/water, it's best if I dont ever make the three meet! I'll whizz through BB coz I know it's a little boring without pictures!

We arrived and staked out a spot somewhere near the Warming Hut because everything was so busy, it was good though, we were so near our favourite ride, Castaway Creek. After impatiently waiting to slop on the suntan cream we made our way into the Castaway creek grabbing rings as we went for my parents and finally for my brother and I. We played the game we always did, pushing each other under the sneezing house, my mum goes ape at me everytime I try! It's hilarious! Mum can't understand it, I'm so willing to get wet and absolutely adore water when I'm in a suitable attire, but when it comes to water rides when I'm in clothes, definately a no no!!

Anyways after a few round trips my brother and I got bored and headed over, dragging my dad with us as Mum wanted to sunbathe, to the Taboggan Racers, love them! I won, just, but that's coz I made my dad and brother give me a head start! We hit the Snow Riders after that and then jumped on the lift up to Team Boat Springs, this is a must, we have such a laugh everytime, we were put in a raft with a lovely America family who loved it just as much as we do, we couldn't stop laughing!!

We had had enough of riding rides for the time being so we headed back down to our towels and mum, but she was no where to be seen until we finally spotted her in the pool cooling herself down, she had a bit of a headache so we decided that we'd stayed long enough and headed over to get changed. Once we got changed we drove back to AK and in an attempt to get some drinks and food which we were desperate for. Apparently though everywhere was closed, even though it was boiling hot and mum was really suffering from the heat, 'no drinks 5 minutes before the parade' so we had to wait, we found some shade for mum and sat and waited for the parade to pass...

More photos!!

I love these giant animals, they're so cleverly done, reminds me of the old parade before Illuminations. I loved that too!!

This is the first time I've seen Brier Rabbit too, how exciting!

Good old parade

We grabbed our drinks eventually and headed to the FotLK, more photos again!!

We were in the elephant section, loved making the sounds!!

As we headed out we decided to check out EE but it was broken down I started talking to a nice English CM, I felt quite bad for him he was obviously new and was following the CM rules on what to say to the letter, did make me laugh but he was getting quite flustered when people were asking him questions that he couldnt answer using the answers he had been taught!!

We took one last ride on Primeval Whirl and ran into Pluto and Goofy (it was a good day for characters!!) before checking in at the Rainforest Cafe where we had made ressies as we entered the park, I couldn't wait!!

We decided to try something completely different this time and we all loved what we chose again,

I had the Tuscan chicken which was amazing, just looking at it makes me crave it! It had this amazing cucumber salad with it too which was delish

My brother had the Chicken fried chicken... odd I know but still! He said it was ace!

Mum had the Planet Earth Pasta, also very good!

Finally dad had the Blue Mountain Sandwich

We were too full for pudding but were still so awake so we decided to drive round to HS and watch Fantasmic, we made it with 10minutes to spar, I didn't think we'd get a seat or indeed a place at all, and I was right in a certain aspect but we were offered the standing at the back and that was great! I didn't take any pictures this time but it was as great as normal!

After it had finished being standing we made it out of the arena quickly and with still 10minutes left until the park closed decided to head to TSM to try and wangle a ride, I fluttered my eyelids at the CM and we joined the queue for one last ride!

It was a great day, started and ended well! We were knackered by the end of it but were on such high spirits despite the long day. We love days like that, everything seemed to go right!!

 

[seasideteacher]

I read through your trip and loved it! how fun! You got me really excited to see the parades, something I had not thought of much!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

I read through your trip and loved it! how fun! You got me really excited to see the parades, something I had not thought of much!

Thanks! The parades are fantastic! I love them they really get me in the mood!!

 

[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!

 

[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!!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

I'm going to post this next segment but unless it gets any comments (hint lurkers hint!) I'm gonna stop posting... follow the link in my sig if you want to keep reading (it's my UK TR!)

 

[disneyhockeymad]

I was quite looking forward to today, we were going to visit the newest edition to the Florida adventures, Aquatica, run by Sea World! I managed to rememeber to bring my camera in with me today but didn't take that many photos due to being generally wet all the time!

