I Won a Trip to Sea World !?! Well then, we're going to Universal too! 12/19 - 12/24/15 - All Done!

[IckyMickey]

Hi Everyone!

We just had our first snowstorm of the season, so we are just hanging out inside today and I guess it’s as good a time as any to try and start this trip report. With all the helpful information on the DISboards we had a great vacation at Sea World and Universal Studios, I thought I’d share mine – especially for newbies around Christmas!

Here's our snow. With all the bad weather in the US this week, it looks like we were pretty lucky!


It’s hard to believe last week we were at Islands of Adventure and it was sunny and 82. I am so glad the snow held off until we were back though! I kept a close eye on the weather the last few weeks.

This trip was only made possible because I won a trip to Sea World! I am a Coupon Queen, Rewards Master and Game Enterer! How did I win in it? Those wonderful MyCokeRewards points that are on the bottles and boxes of Coke products.

Not my favorite picture, but I've got to give a shout out to the thing that made this trip happen! I love my Diet Coke!


I entered at the end of last year in a sweepstakes for a trip to Sea World and got an email in February that I had won. Of course I was skeptical because it doesn’t give you a lot of information and wants your social security number, personal information, and signaturs returned within 5 days, but it turned out to be legit! Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anything back until I contacted them in May and then with all their rules – 6 weeks notice, multiple travel days submitted so they could approve, use by the drawing date of 12/31/15 – it wasn’t as exciting as it first was. Add to that my older son was graduating high school, so we had graduation parties that summer, college orientation, the move to college and then finding a time that worked for everyone it was a little stressful instead of joyful. Finally I crazily chose the pre-Christmas dates starting 12/19 prayed there wouldn’t be a snow storm that day in Milwaukee and added a few more days before we flew back on 12/24 to go to Universal Studios and the excitement returned. There were a few more snags along the way, but in the end it all worked out and we had a wonderful trip!

So what did I win?

A 3-day 2-night trip to the Sea World of my choice for 4, including

Round trip airfare

Park passes

Quick Que passes

All Day Dining passes

$250 for a rental car


The snags I talked about were that the tickets and information was all supposed to come 2 weeks before departure. The travel agent setting up our trip didn’t receive and send it out until the Tuesday before we were to leave (leaving Saturday morning), and when we got them there were 2 days worth of all tickets, passes, etc and one more issue I’ll bring up the 2nd day at Sea World. Fortunately we had only planned on going to Sea World two days, but that information would be nice to know more time than 3 days before the trip. Also, the package they sent out was FedEx and after they sent it told me I needed to sign for it, which I was at work all day and couldn’t. So my husband drove out to the FedEx building at rush hour where it was supposed to be at 5:00 and he was informed that the driver got sick, left the truck and so a sub had to pick up the truck, finish the route, and it didn’t return until 7:30. Finally at 8:00 pm Wednesday night we had the tickets. What a relief! I had started to wake up in the middle of the night and make plans if the tickets didn’t come on time. We let the stress of the situation go and excitedly prepared with our college son coming home the next day and leaving for our vacation in only 3 days!

When we won the trip and I started thinking, I knew that if we were going to Florida, we could finally do Universal Studios. We had never been to US-Orlando and only to IA 15 years ago. My younger son was always in the 15th percentile for height so we wouldn’t go until he was tall enough to enjoy the roller coasters and then the last few years we did trips around the US to see the country. We did visit US- Hollywood last year and it was ok – but we wouldn’t return to it. We knew US-Orlando would be much more to our liking and were excited!

So, who are we? We all love a good restaurant, shows, and roller coasters (we have season passes to Six Flags Great America in Chicago.) I love character pictures and I don't think they mind either.

Myself, a 45 year old mom who was a HR professional but left my job to stay home and raise my kids about 13 years ago, supplementing some of that lost income as a school bus driver. Crazy – I know! I keep telling myself the last couple of years it’s time to head back into the real world, but having breaks, snow days and summer off with my kids makes me so lucky! I don’t really like heights, so rides like the Giant Drop where you just sit up high aren’t my thing, but roller coasters up high aren’t a problem. Both DH and I don’t like spinny things like the Tea Cups any more. We are too old for that!

DH – 45 years old and an electrical engineer. DH’s belly is bigger than it should be and so there were a few rides that were a problem for him. I will note them as I go along.

