I got up and made tea for everyone (can you see a pattern going on here?) and we all got showered and dressed, sun-creamed up and were pulling off the driveway at 9:30am.
I’ll let you in on a little joke we had throughout the holiday. Some of you may find it disgusting, and it’s probably not the sort of thing I should have taught my 2 year old daughter, but there you go... The day before we left the UK I was getting Amelia ready to go out one morning. As I wiped her face I notice she had some sleep in her eye and I struggled to keep her still long enough to get it out. I said to her “hang on, you’ve got an eye-bogey” to which she started laughing. I laughed too and as I got the sleep on the end of my finger to show her I squealed “Ewwwwwww, eye -bogey’s!” She was in stitches laughing. Oliver came down to see what was going on and I told him she has eye bogeys to which Amelia got both fingers up to her eyes, pretended to pick sleep out of them and throw them at Oliver! Such a lovely child!! It wasn’t the nicest thing for her to do, but she was so cute when she did it as she was chuckling along, it sort of became an in-joke and throughout the holiday she it was a way to distract her if she got unsettled and was throwing pretend eye bogeys at all of us!
This morning we were going to Cracker Barrel for breakfast. I’d heard so many Dibbers say how lovely it was and it looked so nice from the outside with its flags and rocking chairs on the deck. Just my sort of place!
After pulling into the wrong entrance and having to drive back on to the 192 to the next exit, we finally pulled up outside. The kids tried out the rocking chairs before we entered into the beautiful gift shop. Oh my god. I could have spent some serious money in there! They had the most beautiful dolls with their own little table and chairs. I could have bought Amelia every one of them. They were called Butterflies dolls and can be found on their website too...
At first we thought we had gone in the wrong entrance, but then we realised you had to go up to the little desk in the gift shop to be seated in the restaurant. We were seated quickly and it was pretty quiet in there. Only a few people were eating. But then I guess we were in there quite late.
We ordered a round of coffees, teas and orange juices and Amelia was given a colouring sheet and crayons. The menu was huge and we all had trouble deciding what to have. I was a little turned off by the fact that most of the things came with sausage gravy and grits. Although i’ve never tried either, the thought of them really turned me off. My dad tried grits in Crystal palace on our first morning and it looked horrible! He said it was tasteless too.
There were a lot more other things on the menu however that didn’t come with sausage gravy and grits! I chose the “one egg n bacon or sausage” and chose sausage patties. I think everyone else had something similar except Tracy. She had the parfait breakfast with scrambled egg and sausage. She said the blueberry muffin was the best she’d ever eaten and was raving about cracker barrel for the rest of the holiday!
Here is what I had. I wasn’t as impressed with mine. I was expecting to get a little more. However the biscuits it came with were delicious!
And here’s what Dad had...
The bill came to $63.04 for the seven of us including drinks which works out about £5 each which was pretty good.
We left the restaurant and spent the next god knows how long in the gift shop while Mum and Tracy bought out the place. I bought some Burts Bees lip balm as it was only $2.99; much cheaper than in the UK. Tracy bought a hilarious toy dog that rolls around laughing a contagious laugh. It had us in stitches. Every time she turns it on even now, it cracks me up. Here’s a video...
Amelia got covered in yoghurt at breakfast so I took her to the restrooms to get her changed. Paul stropped off back to the car as he was getting bored waiting for everyone, and I must admit, I was too. Time was getting on and I wanted to get to Seaworld! I finally rounded everyone up and we were on our way!
It was really hot outside, 93°F today. By the time we had arrived at Seaworld and had gone through ticketing and bag check, it was 11am. We went round to the left, past the flamingos, pelicans and Manta! It had quite a long wait time so we decided to come back later.
Oliver got some Dippin’ Dots... Oh my god; how nice are they??? They’re like tiny little balls of ice cream. Sooo nice. He bought them with his own money and went up to the counter to get them himself. He can be quite shy at times, so I was proud of him for that. He let Amelia try some. She wasn’t keen on the coldness, but quickly changed her mind when she got the lovely vanilla flavour.
