SeaWorld & Aquatica

 

It’s SeaWorld day! Will was really looking forward to this because there are two BIG roller coasters at SeaWorld and you know my boy loves a thrill ride.

I will go ahead and put out there that I know SeaWorld is controversial and everyone has their own opinions, including me. This post and this trip were not about opinions or anything like that. This is about what we did that day and that’s all. If you don’t like it, just quit reading.

Happy Smiles!

Flamingos for you, Mimi!

 

We started the day by making a bee line back to the Antarctica section of the park to see the penguin ride/exhibit. That was really, really neat. We were one of the first sets of visitors through so it wasn’t crowded at all. They were also feeding the penguins breakfast, which was hilarious to watch. The children, especially Avery, were just thrilled beyond belief. She was screaming out our names the whole time, making sure we saw everything!

I think after we exited the freezing (yes, they keep the exhibit at freezing temps) exhibit, we headed to the Journey of Atlantis ride. We rented a locker to keep our stuff dry…..Matt should have put his hat in there because it flew off on the first drop!!! This ride was a little deceiving because you can only see one drop when you are walking around the park. Yeah, there were 2 more and I was totally not prepared for that!!!

I’m trying to remember what we did next…..maybe the dolphin show? That was neat….I loved watching the looks on the kids faces as they had never experienced anything like that before. 

The birds were also neat!

Some other animals around the park.

Can you see the squirrel in the stroller?

At some point during the day Will and Matt rode the 2 big coasters, Kraken and Manta. Because we were staying in an official SeaWorld hotel, we had special tickets that allowed us to go straight to the front of the lines. And because Avery wasn’t tall enough to ride these coasters, Will got to ride everything essentially twice with her tickets.

Glimpses of Kraken….

 

Avery gives the seat a whirl while we wait for the boys.

 

Manta was an interesting coaster in that you rode it while essentially lying on your stomach, you know to simulate what it must feel like to glide through the waters as a manta ray. Or so they say!

We tried to make it to the noon-ish orca show but didn’t get there in time. So we had lunch and let the kids play in the kiddie area for a while. There was a really neat and impressive playhouse/slides/ropes course type thing the kids could have stayed on for hours I think. Except it looks really exhausting.

Will was also a good sport in hanging out with Avery on some of the tame rides.  He is such an awesome brother to her.

We were sitting in the sea lion stadium waiting on their new show when the bottom dropped!!! Man did it rain. We were hoping it was just a short typical Florida afternoon shower. Nope!!  Complete with thunder and lightning which is great when you are sitting on a metal bleacher in front of a huge pool of water!!!

They eventually officially called the show off and so us and all the other hundreds of folks who were in the stadium went into the shark exhibit! Crowded!!!! But still neat.

The rain seemed to let up so we headed back across the park (SeaWorld is BIG) for the boys to try a few more rides on the coasters.  I took Avery to get a drink and to build a fun penguin cup (think Mr. Potato Head style). While we were separated, the bottom dropped again and it was a full-blown thunderstorm. Not only were we separated from the boys but Avery and I were at the very back of the park!  She was scared out of her mind, just sitting in my lap in the middle of a gift shop sobbing.

Finally the thunder and lightning stopped and Matt and I decided that Avery and I just needed to make a run for it towards the front of the park.  So we did just that. Bless her heart she was so upset but she did good running, holding on to my hand and keeping up with me. When we finally met up with the boys, well, that might have been Avery’s happiest time of the whole vacation!

We made it to the shuttle and made it back to the hotel as the storm was passing. We thought we would get lucky a little while later and just walk across the parking lot of the hotel to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings but on the elevator ride downstairs, the bottom dropped again! So we drove the 100 yards!

A fun and full day for sure!

The next day we went to SeaWorld’s water park, Aquatica.  Here is the only picture from the day as carrying a DSLR camera around a water park is hard to do!

But we had a really fun day. I don’t particularly care for big water slides, mainly because I have to close my eyes because any drop of water might make my contacts fly out.  The first slide we rode was a 4 person raft slide. Avery had been so disappointed at the Kings Dominion water park this summer to not ride something as a family so we made sure we did this first thing before the boys ran off to the big, bad slides.

I wish I could say it was fun but it was not. It was way scary, in the pitch black dark (and not just because my eyes were shut) and very early into the ride I hit the bridge of my nose either on Avery’s head or Matt’s knee. That hurt for days!!

Avery and I did a few other big slides with the boys and then we split up. It wasn’t crowded at all, which was so wonderful. Avery really really enjoyed a “lazy river” up sorts there, but it was actually very fast as it had a current and you could zip around it. We stayed in that A. LOT.

Here are some pics from the SeaWorld website of some of the slides.

 

Don’t let these girls’ smiles fool you. A busted nose is just moments away….

 

Matt and I had discussed before going that Will was not to ride this one that drops you straight down through a hole in the floor. Guess who rode this one anyway????

 

 

 

We had lunch, rode a couple more things and then decided to call it a day.  Since our previous day at SeaWorld had been such a bust in the afternoon thunderstorms that just kept on coming, everyone quickly decided we wanted to go back to SeaWorld for the afternoon/evening.

We were all so glad we went back. Will got to ride the 2 big coasters again. Guess who rode with him on the 2nd day. Mommy Dearest.  Yeah, I don’t like them but I do have fun when I’m on them. Especially listening to him scream “this is so awesome” or “this is soooo fun”.  That is, when I can hear him over the (probably profanity laced) screams coming out of my mouth!

We also finally got to see the orca show. I remember coming to SeaWorld with my family as a little girl and just how much fun I had at the orca show with my dad. I won’t ever be able to experience things with him again but I can certainly make sure I give my children the same kind of wonderful memories he gave me.

Avery was very sad during the whole show because she didn’t want vacation to be over!

Posing for a few pics after the show. What a fun vacation! I can’t believe we had to go home. And we left super early the next morning so Will could be back in Wake Forest at his baseball game!!