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

Before we left the bubble machine, dd had asked if we could come back to them when ds woke up since he loves bubbles so much. I had agreed to it, but it had started raining again after we left the Wild Arctic. I told dd I didn’t think we should, but once he saw the bubbles, I could not deny him a chance to play with them. So I put on his rain coat and let him out of the stroller.

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It was getting close to dinner time and I knew if we wanted to eat and make the 7:00 shuttle, we had better get moving. So I said the magic words: “Eat Eat!” Ds slowly but surely got back into his stroller. I do remember where we had dinner. We ate at Terrace Garden. It’s an Italian Buffet. It looked like there may have been more in there than that, but that was what we ate. We had different kinds of pizza, cheese bread, salad, tortellini and spaghetti. Dd and ds had apple juice and I had Sprite. Six thumbs up!

We headed out after that, but made a stop at the animal interaction station. They have different animals there at different times of day. The schedule is posted. When we came out of the restaurant, there was an alpaca. They look like llamas. Dd asked some questions and got to pet her.

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And with that and some souvenir shopping, we said our good-byes to Sea World.

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One other activity, we did while ds was asleep was the Shark Attack photo session. There’s a booth near the Shark Encounter with an ocean scene background and a fake Great White shark with its mouth open. You pose in and around it and make facial expressions like it’s eating you. It was a riot. I’ll post pictures of that later.

Then there’s the million dollar question. If you recall, we’d gotten some horrifying predictions as to what Sea World would be like on Saturday. We did miss a couple of shows, but we were really satisfied with our time there and I was really proud of dd...18 total hours of theme park time in 2 days with just the one incident on the first day. The only other thing that had gone wrong was that somewhere along the way, we lost dd's rain jacket. You'd think we'd notice this large pink piece of plastic missing, but we didn't until we were exiting because when we left Terrace Garden the rain had stopped. I could think of worse things. I'll get her another one from Wal-Mart soon.

So...what did I decide to do the next day? On the shuttle back, the driver was again telling us the same thing. Dd had a suggestion. Was it possible?
 
I'm sure you noticed in one of the pictures, there is a wild rabbit behind your Daughter. That's pretty cool that it came out from the bushes to check out what was going on. :laughing:
 
I'm sure you noticed in one of the pictures, there is a wild rabbit behind your Daughter. That's pretty cool that it came out from the bushes to check out what was going on. :laughing:

Yes, we saw a couple of them. I didn't tell her because I didn't want it to run off. The other one was smaller.
 
Thank you for the great trip report! Your son's giant grin after a bunch of pictures in which he wasn't smiling made me laugh. So cute.
 


So what did we do on Saturday? I didn't want to take a chance on the driver being wrong. So the Sea World portion of this report is over. Dd has requested that I not post the Shark Attack pictures I mentioned earlier and I have to respect that. But it is a fun thing to do there.

I went over our options surfing the web on my phone and elminated Busch Gardens and Legoland for various reasons. It was going to be too cold to do a pool day.

Dd made a suggestion and I started going to other sites to check it out. I eventually settled on dd's suggestion and went online to get tickets. It wasn't much because ds doesn't need one. I didn't go over the budget for the trip as we'd hardly spent what I had brought.

It took some doing as we had to take a cab and I had to make sure the cab had the right seat for ds. But we got there.









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So I have to confess now that we didn't manage a Disney free Orlando Vacation. But I was a bit nervous because I had not made a plan. Crowd level was 6.6 which for us was low since our first trip was Thanksgiving week.

We went to bed with a plan to make rope drop and go from there. So, what would we be able to accomplish in one day with no plan?
 
Wow, that was definitely a surprise :goodvibes. At first, I thought you would spend your last day at Aquatica, then I started to rule that out because of the iffy weather that was taking place during your trip; but I never suspected a Disney park. I think you made an excellent choice since the Magic Kingdom is a great park to go to in any type of weather with all of the indoor attractions/rides there; and there are so many attractions/rides your whole family can do together there without height restrictions. I know that if our family goes to Orlando with the intent of doing a non-Disney vacation (we have our sights on Sea World and Legoland) it will be hard for us to stay away from Disney, especially the Magic Kingdom :)
 
So we got up early and started getting ready to go. We put on a polo and jeans and headed downstairs eventually to get breakfast. Dd was moving really slowly this morning even though she was wide awake and excited. She was really distracted by what was on television. By the time we got downstairs we pretty much only had time for muffins and cereal. We ate it outside while we waited for the cab.