We made our way around to the Sting Ray Lagoon. Amelia was fascinated and got straight in there trying to stroke them. She really has no fear! She takes after the rest of us and really loves animals. We managed to graze the tips of a few of them, but the people a little further down from us got all the sting ray action when one of them came up to the side, splashing its ‘wings’ (I guess they’re its fins actually!) at them, and literally climbing up the side! I thought it was going to jump out! Unfortunately I didn’t get a picture, although I really wanted to! I thought it would be a bit wrong to take a photo of other people enjoying their holiday. They took it all in good humour and were all laughing, but the lady did look a bit scared and they got soaked!
We moved on to Dolphin Cove. I really wanted to feed the dolphins but no one else wanted to wait in the heat as the queue was pretty long. I was pretty gutted. We went to the viewing area and just watched them instead. Amelia was in awe.
We came out as the Blue Horizons show was just starting which was a shame. Mum and Dad stood and watched from the gate but I told them we’d come back for the next showing. The wait time for Turtle Trek was only 15 minutes and I really wanted to go on as it wasn’t there last time we came, having only opened this year. So we left the pushchair along the kerbside with some others and walked over.
When we went in there was a couple of staff members putting on a little quiz between the kids and the adults. Did you know that sea turtles actually live to be around 80 years old and not 150 as in Nemo?! Funnily enough the kids actually won the round and soon enough it was our turn to go through.
First we went into a room surrounded by a tank of manatees and fish. I love manatees and could sit and watch them all day. They’re so big and graceful, but very odd looking! The fish were huge in this tank. From more years of playing Animal Crossing than I care to admit, they reminded me of the arapaima fish (not sure if they were) and what looked like some piranhas. Evil looking with sharp teeth!
The next room we went through was my favourite; the sea turtles. All of the turtles in there had been rescued by Seaworld and one of them only had one front leg. He was very curious and kept coming up to the glass. At one point I got really worried as he’d managed to wedge himself in between the glass and a huge piece of coral. He stayed there for ages before he managed to free himself.
The marine fish were beautiful and brightly coloured. Paul marvelled over them as he really wants to keep marine fish at home.
At this point Amelia fell asleep on Paul’s shoulder and missed the whole Turtle Trek show.
We picked up some 3D glasses and went through and stood in the 360° circular room which had railings all the way around. The show was brilliant! It started off with a turtle’s eye view of hatching from an egg and went through its life stages, all from a turtles eyes. It did make me a little dizzy at first, but it was still pretty amazing.
Paul in his 3D glasses.
We went back outside into the 93°F heat and looked at the manatees from the surface of the water this time and then walked on to see the alligators. I also spotted a tiny little lizard on one of the railings.
Such strange little feet!
We saw loads of these in the parks in Florida. They were so fast!
We also saw quite a few of these wild birds over there. Not your average British sparrow!
We watched Journey to Atlantis for a bit and Oliver wasted some money in the machines squirting the people as they came round in their boats. Everyone was up for going on it except me. It looked too much like a vertical drop for my liking so I gave it a miss.
I can’t remember why, but Paul and I had an argument about something... I think he was being his usual controlling and compulsive self; fretting about being late for shows. I was trying to work out times so that we could see them all and he kept hounding me saying “I told you so” when we missed the last one again. I could not get it through to him that we were on holiday and I wasn’t going to be rushed all day. We went to get some lunch from Captain Pete’s Island Eats and I tried to ignore him. He and the others went and sat at a table while Mum and I stood in the queue for at LEAST 40 minutes in the scorching sun. It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out. I was also fuming with rage at Paul. For the life of me I can’t remember what was said between us but I know he really upset me. I don’t know what the holdup was with the food but Paul finally came over and I went to sit down in the shade at the table.
A while later Mum and Paul finally came back to the table with drinks for everyone and some chicken tenders, fries and funnel cake for everyone to share. This was my first taste on funnel cake and it was lush!
