Visiting the Fishies with a Surprise Ending-Sea World TR-COMPLETE

[luvmy2babies]

So it took us a bit of looking and having to ask someone as it wasn't really clear on the map. I think we walked all around it, but finally found the dolphin nursery. They stay in this area until they are 18 months old. They were totally cute and even showing off. Check out this guy.

While dd was talking to the caretaker, she asked if we had seen the Shamu show. Wide-eyed, dd said she wanted to see it. Now if you recall from my PTR, I planned on doing shows the next day. But I noticed it was 11:40 and the show was due to start at noon. Why not?

We made it over to here:

There were lots of people in here already, but we got some decent seats.

We enjoyed this show very very much. Ds how ever had fallen asleep so he missed it, but he'd get another opportunity. Some of these pictures will look like they were taken from a different angle and that is because we went back to see the show again. I wanted to record it so we went back again on Friday and got much better seats. At dd's request we sat at the back of the splash zone. We didn't really get wet though. Dd said her arm got wet. I’ll admit with ds asleep on my lap and being so fascinated, then using my camcorder the 2nd time I didn’t take many pictures of the One Ocean show. It was great and really touching. Before you see it be warned, the theme song will be in your head for a while. Dd and I walked around the rest of the day singing it.

We walked out of there singing and skipping. Dd was totally excited about having seen the whales. No way could I have predicted what would happen next.

 

[luvmy2babies]

No I'm not going to leave anyone hanging...not yet anyway.

So, when we got out of the One Ocean show it was about 12:40. Ds was awake and I figured it was time for some lunch to get some food, get off our feet, and catch some AC. It was a beautiful day. It was also about 84 degrees. It was 70 when we left home so it was a significant change. As we walked I told dd, we'd get some lunch and rest for a bit. Then it happened. Dd said, "Are we going to get lunch back at the hotel cuz I'm tired." I told her we'd find a place to rest in the park, it was still early and we still had a lot more to see. "No mom, I want to go back now." "Aren't you having fun?" "My feet are hurting, I want to go back." "Well, that's why we are going to find a place to rest, but if you want to go back to the hotel for a break, maybe…" "No mom, I want to go back for the day."



I'm thinking okay, I know it's a bit warm out here, but what in the world? Now granted when we go to WDW in June, this is about the time we will head back to our resort for a break, but that trip is going to be 10 days and when we finish the break we'll have plenty of time to get back to the park later. That was not the plan for this trip. I couldn't seem to convince her that all she needed was some lunch and some time to rest and cool off. I do not intend to be one of those parents dragging tired kids around, but I knew she'd be fine if she just had a break. What was I going to do?

 

[luvmy2babies]

Then it happened. I heard a voice talking about pearl divers and there were two in a tank. Dd ran over to see what was going on. There was a sitting area in the shade and while she sat I tried to think. When she came out I convinced her to go to lunch in a place nearby. We had something light and when we were done she asked me when the next bus was coming. I checked. It was another hour before a shuttle to the hotel, so I told her we should do something in the meantime. She ran back to look at the pearl divers again.

If you've heard of Pick a Pearl at Epcot and Downtown Disney, this is the same thing. Only the divers bring the pearls up and you pick from about 5 or 6. I'd planned on us doing it on our first trip to WDW, and even had two of those Cinderella Carriage pearl holder necklaces, but we didn't get to it. Dd asked if she could do it. It was $15.99 plus tax. I said sure. They told her to pick the ugliest one and she did a pretty good job.

They do a little ceremony. They gave her a wand and rang a bell three times and had her say "Opa Opa Oyster!" Then they opened the oyster. The pearl was gorgeous. Everyone within sight of it said so. It was also really big. It measured 8mm and they said the biggest ever pulled out of that tank was 9mm. We took it into the shop adjacent to the tank and had it cleaned and this is where I paid. They offered to set it in something but we just took it in a little bag.

If you are into accessories like I am right now, and don't want to spend a bunch of money, run out of this place…so much cute jewelry.

It was close to time for that shuttle. Would dd still want to leave?

 

[luvmy2babies]

I asked dd what she wanted to do next, trying to pretend she had not already requested to go back to the hotel. She said, “It’s time for the bus right?” I sighed and told her we’d better get moving if we wanted to catch the next one. On the way we happened to pass the sign for the Seal and Otter show. Clyde and Seymour Take Pirate Island is the name of it. Dd loves otters so she asked me what the sign was for and I told her. She clapped her hands and asked when the next show was. I felt hope. I said, “It’s in 30 minutes, but we’ll miss the bus.” She said, “I want to see it.” I said, “Okay, let’s get some more drinks and go in and find a seat.”

