Disney, Gators, and Whales, Oh My! - Another retro-trip report, November 2009

PrincePluto

Disneyholic
Joined
Aug 2, 2008
Let me take you back to another decade, the naughty aughties... (OK, it wasn't really that long ago.)

My parents are the proud owners of many, many timeshare points, and what they often do is go down to Florida for two weeks, when it starts to get cold. In 2009, they were going to spend the first week on the East coast of Florida, and the second week in a timeshare resort in the Orlando area. Since they had a two bedroom unit, they asked me if I wanted to come, provided I paid for my airfare and car rental. I said "Heck, yeah!" and made the plans. I bought a 4-day Disney non-hopper ticket, and planned to go to Sea World and GatorLand (hence the name of my report.) for which I would buy tickets on the days of park attendance.

Day 1. Saturday, November 14, 2009

I flew down on JetBlue out of Newark Liberty Airport, and my flight was uneventful. I arrived at MCO airport, took the faux-norail to the terminal, picked up my luggage, and headed to the Alamo rental counter. Since I had already made my reservation on-line, they sent me across the "street" to the rental garage. I had rented a car in the compact size; so the person at the booth pointed me to the row where they were located.
I picked out a car, put my bag in the trunk and my carry-on on the passenger seat, and made my way to the exit. I drove to the Greene Way, and then to the Vistana Village Resort, where my parents were staying. I greeted them, and unpacked, and went to the nearby pool, and relaxed for a while; no way could I be swimming in a pool in New Jersey in November!
After having dinner with them, we watched some TV, then went to bed.
 
Day 2. Sunday, November 15, 2009 - GatorLand

I woke up bright and early, got ready, ate breakfast, and said farewell to my parents, who were going to be visiting my great-aunt and uncle in Tampa that day.
I drove to Gatorland, and arrived right around opening. I thought these vultures perched on a wall by the parking lot looked pretty cool.

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I approached the entrance:

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I waited on line, paid admission, and of course the first thing I saw after getting in was gators, and lots of them:

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Not to mention, snapping turtles:

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I bought a little snack, and sat down to eat it, when I noticed this little guy scavenging crumbs:

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Hunger sated, I headed over to check out the Galapagos Tortoises:

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Pythons:

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Sandhill cranes:

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The descriptive sign for the Sandhill cranes, as well as the majority of the signage in Gatorland, is written in a style best described as "Florida Cracker".

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I was a little nervous about these two vultures sitting on the railing outside the Sandhill crane enclosure, but luckily for me, they flew off when I got within 3 feet of them:

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Directional signs

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Heading towards the breeding marsh:

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After I crossed the railroad tracks, the park train approached:

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At this point, I headed into the breeding marsh:

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There were plenty of herons in the breeding marsh:

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Egrets were co-existing with the gators in the breeding marsh.

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I took a close-up picture of the three portions of a gator:

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Breeding marsh, continued:

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"Live webcam in use" Apparently this is now at http://www.gatorland.com/public/web-cams/index.cfm

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The boardwalk was a regular heron-palooza:

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So I climbed the 3-story observation tower, and took some pictures of the gator breeding marsh from it:

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As I was coming off the boardwalk, I passed the petting zoo. I decided to give it a pass, and judging by the lack of people in it, so did most of the other people:

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At this point, I decided to have some lunch, so I stopped at the snack bar, and they had "gator nuggets" so I decided to order a basket of 6 nuggets. They weren't bad, a little gamey, not an easily describable flavor, but definitely did not taste "just like chicken".

I approached the aviary, just in time for the bird feeding, in which you pay the keeper for a popsicle stick coated in peanut butter and birdseed, which attracts the canaries and lovebirds to you like flies:

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I handed my camera to the guy, and he took a couple of pictures of me feeding the birds.

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This colorful bird was named Mango. The rest of the birds were not individually named.

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Mango sat on my shoulder, briefly, and the keeper got this shot:

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As I was wrapping up, because my popsicle stick had been pecked clean of seeds and peanut butter, more people started coming into the aviary to feed the birds:

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Lotsa gators coming up:

"Chester the Big Dog Eater"

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White crocodiles (not albino) of which there are a limited number in the world, 4 of which are at Gatorland:

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Now, on to snakes. Rat snake:

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Canebrake rattlesnake:

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Cottonmouth:

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As I continued on, I came upon the macaws:

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Cuban crocodiles:

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I also watched a little bit of the gator wrestling show, but apparently I didn't take any pictures of it - maybe my camera battery had died, I don't remember as it was six years ago...

At this point, I had pretty much seen all there was to see, so I headed for the exit, and drove back to the resort. My parents were already back, so I changed into my swimsuit, and lounged in the pool for a while. At around 5:30, I went back to the room, got dressed, had dinner, and after dinner charged my camera battery and updated my notes, then unwound with a little TV and went to bed.
 
Day 3. Monday, November 16, 2009 - EPCOT day 1

I got up early, got ready, ate breakfast and drove to EPCOT to be there in time for rope drop.

I paid for parking, parked my car, and walked to the entrance:

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I got on line, and I was pretty far back from the turnstiles. I seem to recall this is because not as many of the turnstiles were in use that day.
They let us into the park a few minutes before opening, then we were allowed to advance to the rope drop location, just past Spaceship Earth.

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After they dropped the rope, most of the crowd, including me, veered right, towards The Land, and Soarin'. I picked up a fastpass for Soarin', then rode it standby with little wait. I did not take any pictures of the ride.

After coming out of Soarin', I decided to ride Living With the Land, especially as there was no wait.

