Month: October 2005

We made it to SeaWorld at 10 am due to the fact that I took forever getting ready this morning (I was so tired after not getting to bed until after midnight) and there was a nail in my tire so we had to get it patched.

We spent another four hours walking around the park. It was nice because it was a lot less crowded compared to yesterday and we got closer parking. Plus I just love animals so SeaWorld has always been my favorite place in Orlando to visit.

We saw the dolphin show and visited areas of the park we missed yesterday like the dolphin nursery. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I swear that’s where the old dolphin feeding pool was, because the current one didn’t seem familiar. It’s been a long long time since my last visit to SeaWorld Orlando, though, so I might be mistaken. I wish they’d add an underwater viewing area to the nursery, though. They have it roped off so you can’t get close to the edge, so it’s hard to see much at all.

The dolphin show, Blue Horizons, was decent, but I noticed a trend at the animal parks and zoos: the dolphins do less tricks than they did in the past. I’m sure it’s so that they lessen the opportunity for the animals to get tired and/or hurt, but it’s a bit disappointing. I remember as a kid going to Brookfield Zoo and watching the dolphins jump higher and higher to hit the ball they had lowered on a cable from the ceiling. Now you’re lucky if they jump out of the water five times in a show.

We ate lunch in the Hospitality Center near the Anheuser-Busch Clydesdales and fed the White Ibis that hung around looking for scraps. They give out free beers there, so make note. I didn’t have any, but Joe did. Two in fact. What a lush!

For dinner, we ate at Amigos Restaurant and Cantina on nearby International Drive. I enjoyed the cheese enchilada as well as the chips and salsa, but I wasn’t impressed with the tacos because I feel “real” tacos should be made from soft corn shells, not hard corn ala Taco Bell.

Tomorrow we’re visiting Animal Kingdom and maybe MGM, possibly even the Magic Kingdom since I want to ride Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad again. It will be the ultimate park-hopping extravaganza. Might as well use the option since we paid extra to add the park hopping to our tickets and have yet to use it. It will be a good way to spend our last day in Orlando.

P.S. It ocurred to me today that other than the Shamu show, there’s no way to view the killer whales. That sucks considering the Orca is SeaWorld’s mascot.

P.P.S. I forgot to mention this yesterday but the Shamu ice cream bars suck. The Mickey bars kick Shamu’s ass. I plan to have a Mickey ice cream tomorrow. Have to end the trip on a high note you know! :)

Today was our Discovery Cove experience. We arrived so early, we were literally the first people who entered the place after getting checked in. It was cool and cloudy, so I asked if we could have an 11 am dolphin swim instead of the 9 am time we were assigned (figuring it would warm up a bit by then) but they said they had to assign them based on arrival time. They usher all the early arrivals to the cabana furthest from all the other attractions other than the dolphin pool, and you have to keep walking back there to get into your locker, change wetsuits, use the restroom/shower, etc, which got very tiring. So make note, it’s not necessarily beneficial to arrive early unless you want the earliest swim time they offer. Had I known the way it worked, we would have arrived around 10 am instead of an hour before they opened.

We got into wetsuits (I chose a long one) right away to keep us warm. The sun came out for a bit which helped a little too. By the time we entered the dolphin pool, the water didn’t feel that cold, but by the time we got out, we were freezing and I never had to pee more in all my life. LOL! Anyway, the experience with the dolphin was great. It went by too fast, and the one on one time is very limited, but I loved the ride I got back to shore.

After our swim, we went into the lazy river with our snorkels. Joe is so much better using a snorkel than I am! I kept fogging up the mask and getting water in the snorkel. Joe rescued me this one time when I started choking underneath this waterfall section that had some deep water. He’s my hero. :)

We tried going into the other pools where you could snorkel and look at the fish and stingrays, but the water was freezing and it had grown cloudy by then, plus the wind had picked up. So we made the decision to change into our dry clothes so we could have lunch. I was done with the freezing my butt off. I really wish it had been warmer!