Crisis averted?

We filled our plastic bottles nearby and went inside. This show is wonderful. There’s a guy that comes out to entertain the crowd before the show and he was so funny. He’s like a mime, but interacts with people coming inside. He was hilarious.

The plot is the boat where Seymour is the first mate, lands on an island where a human and Clyde are marooned. The ship's captain loses his treasure map (not to give too much away, but this is where the otter comes in) and everyone is looking for it.

The animals in this show were very well trained. I’m always amazed at what they get them to do. There’s one part where the actor was talking with two seals. One seal takes a fish while she isn’t looking and when questioned, he shakes his head “No”. When she asked the other seal if the offending seal had taken the fish, he threw him under the bus and shook his head yes.

When the pirate was in the water, he asked Clyde to help him back to shore and Clyde left without him. The pirate said all he wanted was a hand and Clyde applauded. We were cracking up. There was dancing at the end. They even got this guy to dance.

Just like One Ocean, this one got all thumbs up.

I'd managed to squeeze another hour out of dd. What would she want to do next?

She did ask when the next bus was coming. I checked the schedule. We'd just missed one. The next one wasn't for 2 more hours. She said, "That's okay, I feel better now anyway, what's next mom?"

Onward we go.

Well, I'm sleepy and photobucket has stopped cooperating. More later.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Thank you so much for posting your trip report. We are doing SW in January and also staying in the Springhill, so it is wonderful to see how much you enjoyed it. We have small kids, too, so it is nice to see how much fun they are having.

Yes, we loved the hotel. My children were fascinated with the place. I think they had even more fun the 2nd day. Hopefully photobucket is good to me and I can get to that this weekend.

 

[chiamarie]

I'm loving the report! Can't wait to read more!


...stupid photobucket....

 

[SnoopyDancer]

Thank you for writing a trip report. I am getting ideas on where to stay and what to do when I go for the first time in three weeks. I'm glad your daughter got distracted from leaving and that she shared her dolphin food with you. It sounds like your son really enjoyed the dolphins. I can't wait to see more pictures and read more about your adventure!

 

[davids68girl]

good to see you made it back and had a wonderful time. We are booked on the Dream in July 2013 and I'm really excited. How was it doing Sea World after the cruise? How did it work out transportation wise? I don't want to come right home after our cruise. It returns to PC on a Thursday, but I'm not sure I can swing park time at this point. Part of that though is because I'm toying with returning to WDW for 4 days in December 2012. Even though we have a 10 day trip in June, we love the decorations, and it would be my last chance before a big ticket hike with the children.

We LOVED the Dream & I am sure you will have an incredible time. My boys dubbed it The.Best.Vacation.Ever.

We drove down to FL so transportation wasn't ever an issue. Driving was a pain but we liked having our vehicle while we were there.

We only stayed about 1/2 a day because we were BEAT after the cruise and we had done MNSSHP the night before. That's one of the reasons for heading back over Spring Break since we didn't get to see any shows or any of the park by the Shamu stadium. Yup-good excuse to go back.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Thank you for writing a trip report. I am getting ideas on where to stay and what to do when I go for the first time in three weeks. I'm glad your daughter got distracted from leaving and that she shared her dolphin food with you. It sounds like your son really enjoyed the dolphins. I can't wait to see more pictures and read more about your adventure!

Hopefully I get it done before you go on your trip. We really did love it there.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Okay, so when I left off dd had new energy and was ready to move forward. In reality we only had a couple of hours left really. The park was closing at 6 and the plan was to get out of there around 5, so we could get back and settled for dinner. We eat around 5:30 or 6:00. So I believe there was a 5:15 or so shuttle. With that in mind, we went over to the Shark encounter.

Outside the shark encounter, there is a tank with sharks of the less dangerous variety and some fish. Dd wanted to feed them, so I got her a tray of food. It is $5.00 per tray. There is also a deal where you pay $10 and get to feed the sharks, sting rays and sea lions, but I just got her a tray with shark food. You don’t get close. You stand above the tank and drop the food into it. It’s shrimp.

She enjoyed seeing which animal would get to the food first and how long it would take. Once the tray was empty we watched the animals a bit longer, then headed into Shark Encounter. It’s one of those movable sidewalks where the tank is all around you on both sides and above your head. Ds was working pretty hard to see it all. He just kept saying, “big fish!” Dd just kept saying there were too many teeth.

After we came out, we made yet another stop to look at some birds. There were some red ones behind a fence near the Shark Encounter that had my children fascinated, particularly dd. I couldn’t get a picture because they were behind a fence and when I tried to get one, all that showed up was the fence.

