SeaWorld Orlando!

I LOVE a Fall Break family trip! I've been planning this one for a few months and even though several things tried to derail it, we were able to go!

Mom has a condo just south of St. Augustine, Florida, and we used that as our home base this week for a few day trips of places we hadn't been or hadn't been in a while! We were up BRIGHT AND EARLY on Wednesday and left the house at 6:45 to head to Orlando to SeaWorld! The boys have been in recent years, but I hadn't been since they were toddlers and Eddie had never been before.

The weather was cool, the crowds were low and we had just been there for a minute when we were on our first ride of the day! (As I've gotten older, I MUCH prefer Disney's version of rides - "family" rides - and like roller coasters less and less. I think I rode TWO rides all day - and that was enough for me!)

I was there for the ORCAS. Wooohoooo! So excited to see these beauties!!! We went to SeaWorld when I was in middle school and I LOVED seeing them then. I'll have to dig up our old pictures. When we went in 2014, the orca stadium was closed so we saw them swimming, but nothing like what we got to see Wednesday. They're incredible. I'd LOVE to see them in the wild! James was amazed because he thought they were 8-10 feet. He's been to SeaWorld in the past 3 years but they didn't see the orcas at all (middle school trips = roller coasters only!) and he expected them to be about shark-size. Imagine his surprise!

I made the boys stop and look at ALL the animals on this trip!

Last time we were there, the dolphin tank was a touch tank. The keeper said that the dolphins had gotten really good at snatching phones and people had decided to feed the dolphins so they backed us up behind a rope unless you paid to do the close up viewing. Bummer!

At the end of the day when the boys had ridden everything, we let them go off on their own (!!!) to ride anything else they were interested while Eddie and I took in the second orca show of the day. I'm telling you, my whole ticket was purchased just to see them. If I'd gone alone I would've sat and watched their tank all day! 

We enjoyed our time at SeaWorld. If you've never been, you need to know that it's not Disney, but it has stepped up the theme park side in recent years. I suspect that the orcas' days are numbered since their breeding plan has ended. I know that's what is best so I wanted to be sure I saw them again before they aren't there anymore. SeaWorld felt smaller to me than Disney's parks. It wasn't crowded at all, but I can imagine on a crowded day it would feel tight quickly. The weather was AMAZING when we were there - we were never hot. Enjoying this in the "off season" was perfect. I'll also share that we bought our tickets online while standing in the security line to enter. The ticket booth price was DOUBLE the online price and they wouldn't have told me that if I hadn't known. If you see a deal and know when you want to go - grab it! We did not do the All Day Dining. We ate lunch in the middle of the day and the boys bought ice cream. I don't know that we will go back anytime soon since we've "been there, done that" now, but it was a great day spent for Fall Break!

 

Sea World, Storms, and Salvaging the Day

We have just returned from a really, really fun weekend away in Orlando for Fall Break. I wanted to write about it while it was still fresh on my mind, because one of the reasons I've been failing to blog a lot is I'm not setting aside time every day to do it and then the time passes and I forget!

Last Friday, we packed our bags and dropped James off with our church's children's ministry so that he could go to Sea World with them for a little over 24 hours. They went to Orlando to have a sleepover at Sea World and then tour the park all day on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Eddie, Will, and I packed our own bags and headed to Orlando as well! We had a room at Port Orleans French Quarter, a first for us. I love to try new Disney resorts while we are in town and explore as much as we can. We were really looking forward to it! We've stayed at the sister resort - Port Orleans Riverside - twice and really loved it. This was one of my favorite places that I've stayed. (Although, Eddie will tell you if it's a moderate or a deluxe, I'm happy!) When we arrived, Will had been asleep for close to two hours and was not happy to wake up.

We checked in and ate quickly at Sassagoula Floatworks and Food Factory, the cafeteria at French Quarter. Eddie and I shared their Shrimp and Grits and it was DELICIOUS! I loved it so much I had it again the second night! After we ate we went to our room and settled in for bed!

Before we headed down we knew that the threat of rain was HUGE on Saturday. Tropical Storm Nestor was making landfall and we would have to wait him out. Will and I had plans to go to Magic Kingdom on Saturday morning, but decided we would just wait until some of the rain cleared toward the afternoon. Sadly, the Sea World crew decided it wasn't worth it and they cancelled their Saturday fun. We got a text about picking James up fairly soon after we woke up on Saturday morning so we headed out to grab him. 

While we were on the to pick James up, I made a reservation for brunch for the four of us at a restaurant at Yacht Club. I am a huge fan of resort visiting while I'm at Disney World so that we can see other places. Having brunch at a resort where we'd never stayed was right up my alley!

The restaurant was just ok. I've recently had to go gluten free because it doesn't love my body and I was worried that some of my choices would be limited. Disney is the best place to dine with allergies and intolerances, though, and everyone was really helpful when I was picking some gluten free foods!