After lunch, which was decent, we visited the bird aviary. I really enjoyed feeding the birds and taking photos of them. A few landed on Joe which was funny, especially this one who kept gently pecking at the side of Joe’s face. I guess he tastes good. I wouldn’t know. ;)

After the bird aviary, we walked around a bit and bought some souvenirs. We ended up leaving at 2 pm. While it was a fun and interesting experience, I don’t think I’d do it again. Maybe if it had been warmer I’d feel differently, but it was difficult to enjoy myself while freezing and always having to use the bathroom. Getting off a wet wetsuit to go pee is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do!

Even though I knew about this ahead of time, it still floors me how much they charge for souvenir photos and video/dvd of the experience. A 10-photo cd is $150! They know everyone wants a memento of their experience, so they capitalize on that. Don’t get me wrong, the photos are good quality, but after spending $239 per person, I think they could reduce their prices a little. We paid $30 for one 5×7 photo and three wallet size photos, two of which were inserted into magnet cases to put on the refrigerator. Our dolphin, Natasha, is barely visible in the photos, but what can you do? Animals aren’t always cooperative.

I feel like an impossible person to please, but I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this place to anyone. The British love it, though! I swear that we were the minority today. Not that I mind at all; British children seem a lot better behaved than Americans.

We decided since it was still early we should go to SeaWorld, so we ran back to the hotel to change into warmer clothes first. We also checked SeaWorld’s hours and to our delight, closing wasn’t until 8 pm.

Since we planned to go to SeaWorld tomorrow, we took a relaxed approach to our visit today. We didn’t even bother getting a park map; we just wandered around and took photos. Of course my A610’s batteries chose to crap out on me after just a few photos. I was very surprised since I had fully charged the batteries a few days ago and previously had gone 500 photos without a recharge. I guess I was using the camera more often than I thought! We had the other cameras along, so I just grabbed the Nikon since I had let Joe use my Canon 20D.

We probably saw a good deal of the park in the four or so hours we were there, so tomorrow will probably be more about feeding the dolphins and getting lots of great photos. We saw the evening Shamu show which was unique since it was dark out. It was pretty disappointing compared to the show we had seen at the San Diego SeaWorld three years ago, but at least now we know where the photo ops are.

We also saw the most bizarre, but cool, thing at the underwater viewing area of the dolphin feeding pool: this dolphin managed to blow air from its blowhole into a ring shape and push it around underwater before shoving his nose into it and causing it to dissolve. Here’s photos of the phenomenon. I looked online and these bubble rings aren’t uncommon even though I never heard of them before.

We also saw this neat water and light show in one of the bays. The water fountains changed height and color to the tune of music which was really cool. I got a few photos but they didn’t come out so good.

Before leaving we grabbed more souvenirs, mostly for Joe’s kids. I know I already mentioned this, but I am so glad I overestimated how much we would spend on dining because I didn’t budget for souvenirs and we have spent a lot! I checked our budget and I think we’re doing really well overall though. We leave on Wednesday so we should be good. Time for bed!!!

We checked out at 10:30 this morning from the Comfort Suites we had been staying in for the past six nights and had over five hours to waste time before check-in at the next place, a Residence Inn by Marriott, so we drove around the area. It’s definitely more upscale where we are at now, but honestly I think I preferred where we were before because there was more to do and see.

We had lunch at the largest McDonald’s in the world. It offers bistro menu items such as paninis and burritos which was cool. I had the chicken burrito and it was good.

We were bored so I called the hotel to see whether early check-in was possible but they apologized and said no. Their reasoning was how booked they were last night. I asked whether we could take advantage of their laundry room before checking in and they said we could, so we headed to the hotel only to learn you needed a room key to get into the laundry room. :p

As we were passing through the lobby to leave, a woman working at the hotel got our attention and asked whether we’d be interested in checking out one of their vacation properties down the street called Horizons by Marriott. Normally we wouldn’t agree to a timeshare sell (or what they call a vacation club), but we had hours to kill and they offered us $100 off our stay here, so what the hell?

All the staff, including the agent trying to sell us the property, were very nice and the property itself is gorgeous, absolutely the best place I’ve ever seen, inside and out. The rooms are decorated in bright colors with full kitchens, a huge big screen tv and dvd player, and separate bathrooms for each bedroom. The screened-in porch is awesome too, plus there are three pools, a miniature golf course, two bars, and a few restaurants.

