sersee05
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2009
- Messages
- 1,023
Everything was last minute with my trip. I had part of it planned awhile back. We were staying on Disney property with free dining. But it ended up being almost $6000 to do this for my family of five. I wanted to also go to Seaworld in the worst way.
I ended up changing everything. I canceled my reservations and stayed offsite. I bought my Disney tickets through Undercover tourist and ended up saving us quite a bit of money
. The place I rented in Windsor Hills was finalized the day before I left! 
So my Seaworld tickets were also bought online the day before . I know..living on the edge here. That is how I roll.
I bought the $50 tickets on the website with no issues. I received the confirmation in my email and printed out all five of my tickets. There is always a little apprehension that they won't work at the gate but I had my receipt... so there.
There are five of us. My husband( who I love dearly
but is el stinko in keeping with my plans
) , my 16 year old daughter(who I think was just as excited as I was about Seaworld), my 11 year old daughter ( who wanted to ride roller coasters) and my 9 year old son (who is just happy). So throughout our Disney adventures...my husband thwarted all my dinner plans 
I found out that it was a good thing I didn't have the dining plan. He was so excited just to be in the parks.....he basically gave a big middle finger to my reservations 
I thought about divorcing him, but well I do like him still.
So Seaworld I had planned. I wanted to eat in Sharks Underwater Grill. I made a reservation for priority seating. I did this while I was down in Florida. I think it was the day before too. I couldn't get one for the five of us online so I called. The lady who helped me was the nicest lady!
I know I have heard that Seaworld employees are sometimes rude, but the lady helping me on the phone was extremely pleasant and made me two ressies for 1:15 and 6:45 since I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Easy peasy. I had all my shows written down and I had a plan. I was sticking to it no matter what. My dinner plans would not be thwarted by El Stinko this time!!!
So my plan was to arrive by 9 am at opening. Well that didn't happen. We were so tired from our Magic Kingdom night before(it was open until 1 am) that we overslept. We ended up getting there probably around 10:30. We ended up not doing everything I wanted too but it was ok ....really it was!
I thought the crowds would be light due to it being a Monday and that blackfish movie. I was also concerned about protestors due to the film. I have a friend who works in the lab at Seaworld who I spoke with and she told me they haven't seen or heard any backlash about the movie at all.They were prepped for demonstrations but nothing ever happened. She told me none of them every hear anything about it. I was surprised because I have been to bulletin boards to ask questions(not this one of course) and been lambasted for being a horrible person . Seaworld's fb page has people all over it talking about it. But maybe it's the same people over and over. Anyhoo.... the crowds? That is where I was right? Thanks for setting me straight. It was definitely a lot more crowded than I expected. It took us awhile to get through the parking gate which costs $15 if I recall and $18 for preferred. We bought the $15 ticket and it was an easy walk into the park.
My printed tickets worked perfectly and we marched right and over to Pets Ahoy!. It was in the Seaport theater. That show was extremely cute. I would say it was a cute first show of the day. I think I wouldn't have been so excited if it were my last show. It is a show using cats, dogs, birds, etc. It was more of them doing their tricks and not really an interactive between the host and animals like the sealions. It was definitely cute. I was amazed they could train cats like that! I wanted them to come and talk to my cat. The consensus of my family was that it was "cute".
When we got out of the theater my friend was waiting with her two girls.We used to live in the same neighborhood years and years ago, so it was so fantastic to see them. I hadn't in awhile. But it didn't change my plans a little bit since they hung with us a bit. We headed over to Clyde and Seymour 's pirate adventures. It was very close to the Pets ahoy show.
Now I had been looking forward to this for months. I love and I mean LOVE sea lions
I hadn't been to sea world for 17 years . I remember the Clyde and Seymour show (it wasn't pirate then..but a hotel I think) and remember how much I loved it. I wasn't disappointed. LOVED the show. I had a big gigantic smile on my face! 
