Part III: "Baby It's Cold.....................Inside???????"
Ok....so where were we??? Oh yes, the parking lot at SeaWorld. It's 6:45. And we've got places to go
And we're off
Of course we have no idea how to get where we are going but dh and I make a good team. He's the pilot, I'm the co-pilot. The kids? Well I guess they qualify as the unruly passengers LOL. We make our way through Orlando, back-tracking once or twice, until we finally arrive at our destination. The Gaylord Palms Hotel. Wow. Beautiful. Wish I had taken a picture but I didn't so you'll have to trust me on this one. Beautiful.
"What are we doing here?" the kids ask (see, don't feel badly, they don't know where we are going either)
We park the van and pile out. It's still fairly warm and we are all wearing shorts and t-shirts. We each don additional upper layers in preparation. On our feet................a combination of sneakers and flip flops. As we make our way into the hotel a young woman looks down at my feet, in flip flops, and smiles - "you're going to freeze!!!!" she giggles. "Naaaah" I tell her, "I'm a hardy New Englander".
Once inside the hotel (did I say it was beautiful? it was beautiful) we follow the signs to the ticket counter and enter the line. The kids can't stop with the "what are we doing here,"where are we going?" but we continue to keep the secret. We show the woman at the counter our voucher from GKTW and she promptly runs off to find someone who can help us. In short order a very nice woman comes out of the back, welcomes us, and then proceeds to hand us an envelope with 6 tickets, a voucher for a free picture, a voucher for free parking, and coupons for free hot chocolate for 'later'. "You'll be needing those" she smiles
At this hour there is no waiting but by the looks of the corral it apparently can get QUITE busy. We are feeling fortunate that we've chosen a good time to come. Before we enter the maze we take a picture of the children who, despite the sign, remain quite confused.
Now at this point some of you know exactly what we are in for (you do, don't you?) But since some of my loyal following may still be in the dark...................let's just keep the suspense going alittle while longer, shall we?
Through the maze and into 'the back'. Oooooh it is kinda cold in here. Up ahead we see table after table after table piled high with...................down parkas. Blue down parkas. Beautiful blue down parkas (ok, so maybe not so beautiful but I'm trying to be positive). Everyone gets one. And do we look silly. At this point they take a picture of our group in our beautiful blue down parkas. It's one of those pictures that they take in front of a green screen. You know. And then, when you actually see the photo, you notice how you've suddenly, somehow, been magically transported to someplace else
And I do so wish I could find that photo because..............
we.................
look..................
hilarious!
But alas, at present, it appears to be among the missing
.
Ok.....the kids are starting to lose their patience (I suppose you all might be too huh????). We lumber around the corner feeling like the Michelin Men and quickly come upon a sign which seems to explain the seriousness of the situation which lies ahead:
Yup, you read that right...................9 degrees
My toesies are indeed gonna be alittle chilly 'cuz we are about to enter the Arctic Zone!!!
But first.......a couple of silly photo ops!
Yup, that's me on the left
and then we are there: "ICE"
ICE is a yearly holiday exhibit at Gaylord Palms. Two million pounds of ice. Two million pounds!!! The ice is sculpted into amazing displays. Room after room, all in a different theme. The arctic forest, the North Pole (complete with eskimos!), a life-sized nativity scene, a carnival with a carousel (you can sit on!), larger than life christmas ornaments, a gargantuan Santa Claus, and a giant ice SLIDE!!!!!! The kids' eyes were wide. Heck, mine were too. I can't imagine the work that went into these sculptures. To call their creators talented would be an understatement.
Sadly our pictures are few and far between and those that we do have are of very poor quality
. They caution you not to use a 'good' camera because of the temperature and so we choose a single use cheapie instead. Poor choice. We use almost all of the pictures in the camera but less than half come out! UGH And what do.........................well, here's what we have (of course, the thumb doesn't help either
):
Definately does not do it justice. Trust me, it really is beautiful. And the slide??? Well Nick and Liv actually climb up and slid down once or twice!!!!! Talk about some chilly little butts!
While it would be fun to linger it really is quite chilly. Beyond chilly. Even in our beautiful blue parkas. And, if you just happen to run into that woman who laughed at me earlier please don't tell her but.........................MY FEET WERE FREEZING!!!!!!!!
Once beyond the frozen tundra we toss our beautiful blue parkas in their appropriate receptacles, pick up our photo, and browse the gift shop (stopping only to pick up a cute little stuffed gingerbread man for our growing collection) on our way to find the hot chocolate.
Although what I really need is a hot TUB, if the hot chocolate is all I can get, I'll take it.
We make our way up to the lobby. Did I mention that this hotel is beautiful??????? Holy cow! And the atrium! Beyond beautiful. You look up and you realize that hotel rooms have balconies that look out over this incredible space. If we didn't always have 4 kids in tow I'll tell you where we'd be making a reservation for a little hootchie-kootchie getaway
This being the holiday season the hotel showcases a variety of special entertainment in addition to ICE. This night they are featuring a rather obscure, yet interesting and talented, rock and roll band. Their schtick? Belting out their version of popular Christmas carols at ear-piercing decibels. With outlandish costuming, twirling aerielists and special effects lighting it proves to be quite the show. We grab our hot chocolate, pick up a few bags of cheetos from the adjacent gift shop, and take a spot on the stairs. The show lasts about 20 minutes. Perfect. Just enough time to thawout.
Everyone is looking pretty tired at this point.
Time to head home.
We arrive back at GKTW at 9:30 and grab some grub at Katie's Kitchen. Lights are out by 10:00. We are hoping for an early wake-up tomorrow as the Nickelodeon characters will be on hand at the Village and then there's Hollywood Studios!!!!!! Will we make it? Will we finally make it to a park at opening????? Stay tuned
Next up: "Hangin' in Hollywood"
On with the show!!!!
Now that's quite a perk given that there are six of us wouldn't you say??? We all end up having a really good time trying to feed these guys (not as easy as it might appear) and end up spending quite awhile at this exhibit:
What if he could draw a caricature of Matty.................Matty's head on a gingerbread man's body!!!!! What a great memory for a scrapbook! Dh and I are giddy at the thought. We discuss the idea with the artist who is 100% on board and gives us a reasonable price. After some discussion we tell him we'll be back later (we're concerned about it getting ruined if we have to carry it around the park with us for the rest of the day). The artist tries to convince us otherwise but to no avail. We promise him, and ourselves, that we WILL be back - he can count on us. He shakes his head (apparently he's heard such promises before). We continue on our way. 
. Oh well..........................we didn't really come to SeaWorld for the rides anyway, did we? What we really need are some good shows! A quick check of the Guide.....................and we find just the ones!! .The kids sure looked like they were having a great time at GKTW!. Im so glad you found Matty's autograph book. I still need to get some of those