Definitely a great place, but the yearly fees ($600+) on top of the initial investment ($17k) are just too much in our opinion. I must admit, we were both tempted, but we don’t go on major vacations yearly or even every two years, so I don’t think it would be a wise investment for us. That being said, since you can still rent a villa just as you would a hotel room, we plan on booking a few nights at the resort in a few years when we take the kids to Disney World. They will love the pools and water park area and for $187/night, it’s not a bad deal.

Anyway, by the time we got back to the hotel it was check-in time. Our room is nice with central air/heat and a full kitchen, plus the desk is where I can still see the tv (unlike our previous hotel), and it smells better in the room (the previous one has a musty odor). I still liked the Comfort Suites better though because this place is smaller and feels more claustrophobic. The Comfort Suites had two huge sinks whereas this place only has one and the bedroom is so small you can barely walk around the bed.

I noticed that while the Marriott is a “better” name, you don’t get much more for the extra money. When we checked into the Comfort Suites, they gave us coupons for half price drinks at the bar and said they have free toothbrushes, combs, razors, etc. in case we had forgotten ours. At the Marriott you are expected to visit their sundry store for those items and there weren’t any coupons for the bar. I get the impression they assume that by staying at a Marriott you like to spend money freely. But I digress.

There’s a huge laundry room on the first floor so after checking in we did two loads. While waiting, we played a game of air hockey in the game room next door. Joe is really good at it and he almost beat me, but I won by one goal. I was so excited I was doing the happy dance. LOL!

For dinner we went to this place called Steak & Ale. It’s owned by Bennigans and we had a $25 gift card that I ordered from Discover via our cash back bonus. The first filet I got was covered in a seared charcoal flavor so I sent it back and got a new one. It was much better, but it didn’t compare to the filet I had at Longhorn which was cheaper. The dessert, French silk pie, was delicious, however.

I’m stuffed now! We are going to turn in early tonight so we can get to Discovery Cove early tomorrow. I hope we don’t freeze our butts off. The nice part is the hotel is a block away, so we’ll be able to get there bright and early with minimal effort.

We decided to give ourselves a theme park break today and sleep in. By the time we were up and ready to go it was around 10 am. We contemplated visiting Kennedy Space Center, but it’s rather pricey ($37 per person), so we decided to visit the Cocoa Beach area instead.

The directions we followed had us on two tollways and I swear there was a toll every two miles at first. It was really annoying! Finally the space between tolls widened. Once we made it to the coast, we started looking for this restaurant, Florida’s Seafood Bar & Grill, I had read about. It came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. Not only was the service exceptional, but the appetizer we ordered, rock shrimp, was delicious.

After lunch we went to the local Publix to grab some ice for the cooler for our lunch leftovers and a loaf of bread to feed the seagulls (though we never ended up using it as we only saw pelicans flying around but surprisingly, no seagulls). We visited Lori Wilson Park where we walked in the surf so that we could say we’ve been in the Atlantic Ocean and took some photos. We also tried to visit the Nature Center there but it was closed, so instead we headed north up the coast so we could visit the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. Unfortunately, we hadn’t checked out the website before going and the main (and what we thought was the only) bridge was closed. Apparently it was damaged during the hurricane. By this time we were getting a bit irritated with everything being closed, so we decided to head back to the Orlando area. We took a different route home to avoid the tollway and on the way, Joe spotted a sign for the Orlando Wetlands Park in Christmas, FL, so we followed a few roads to the entrance only to realize they too were closed. Yeesh! The least they could have done was post the closure notice on the original sign instead of sending people on a wild goose chase. Since we had come across it by mistake, we had no access to the internet to check it out ahead of time.

We found our way back to the main road and took a very long time getting back to the hotel due to heavy traffic. We should have just paid the damn tolls, I swear. What a waste of a day! Tomorrow we’re switching hotels so we have nothing planned. Sunday is our Discovery Cove adventure which I’m stressing out about since it’s only supposed to be 78 degrees! Maybe that is warm to some, but not for me to be wet all day. Hopefully we’ll get there early enough to snag a wetsuit; that should help a bit.

