Aquatica... twice a week is my goal. 2010 season - post #101

[1littlespark]

if you go to tinypic.com you can upload pics for free to post places like here. I suggest registering with them as I have so that you have more control over your photos. I have an account there and also Flickr (which I pay for but you can get a free account) and photobucket. I use them for different things. Tinypic may be the simplest. After you upload a photo it gives you a link to copy. If you click the little picture icon next to the envelope/letter on the top of a new post, it will give you a box to enter the url of the photo you got from the site. After you click ok on the box it will be added in. You can preview the post and it should show up, but make sure you click "submit reply" to fully post it.

I gotta check out these walkabout waters, they sound fun. Really, at this point it's been so long I have to check the whole place out again.

I have no idea what suit I'm wearing tomorrow, yet. I'm guessing the top will either be black & white, or a fuschia/magenta-ish halter and black bottoms. Some things bug me on certain days and are fine on others, so I kinda gotta see what sort of day tomorrow is. lol I'll keep an eye out for the hair.

 

[Babypandaroo]

Just wanted to say hi and i love going to aquatica too. . I always wear water shoes when i go because the bottom of the pool tears at my feet and i keep then on for protection. As for the heat and humidity you are right about it. I wonder how long the heat is going to last before we get our first hurricane? We need more rain too but that spells trouble for when we go to aquatica. they close the restaurants down when it rains and lightnings. Never been to TL or BB. what's it like at those 2 parks?

 

[1littlespark]

As a matter of fact, I'm concerned about the weather today. Since my vacation I've been home most of the time and I know it did rain a bunch and we could still use it, but I'm actually venturing out the next two days to spend time in the parks, so I could do without it.

You must go to TL & BB one of these days.

Typhoon Lagoon is like a tropical island paradise. The whole wave/tide type pool there is tremendous and has different sections, some where you don't have to swim to be in it. When you're in that area, even though nothing is far, you don't see the other rides all that clearly so it feels something like being on a beach...to me anyway. There's a lot of rocks and trees and things all over for decoration. There is less plain obvious cement than any water parks I've ever been too. This is something that bothered me about Aquatica. They made it sound so wonderful and then they fell a tad short. That is something only Disney has done right, from what I've seen so far. It has rides, a lazy river and the usual sorts of things, but I think it's just so well done. You can even snorkel with sharks if you want to in one area, too. (this is not something I go in for) It's also an interesting place to go for a little walk and explore.

Blizzard Beach I get a kick out of. It's sort of modeled after a ski resort, with that theme. The water slides and things are made to look like they have snow on them...or like they're big snowy hills you'd ski down. The music is set to fit the park, too. I think one of the big ugly rides has a ski lift ride up to it. The wave type pool there is smaller and instead of big surfing waves it's more like....I'm going to say splashy bay water waves. You get tubes to use in that one if you like. It too has a lazy river and a bunch of the usual things. The water that hits you if you go through the right spot in the caves feels about as cold as if you were out skiing. lol The shops look like little ski huts or something like that. (I'm not a skiier )

I do love them both. Which one I picked would kinda depend on my mood that day. I probably prefer TL because I feel like I'm on an island a little bit. "The mascot" characters are funny for both as well. They both have themed music that fits in with the atmosphere well. I'm going to see if we can get water park annual passes again this year like we had a while back so we can go again.

 

[SandrA9810]

Blizzard is better for the big fast scary stuff. As to why they have summit plummet. Thier wave pool is not that cool, and kind of annoying with all the tubes in it. Since it's newer than TL, it is much bigger. And thier lazy river is much bigger than TL. They also have two areas for kids. One designed for the "tweens" and one for the toddlers. They do have the benefit of the "ski lift" that takes up to the top of most slides, of course you can take the stairs too.

Typhoon Lagoon is a really fun park. They do have Crush n Gusher which is a water coaster... water propells you up hills instead of just going down. But be careful with little one's butts that fall a bit further to the bottom when they sit. They have a tendency to get a sore butt from going uphill. Of course it's really fun when some kids master getting bounced out of the tube as they hit the splash pool. It usually happens when there's some one significantly heavier in the back. And they're for 1,2, or 3 people at a time. Slides are pretty good and they have mt gushmore for thier speed slide, which I did, but biggest wedgie EVER. They do have the shark tank, but be warned that it is FREEZING in there, they don't heat it what-so ever so the water temp is like in the 60-70's. There is a "crashed" submarine in the middle that you can walk down and see the fish. Much more pleasant. And you can sign up for a special surfing lessons, like 200$ a person but really cool. They do it saturday mornings before park opening and they teach you how to surf. That's the kind of waves that thier wave pool can create. And there is a little kiddie area, but most the park's water slides are enjoyed by most kids over 6 or 7.