Once he arrived and we got ds buckled in, we were off. We got to the TTC at 8am. I paid and we got ds in the stroller and walked to will call. Ds was so excited as the Mickey shapes came into his view. We picked up the tickets with no wait. The monorail however was a different story.

I told dd that if the ferry returned before the monorail did that we were going to make a break for it. It did and we did. I really enjoyed the ferry ride over to Magic Kingdom. It was very relaxing and a nice view. It made me really excited about our stay at Wilderness Lodge next summer.

We made it in time for the opening show and we really enjoyed it. Once we got inside dd wanted to go straight to Mickey’s Philharmagic. First stop was a shop for a poncho for dd. She’d lost that pink jacket. Once we had that I wanted to hit Dumbo, but went with dd’s desires. It was raining pretty steadily so I agreed with her it was best to go there to get inside. We were practically alone in there.

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Once we came out, it was still really cloudy but the rain had stopped. So I asked dd where she wanted to go next. She chose her 2nd favorite ride from the first trip.

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After that we did make it to Dumbo. It said a 20 minute wait so we got in line. Our first trip we never saw it below 45 minutes.

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After Dumbo, dd asked to return to our first stop. I said, what the heck it’s a vacation.

And I just adore the show.

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After that we made it to the carousel. We had a ball on here. I wish dd had (as she has so many times, told me my hair was sticking up after we took our ponchos off.

Oh well.

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Dd said she was hungry so we headed to our favorite quick service restaurant in Magic Kingdom. Columbia Harbor House. It wasn’t open yet, so I told dd we had time to see Tiana. Jumping up and down and clapping so off we went.

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By the time we left the meet and greet, it was 11:00 and Columbia Harbor House was calling. It was good. Dd had a kids’ chicken nuggets and ds and I shared the fish basket.
 