I’m glad we’re switching hotels too because there are some really loud people who checked in yesterday. I can hear them talking in their hotel room and they are across the hall. There are also two pre-teen boys who keep running through the stairwell which is next to our room as we’re at the end of the hall. I saw them run down the hall and go down the other stairwell so they think it’s some sort of game. God knows where their parents are; god forbid they look after their kids so they don’t disturb other people.

Yesterday we visited Universal Studios Florida. I wasn’t aware they have two parks there now, so we didn’t get the combo pass for Islands of Adventure. We got there right when they opened yet we were still directed to what turned out to be the farthest parking area from the park. All the parking is in garages and we were in Jaws section 214. Unlike Disney, Universal expects you to make it to the park by foot. The only saving grace was there were moving walkways like they have at most airports.

The way it’s set up, you go through Universal’s CityWalk before coming to a fork in the “road” which splits off to the two different parks. Right outside the Universal entrance we got three photos of us taken by one of the photographers before going into the park. Once inside we headed straight for the Revenge of the Mummy ride. Despite my thorough research, I wasn’t quite prepared for how intense this rollercoaster is even though it lacks inversions. I knew something was up, however, when we had to check my small camera bag in a free locker before being allowed on the ride! Now you must know that when I’m “scared” or feeling a little overwhelmed by a ride, I close my eyes. Needless to say, I missed out on a lot of the special effects on this ride. At the end you get to view a photo taken on the ride and sure enough, my eyes were closed during that part too!

After that ride, we decided to head to the Shrek 4D show, but first stopped off at the Twister attraction. Shrek 4D was cute, but after Magic Kingdom and Epcot, I’ve grown tired of the effects where you get lightly sprayed with water or your seat moves, so I wasn’t all that impressed. After that we quickly (thanks to the lack of lines) made our way through the rest of the must-see attractions such as Jimmy Neutron’s Nicktoon Blast (lame), Earthquake – The Big One (okay), Back to The Future The Ride (so-so) and Men In Black Alien Attack (my favorite). We were disappointed to learn that Jaws was closed. Joe was really looking forward to it and it’s my favorite at Universal, so that really sucked.

We couldn’t believe how quickly we had gone through all the attractions we wanted to see, and it didn’t seem right to leave (it was only about 12:30), so we got our hands stamped and went through CityWalk looking for a place to eat lunch. We almost ate at the huge Hard Rock Cafe, but I didn’t want anything on the menu, so we went back into Universal to look for a place. All I wanted was a nice grilled chicken sandwich. Well, we went to this place called Richter’s Burger Co. where the chicken sandwiches were $7 each. I wouldn’t have minded if they weren’t almost tasteless. It was a huge waste of money, not to mention the fact that their menu board is misleading by not mentioning the sandwiches come with fries so we ordered fries we didn’t even end up eating. The whole meal was $20 for what would have been less than $10 at McDonald’s or Burger King. I don’t mind spending money on food when it is worth it, but I seldom find theme park food to fall within that category yet it is the most overpriced food you will find next to a movie theatre.

Turns out we ended up leaving the park after lunch anyway. Oh and before lunch we checked out our photos which were terrible. Apparently the people they hire aren’t professional photographers as they don’t know how to use exposure compensation or spot metering. I know I’m pale, but I’m not that ghostly! Both our faces were completely washed out in the photos. I can’t see how anyone would want to purchase one of those photos if they all come out that way.

Anyway, once we got back by the hotel we stopped at the A&W in Old Town and shared a root beer float. Then we came upstairs and took a two hour nap. After that we sat around for a bit watching tv, then went back to Old Town to browse the shops a little, then came back and watched more tv since both our stomachs have been giving us troubles. I think it’s all the crappy (no pun intended) food we’ve been eating. We found another cool show to add to our weekly schedule though – The First 48 on A&E.

I don’t mean to sound like such a complainer, and maybe it’s just burnout being the third theme park in as many days, but I didn’t like Universal that much at all. I don’t think I’d bother next time we come to Florida.

P.S. Later in the evening we learned that a British man on vacation with his wife and two teenage daughters was hit by a car outside Universal last night by a young woman who may have run a red light. He died at the scene. I feel so bad for him and his family. It’s bad enough when something like that happens at any time, but I can only imagine being in a foreign country and on vacation no less. :(