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World's hottest pepper (at that time - I think it has since been surpassed, and they now have that pepper growing at The Land...)

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The Nine Pound Lemon that is in everyone's trip report:

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The eggplant tree that at that time was approaching 300 pounds of fruit harvested:

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Not sure, but I think these were yams...

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Nutrient Film Technique used to grow lettuce, two colors, in the shape of a Mickey head:

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Tomato tree:

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More "Living With the Land":

Strawberries:

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View of the front of the boat:

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Herbs, including basil:

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Combining agriculture and aquaculture:

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Biotechnology lab:

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Space agriculture:

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I got off the ride, and went to the Sunshine Seasons, where I treated myself to a piece of strawberry shortcake, and took a couple of pictures of the balloon sculptures:

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I then decided to head over to The Living Seas.
 
I took a picture of Spaceship Earth as I headed from The Land to The Living Seas.

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I avoided the Nemo clamshells ride by using the alternate entrance to the Living Seas pavilion, and made a beeline for the manatee tank. Luckily I arrived right as they were being fed.

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Of course, the one fact that I hear every time I go here is "The manatee's closest relative is the elephant".

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Next, I decided to head out and over to the World Showcase, as it was getting close to 11 AM.
 
I took a couple of quick picture of scientific discoveries pavers:

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As I came through the Innoventions tunnel, I saw that the Jammitors were performing:

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As I came out into the fountain area, a high school marching band was performing. I have no idea where they were from:

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I headed towards the World Showcase, in a counter-clockwise direction. I approached Canada:

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I saw a gecko at this point, so I took a picture of it:

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Looking across the World Showcase Lagoon:

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I had a lunch reservation at Biergarten, so I high-tailed it to the Friendship dock for the boat to Germany, as it was faster than walking there.
 
As I was approaching the Friendship dock, I took some pictures as I got closer to the EPCOT Christmas tree:

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I took the Friendship across, and checked in at the Biergarten. Within a couple of minutes, I was seated, and was seeing this:

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Then the German band came on-stage:

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Only one brave couple danced to the band when the band invited couples to dance:

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The wooden xylophone:

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I enjoyed the music and the German food, as always (I believe this was the third time I had eaten here - the first in 1997 and the second in 1999), and left the Biergarten satisfied.

I headed counter-clockwise from Germany, towards China.

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I saw the movie in China, and only got the opportunity to take a couple of pictures in the gift shop, before my camera battery died.

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After exiting China, I headed to Norway, rode Maelstrom with no wait, went "Back, back, over the falls" and skipped the movie. I walked through the Stave Church, but as I do not have any pictures I do not know what was on display at that time.

I then skipped the Grand Fiesta Tour, or "Mexican Small World" as it's known on the DIS, and rode Spaceship Earth before leaving the park.

I then drove back to my parents' timeshare, hung out a while, had dinner with my parents, and watched some TV and plugged in my camera battery to charge overnight.
 
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November 17, 2009 - Sea World

I got up, got ready, and drove up Route 4 to Sea World. After paying to park, I was guided to the part of the parking lot where I was to park. For some reason, even though it was before opening, they left a lot of empty area between the cars and the gate.

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I seem to recall that I had purchased a voucher online, and I had to go to a kiosk outside the entrance, where I had my hard ticket printed out. After I got through the gate, I took a picture of the below Christmas tree, which I thought was cool and modernistic looking.

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Aquatic birds:

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Below is the observation tower - I did not have enough time in my schedule to go up in this:

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Flamingos:

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Sea turtles:

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Sting rays - They swum in circles around a 3-foot deep tank. They sold these fish about the size of sardines (like 6 for 5 dollars), that you could feed the stingrays - there was not actually any risk of being stung. You would hold the fish between your fingers, with your palm up an inch or so below the surface of the water, and the ray would swim over and pluck the fish from your hand. I decided to buy the food and feed the rays, so I could say I'd done it.

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Next, I headed over to Dolphin Cove. People were feeding the dolphins little fish, which I believe were the same species as had been fed to the rays, but I am not positive. I declined to purchase fish to feed to the dolphins, as I had already done this for the rays.

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I then went to the dolphin underwater viewing area, and took some pictures of the dolphins from behind a heavy-duty glass wall.

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I went back above the water level, to take pictures of the dolphins being fed.

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Next, I decided to head over to the Dolphin Stadium, to see the Blue Horizons show.
 
I got to Dolphin Stadium, and found a seat on the right-hand side, fairly high up in the stands. It wasn't too long before Blue Horizons started. It was a very dramatic show, combining dolphins, divers and aerialists.

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This girl is the "protagonist", who is supposed to have fallen asleep, and the show is her dream.

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Finishing up the Blue Horizons show:

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The show then ended, and I headed over to "Journey to Atlantis".
 
Journey to Atlantis is a log flume type ride. You go up an incline on one side of the attraction, ride through a "recreation" of Ancient Atlantis, and then down a steep log flume, getting wet in the process. This ride is very similar to the ride "Pompeii", which is in another park owned by SeaWorld Entertainment, Busch Gardens Europe in Virginia.

After riding it, I went to the nearby "Jewels of the Sea Aquarium". The tiles on the floor were see-through, and there was an aquarium under the floor.

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I then decided to head over to Penguin Encounter.
 
I walked over to Penguin Encounter, and immersed myself in the world of penguins:

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I then headed over to the Sea Lion cove.
 
Sea lion cove:

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Birds were in competition with the sea lions for the fish that people were feeding them:

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As well as sea lions, there were also seals in this enclosure:

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More sea lions:

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I then headed past the observation tower, on my way to see the Sea Lion Show:

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