After that, she wanted to return to the Jewel of the Seas Aquarium so we went back there.

Before I knew it, it was 4:40, so we started to head towards the exit. We’d had some pictures taken that morning and I wanted to view/purchase them before we left. It’s the only way I get into any pictures unless someone offers to take one for me. There were 8 pictures and 1 picture was $20. The CD with every image however was $40 so I opted for that. So we finished off our day by reviewing how we started it.

One with Baby Shamu added.

In front of a different background.

With Baby Shamu added.

With me giving the “What the heck!” look at Shamu. I love dd’s expression. I know it’s not what she was going for, but it almost looks like she’s about to say, “Well, see what had happened was…”

So I paid and they gave me the CD. When I got home and loaded it, I was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of nice pictures on there of random animals that live in the park.

We took our time going to the shuttle pick up point. I took this picture of dd on the way out. She loved the flowers there. She kept picking little ones for me.

We were on the shuttle without incident. The same driver picked us up as had driven us there. Before we got going to the hotel, he asked who had plans to visit Sea World the coming weekend. I said we did. He had some interesting news for us.

 

[2Pirates2Princesses]

Your report is so nice so far. You got so much done on your first day in the park! I will have to remember to keep some cash on hand for all the different animal feedings if we go to Sea World. I love the family photos! The photos with your DD holding the little Shamu are cute! I think that CD price is a good deal. Sea World is such a fascinating park. We are now toying with the idea of a Sea World/Legoland trip for next summer (not sure yet). I really like the idea of being able to visit Sea World with a relaxed approach and not feel like I am rushing around or trying to squeeze it in with a WDW trip. Thank you for taking the time to do this and sharing your photos with us

 

[luvmy2babies]

Your report is so nice so far. You got so much done on your first day in the park! I will have to remember to keep some cash on hand for all the different animal feedings if we go to Sea World. I love the family photos! The photos with your DD holding the little Shamu are cute! I think that CD price is a good deal. Sea World is such a fascinating park. We are now toying with the idea of a Sea World/Legoland trip for next summer (not sure yet). I really like the idea of being able to visit Sea World with a relaxed approach and not feel like I am rushing around or trying to squeeze it in with a WDW trip. Thank you for taking the time to do this and sharing your photos with us

You're welcome. I'm having a good time reliving our trip. I am glad I decided not to try to fit it into our WDW trip next summer. Some people can, but with my crew, we would not have been able to get through it all in one day.

The trip did take a turn after day 2 after the talk the bus driver gave us. That's coming.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Okay, when I left off we had gotten on the shuttle to return to our hotel. We’d had a great day, not exactly the day I’d planned, but a great day. The driver had a few minutes to wait to be on schedule so he asked who had plans to visit the park during the weekend.

I said we were going back tomorrow and Saturday. He said I would need to be prepared to face an enormous crowd on Saturday. He said that they underestimated the popularity of the Spooktakular event and on the previous Saturday they had to close the park at 1:00 in the afternoon because they reached capacity limit. He said they reopened at 4, but the wait to get into any show was 3 hours and 2 hours if you had “quick queue” (a fast pass of sorts). He said getting a meal might also take 2 hours and just walking was a challenge.



He said if you do come on Saturday; make sure you get here early because it being the weekend of Halloween, they are expecting it to be their biggest weekend ever for the park. I tried to look calm and just nod my head, but I could feel the air leaving my lungs. That sounded awful. I looked at my children and they were so happy. Saturday was going to be our final touring day and if we ended up in something like what this guy was talking about, this long awaited vacation would have a horrible ending. Now mind you we have been to Disney during a Holiday week and did Epcot with 9.5 out of 10 on the crowd scale, but it was nothing close to what this guy was describing. What was I going to do about Saturday?

I decided to sleep on it, but to make sure we did all we could at the park the next day.

 

[luvmy2babies]

We ordered room service again. Dd and ds shared a chicken tender meal. I had a grill chicken platter. After dinner, we had our baths and settled in. Dd still preferred the couch and I was fine with that decision. We were asleep pretty quickly.

We woke up on Friday to some really gray skies, but I knew it was predicted to be a bit of a rainy day. The temperature would be in the low 80s though so I packed a poncho for myself, a rain jacket (made of poncho material) for dd, my son’s rain jacket and a rain cover for his stroller. We were using our All Day Dine vouchers today, so we took our time getting ready and planned to eat breakfast at Voyager’s Smokehouse. They serve breakfast from 8:45 to 10am. We had some milk I had in the suite’s fridge and we headed down to get the first shuttle. It was already raining so we all gathered under the shelter outside the hotel’s entrance instead of further down the sidewalk under the shuttle pick up sign that was wasn’t covered. The driver stopped where we were and we left the hotel again right at 8:20.