DS19 – Back home from his 1st semester in college in Iowa (4-1/2 hours away). He’s up for anything, can eat a lot, but needs to watch his weight as he is a pole vaulter and track season is about to start.

DS13 – In 8th grade and tall enough to ride anything. Yeah! There isn’t much he’s afraid of, but I think some of my height issues brushed off on him.



Well, I think I’m ready to start. I’ve got my notes and receipts all ready to go. I hope I can do as nice a job as other trip reports I read!

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 1 – December 19th - The flight down & Sea World!

We live in Wisconsin so we are an hour behind Florida and chose to fly out at 9:00 am so we weren’t getting up too early and had plenty of energy for the rest of the day. We were out of the house by 6:30am (I slept horribly – I’m always worried that we didn’t set the alarm or wouldn’t be ready in time.) My sister lives down by the airport – Milwaukee- so we stopped by her house picked her up and she dropped us off and kept our van at her house until we returned. We picked her up about 6:55 and made the 5 minute trip to the airport where we had a quick drop off, check-in, and security check. We were asked DS13’s age 3 times during the security check and I was wondering what he/we had done. I finally figured out that ages 12 and younger don’t do the full body scans and go through a shorter line. Whew!

Our plane came in from DC and we were loaded and headed out on time, if not a few minutes earlier I believe. The flight attendants were cheery and made you feel comfortable. The trip travel agent has purchased early bird seating for us on Southwest so we were loaded around 45th and able to find seats together – the flight was sold out. DS19 and I sat together (he had the window) and DS13 and DH sat together in the row in front. DS19 even knows to hold my hand at take-off. What a good boy! I was actually seated next to someone who lived about 20 minutes away from us and we had a nice chat which took my mind off the flight – it was a pretty smooth ride thank goodness! We landed about 12:30 instead of 12:45 and made it down to luggage in short order. It was pretty cloudy the entire trip so we didn’t get many good pictures up high (which is ok since I hate looking down!)



We were going to rent a car but the prices were crazy high – about $500 for 5 days and that didn’t include the gas or parking at the parks and hotels. So I priced it out and we used a car service (Tony from the DisBoards) a taxi, and even tried Uber. In the end the total cost for transportation that week was about $268. Pretty close to our allotted budget!


So, we headed down to pick up our luggage, and there was Rick (who works for Tony) waiting with our name on a board. We looked and felt pretty important! All of our luggage came out quickly and Rick’s black Suburban SUV was parked right outside the doors behind the luggage carousel. We loaded it up and were on our way. That was awesome and Rick is a really nice guy!


Our travel agent had set us up at the Sheraton Vistana a few miles south of Sea World. We were hoping to have a hotel that we could just walk to Sea World, but ended up in a spacious condo instead (I know that sounds whiney. ) Our condo was very nice and the boys had their own beds and tv, but it was in the way back behind a gate and we needed to use a shuttle to get back to it. If we were staying and touring more and had a car, it would have been a great place, but we were there for two short nights pretty much just to sleep.


Rick got us to the Vistana in quick time, we checked in, they tried to set us up for a timeshare visit which we declined, were shuttled back to the room, unloaded our stuff, did some quick prep work for the park and called for a taxi. They use a certain taxi service with a set price of $22 to Sea World which came within 10-15 minutes of us calling for one and right to our condo door. It was a cool day and even us Wisconsinites wore jeans and a jacket. It went down into the low 50’s by the end of the night. Brrr!

 

[dixonsontour]

How exciting to win a trip

 

[jennasmommyinMS]

What a great start! I can't wait to read more!

 

[J'aime Paris]

Hi fellow WI friend! I spent a good portion of my day shoveling out as well!
Looking forward to you trip report!

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 1 – Continued – Sea World!

We arrived at Sea World around 2:30pm then waited in the Guest Services line for over a ½ hour to get our Quick Que passes. I was getting a little annoyed, but we were finally up and then had to wait some more for the supervisor to come over and do it. Finally a little after 3:00 we breezed through Security and were in!!!!

The first thing we did – EAT! We were starving! We got a little lost but soon found the Seafire Restaurant and were in line. We figured out the Dining Pass system, got our wristbands from the cashier and sat down to eat. Yum! There were no complaints from anyone.

My husband had the chicken and beef fajitas, with a potato salad side and a drink. (the tortillas are on a plate under the plate)


I had the beef fajitas with a side salad and soda, DS19 had the same with chocolate cake instead of a salad and milk.