We got there pretty early and there was already quite a big queue forming, we were expecting it to be busy but there was serious storm predicted for the afternoon so it wasn't as bad as we thought. As soon as we walked in we were awe struck, the theming is amazing! If you've ever been to Sea World and seen/ridden the Atlantic ride the theming is pretty much based like that is, the buildings were very like that and everything else was beach!!

Here's some pictures of the beach

and a shop building thing!

My brother, dad and I were quick to dump our stuff, slop on the sunblock and explore, we decided to go on Aquatica's signature ride first, the Dolphin Plunge where you go through a tank full of commerson dolphins. The queue was already massive so we hastily joined the back and within about 20minutes were at the top waiting to go down. I was so excited about this ride but honestly it's awful! I have never ever gotten claustrophobic but I was nearly in tears and having a panic attack by the time I came out of the slide,the tubes are so thin and so dark it makes you panic so much. I was determined not to close my eyes though as I didn't want to miss the dolphins. As it happened we sped through the 2 second dolphin tank I literally saw daylight and that was it, it was so disappointing.

Here's a picture I took of it after I came off

and here are the dolphins

they have a tank that they swim in which goes to the tubes but when I was there the dolphins were so wary of the tubes and the things going down them they hardly swam by them and if they did it was at lightening speed! I think it's fair judgment to say I was incredibly gutted!!

Still I was determined to try other things out so after I had calmed myself down and got accostomed to the wide open spaces again we headed for the rapids, a firm favourite with my family. We were expecting a lazy river type thing but these were definatly rapids!! They moved fast in some points, swept you one way and the other and were alot of fun! We spent a while swimming around those!

This is the best picture I got!

We soon wore ourselves out and went back to our sun loungers to find mum missing, we suspected that she had got hot and had gone to the wave pool so we headed down there to find her. There are 2 wave pools next to each other which is quite nice but a bit of a pain if you're meeting someone by 'the wave pool'! they're very big and give you clear warning when to go the waves are coming by a giant counter clock on the side of the pool!

We found mum and soon my brother and I were antsy to try other rides so after wandering around a bit and nearly crying at the queue times (like 40mins minimum for many of them) we finally settled on the tube slides, which were amazing!! Here they are in all their glory!

The slides were much biggerand airier and you got to go down on a tube in 2's. We had ALOT of fun! We were practically flying off the bumps!

Soon mum was getting quite bored and hungry as there is much to do if you're a non swimmer at this park, it was starting to get very cloudy so we made our way over to the changing rooms to get dressed and then to get some food. It was getting VERY busy by this time too!

I took this photo walking around, I think the girl thought I was taking it of her!

I don't remember where we ate but it was really nice, sandwich and salad based, as we knew we were having a big tea we only had a light snack(apart from my brother)

My parents both shared this as it was huge!

I had this (which was more filling than it looked!) I was also craving fruit by this point as well, a girl can only have so many burgers!!

My brother who is a complete salad phobe had this:

We walked back to the carparking lot and I realised you could see seaworld!

As we got in the car the heavens opened, it was serious rain! We drove home, had a shower and waited the rain out. When it stopped we piled wandered over to the shopping outlets linked with our hotel and did some major shopping. I bought 2 pairs of shoes and lots of closed! I loved the summer exchange rate!

We spent the best part of the afternoon shopping and were soon hungry again, it had just started to rain too. We drove to TGI Fridays, a definate favourite restaurant of ours both in the UK and USA.

We were seated within about 15minutes and our waiter was hilarious, got to love the waiters!

We ordered a sharer starter, it was delicious!

When we had devoured that we got our mains (with quotes from each person),

I ordered the fajita's ('WOW')

My brother the ribs ('b-e-a-utiful'):

My mum the NY strip steak ('mmmm')- she'd taken the onion rings off the plate!

And dad the sirloin steak ('cooked to perfection')- chips were in another plate!

The food was amazing!! We didn't have room for pudding but it was ok, we didnt want to spoil the taste of our main!

After whiling away 2 hours in TGI's we headed to DTD as the rain had stopped, we generally browsed, I loved this line of minnie mouses!

I bought a stitch which can be seen here with my other disney plushes I bought to uni with me

 

[disneyhockeymad]

My brother and I decided to hit Disney Quest for a bit whilst mum and dad browsed, here's some photos on the way there...