Once we were off the bus, I got us into our rain gear for the walk to the front gate. My son was not fond of his rain gear at all. Every time I put the stroller cover down, he moved it up onto the shade. I did manage to get this shot right before he moved it a 3rd time. This would be an ongoing battle throughout the day. Thankfully when it rained the hardest, he was sleeping and didn’t bother it.

Dd was pretty happy with hers. She doesn’t really like ponchos, so this was a real find for us. I got it from Wal-Mart. I like their gear better. The hoods are bigger. But as you can see, the one issue I had with her was getting her to keep the hood on. She didn’t mind the rain. She said it was still better than a sunny day when we aren’t together. So there you have it folks, a rainy day in Orlando is still better than a sunny day at home.

There was some controversy on getting into the park. A small crowd had gathered and the people at the bag check were there, so we approached. We were immediately told to go back and wait. Everyone backed up no problem. About 5 minutes later, a supervisor I’d run into the day before who helped with our ticket issue, came through and said, “What are you all doing back there? Come on up.” So we moved again only to be given the go back sign from the bag checkers. She over-ruled them and bag check proceeded.

Once were inside dd had to make a stop to look at these birds again.

Then we experienced our first (never made it to one at WDW) rope drop.

They play the National Anthem and welcome everyone into the park. Don’t think I mentioned that before. We heard the National Anthem the day before, but due to our ticket issues weren’t there when the rope dropped. We watched the Manta roller coaster go on its test runs while we waited. If you ride this one, leave the shoes off. It actually skims the water on one of the drops.

After rope drop, the goal was breakfast. We did pass Manta Aquarium though and once she found out what it was, dd wanted to go inside. Thank goodness for that milk. We parked the stroller and went inside. I got some of my favorite shots in there...my children enjoying the place.

Children love these, a tube that lets you appear to be inside with the fish. She came out and said, "I found Nemo!"

We left there and went on to breakfast. After breakfast the plan was Happy Harbor. How would the rain affect our plans?

 

[luvmy2babies]

Sorry about the size of some of those pictures. I really meant to cut them down to 400x400.

Breakfast at Voyager's was really good. Little note: strollers have to stay outside. We had scrambled eggs, bacon, biscuits, french toast sticks and fruit. Ds had more milk to drink. Dd had juice and I had a 20oz bottled water. The drinks were big enough that I put what dd didn't drink into her plastic bottle from home after we ate.

It was almost time for Happy Harbor to open and the rain had stopped. We headed over and saw we were in for our 2nd rope drop of the day. I took a couple of pictures at the waterfront while we waited. I love how my son smiles on command. I just wonder what that says about how many pictures I take.

After rope drop and headed into the area. We were practically alone.

The carousel was our first ride. I should say it was our first two rides because there were so few people around, we just stayed on and went again.

Ds hates getting on the animal for some reason, but once the ride starts he is really happy.

Ds was on the animal next to dd, and I stood between them, but I could not really get a great picture of her because of the sun.

Next we went to the Jazzy Jellies I believe. It is like Tea Cups, but goes high in the air in addition to spinning. We also rode that twice, but not back to back. Dd was driving and she really had us spinning. Ds loved it and laughed the entire time. I needed time to gather myself before going on it again.

Next we went on Ocean Commotion. It’s a boat shaped vehicle that goes back and forth and spins on a banana shaped track. First time we went on a ride like this it was at Busch Gardens. Everyone loved it then. Everyone loved it again.

We would hit this one 5 times, but after the 2nd ride, we took a break. Shamu Stadium was nearby so we took a break from the rides to see the 11:30 showing of One Ocean. This time I had my camcorder and recorded it.

The Spooktakular was getting started when we came out of the show and they were giving out bags and candy. This was originally going to be a big part of our day. Dd had already said she just wanted to wear her regular clothes and then she decided she did not want to get any candy. She just wanted to keep having fun in the park. I was okay with that, especially since in the back of my mind, I knew this might be our last day there.

So we headed back into Happy Harbor. Still not many people, but there were a lot of people doing the candy trail. It had started to rain again so; we went over to the playground. I called it a high rise playground. It was a huge climbing structure that went really high. It had stairs to go up and down and slides. It had nets to climb over and tubes to go through. It is however, almost completely covered and there are tables and chairs underneath. I was not about to follow ds up there, so I told dd she could do it but I’d wait on the ground. Like the good big sister she is though, she spent time in the sandbox with her brother. These are some more of my favorite shots because I can see the sibling love. I’ll hold on to this when they argue later.