DS13 had the chicken fajitas with cookies and a soda - he already started to make his. (and he loved those cookies!)


Although one sign said you couldn’t return to the line for 1 hour, everyone except I went back up for another drink without any problems. They just look at your wristband and you are good to go, no ringing up or anything.


After that we were ready to hit the park. Our first stop was the ride Manta. We paid $1 for a locker and used our Quick Que for no wait in line. Like I said, we love roller coasters so we were excited. What fun! The loop on your back is CRAZY! I screamed every time – lol! The rest of the ride is fun, but when you’ve got longer hair it just flies in your face the rest of the ride so you don’t see a lot. It was so much fun, we rode it a 2nd time right away.

Then we headed over to Blue Horizons – the Dolphin show. It said it was altered due to maintenance or something, but we thought it was a very nice show and had dolphins, birds and people dressed like birds dancing.












After that we did TurtleTrek. We again cruised in with our Quick Que – something we did all day. The aquarium was pretty cool and seeing all the turtles that were rescued makes you sad but happy. Missing front and back legs, part of it’s lower mouth, etc. Glad to see them healthy and alive! We then headed into the 3D dome for the movie. You stand and watch the movie – the main part of the movie is on the opposite wall of the entrance. The movie did make most of my family a little quesy at one time or another and a quick removal of the 3D glasses helped a lot. We heard a lot of people saying the same thing. Afterwards, we walked out saw the manatees and crocodiles.





Oops, I'm limited to only 10 photos a post, to be continued...

 

[IckyMickey]

Day 1 - Sea World Continued

Antartica: Empire of the Penguin was next and a breeze again with the Quick Que! The regular wait was about 1 hour both days we were there. You had your choice between the no movement and moving car and seriously, the moving car was barely anything! A couple of circles here and there. It was a cute ride though. Once you get off your car drops you off by the real penguins! I don't know how the cars work, but they are pretty cool!

So, they have a lot of penguins! We did some selfies with them and it was cute. There was one little penguin who was a crazy swimmer in the water – in and out back and forth super fast. What a cutie! When we walked out of the ride it was dark and we thought we were still in part of it. Lol Nope, just daylight savings time.





We're getting pretty good at selfies!


My eldest



Time for dinner and the smoked meat smelled so good we headed into The Voyager Smokehouse. Blah! We were disappointed. The best rib cuts weren’t included on the plan, and the ones we got were barely edible.

DH & DS19 had the ribs and both complained. DS19 had a Caesar's salad and DH had a carrot cake - those were both good!


DS13 and I had the ham sandwich. All I have to say is B-R-E-A-D. I ended taking off the bottom and eating it open faced and DS13 did the same. It was dry bread too! I had the Caesar side salad and DS13 had chocolate cake - at least the sides and desserts are good! We would not return here.



After dinner we rushed down to see the Christmas show – O Wondrous Night. I didn’t think we’d get in as it was only a few minutes before the show, but we were able to. It was a great. I loved that Sea World had Christmas lights, decorations, and music being piped through all day. The show was funny yet biblical - about Mary and Joseph and the birth of Jesus with big puppets and singing and at the end real animals. It was great and I’m glad we went!





As we walked back to the front, we stopped to watch the Sea of Trees light show which was nice. The trees changed color and flashed to the music. I love anything Christmas!




Out of picture space - one more post to finish Day 1!

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World Day 1 - Finishing Up!

We happened to walk up right before Elmo’s Christmas Wish started so in we went. Another cute show even though our youngest is 13. Who doesn’t love Elmo, Cookie Monster, Zoe and Rosita?






We walked around in the area, took some pictures, saw the angel that moved (picture of it in day 2, the drummer boys who move) then decided to have a snack before we left.

We headed back to the Seafire and had 2 dinners and some hot chocolate. We loved this dining plan! DH had chicken fingers, french fries and a soda. DS19 had a fajita sandwich and French fries with a hot chocolate. Both were delicious! DS13 and I had hot chocolate. Yum!



We were tired from our long day and took a taxi back to the Sheraton Vistana (it was $15 plus tip with the taxis sitting at SW). Much cheaper than the hotel’s service! We hung out in the condo and watched some tv before falling asleep.


My total miles walked according to my smartphone – 4.93.


