diswedwish
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2002
- Messages
- 812
My mom and I just got back from our lengthy trip; this is my review of our SW portion of the trip. We were at SW for 3 days and DC for 1. Looking back that was a l-o-n-g time for SW, but I thought we would enjoy it a lot more than we did...
We stayed at the Red Roof Inn near the Convention Center. We used Sun Ray for transportation from Sanford (I'll post a separate review for that later). We stayed at Red Roof mainly because I've stayed at Red Roofs several times for work and had a few free night certificates to use. This particular one was the standard, although there was quite a bit of mold in the bathroom area. We didn't complain about that. One night we did mention that our room hadn't been made up and they took off some $ for that night (only 2 of the nights we stayed were free).
We used the I-trolley for transportation back and forth. This was easy to use. I think it was $7 for a 5 day unlimited pass. We were about 5-6 stops away from SW, so it didn't take too long. We weren't too adventurous about using the trolley - just used it there and back to the stop near the hotel.
SW itself was fine. We weren't blown away, but it was a nice park. I could go into details, but they're just my opinions, and probably things you'd either discover on your own or not notice at all. One positive note for smokers (my mom smokes) - nice smoking areas (my mom's comment).
The highlight of SW for us (other than the Sharks Dive) was at the Key West dolphin encounter. We were there at feeding time and on the side that they had roped off for the non-fish feeding people. One of the dolphins came up to me with a leaf and tossed it to me. I tossed it back. We continued this for a few minutes until a worker told me to stop - it was an unathorized toy. Oops
It was fun while it lasted
.
One night we did Dine with Shamu and again it was nice, but we weren't blown away. The food was pretty good and it was neat to see Shamu - we had booked early and had a good table. I didn't realize how quickly they have to move you through there to get ready for Believe though! They get you in and out very efficiently to say the least. My mom and I were okay with the pacing, but she commented afterwards that it seemed quite rushed -and we were one of the first there.
Our last day we did the Sharks Deep Dive and finished with dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill. I'd booked the Sharks Dive as a Christmas present for my mom. That was a lot of fun to plan and to present. I got her a talking stuffed Bruce (from Finding Nemo) and put the paperwork in an envelope in his mouth. She had no clue, but once she read it she was excited
Our guide spent a while making sure we weren't afraid (um, no) lol! I was disappointed that the open part of the shark cage wasn't really open, it's covered with glass. He explained about the different species of sharks in the tank and how aggressive or non-aggressive they are, how they feed them, etc. We got a lot of information about the helmet.
Then we suited up into our wet suits. Boy, did we look like visions of loveliness
I let my mom go in first. I wasn't worried about the sharks. I was worried about tripping as I got into the cage and making a fool out of myself... But that part was just fine, and even though the helmet weighs 70 lbs or something like that it was fine. My mom had the ball on hers to make it lighter. The cage is on a track that goes the length of the tank, stops along the middle for 5 min, goes to the end, back to the middle for 5 min, then finishes. I was all over the cage, crouching down, side to side, it was really neat. We were able to see all of the sharks clearly and I could hear my mom and the guy on the surface with no problem whatsoever. I could also see people in the tube and waved a few times. Once it reached the end I was freezing and happy to get out though... The time did go by very quickly, and it didn't seem like 30 min.
We made it to Sharks on time for our reservation and had a nice dinner there. It was nice to be able to see where we had just done the dive. There was another dive after ours and we could watch them going. It was a couple and we had seen the girl in the locker room - my mom said "it's not so bad, see I have most of my fingers" as she held up about 2 fingers on each hand. The other girl didn't even crack a smile, so I think she was a little scared... When our bill came for dinner there was a note in from my boyfriend "You enjoyed your dive, now enjoy your dinner. Love, Andre" I have no idea how he managed that, but he did - he managed to call around that day and paid for our meal
Of course, we both felt bad since we would've eaten cheaper had we known, but he planned it that way - he's good like that.
Discovery Cove review to come...
We stayed at the Red Roof Inn near the Convention Center. We used Sun Ray for transportation from Sanford (I'll post a separate review for that later). We stayed at Red Roof mainly because I've stayed at Red Roofs several times for work and had a few free night certificates to use. This particular one was the standard, although there was quite a bit of mold in the bathroom area. We didn't complain about that. One night we did mention that our room hadn't been made up and they took off some $ for that night (only 2 of the nights we stayed were free).
We used the I-trolley for transportation back and forth. This was easy to use. I think it was $7 for a 5 day unlimited pass. We were about 5-6 stops away from SW, so it didn't take too long. We weren't too adventurous about using the trolley - just used it there and back to the stop near the hotel.
SW itself was fine. We weren't blown away, but it was a nice park. I could go into details, but they're just my opinions, and probably things you'd either discover on your own or not notice at all. One positive note for smokers (my mom smokes) - nice smoking areas (my mom's comment).
The highlight of SW for us (other than the Sharks Dive) was at the Key West dolphin encounter. We were there at feeding time and on the side that they had roped off for the non-fish feeding people. One of the dolphins came up to me with a leaf and tossed it to me. I tossed it back. We continued this for a few minutes until a worker told me to stop - it was an unathorized toy. Oops
It was fun while it lasted .One night we did Dine with Shamu and again it was nice, but we weren't blown away. The food was pretty good and it was neat to see Shamu - we had booked early and had a good table. I didn't realize how quickly they have to move you through there to get ready for Believe though! They get you in and out very efficiently to say the least. My mom and I were okay with the pacing, but she commented afterwards that it seemed quite rushed -and we were one of the first there.
Our last day we did the Sharks Deep Dive and finished with dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill. I'd booked the Sharks Dive as a Christmas present for my mom. That was a lot of fun to plan and to present. I got her a talking stuffed Bruce (from Finding Nemo) and put the paperwork in an envelope in his mouth. She had no clue, but once she read it she was excited
Our guide spent a while making sure we weren't afraid (um, no) lol! I was disappointed that the open part of the shark cage wasn't really open, it's covered with glass. He explained about the different species of sharks in the tank and how aggressive or non-aggressive they are, how they feed them, etc. We got a lot of information about the helmet. Then we suited up into our wet suits. Boy, did we look like visions of loveliness
I let my mom go in first. I wasn't worried about the sharks. I was worried about tripping as I got into the cage and making a fool out of myself... But that part was just fine, and even though the helmet weighs 70 lbs or something like that it was fine. My mom had the ball on hers to make it lighter. The cage is on a track that goes the length of the tank, stops along the middle for 5 min, goes to the end, back to the middle for 5 min, then finishes. I was all over the cage, crouching down, side to side, it was really neat. We were able to see all of the sharks clearly and I could hear my mom and the guy on the surface with no problem whatsoever. I could also see people in the tube and waved a few times. Once it reached the end I was freezing and happy to get out though... The time did go by very quickly, and it didn't seem like 30 min. We made it to Sharks on time for our reservation and had a nice dinner there. It was nice to be able to see where we had just done the dive. There was another dive after ours and we could watch them going. It was a couple and we had seen the girl in the locker room - my mom said "it's not so bad, see I have most of my fingers" as she held up about 2 fingers on each hand. The other girl didn't even crack a smile, so I think she was a little scared...
When our bill came for dinner there was a note in from my boyfriend "You enjoyed your dive, now enjoy your dinner. Love, Andre" I have no idea how he managed that, but he did - he managed to call around that day and paid for our meal Of course, we both felt bad since we would've eaten cheaper had we known, but he planned it that way - he's good like that.Discovery Cove review to come...