The consensus you ask? I know you didn't ask but just pretend you did... was "it was awesome!!! Loved it". So yay.
I told my friend that I wanted to feed the sealions so we headed over. The place wasn't open and trainers were feeding them at that point. It was fine, because I took lots of pictures..
This is where we split up . The three girls ( Yes ..you were reading correctly. I only have two girls. This was the friend that came. ) wanted to ride Kracken. So they went off to do that and the rest of us went on Turtle trek. My daughter was doing a report on rockhopper penguins so I had to snap some photos of them. We only waited about 10 minutes for that attraction. We had to choose between "wild" and "mild". My son gets nervous on rides so I asked my trusty friend what the difference is. She said she thought the wild spun more but she didn't think it was wild at all. She told me she was a big baby on rides and was fine with it.So wild it was! For those of you sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if we threw up or regretted that decision......nope! It wasn't very wild and my son was fine. I was too and I get funky on some rides
It is cold though! We got to see all the penguins at the end and I got some awesome shots. My son's review "great ride Mom!"
We then went over to spice mill for lunch. My friend got us a 40% discount(Woot! Woot!). I thought prices were comparable to Disney. But I thought the inside was nicer than some of the places we ate at Disney. I had a chicken caesar salad which really was good. The one thing was we thought the sodas tasted funny..I don't know if it was the ice or not. But it was a pretty good lunch. It was around $70 for five of us but much better with the discount 
We then went on the sea turtle attraction. We were in a 3d movie theater and surrounded by the screen. It was pretty cool. The consensus... "It was pretty cool" My son didn't like it as much but he gets nervous with that stuff.
My friends left at that point. So we were on our own. I did end up missing Blue Horizons which I was bummed about . But I still had all my Xmas shows coming up.Basically I am a Xmas freak. I LOVE xmas time. I love the decor. I love the music. I love the feeling. So I was so excited for all the xmas stuff.
We went and checked to see about feeding the sea lions and yay it was opened! We let the kids feed them while I snapped away. It was very cool
. The consensus? "that was so awesome!!!!! We love sea lions!" Well Yay! Now they can be nutty like me.
We had plenty of time to do a lot of the attractions .So my schedule getting messed up a bit worked out fine. The girls went and rode Manta. I am not a roller coaster kind of gal so I just waited and walked around looking at everything . The girls came off and the consensus? "BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!!!" and "So glad we went on" and "We have to go on that again!!!". The line was 50 minutes long though so I told them later 
We went over to shark encounter. We are big shark week watchers so my son told us the names of all the sharks he saw. It was cool to go through the tube. The consensus? "very very cool and glad there was a people mover". Apparently legs were tired.
We went through a few other things that I can't remember not because they weren't memorable but because my memory is not good .
We headed over to the Clyde and Seymour Xmas show . It was great. So funny. The mime is hysterical. Again I probably looked a tad crazy with my big smile glued on my face!! It was great. Consensus " we love sea lions! "That was so funny!"
I ended up canceling the 1:15 and stuck with the 6:45 ressie for sharks but first we went over to the Sea of Trees lighting . We sat at the tables of spice mill with chocolate cake(don't judge..I wanted chocolate) and beer(don't judge, alcohol is good). My kids thought the beer tasted great. So we waited for the ceremony to start and next to us was an oyster thing. All we heard over and over is "Opa! Opa! Oyster!". It ended up being a running joke . My sixteen year old kept saying she was going to shove that oyster...oh are you still stuck on my kids review of the beer? I was only kidding people! They had rum and coke.
Sea of trees..that really was great! We all enjoyed it immensely. In fact it brought tears to my eyes because I was enjoying it so much. It was such a nice feeling.