If you’re looking for a list of what we did, I’ve got some times thanks to my camera/phone:

1. 3:00 pm ate at the Seafire
   
   
2. Rode the Manta 2 times
   
   
3. 4:30 Blue Horizons dolphin show
   
   
4. 4:50 TurtleTrek
   
   
5. 5:20 – 5:55 Antartica: Empire of the Penguins
   
   
6. 6:00 Dinner at The Voyager Smokehouse
   
   
7. 7:00 O Wondrous Night
   
   
8. Sea of Lights
   
   
9. 8:00 Elmo’s Christmas Wish

10. Seafire for a snack and hot chocolate

11. 9:12 heading back to the condo

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

I'm in! Great start to the report!

We were there the same week.....even at Sheraton Vistana Resort (we own there, and LOVE IT!! We can't imagine staying anywhere else!). From your photos, it looks like you were in Lakes? (we own in Fountains, so we might have been "neighbours")

SeaWorld is a favourite of ours, though we didn't visit that park until Christmas Day. Oh Wondrous Night was absolutely INCREDIBLE! It exceeded all of our expectations, and drew an immediate standing ovation from the crowd once it ended.

That some some nifty prize you won through the Coke rewards . Just the airfare alone was an awesome prize, but the SeaWorld tix and dining were the icing on the cake! Looking forward to hearing more .

 

[IckyMickey]

How exciting to win a trip

I know! Hard to believe I won and hard to believe it's over!

What a great start! I can't wait to read more!

Thanks! Getting the pictures ready takes almost as long as typing it up. I don't know if I like the big pictures or smaller ones better. When looking at other reports I always have to click on the smaller ones to see them so I thought the bigger ones would be better, but then I see my big head!

Hi fellow WI friend! I spent a good portion of my day shoveling out as well!
Looking forward to you trip report!

Glad you are done shoveling out! I sent DH to work with some Aleve since he had to push me out of a parking lot 3 times. We are now calling around for new tires - not how I was planning to end the year - especially since the mini van only has 30,000 miles on it! (and I do rotate! lol)

 

[chs27]

Fantastic trip report, so far!

 

[IckyMickey]

I'm in! Great start to the report!

We were there the same week.....even at Sheraton Vistana Resort (we own there, and LOVE IT!! We can't imagine staying anywhere else!). From your photos, it looks like you were in Lakes? (we own in Fountains, so we might have been "neighbours")

SeaWorld is a favourite of ours, though we didn't visit that park until Christmas Day. Oh Wondrous Night was absolutely INCREDIBLE! It exceeded all of our expectations, and drew an immediate standing ovation from the crowd once it ended.

That some some nifty prize you won through the Coke rewards . Just the airfare alone was an awesome prize, but the SeaWorld tix and dining were the icing on the cake! Looking forward to hearing more .

I looked it up and we were in the Lakes - the last building straight back, 1st floor, room 1851. We did have some sort of water view. It is a beautiful place and had we been there longer with more relaxation time it would have been great. My boys love to walk in and have their own beds in their own room!

O Wondrous Night did get a standing ovation from some of the crowd at ours too. How fitting to see it on Christmas Day!

Fantastic trip report, so far!

Thanks! I'm working hard! lol

 

[IckyMickey]

Day #2 - December 20th – Sea World

Part 1 or 8 parts - all complete

Happy New Year everyone! I got new tires on the van yesterday, not the big purchase I was hoping to make on January 1st! DS19 will pack up today as he heads back to college tomorrow already. There is a lot of laundry going on today! He finally checked his grades and he got a 3.825 GPA his 1st semester - Chemistry, Biology, Religion and Scholars Literature. Whew and woot!

I've been working on my pictures and I'm not sure if reducing the pixels reduces the size of the picture (don't laugh!) so I've reduced some by a few different sizes. No, I wasn't celebrating New Year's Eve when I did them!

Alright, here we go...
The park opened at 9:00am today so we took a taxi and arrived about 8:40. We ate our pop tarts and protein bars in the van on the way over for breakfast. We stood in line a short time at Guest Services and had the same lady help us as yesterday – but knew what to today. Again, security was a breeze although they said they were going to step it up and in the parks we went. I had a list of things we wanted to hit today so that we didn’t miss anything.


We were held back until 9:00am near the Manta, so we took some pictures with the flamingoes.