Once ds seemed to have the hang of the slide to her satisfaction, dd went over to play the trash can drums right outside the sandbox.

Dd was ready for another ride so we rode the Swishy Fishes. It’s another tea cup type of ride, but it does not go up in the air. Beware however, the pods are really small. We barely fit or I guess I should say I barely fit and it was touch and go getting out. I didn’t even take any pictures. Dd would be the only one to ride this one again. I let her go on it alone later while ds was asleep. We had lunch after that, but for the life of me I can’t remember where.

 

[chiamarie]

We watched the Manta roller coaster go on its test runs while we waited. If you ride this one, leave the shoes off. It actually skims the water on one of the drops.

Insider tip; the Manta ride never touches water anywhere. If a roller coaster moving at 60+ MPH, and hit water that was standing still; the car would probably fly off the track. It's physics. But that is what they wanted when they were coming up with concepts for this ride; but all the engineers laughed at them and said it'd never work.

So instead, to create the image that the wing tip touches the water, they have fountains timed so that everytime a car goes by on the track, the fountains spray upwards, giving the image that it's touching the water.

You only need to take your shoes off if you're wearing flip flops, cuz they'll probably fall off! And, you might get a few drops of water from the sprayers, but not usually.




Loving the trip report so far, it looks and sounds like you had a great time! Also, I had no idea you could get breakfast at SeaWorld; other than the pastries from the bakery up front where Starbucks is.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Insider tip; the Manta ride never touches water anywhere. If a roller coaster moving at 60+ MPH, and hit water that was standing still; the car would probably fly off the track. It's physics. But that is what they wanted when they were coming up with concepts for this ride; but all the engineers laughed at them and said it'd never work.

So instead, to create the image that the wing tip touches the water, they have fountains timed so that everytime a car goes by on the track, the fountains spray upwards, giving the image that it's touching the water.

You only need to take your shoes off if you're wearing flip flops, cuz they'll probably fall off! And, you might get a few drops of water from the sprayers, but not usually.




Loving the trip report so far, it looks and sounds like you had a great time! Also, I had no idea you could get breakfast at SeaWorld; other than the pastries from the bakery up front where Starbucks is.

That is good to know about the ride, not that I was getting on it. I wasn't thinking about it going off the track, but I figured going across water like that would hurt and wondered how they got around it.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Just wanted to let everyone know I haven't abandoned my TR. My daughter had a Science Project and that has consumed a lot of evenings at home. She is turning it in today and Photobucket and I have reconciled via the Bulk Uploader which magically became an option a couple of days ago, so I'll be finishing up the report in the next couple of days.

Thanks

 

[luvmy2babies]

Okay so last thing in my last update was lunch. I still can’t remember where we ate. It wasn’t anything significant as when at a theme park we don’t generally eat a full meal in the middle of the day.

Next thing we did was see the Sea Lion and Otter show again. My apologies for calling them seals in my earlier post. After that we saw the Blue Horizons show at Whale and Dolphin Theatre. It had dolphins, acrobats, and birds. There was so much going on in the show and ds decided he wanted to play with the camera so it was hard to take pictures, but I did get some. Here are a few of them.

All thumbs up on this one. On the walk out of the theater, somehow we came across this guy again. The picture came out better this time. I know he hadn’t moved, but it seemed he was everywhere.

Ds also fell asleep after the show; so, I let dd do some things on her own. Here’s ds taking a break.

 

[luvmy2babies]

Dd really enjoyed the bubble machines they had running. It was the only part of the Spooktakular she participated in, but I think she got a lot out of it. Amazing how much fun the simple things are.

After that she wanted to do the rides again. I was glad she was big enough to go on her own. She repeated all of the rides she’d been on already starting with 2 rides on the carousel.

Jazzy Jellies

Ocean Commotion

She went on Swishy Fishes again, but I didn’t get a picture. Then she decided that since ds was asleep she wanted to do the high rise part of the playground. I found a spot and stayed there. I took these pictures standing on the ground looking straight up. It’s her I promise.

Then she went on the big ship in the splash area. It is really big with a lot of room to run around, explore and pretend. I could only get a good picture of her exiting though.

All that lasted about an hour and a half. Once ds woke up, we headed for the Wild Arctic exhibit to see the Polar Bears, Walrus, and Beluga Whales. There’s two options upon entry. There’s a movie shown from the vantage point of a helicopter flying in the arctic. You can either do the ride simulator or the sitting version. Of course, we did the motionless version. The animals in here are beautiful. My camera only liked the Polar Bear though.

On the way out of the Wild Arctic there is an artificial polar bear den for climbing.