After we finished eating, Paul and I forgave and forgot whatever it was we were arguing about and we all made our way to the 2:15pm showing of Clyde and Seymour. As we arrived they were just announcing that the doors would be closing in 4 minutes. Looks like we got there just in time. I cautiously walked past the mime, afraid he would make fun of me as I walked past, but thankfully I was safe. The auditorium was packed and we had to sit right up the top on the right hand side of the stage.
I was looking forward to watching the mime after watching so many of his You Tube videos, but unfortunately as soon as we found a seat he went back behind stage
The show was as good as I remembered; Still the same storyline, but with a few little things thrown in – they looked like mistakes on the animal’s part, but I’m not sure if they were actually supposed to happen. It all added to the fun though.
After Clyde and Seymour, Tracy, Paul and I went on Manta which was now a walk on. It was amazing. Even if just for the view! I wanted to go on again but I was worried about Amelia being out in the sun. It was so hot and there was no shade where we found Mum and Dad waiting. We decided we would head back to Blue Horizons and wait. There was still about 40 minutes until the show I think, but people were already sitting on the kerb so we followed suit.
Manta
We finally filled into the auditorium from the top this time. And after a little wait, the show began. It was every bit as good as I remembered and Mum loved it. Last time I think I really only saw it through the lens of my camera, so I made sure I watched it this time. I did get some photos though of course!! I love the mixture of the acrobats, dolphins and birds... and that strange looking whale!
We made our way out slowly and headed towards Shamu Stadium. We were all feeling tired from the heat now.
We passed Shark Encounter and went through there. The size of the Great White’s still amazes me.
The park was dead now. It closed at 7pm tonight but I still couldn’t believe how quiet it was.
I was gutted as we walked past the Nautilus Theatre to find it was closed. I had forgotten all about it. We watched A’lure, Call of the Ocean back in 2009 and it was great. I wanted to take Mum as I thought it would be right up her street. When planning this trip I really wanted to do Cirque du Soleil but realised we couldn’t afford it this time. I was guessing A’lure was probably the next best thing. It was a shame.
Wild Arctic was also on my list of things to do today. Whilst looking at the map throughout the day, all I could see was the new Antarctica (coming Spring 2013) and Wild Arctic didn’t seem to be on there. I assumed they had closed it while the work was being done, thinking it would be in the same building, although part of me was thinking that nothing was mentioned on the Dibb about it being closed. I don’t know what’s happened to their maps this year. I found it harder to follow than last time and nothing was marked properly. You can imagine my frustration when I saw it on the way to Shamu Stadium. It seems we completely missed this area of the park.
We went to Shamu’s Happy Harbour where Amelia played on the slides. As soon as I caught her at the bottom she was running back up the steps again with Daddy! She loves slides. I was disappointed that a lot of the other things in the area were closed off. Sea Carousel, Swishy Fishes and the sand pit were all closed.
Paul, Oliver and I went on Shamu Express. Paul nearly lost it with a little American boy who pushed in front of us just as we went to get in the front row. Paul made it known that we were about to wait in that line and the boy snarled “well my mom’s coming”. I had to remind Paul that he was only about 9 as I could see his blood boiling. He was really rude to us. Shamu Express was every bit as boring as I found it last time, but then it is a kids ride! It was over very quickly. Oliver liked it though. Hopefully the next time we go back, Amelia will be tall enough to ride with him
Next up, Oliver dragged Tracy on Ocean Commotion while Paul and I took Amelia on Jazzy Jellies.
We decided we’d better head to One Ocean now but we need not have worried. It was dead in there really. No queue to get in and the seats hardly filled up. There was a group of school children, obviously on a school outing (how nice it must be to go somewhere like Seaworld on a school trip!) I remember in 2009 we queued for over an hour to see Believe.