Once the park opened, we headed over to stop #1 – Stingray Feeding. We touched the stingrays on the top, and once the booth was open bought 2 trays with 4 fish each (around $10 total I think) – we all fed the stingrays although we were all a little apprehensive which you don’t think you will be until it’s time to stick your hand in! You put the fish’s tail end between two of your fingers and put your hand on the bottom of the pool and then the stingrays swims by over it and eat the fish. Of course as I was getting ready, a big bird swoops down and snatched mine right out from my fingers. No one protects mom! Lucky we had another and I guarded my fish this time!







We then headed over to the Dolphin Cove area. The dolphins wouldn’t come close enough to be touched, which I’m really not surprised about. They knew it was close to feeding time and were starting to do some tricks. It was neat to be so close to them. We then watched them briefly underwater before they were fed by their trainers. We had seriously considered doing the Dolphin Encounter for $15/person, but I guess no one was really too excited about it so we skipped it.

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 Part 2


Next up was the aquarium by the Atlantis ride. It was small and nice and had some nasty eels in it. Blah!




The top of the aquarium


Moon jellyfish?



Golden somethings. Pretty stunning with the blue background.


Moray eels. The blue thing floating above them in their breakfast - a cut up squid. They were slowly inching their way up and towards it. I just got the shivers! lol


They had the flamingoes out just walking around in their Animal Encounter area. NO you aren't suppose to touch them. Glad we asked 1st!


We headed over to the 10:00 am Pets AHoy show which was cute. With a dog left at home with grandpa and grandma, we enjoyed it. It is always funny when the pets don’t do what they are supposed to, and we had a cat and a parrot that weren’t feeling it. lol







There was time for the Manta again for the boys before the Sea Lion show, unfortunately (or fortunately) it broke down right before the boys loaded.

Food Issue: DS13 was thirsty and a little hungry so I sent him in with his food ticket and he came back out and said that ticket was only good for 1 meal. What? We were suppose to have 2 days on the dining plan and now on our 2nd full day we had 1 meal instead. Grrrr I pleaded with him to wait until after the sea lion show and we would get him a “a big lunch”. We had other plans for dinner we hadn’t told the boys about so it would all work out. I guess I only checked the top food tickets we received and either it was a mistake or I just wasn’t told about not getting 2 days on the Dining Plan after all.



Bad tourist story - (I'm talking about myself) So when I walked in to the Voyager to find out what was going on with the meal plan - DS13 had a cup of grapes and a chocolate milk. Once I read the card, I just shook my head. In the mean time DS13 had been snacking on the grapes - maybe about 4 or 5 and I told him to go put them back and the milk cuz I wasn't paying $4.50 for them. I know I should feel bad, but ...

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 Part 3

At 11:00 am it was time for Clyde & Seymore’s Sea Lion High show – another goofy but cute show. My favorite was the giant walrus who looked like Jabba the Hut when he came out.







Lunch time – 11:30 at the Spice Mill. We saw their menu the night before and everyone was interested in trying it. It was good and we were full! We all had double cheeseburgers and sodas, but different sides. DS19 had a Caesar’s salad, I had strawberries, DS13 had the cookies again, and DH had chocolate cake. I know I took pictures but they are gone, except for DS13’s cookies with the souvenir Shamu bowl.




After lunch we headed back to the Manta where the boys did ride.

Then over to the Journey of Atlantis water ride. I wasn’t up for getting wet so I sent everyone else ahead, then I wished I had gone. They didn’t get that wet and once they were done I went on while DH waited with our stuff. A cute ride.


A big splash:


but they didn't really get get.


So I thought I'd go, and somebody paid to shoot a water cannon at us! Surprise!


We then headed over to KRAKEN. DS19 became our designed locker person and we sent him in with our bags and my purse and paid the $1 for the locker. What a good boy! Again, no line using the Quick Que! Unfortunately, this was one of the rides where DH’s belly got in the way. When his seatbelt wouldn’t close, they moved us over to the modified row on the next ride that had 2 belts and he fit fine. The ride was fun, but we thought Manta was better with that loop. We got off and decided to ride again. DH decided not to ride, and since the exit was the Quick Que line, the boys and I were back on after waiting one ride. Nice!!!

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 Part 4

We then headed over to feed the sea lions. You have to walk all the way around the sea lion show to get there so it was a lot of walking. There was a nice place for a family picture though right by the entrance to the Sea Lion show.