We did some walking around looking at all the lights and headed to sharks. We waited probably about ten minutes and got seated. I was hesitant about this place because I had read bad reviews of the food. The restaurant was great. Sharks galore. We got some sort of seasoned bread with butter. It was good but I think I would have preferred dipping it in olive oil. My husband wasn't starving and he ordered the lobster bisque and shrimp cocktail. My son got the kids steak kabobs. My girls split a steak entree and I had the pasta purses. It was basically a ravioli type pasta stuffed with pear and cheese in a sauce with mushrooms and tomatoes. I was hesitant about the pear. But oh my gosh..it was fantastic!! I got a big plate and I think my kids ate more of my dinner than I did! They all loved my dinner. My girls liked there steak but thought it could have been more medium rare...well la dee da girls. My son's kabobs were cooked perfectly and the girls were drooling. The consensus, my dinner and my son's dinner rocked!
I missed Shamu because of dinner. But I was ok with that. Shamu was never my favorite attraction..as you all know by now its the sea lions. My kids weren't overly into shamu either so it wasn't the end of the world. The girls went and rode Manta ....again. BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!!
I hadn't planned on the polar express but there was no line so we headed on to it. It was great! I liked it way more than I thought. My older daughter hated the movie..don't ask me. But loved the ride. Consensus "That was fun!".
The lights? Music? Was awesome. It was so beautiful in Seaworld. Every time we went around a corner, there was another different display. I could have stayed there all xmas season. My older daughter said "Wow what is there to do if you aren't here for the Xmas shows?" It was so fantastic that I think we would be a little disappointed going back during non Xmas season!
We did other things that I can't recall.. No , I wasn't drunk. We just did everything we could and I can't remember in what order. Eventually we headed over to Winter Wonderland . I was a little concerned my son and husband wouldn't like it...but I was wrong!
What a great show! It was fun and very Xmasey(yes that is a new word). The fountains and lights changed with each song..IT was pretty incredible. Then afterwards was the fountains with the fireworks. It was the best show I had seen in awhile. Consensus? "WE LOVE SEA WORLD".
What a fantastic trip and experience. As we were walking out toward the exit it was snowing on the main strip and still playing xmas music. Quite magical. We were all disappointed to leave and all said that had been the best day of our vacation. Completely awesome.
I ended up changing everything. I canceled my reservations and stayed offsite. I bought my Disney tickets through Undercover tourist and ended up saving us quite a bit of money
. The place I rented in Windsor Hills was finalized the day before I left! So my Seaworld tickets were also bought online the day before . I know..living on the edge here. That is how I roll.I bought the $50 tickets on the website with no issues. I received the confirmation in my email and printed out all five of my tickets. There is always a little apprehension that they won't work at the gate but I had my receipt... so there.
There are five of us. My husband( who I love dearly
but is el stinko in keeping with my plans) , my 16 year old daughter(who I think was just as excited as I was about Seaworld), my 11 year old daughter ( who wanted to ride roller coasters) and my 9 year old son (who is just happy). So throughout our Disney adventures...my husband thwarted all my dinner plans I found out that it was a good thing I didn't have the dining plan. He was so excited just to be in the parks.....he basically gave a big middle finger to my reservations I thought about divorcing him, but well I do like him still. So Seaworld I had planned. I wanted to eat in Sharks Underwater Grill. I made a reservation for priority seating. I did this while I was down in Florida. I think it was the day before too. I couldn't get one for the five of us online so I called. The lady who helped me was the nicest lady!
I know I have heard that Seaworld employees are sometimes rude, but the lady helping me on the phone was extremely pleasant and made me two ressies for 1:15 and 6:45 since I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. Easy peasy. I had all my shows written down and I had a plan. I was sticking to it no matter what. My dinner plans would not be thwarted by El Stinko this time!!!So my plan was to arrive by 9 am at opening. Well that didn't happen. We were so tired from our Magic Kingdom night before(it was open until 1 am) that we overslept. We ended up getting there probably around 10:30. We ended up not doing everything I wanted too but it was ok ....really it was!