Dd decided she didn’t want to do any dark rides today. That meant no Peter Pan and no Winnie the Pooh. I told her okay for today, as I wasn’t going to spend valuable time trying to convince her when we’d be returning in a few months, but I told her that when we came back this summer we’d be doing these rides again. I wanted to hit some things we missed on our first trip anyway.
So off we went to Adventure Land. Notice the tarp over the entrance.
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The wait for Jungle Cruise was 50 minutes so we grabbed fast passes and got in line for Alladin’s Magic Carpet ride. The line was 30 minutes according to the sign, and I think that was accurate. The last time they put two children riding alone in the back seat of our carpet. I remember the boy being really bummed he wasn’t going to get to drive, so I drove to try to make it fun for everyone. His older sister was telling him he should be grateful to be at Disney which was really refreshing to hear from a teenage girl. But I did what I could, even got us spit on. She kept talking to him, “look how high we are…look we are higher than everyone. “ Everyone giggled through the ride. This time it was just us. I let dd sit up front alone to drive. Lord help us.
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Ds sat with me.
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We survived. We got “camel spit” but just a little. We still had some time before we could redeem our fast passes, so we went to the Enchanted Tiki room.
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Once that was over, it was time for the Jungle Cruise ride. Ds had fallen asleep, but we went ahead. We’d missed this on our first trip. It’s a funny story. I was going to get fast passes, but noticed the standby line said 5 minutes. I thought, “No big deal,” and we got in line for the Magic Carpets. When we got off the Alladin ride, I got a better look at the wait sign. It actually said 55 minutes. I love using fast passes. We really enjoyed this ride although I had to let dd know that everything was fake so she would enjoy it and not try to climb onto my head.
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It was time for a drink after that so we went in search of something cold and sweet. It had really warmed up. All we could find nearby was bottled water and dd convinced me to get her some ice cream with hers. The line was really long. It was 2:40 so I figured I’d see if there was a spot to watch the parade. We employed a strategy that I’d discovered by accident on our last trip. We went to the walkway that they keep open prior to the parade’s start to look for a spot. I was able to find a spot to stand and lean back on a fence. I instructed dd to go and sit on the curb on a little spot I saw 3 feet away next to a stroller.
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This turned out to be a really good spot. The child in the stroller was having a really hard time waiting and was giving his mother a very hard time so dd played peek-a-boo with him. He looked to be just a bit older than ds (still sleeping) and every time he looked around the back of the stroller, dd did too and he laughed so hard. It was one of those proud mommy moments for me. It was cute, and I did take a picture, but didn’t talk to the mom, so I won’t post it. Dd probably got interaction with 5 or 6 characters from that spot as well.
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That poor CM had the hardest time keeping people out of the walk way. I felt so bad for him. The CM across the street had allowed the walkway to fill once the parade started (which was what we experienced on our first trip as well) but he explained the walkway was supposed to stay clear and people kept pointing across the street and complaining to him and getting in the walkway when he wasn’t looking. Ds woke up when it started so I wanted it to stay empty so he could see without me having to pick him up. I was right inside the tape barrier where the CM had told me to stand.
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Once that was over and the walking became easier we took a bathroom break and made our way across the park to a part we had completely missed on our first trip.
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We’d planned to visit there after doing Toontown on our first trip, but I had some stomach issues and we went back to the room. I was happy to get there. Going the first time during a holiday week was fun, but I was really amazed at all we had accomplished already. MK was a 6.6 on touringplans that day, which is a lot to some, but having been when MK was 8 or 9, it felt great to us.
I explained the Buzz Lightyear ride to dd and even though I said it would be a little dark, she wanted to do it. The wait was 50 minutes so we grabbed fast passes and went to the People Mover.
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Everyone really enjoyed this ride. It had a little more speed than I anticipated, but it was fun. The time for Buzz had rolled around.
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What a load of fun. Dd beat the pants off me. I’m not sure what target she hit, but one minute I looked and she had 400 points and the next she had 200,000. She ended up with 301,000 points. Ds did some driving since he was in the middle, but I helped. Dd thought that was just about the best ride ever. I purchased the pictures. We looked way too serious. While we were waiting to buy the pictures, I took this shot.
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Can we do it again mommy? What the heck? It’s a vacation. We grabbed more fast passes and I asked dd what she wanted to do while we waited. We went on the people mover again then went to the Monster’s Inc. attraction. It had a 10 minute wait. No pictures of this one. We all really enjoyed it though. We did Buzz again and this time I must have hit a bonus target. Hunger had set in so we went to the bathroom then to Cosmic Ray's. The food was good as was the entertainment. A CM took dd to color while I was in line. It was a bit chaotic especially when compared to Columbia Harbor House, but once I got my head around it, I was fine and really grateful I could take the stroller inside. We had seats by the railing where we could look down on Sonny and his group.
 
Once we exited the restaurant, night had fallen, but I saw another ride we had missed on our last trip. We had time for the tea party. It was a 15 minute wait. I let dd drive again. I I needed a hand to hold on to ds anyway.

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What a blast. I love their smiles on the ride.
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After that I got myself a 2011 pin. That is what I do on WDW trips. I collect pins. I don’t trade, I just collect them. After my purchase, I set myself up for what would be one of two mistakes on the day. I agreed to ride IASW one more time. It was our 3rd time on it and again it was practically walk on and we enjoyed it. It was a nice way I thought to end a great day. When we got off though, they’d roped off the castle to prepare for Wishes. The CM said, I could go around either side. Not even thinking I picked the Adventure Land route instead of the Tomorrow Land route. I’d regret it. The parade watchers had gathered and it had started. We were eventually trapped unable to move. Our only choice was to wait it out which wasn’t easy because dd could hear it but not see it. It took quite a while for us to get moving again even after it was over. In the midst of all of that, ds fell asleep. It was probably a defense mechanism. Trapped in that crowd, I can’t imagine his view was very pleasant from his tiny stroller.

We finally made it to Main Street to make our way to the exit. We had to go through the gift shops and walk on the sidewalk as the street was full of people watching the Magic Memories and You show. It was smooth sailing through there though. Dd kept looking back saying she wanted to see it. I reminded her we’d be back in a few months, that we’d be staying in a hotel close to the park and we’d see it then, but we had to go now before the fireworks started.

When we got out, I had my 2nd regret of the day, leaving our sweatshirts in the room. It had gotten chilly when the sun went down. I knew if I stayed any longer I’d drop $100 on sweatshirts, so I got us out of there as quickly as I could. We made it onto the TTC ferry. It was a chilly ride, but we could see the fireworks as we sailed over the lake. I felt that was a fitting way to end the day.