So we arrived at Pacific Point Preserve during feeding and it was so cute! They are just like pets, showing off and making noise to get the food! There are 2 dominant males who feed far away from each other so the feeder has to launch the full size fish to one of them like a football. DS13 got to throw the last one and underthrew a little, but what a cool experience!

You can see the trainers hand on the right holding the fish.


According to the feeder, this one learned on his own to smile.


and to stick out his tongue! So cute!




DS19's were waving and barking at him.


As we were getting ready to buy 2 trays of fish to feed the sea lions, the guy who had fed them came up and gave us an extra tray of fish to feed them. How nice! I only needed to buy 1 tray of fish (4 each) for about $5 each and we threw them to the sea lions watching out for birds this time! This may have been our favorite thing. DS13 says it was his.

We then walked over to the SHARK FEEDING & AQUARIUM. Shark feeding consisted of throwing food into the water so we skipped it and went into the walk-through aquarium. It was neat and we always enjoy the tunnel aquariums with the fish and sharks swimming around you.

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 - Part 5

I forgot - DS13 had wanted an ice cream since yesterday and I had been able to put it off, but on the way over to the sea lions we finally stopped and got him some Dippin' Dots. I personally think these things aren't ice cream and are expensive!

But, somebody is happy he finally got his ice cream! He got the large cup.





So, back on track we finished the sharks and continued around the park stopping by the Sea Garden for a bathroom break. It's a very nice area for pictures!


There were also some trees with Macaw's? on them.


Then we headed back to the flamingo paddle boats. We were just going to send the boys on them, but decided we would all do it. It’s $5/person and you get about 20 minutes to ride around. The only worry is that there isn't anywhere for your bags/purses so they are on the boat with you.


A little story about the Sky Tower. I wouldn't have minded riding on it and seeing around the park and part of Orlando. I'd love a glimpse of Disney! However, we didn't have any time Saturday and it was closed when we looked - I think because it was windy. When we were eating lunch you could hear the chains? hitting the metal and this very loud clanging going on. So on Sunday, it was working for awhile, but then later it was closed. We were all ok we didn't ride, but then Monday evening we heard the news that on Monday the Sky Tower was stuck for 3 hours up high! OMG! Now I am really glad we didn't ride! What a day wrecker!


Here's a picture on the way from the Sea Garden to the Shamu area. It looks a look prettier than the gray Wisconsin we left!



This next hour gets me a little cranky – I’m not always so patient – I just wish everyone was as efficient as I was. We had secretly made reservations for the DINE WITH SHAMU, which is why not having the Dining Plan was really ok. My email said check in by 3:00pm. So we head over there before 3:00 and no one is out anywhere. I walk ½ way around the shamu stadium to find someone who says it’s really like 3:30.

Since it’s 3:00 we decide to ride the POLAR EXPRESS with our Quick Que and walk right up and are the 1st ones in line. Then the guy comes out, looks at us, leaves and comes back about 15 minutes later. By then the Quick Que line is really long and the regular line has been moving constantly. As he lets us in, we ask how much longer it is and he tells us a 2 minute pre-show and an 8 minute ride. We’re pushing 3:20 but ok, we’ve waited this long so we walk into the loading room, which takes forever to load 3 different areas. Then we finally watch the pre-show, then send one section out, then ours. Then we are just standing there in the loading area, finally go in, finally all get seated, and the ride doesn’t start. Apparently one of the kids decided to sit on his feet making the sensors think he fell off, so we had to redo the whole security checks and the ride finally started. It was a cute movie that I had saw a few years ago at the Chicago Aquarium, and as soon as we were done we sprinted out of there. Well, if you’ve been on it, it’s the longest exit in the world! You pass by Santa, the seals, beluga, walruses, some base camp, ramps and finally the store. We keep moving fast over to the Shamu check-in and see the long line of people who had already checked in, but there were still plenty checking in by the underwater whale watching area. Whew, we made it!

We checked in and were table #13 for Dine With Shamu! I was hoping that was one up by the glass since I had made ressies back in October. We took a family picture and then waited in the line by the entrance and were escorted to our table about 4:00 pm and it was up against the glass. DH and I fist-bumped. Score one for mom & dad and the boys were surprised. We were able to quickly order our drinks – virtually anything the park serves – soda, juice, milk, hot chocolate, ice tea, beer and wine were all included. Then we headed into the buffet lines with everyone else. The food was great, they were quick to refill when the food was out, and there was a nice variety of desserts too.