Finally we arrived and got in, I dont remember what we rode but here's some pictures I took which I think I may have borrowed earlier on in my TR!

After we had finished up in Disney Quest we made our way back to the car to meet our parents and made a trip to the gas station, not fun in itself but I have never laughed so much watching my dad, and then my brother and dad, trying to figure out how to work the thing haha. A token picture to end on...

 

[Howellsy]

Thought I'd come out of lurkdom to say how fantastic your pictures are once more! They've given me a great time on my break from French revision, thanks!

 

[NotAmused]

Just thought I'd let you know I'm enjoying your trip report! I love the pictures! I've not been to Sea World in years, but your pictures make me want to visit there

Also, your most recent update made me excited because you visited my former job! Up until a few months ago, I was working at a sunglass kiosk at the outlet mall you went to so I was easily excited by you mentioning the mall and the "hotel" you stayed at since I used to see that every single day. I miss leaving work and seeing the fireworks from the bridge that connected the parking garage

 

[jmskinner]

I apologize for not reading your TR the past month. What have I been up to? Love all your pics. I just read several chapters so I'll try to remember everything I wanted to comment on.

The first one that comes to mind is the fact SeaWorld serves seafood. Just doesn't seem right.

I love chocolate cake also. Reading this has made me very hungry.

TGIFridays is one of our favorites also. Love the Jack Daniels Ribs. Now I am starving.

We haven't been to SeaWorld, but I really want to go. Well, we have been to the one in San Antonio.

You said you love Manatee's. We live near Tampa and just right up the road from us, maybe 3 miles, is a Manatee Viewing Center. There is a power plant that makes the water near it very warm so they hang out there during the Winter. If you ever make it between November -April, you will have to check it out. You don't get close to them, but you can see a lot of them.

Love that you included the pic of your father and brother trying to pump gas.

 

[RachelNinja]

AHHH! You have a Wall-E AND a Lumpy! So cute Love the updates!

 

[disneyhockeymad]

Hey people! So sorry it's taken me so darn long to write another installment, revision is taking over my life and any spare time I have I'm attempting to sleep or I'm watching a film! I will update soon though, but probs next week after my 3 exams are over this week!! oh and THANKYOU SO MUCH for commenting!!

Thought I'd come out of lurkdom to say how fantastic your pictures are once more! They've given me a great time on my break from French revision, thanks!

haha I'm glad I could help, I know how boring revision is so I'm glad I made it a tad more enjoyable for you!!

Just thought I'd let you know I'm enjoying your trip report! I love the pictures! I've not been to Sea World in years, but your pictures make me want to visit there

Also, your most recent update made me excited because you visited my former job! Up until a few months ago, I was working at a sunglass kiosk at the outlet mall you went to so I was easily excited by you mentioning the mall and the "hotel" you stayed at since I used to see that every single day. I miss leaving work and seeing the fireworks from the bridge that connected the parking garage

You should definately visit sea world, I said we probs wouldn't go back in my TR but I definately still love it there!! Aww that's so cool that you worked there, I loved that hotel and the outlet centre thing, and I agree seeing the fireworks were fab

I apologize for not reading your TR the past month. What have I been up to? Love all your pics. I just read several chapters so I'll try to remember everything I wanted to comment on.

The first one that comes to mind is the fact SeaWorld serves seafood. Just doesn't seem right.

I love chocolate cake also. Reading this has made me very hungry.

TGIFridays is one of our favorites also. Love the Jack Daniels Ribs. Now I am starving.

We haven't been to SeaWorld, but I really want to go. Well, we have been to the one in San Antonio.

You said you love Manatee's. We live near Tampa and just right up the road from us, maybe 3 miles, is a Manatee Viewing Center. There is a power plant that makes the water near it very warm so they hang out there during the Winter. If you ever make it between November -April, you will have to check it out. You don't get close to them, but you can see a lot of them.

Love that you included the pic of your father and brother trying to pump gas.

That's amazing, I would love to see wild manatees! I will deffo check it out if I ever go around that time it sounds awesome!! Definately visit sea world too!!

AHHH! You have a Wall-E AND a Lumpy! So cute Love the updates!

hehe thanks I now have a little Roo too, my friend bought if for me for my birthday a couple of weeks back, it is so adorable!!