So here is what we accomplished at MK with a 6.6 crowd level and no plan.

Mickey’s Philharmagic (3 times)
IASW (3 times)
Dumbo
Cinderella’s Carousel (3 times)
Princess Tiana meet and greet
Magic Carpet Ride
Jungle Cruise
Enchanted Tiki room
Celebrate a Dream Come True Parade
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin (2 times)
People Mover (2 times)
Monster’s Inc Laughing Floor
Mad Tea Party ride
Two meals and snack time

Once we got off at the TTC, we found a cab with the right seat for ds and were back in our hotel room by 10pm. What happened at Sea World that day, I may never know. But when I laid down that night, I sure felt good about what we decided to do with our day. I told dd I was really proud of her, all the walking she’d done over the past 3 days. We logged 30 theme park hours over those 3 days and didn’t feel worn down at all.

We got up when we woke up the next day. I never get early flights for returns. Our flight was taking off at 1:55. I got us dressed, made sure we had everything then we went down to breakfast. At checkout time, I settled up (I had prepaid through the Sea World website so it was just a matter of getting my receipt) and asked them to call us a cab. The lady only had a backless booster when she came, so I pulled ds’ car seat out and installed it.

We were at the airport with more than enough time even though the check-in line was pretty long. As I mentioned before I put the car seat through Southwest’s fragile cargo and we went on. Dd was relieved of her stroller duties and happy about it when we decided to do some shopping to pass the time we had before going through security. We got a couple of magnets for the fridge to remember our trip. Noon rolled around and we got in line for the security check point. The guy asked dd her name and who I was and called ds by his name to see if he'd look. This happens each time we fly. I silently wonder if they do this with two parent families. Oh well. once we went through, I got us lunch at the McDonald’s and we ate it at the gate.

It was a really quiet flight home-for us anyway. Ds slept all the way home and dd just looked out of the window. Who knew that while I was packing her carry-on for her every desire for entertainment, all she needed was a window seat. CARES harness for ds on our next flight for sure.

Thanks to everyone for reading this trip report. Holidays are in full swing now. I’ll probably start my PTR for our WDW trip after the new year.
 
Thanks for the great report. I really, really enjoyed it as we'll be headed to Sea World in a couple of weeks. The last time we were there our daughter was about your daughter's age. She's a teenager now so it's been quite a few years!
 
Thanks for the trip report! I just read through the entire thing. We can't decide if we want to go to SW during our May trip. Your report convinced me that there is tons to do there!

Your kiddos are adorable and you seem like a great mama! And by the way, my children get asked their names by airline security also. ;)
 
Thanks for the trip report! I just read through the entire thing. We can't decide if we want to go to SW during our May trip. Your report convinced me that there is tons to do there!

Your kiddos are adorable and you seem like a great mama! And by the way, my children get asked their names by airline security also. ;)

Thank you for reading the report and for your kind words about my family. That's good to know about the airport. I guess things just change. I wondered because we traveled by plane several times with dh, the last time being in 2007 when my daughter was 4 and they didn't say a thing to her.
 
I absolutely loved this trip report! You're a great writer! Your kids are gorgeous!

Thanks for sharing it!
 
I understand your dilemma. I am trying to get a bunch of stuff in while my son is still little enough to get in free but big enough enjoy stuff. I think there's an option to upgrade a length of stay Sea World ticket to include Aquatica (the water park next door) and the Busch Gardens in Tampa and the Busch Gardens ticket includes transportation. I think it's 30 miles away. I think that upgrade is $60/person.

Thanks for reading along. We had an unexpected end to our trip. Stay tuned.

Busch Gardens is a good 60 miles from closer to Disney, so probably farther from the Sea World area. We drove over twice last week while staying at Mystic Dunes.

Sheila
 
Just read your report! AWESOME!!
We are staying at Spring Hill Suites this July for 2 days at SW
So excited for my kids!! They are about the same age as your kids, and my daughter wants to feed the dolphins, so I really appreciate your advice on the shuttle timing etc., THANK YOU!!

Also, we were on the Disney Dream cruise this past summer
It wasAMAZING i highly recommend it!!

We then did 4 days at WDW post cruise.

We had disney transportation take us to the Polynesian
It really was effortless
and it was so nice to end a cruise and look forward to an extended trip

If you have any Dream cruise questions, Im happy to help!

Annabug
 

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