Sunday, October 28th: SeaWorld, the conclusion
Since we suspected that we'd get pretty wet on Infinity Falls, we opted to eat first and ride last: I really didn't want to be sogging through a restaurant once we had taken our ride through the rapids. But before we dined, Steve took all our loot (our treat bags and my stuffies) to the rental car while I stopped at Adventure Photo to have our Sea Lion tour photos added to our Photokey. Line for the latter would be MUCH shorter now than at park closing.
While he was at the vehicle, I asked Steve to grab a couple of ponchos (which I always keep in the back seat for when they're needed) so we could at least try to keep dry"ish" while riding Infinity Falls. I know we'd still get wet, but maybe not SUPER soaked ....right???
I ended up having no wait to see a photo agent, so I hung out and waited for Steve to get back into the park.
I kind of wondered what was taking him so long
, but when I finally caught site of him.....he had no ponchos in hand. Turns out he'd been searching the car for them, but it appears that someone (ahem!
) forgot to throw them in on our way out of the villa that morning. Whoops. He had been looking high and low (literally under the seats and everywhere in between) but alas, I had led him astray without meaning to. I guess we'd end up soaked to the skin after all
.
Thank goodness we had left the ride to the END of the day!
I let Steve pick the restaurant for dinner, and he chose Seafire Grill....he was in the mood for fajitas
.
The chicken fajitas came with white rice, black beans, fresh tortillas (which you can't see in the above photos, but they're stacked under the meat and rice plate), sour cream, diced tomatoes, and shredded cheese. Other than the beans (of which Steve is not a fan at any time), he thoroughly enjoyed his meal....including the blueberry cheesecake which he selected as his side. My chicken tenders and fries were equally as hot and delicious as Steve's fajitas: I have no idea where SeaWorld buys their chicken tenders, but they are consistently among the best I've had in a theme park. My cookies were kind of "meh", but then again, we had eaten a LOT on this day so perhaps I was just getting fooded out
. That's a possibility.
We both had apple juice to drink. I love the fact that there's a juice option on the all-day dining. There's only so much pop my stomach can handle in a day.
When we wrapped up our dinner, we stopped for a washroom break and then made our way to Infinity Falls: it was time (and I was more than a little nervous!
).
Bless his sweet heart, as we walked up toward the ride, Steve dashed over to the small kiosk there and purchased us a pair of SeaWorld ponchos
... he knew that I would be worried about my phone and purse getting wet, so at the very least he wanted me to ride with the assurance that my electronics would be safe. If that's not love, I don't know what is
. Those ponchos, however, cost a painful $20
.... so forgetting my dollar store ponchos (which were of equal quality, I'm sorry to say) was an expensive oops on my part.
Heading up to the queue, we noted that he standby time was at a whopping 65 minutes
.... we were so thankful that we had our Quick Queue passes! With Quick Queue, we literally walked right up and were boarded onto the next boat.....no wait at all
. Which was a good thing.....so I had less time to worry and fret!
Our boat was loaded with a full 8 passengers and we were off and rushing through the rapids within seconds of being belted into our seats. In a full boat with all large adults, we moved at full speed and hit the small drops with lots of weight behind us.....so the waves of water literally sloshed right up and over our heads (as well as down our backs and in our faces, depending on whether we were going forwards or backwards at the time). The raft spun and bounced, turning as it did so, and the waves of water had us with a half foot of water in the boat at any given time. Steve's size 15 running shoes were fully submerged for most of the voyage
.
I truly feared the drop......I
despise the feeling of being dropped.....but honestly, it was smooth and not so sharp as to cause that horrible feeling in the pit of one's stomach. I thought I would at least tolerate the ride for Steve's sake, but I ended up LOVING it!
I survived!
SeaWorld, you have a winner in this ride!
Sadly, the ride photo wasn't working on that particular day (technical difficulties had plagued the photo kiosk throughout the day, we were told) so there would be no proof of my bravery. Too bad
.
We were soaked to the skin.......think
wring-out-your-underwear wet.....despite our best efforts with the ponchos. That said, the ponchos DID keep my purse and phone dry
: so, perhaps they were worth the $20 after all
. Steve shoes, on the other hand, didn't fare nearly as well: they would take 2 full days to dry out (and that was hanging on the balcony of the villa, in the fresh warm air). When we visited again later in the week, he would be wearing sandals for sure
.
As we squished and squashed our soggy selves to the park exit, we were SUPER glad we had eaten first and saved the ride for last.
What an AWESOME day it had been
.
Back at the villa, we changed into dry clothes, and surveyed our candy haul from trick-or-treating. Considering we just popped into whatever lines we saw as we passed (not really trying to go for volume or quantity), we did pretty good!
It was a relaxing night at the resort, with a swim in the pool and a long soak in the hot tub (where we met a lovely family from Ohio.....we always manage to have some great conversation with other guests during those evenings spent in the spas). Sleep came quick and easy after a full day of theme parking, sunshine and adventure!
Next up: fun in the sun at our favorite Orlando waterpark.....Aquatica!