I thought the crowds would be light due to it being a Monday and that blackfish movie. I was also concerned about protestors due to the film. I have a friend who works in the lab at Seaworld who I spoke with and she told me they haven't seen or heard any backlash about the movie at all.They were prepped for demonstrations but nothing ever happened. She told me none of them every hear anything about it. I was surprised because I have been to bulletin boards to ask questions(not this one of course) and been lambasted for being a horrible person . Seaworld's fb page has people all over it talking about it. But maybe it's the same people over and over. Anyhoo.... the crowds? That is where I was right? Thanks for setting me straight. It was definitely a lot more crowded than I expected. It took us awhile to get through the parking gate which costs $15 if I recall and $18 for preferred. We bought the $15 ticket and it was an easy walk into the park.
My printed tickets worked perfectly and we marched right and over to Pets Ahoy!. It was in the Seaport theater. That show was extremely cute. I would say it was a cute first show of the day. I think I wouldn't have been so excited if it were my last show. It is a show using cats, dogs, birds, etc. It was more of them doing their tricks and not really an interactive between the host and animals like the sealions. It was definitely cute. I was amazed they could train cats like that! I wanted them to come and talk to my cat. The consensus of my family was that it was "cute".
When we got out of the theater my friend was waiting with her two girls.We used to live in the same neighborhood years and years ago, so it was so fantastic to see them. I hadn't in awhile. But it didn't change my plans a little bit since they hung with us a bit. We headed over to Clyde and Seymour 's pirate adventures. It was very close to the Pets ahoy show.
Now I had been looking forward to this for months. I love and I mean LOVE sea lions
I hadn't been to sea world for 17 years . I remember the Clyde and Seymour show (it wasn't pirate then..but a hotel I think) and remember how much I loved it. I wasn't disappointed. LOVED the show. I had a big gigantic smile on my face! The consensus you ask? I know you didn't ask but just pretend you did... was "it was awesome!!! Loved it". So yay.I told my friend that I wanted to feed the sealions so we headed over. The place wasn't open and trainers were feeding them at that point. It was fine, because I took lots of pictures..
This is where we split up . The three girls ( Yes ..you were reading correctly. I only have two girls. This was the friend that came. ) wanted to ride Kracken. So they went off to do that and the rest of us went on Turtle trek. My daughter was doing a report on rockhopper penguins so I had to snap some photos of them. We only waited about 10 minutes for that attraction. We had to choose between "wild" and "mild". My son gets nervous on rides so I asked my trusty friend what the difference is. She said she thought the wild spun more but she didn't think it was wild at all. She told me she was a big baby on rides and was fine with it.So wild it was! For those of you sitting on the edge of your seats wondering if we threw up or regretted that decision......nope! It wasn't very wild and my son was fine. I was too and I get funky on some rides
It is cold though! We got to see all the penguins at the end and I got some awesome shots. My son's review "great ride Mom!" We then went over to spice mill for lunch. My friend got us a 40% discount(Woot! Woot!). I thought prices were comparable to Disney. But I thought the inside was nicer than some of the places we ate at Disney. I had a chicken caesar salad which really was good.
The one thing was we thought the sodas tasted funny..I don't know if it was the ice or not. But it was a pretty good lunch. It was around $70 for five of us but much better with the discount We then went on the sea turtle attraction. We were in a 3d movie theater and surrounded by the screen. It was pretty cool. The consensus... "It was pretty cool" My son didn't like it as much but he gets nervous with that stuff.
My friends left at that point. So we were on our own. I did end up missing Blue Horizons which I was bummed about . But I still had all my Xmas shows coming up.Basically I am a Xmas freak. I LOVE xmas time. I love the decor. I love the music. I love the feeling. So I was so excited for all the xmas stuff.