DS19's plate - no complaints from him and he loved the chicken!


DS13's plate - Most items were from the kid's area.


My plate. Caesar salad, pasta salad, loaded mashed potatoes - yum!, the pork with delish, sautéed veggies, kid's mac and cheese, and cheesecake for dessert. All was so good! I think I got 2nds on the mashed potatoes.

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 - Part 6

Dine With Shamu continued

DH's plate: He doesn't remember what he ate, but he ate it! Really loved the pork and the chicken. DS said get your desserts early because they didn't refill them and people were upset.



We brought our food back to the table and the trainer was already talking and the whales were doing their “tricks.” It was awesome to be up so close and see them. They are so smart! The jumps and other tricks are amazing and how they train them without being in the water is a bit baffling. The whales always returned to their trainers for treats. There was a 4:00 One Ocean show going on, but we didn’t see or hear it as some of the information I had read on the DISboards had said and there weren’t video screens to see it going on, which was fine since we wanted to watch the whales in our own pool. The dinner and training ended around 5:00 and we could leave whenever we were ready. During dinner they dropped off the family picture that was included in the price. The price was $36/person plus tax so it came out to $153.36 plus tip. A splurge but a special time as a family we won’t forget.

There is about 10 feet between our table and the pool. The host will walk around and talk during the "show."


Look who stopped by to say hi.


So table #11 was probably THE table, directly across from the main trainer, but it was still amazing to be there.









Just amazing and so much cooler than watching the show! (except for a few things in the show.)

Our free family picture:

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 - Part 7

Since we hadn’t seen any of the shamu shows, we headed over into the stadium for the 5:30 One Ocean show. It was nice and I’m glad we saw it but we liked our special shamu time better. We also decided to skip the Shamu Christmas Miracles show which was also showing at 8:00 or 9:30 that evening.






The coolest part of this show....


The splash was huge and really went far back!





After dinner, we headed back to the Polar Express area to actually view the seals, beluga, and walruses we had run past. We went in through the gift shop and past the exit only sign (I know, I’m one of those people not following directions, but we were pretty stealthy) and back to the animals. They were great to watch and the walruses were giant! One was attracted to this little girl and whatever window she went to he followed and she pretended to scratch him and he rubbed his head on the window like he was getting scratched. It was very cute! I’m looking at the Sea World map and it shows an entrance without going backwards, but we didn’t see one any where. Hmmm.

This walrus was huge and following this little girl around.


Last part of day 2 finally coming up!

 

[IckyMickey]

Sea World - Day 2 - Part 8 the end

We did a little shopping in the gift shop, then headed back towards the entrance. The ice skating show Winter Wonderland on Ice was getting ready to start at 6:45 but the seats were full so we headed past and entered the Christmas Village that opens at 5:00pm. It had cute little wagons of food and Christmas items and even a show or 2. Their map describes it as “1/2 lb burgers, steak and cheese subs, brisket mac & cheese, Italian sausage, craft brews, wines, kids holiday drinks, smores, apple pie on a stick, frito pie, warm donuts, kettle corn, hot toddies, cocoa and more!” That sounds yummy! We found a plunko game that everyone was a winner at, so for $5 both boys played. DS19 won the small prize for his girlfriend and DS13 won a medium – lol. He had his souvenir!


We did a little more browsing in the shops in the main area, took a picture with the posing angel and headed out. They also have a giant snow globe that families can go into and take a professional picture with pretend snow. We didn’t do it, but it looked cute.




A few pictures of their decorations:











We did get a few souvenirs. DS19 always gets a trinket to remember his trips. This one is a nutcracker for Christmas with a turtle on it’s head – since he has a turtle at home, it’s quite fitting. Here’s DS13’s prize from plunko, and my ornament with room for a picture.


We again took the Sea World taxi back to the Sheraton Vistana for $15 plus tip then had to take the Sheraton shuttle back to the room. A little bit of a pain, but it was better than walking! Back in the room DS13 and I got our swimsuits on and used the Jacuzzi tub in my bedroom, the warm water felt great and DS13 was happy cuz he could watch football in the tub! Lol

We packed up and got ready for our early morning check out and move over to Universal’s Royal Pacific Hotel. We were hoping to catch a taxi by 7:00 am and use the early morning hours. I said hoping….

My total miles walked today according to my smartphone – 7.42.