Yacht Club itself was GORGEOUS. It was obviously a deluxe hotel. 

After we ate, the rain stopped (!!!), and we walked around the resort outside. The winning point of this resort is the POOL. It has a sandy bottom pool, a lazy river, and a pirate ship slide! WHOA. It's also within walking distance of Epcot and Boardwalk and has boat service to Hollywood Studios!

Since the rain lifted, we asked the boys whether they wanted to head to a park or back to the resort to swim. They chose swimming and they stayed in the pool ALL afternoon long! It turned out to be a GORGEOUS day!

We wound up back at Sassagoula for dinner again before heading to the room to watch some football and head to bed early. I'll post part 2 of our trip later! We had a great weekend!

SeaWorld!

After Will's birthday party, Dad, Laura, James, Will, and I all loaded up and drove down to Orlando, Florida. Dad had a conference that week so we tagged along  to spend a day at SeaWorld and a day at Legoland.

SeaWorld was just two miles from our hotel. I convinced Dad and Laura that we needed to drive {since the shuttle only ran at 9, 10, and 11 and 4, 5, and 6} and we arrived right as the gates opened.

First stop? To meet Shamu! James was thrilled about this. We brought his Disney autograph book {yes, I need to get Will one, too...} but I told him I wasn't sure Shamu would sign. He was so excited that she did. Those characters are his favorite things! Look how proud he is in these pictures!

We went to the dolphin nursery next. There were three mamas and three babies swimming in this pool. The boys were mesmerized by how close we could get. We could have watched all day long!

Our plan was to go to the kiddie rides area first thing when we got there. James was SO excited about the rides and we figured we'd wear him out and then watch some shows. Unfortunately, the rides weren't open until 10AM so we had to change our plans. We headed to Antarctica instead to see the penguins. We waited a few minutes on this ride. We had to choose the "mild" version of the ride because James and Will weren't tall enough {but even the "wild" version wasn't rough...just lots of bumping and spinning}. The ride followed a baby penguin throughout his life and then we were taken into the penguin exhibit to see the REAL penguins. It was fun but it was CROWDED already {they dumped you out into a small room to look} and COLD.

Next stop? Shamu! The Shamu show was closed {I was SO disappointed} but we were able to see the Killer Whales interacting with their trainers in one of the pools off to the side of Shamu Stadium. I assume this is always open, but it may only be open because the show itself wasn't running. Seeing the trainers working with a mama and baby was so interesting. The baby was being trained for shows. They'd let mama do the trick and then baby would do it. They're such smart animals!

Finally the rides were open so we headed over there.

Not pictured is the Playground of Doom. James decided he wanted to go on this three-story playground. I thought it was a bad idea, but we went anyway. There's a story from my childhood about my dad being trapped in a house of mirrors with us. We were screaming and crying and Laura could see in and watch us, but we couldn't figure out how to get out. This was exactly the same. We could see where we wanted to go out but couldn't figure out how to get there and James was terrified. Add in his fear of heights and this was just bad all around.

More rides!

After lunch we did what was my second favorite thing of the day - after watching the killer whales - the Arctic building. We saw Beluga Whales, a walrus, and a polar bear here and they were all AMAZING. 

{This picture doesn't accurately portray how BIG this walrus was. We were amazed.}

{Funny story about Mr. Will here. He picked this seal stuffed animal up on his way out of the Arctic building. It was HUGE - like 3 feet. We took it away and put it back and because he was PITCHING A FIT, YaYa picked him up and carried him. I wished I'd taken a picture because unbeknownst to her, he'd grabbed it again and she had him over her shoulder and he had the seal by the tail carrying it out. Hysterical! He didn't think it was when we took it away again, though. He took a nap about five minutes after this. :)}

While Dad and Will had naptime {well, Dad just watched nap time!}, James, Laura, and I went to the sea lion show! It was funny!

{Another huge - and not very pretty! - walrus!}

Next up was the dolphin pool where we could pet the dolphins. They came right up to the side as they swam by. It was fun to watch! James has terribly dry skin on his hands right now and the salt water irritated them badly enough that it made him cry. It was pretty pitiful. We didn't stay here too long after that.

Last on our list was the dolphin show. This was entertaining but VERY artsy. I wanted more dolphins! They had ladies swinging from cables and men flipping, etc., etc. It was just okay to me. I just love the old-school dolphin shows where they talk about their animals. 

James wanted a picture with the performers as we left so he hopped up there and I snapped a picture. We walked off and Will started yelling, "ME!" so we had to go back for him to get a picture, too. Funny boy!

We LOVED SeaWorld! {I'd been in 7th grade but it was a lot different then!} The weather was perfect, the crowds weren't bad, and it was SUCH a fun park. We'd definitely go back again!