We went and checked to see about feeding the sea lions and yay it was opened! We let the kids feed them while I snapped away. It was very cool
. The consensus? "that was so awesome!!!!! We love sea lions!" Well Yay! Now they can be nutty like me.We had plenty of time to do a lot of the attractions .So my schedule getting messed up a bit worked out fine. The girls went and rode Manta. I am not a roller coaster kind of gal
so I just waited and walked around looking at everything . The girls came off and the consensus? "BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!!!" and "So glad we went on" and "We have to go on that again!!!". The line was 50 minutes long though so I told them later We went over to shark encounter. We are big shark week watchers so my son told us the names of all the sharks he saw. It was cool to go through the tube. The consensus? "very very cool and glad there was a people mover". Apparently legs were tired.
We went through a few other things that I can't remember not because they weren't memorable but because my memory is not good .
We headed over to the Clyde and Seymour Xmas show . It was great. So funny. The mime is hysterical. Again I probably looked a tad crazy with my big smile glued on my face!! It was great. Consensus " we love sea lions! "That was so funny!"
I ended up canceling the 1:15 and stuck with the 6:45 ressie for sharks but first we went over to the Sea of Trees lighting . We sat at the tables of spice mill with chocolate cake(don't judge..I wanted chocolate) and beer(don't judge, alcohol is good). My kids thought the beer tasted great. So we waited for the ceremony to start and next to us was an oyster thing. All we heard over and over is "Opa! Opa! Oyster!". It ended up being a running joke . My sixteen year old kept saying she was going to shove that oyster...oh are you still stuck on my kids review of the beer? I was only kidding people! They had rum and coke.
Sea of trees..that really was great! We all enjoyed it immensely. In fact it brought tears to my eyes because I was enjoying it so much. It was such a nice feeling.
We did some walking around looking at all the lights and headed to sharks. We waited probably about ten minutes and got seated. I was hesitant about this place because I had read bad reviews of the food. The restaurant was great. Sharks galore. We got some sort of seasoned bread with butter. It was good but I think I would have preferred dipping it in olive oil. My husband wasn't starving and he ordered the lobster bisque and shrimp cocktail. My son got the kids steak kabobs. My girls split a steak entree and I had the pasta purses. It was basically a ravioli type pasta stuffed with pear and cheese in a sauce with mushrooms and tomatoes. I was hesitant about the pear. But oh my gosh..it was fantastic!! I got a big plate and I think my kids ate more of my dinner than I did! They all loved my dinner. My girls liked there steak but thought it could have been more medium rare...well la dee da girls. My son's kabobs were cooked perfectly and the girls were drooling. The consensus, my dinner and my son's dinner rocked!
I missed Shamu because of dinner. But I was ok with that. Shamu was never my favorite attraction..as you all know by now its the sea lions. My kids weren't overly into shamu either so it wasn't the end of the world. The girls went and rode Manta ....again. BEST ROLLER COASTER EVER!!
I hadn't planned on the polar express but there was no line so we headed on to it. It was great! I liked it way more than I thought. My older daughter hated the movie..don't ask me. But loved the ride. Consensus "That was fun!".
The lights? Music? Was awesome. It was so beautiful in Seaworld. Every time we went around a corner, there was another different display. I could have stayed there all xmas season. My older daughter said "Wow what is there to do if you aren't here for the Xmas shows?" It was so fantastic that I think we would be a little disappointed going back during non Xmas season!
We did other things that I can't recall..
No , I wasn't drunk. We just did everything we could and I can't remember in what order. Eventually we headed over to Winter Wonderland . I was a little concerned my son and husband wouldn't like it...but I was wrong! What a great show! It was fun and very Xmasey(yes that is a new word). The fountains and lights changed with each song..IT was pretty incredible. Then afterwards was the fountains with the fireworks. It was the best show I had seen in awhile. Consensus? "WE LOVE SEA WORLD". What a fantastic trip and experience. As we were walking out toward the exit it was snowing on the main strip and still playing xmas music. Quite magical. We were all disappointed to leave and all said that had been the best day of our vacation. Completely awesome.
.