Oliver and I had a minor falling out. He wanted to sit in the soak zone but I said no as we were going to Appleby’s for dinner after. He kept arguing with me saying we could go home first and get changed which I said we would not be doing. We were going straight there after. He kept on and on but I stood my ground. He sat behind us with Tracy sulking. Then sure enough his sulking paid off (as it always does with his Grandparents and Auntie) and Tracy took him down and sat in the soak zone. Tsk. I don’t know why I bother saying one thing to him sometimes when people just go and do the opposite and lets him get his own way. I tried not to let it bother me. I was looking forward to One Ocean having never seen it before, although I was unsure what to expect, slightly disappointed already as I knew the trainers wouldn’t be getting in the pool this time as they had in Believe.
We sat for quite a while watching the screens. There was something on there asking you to text your child’s name and they would put it up on the screen. Mum kept saying I should put Oliver’s name on there but I said no. It would probably rack up my phone bill, and how would he know it was meant for him anyway? I told her there’s probably another Oliver in the audience somewhere. Sure enough, 5 minutes later “Oliver” came up on the screen! I don’t think he even saw it.
While we sat there people watching I was appalled that a man was sitting 2-3 rows from the front in the soak zone with a baby on his lap, no more than 6 months old. Some people really don’t think do they?
One Ocean started shortly after and Amelia threw “eye-bogeys” at Shamu
Amelia joined in, making fins with her hands at the bits where the whales splash the audience without me even showing her. She’s so clever!
Oliver and Tracy got soaked and Tracy ran up and sat with us after a minute or two.
If I’m honest, I really didn’t like One Ocean. Before we came to Seaworld I was excited for Mum and Dad as they had never seen it before and was disappointed that it didn’t leave a lasting impression on them like Believe did for me in 2009. I think it’s really lost its spark now that the trainers aren’t really a part of it. I’ve since heard rumours that they may be introducing trainers back into the water. I really hope they do. Maybe it was because we went to the last showing, but it really was quiet. There were so many empty rows of seats and I got the impression that it’s not doing so well anymore.
We left headed to the exit while Oliver moaned that he wanted to go home and get changed before we went out as I knew he would. I told him he made his choice and went against what I had told him, so now he had to live with the consequences and sit in wet clothes. Mum 1, Oliver 0
We arrived back to the oven of a car. We waited 10 minutes for the air con to kick in before piling in and headed to Appleby’s on the 192.
Our server was young, but really nice and went out of his way to make sure we were happy with everything.
I’m afraid I don’t have the receipt, any photos or anything written down for Applebys so i’m going on my very poor memory now. But there was a special offer on where you could get an appetiser to share and two entrees for $20. Paul and I had the boneless chicken wings to start and Tracy had mozzarella sticks. I think Mum and Dad had Boneless wings too.
We all had the Appleby’s Riblet basket (Paul upgraded to a platter). I think Tracy may have has pasta of some sort. Oliver has breaded chicken tenders and Amelia had a kids spaghetti napolitana.
The ribs were in the same sauce as the boneless chicken wings which was really strong. I didn’t like it much. All of us were really suspicious about the ribs too. They were nothing like the ones we have over here. Our ribs have long bones down the centre, but these ones were all meat with a small bone at the end which was round and flat like a disc... like a coin shape. We all pondered what meat it could be and were slightly on edge worrying it could be alligator or something. When we looked at the menu it just said ribs... not pork ribs or any other meat. When our server came back to take our plates Paul plucked up the courage to ask him what meat it was and he said “I believe its pork”. He believed. We didn’t. I might have to look into that. The meal was good value for money and although I wasn’t overstruck on the food, I think I would give it another chance when we go back next time. I don’t think I’ll order the ribs again though!
After Appleby’s we went to Walgreens around the other side of the building. Mum, Dad, Tracy and Oliver walked while Paul, Amelia and I took the car and met them in there.
I bought a bag of Hershey’s Bliss chocolates (yum), some butter, dishwasher tablets, and some bread for the morning. Then we drove back to Lindfields.
All in all; an OK day. I wasn’t that impressed with Seaworld, and I’m not sure I would be in a hurry to go back again next time. Our first day at Magic Kingdom was so magical and I was craving some more Disney magic. I would have to wait another day though as tomorrow we’re off to Aquatica!
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