Monday, October 21, 2024

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!

 

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