And for Aquatica: give it a bit of time. Both TL and BB have had like 10+ years for the vegitation to grow in. They didn't plant quite as many trees like Disney park, but at least it's not entirely concrete. And hopefully when that happens, it'll help keep the park a tad cooler.

 

[SandrA9810]

1littlespark: sorry, I didn't go to the park today. Me and Kari got in an arguement starting last night. And well she wouldn't drop it for most the day today. She also decided that she would go help her friend move last night, right about the time that I wanted to go to aquatica today. So I said forget about it. But we did make it to planet smoothie in hunter's creek for our 99 cent smoothie... MMMMM smoothies... yummy.

 

[SandrA9810]

Ohh and for disney's rain policy: If you have entered the park for less than 3hrs, and the pools have closed for more than 30 minutes you can get a rain check to go back to either water park. Or you can ride out the storm. And there really are quite a few places to go when it starts pouring.

I wish they would allow you to get a rain check for DQ for the remainder of the day since the ticket prices are the same.

 

[SandrA9810]

http://s559.photobucket.com/albums/ss31/SandrA9810/?action=view&current=fridays.jpg

 

[1littlespark]

1littlespark: sorry, I didn't go to the park today. Me and Kari got in an arguement starting last night. And well she wouldn't drop it for most the day today. She also decided that she would go help her friend move last night, right about the time that I wanted to go to aquatica today. So I said forget about it. But we did make it to planet smoothie in hunter's creek for our 99 cent smoothie... MMMMM smoothies... yummy.

No problem. Sorry you guys were fighting though. That's generally no fun at all. The weather sucked major monkey butt anyway. It was pouring out where I live so we left late, then it slowed down and we ventured out, but when we got to the Orlando area it was still pretty ugly out. We had a late lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, left a bit after 5 and it was still bad out. We checked out a couple of stores then finally made it into Aquatica about 8. We went in the Roa Rapids, which I really got a kick out of and the water was so warm, then hit the side of the big pool that was still open, ran around in the Walkabout Water Tower thing for a bit where I yelled like an idiot the whole way down the yellow slide lol then checked out the lazy river and dried off and left. It was nice. I wanted more time there. I'm already trying to think of when we can go back or if maybe I want to head there on my own one day. Never been to Planet Smoothie. It's probably best I stick to eating my calories rather than drinking them anyway.

Ah, I see you got a photobucket account. Well cool now if I see you guys maybe I'll recognize you. People look so different in 3-D lol You were a Photopass person, eh? Hmm..someday you'll have to tell me what the heck happened.

Well, we're supposed to hit the WDW tomorrow. I have to try and see if I can beat my insomniac ways and get some sleep.

 

[SandrA9810]

MMMMMmmm I'm jealous... cheesecake factory. We were supposed to eat there for valentines day a couple years ago. And well Kari got off work too late and the wait was too long for Kari, so we ate at Jonny Rockets instead.

I don't see why people say it was ugly out... it didn't rain here at my house at all. Not that I know of at least.

But with barely any one there, it's easy to get to do a lot of things in a small amount of time. My favorite thing on the Rapids, is right before the Blue exit, there's like a C curve on the right, it's so cool to get yourself right against the wall for that.

And planet smoothie is good stuff. they did a promo with Aquatica for three special flavors. Our favorite is papa's peach beach....mmmm... yummy. And for the amount of calories in them, they're fulfilling. But they are expensive, like 6$ for a 32oz drink. So 99cents is amazing.
When Kari was in college and eating burger king's triple cheeseburger every day, she would go to jamba juice every so often so she could feel like she was eating healthy to make up for the burgers.

 

[SandrA9810]

I'll be going to MK on saturday for Kari. We've got one comp ticket that's about to expire, so gotta make a use out of it.

 

[1littlespark]

I just used our last comp. ticket today. Well, that's not entirely true. We have two more that were issued more recently. The one expiring 6/11/2009 I just used. We did AK & MK today. I tired. lol (Getting old )

The Cheesecake Factory may be my favorite restaurant. I actually don't eat Cheesecake, but I like the food. One of my favorite things there is the Pasta Carbonara (without the chicken), and if you go before 5, certain meals, one of which happens to be my current favorite, are less expensive. That's a fairly liberal time for lunch specials. I've gone for both times and the portions are really close if not the same. I also love the Quesadillas there (also sans chicken - I eat meat but I prefer a lot of things without it.) The only thing about lunch is you have to request bread. They're happy to bring it. They just don't want to be really wasteful for many who won't eat it at lunch. At dinner time it's automatic. It's yummy. Needless to say I don't eat there when I'm intending to behave. lol Instead of cheesecake we are more likely to end up having a cone at Twistee Treat. The newer one near DTD on Apopka Vineland has almost oddly good sprinkles. This would be a good time to point out that most of the time I eat pathetically small portions, low cal/fat, counting and measuring everything. I absolutely do NOT eat like I mentioned above all the time! lol (just for the record ) Oh, if you ever want to go and the wait looks nasty keep an eye on the high tables in the bar area. If you snag one of them, you're in, since they're first come first serve. I tend to be good at this. My hb isn't so good about waiting for tables.

I've eaten at Johnny Rockets a few times over the years. In Miami, Atlanta and maybe one other time but never the Loop one. The first time we ate there was actually our first Anniversary (of dating) We saw Fantasia 2000 in Miami at that huge outdoor mall sort of place and found our first JR.

It was raining quite a bit by our house yesterday and on an off in Orlando, but the sky looked mighty unfriendly all afternoon & evening. We had storms in WDW today, too.

 

[1littlespark]

We're planning to go again Wednesday (tomorrow) afternoon-night. Guess we'll see what ideas the weather has about that this week.

 

[SandrA9810]

I spent two days at storm a long bay at the yacht and beach club. My feet aren't taking this very well. Disney's more strict about wearing sandals down the slides, and well getting sand stuck between my feet and sandals doesn't feel comfortable. I might go for a couple hours tomorow afternoon. I have a dentist appt at 2, and we have to pick up Kari's friend at disney at 6 to come for dinner. So I'm thinking a couple of hours will be good enough.

 

[1littlespark]

The dentist - blah. I did that today, actually. My last visit...for now. Until September when it starts again. What fun. I almost drove over to Sea World after that but after I went home I got lazy. Today would have been a good day for Aquatica. I hope the weather holds tomorrow.

I hope your feet feel better.

 

[SandrA9810]

So our payment didn't go through on the right day. They don't penalize, they just won't let us get into the parks till they hit the account again. If only payday was a day earlier.


I'll let you know when I can go back.

 

[SandrA9810]

ohh and the dentist... blah. Got a new cavity. Well I knew it was there, it was all about how long it would take for them to realize it. And they always complain about how I breathe out of my mouth, and it's such a horrible thing and causes me to have more problems than normal. I've never had another dentist complain every time I go in.
They also want me to get braces. I might do it if I could qualify for the new invisaline... but they're so crooked that it probably wouldn't work. And well it would be worse than adding an extra credit card payment. We've already put the student loan on hold... So unless they want to give them to me for free, I might consider it.

 

[1littlespark]

I hope you're able to go back soon to the parks. That monthly payment thing is handy, but at the same time I look at it on my list of bills each month and it bugs me. I'm not fond of bills (yes, I know - shocking ) Next time I think I'd like to try and just do it in one shot.

I'm sorry you're having a lot of problems with dental stuff. For me it's been gum stuff, and I'll be going a minimum of every 3 mos. for a while. (That's after my 4 visits in less than 2! grrr That new invasiline thing certainly is different from the old way. It would be nice if it got to the point where it worked for everyone and wasn't expensive.

 

[SandrA9810]

WOO HOO! They finally took the money from my account for the payment. So now I can go back to Aquatica... in a week...

Although I think another ride on Manta is needed. Too bad Kari doesn't have to go into work at 7am anytime soon... she's just working till 4am now.

 

[1littlespark]

I'm glad you're finally able to go back.


We're actually thinking about trying for tomorrow, but the weather seems particularly iffy. Guess we'll see.

We've been going about once a week, so maybe in the coming weeks I'll end up running into you guys there. I've been spending most of my time there in the rapids river, the big tide pool and the sand somewhere in between, reading.

 

[SandrA9810]

I'm going today... about 5pm. Gotta stop at Publix and pick up my rent money order. And I really need to get out of the house. I spent the other day at Disney, and the walking never bothers me until the next day. Especially when we're with other people who like to walk fast and get things done.