The Pumpkins: Day 13 - El Parque Acuático (Aug 11)

[Mrs Pumpkin]

Our trip report index: The Pumpkins Pop to Florida for the First Time! August 2011
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The Cast
Me - Mrs Pumpkin online, Michelle in real life - 34 years old and a plus size chick who is on the shrink, having lost 5 stone this year (so far). From my perspective, I'll be giving other plus-size dibbers my experience as a plus-size guest.
Him - Steven19720 online, Steve in real life - 38 years old and I think even more excited than me about going to Florida! Wants to try many American delicacies including catfish and corndogs (among other things!) So there will be lots of pics of food in our report!
The boy - my son and Steve's step-son, Liam - 12 years old and very excited about visiting Orlando.
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I love photography and take a LOT of photos, so my trip reports will be as photo heavy as a post allows! Most of the photos in my trip report were taken by me on my iPhone4, which I used the most because it was easy to carry around with me. Some days I did use one of the 3 Lumix cameras - the DMC-FZ18, the DMC-TZ18 and the waterproof DMC-FT2 - that we also took with us! Full sets from each day can be found on my Flickr. You can also follow my photos on Instagram - @cherry_o or if you don't have an iPhone, online at Statigram.
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Day 13 - El Parque Acuático
Aquatica & Banana Beach Cookout
All photos from this day can be found on my Flickr!

(Now that we are in the parks, I'll be adding in a plus size rider guide for those that are concerned. I'm 5' 4" and a size 26/28.)

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Liam had been asking for a few days now if we could go to Aquatica, so decided on a half day there and then mini golf in the afternoon...we loved it at this water park so much that we ended up staying all day, and never made it to mini golf!

With cosies on and towels packed we were on our way. Homer couldn't find the place, and from the direction we came from, it wasn't well sign posted…luckily though we had our Mapman map in the glove box and that came into play. We eventually found Aquatica, parked in Kiwi 12 and walked to the entrance.

We grabbed a few sun loungers and paid for a locker - $5 plus $5 refundable deposit. Liam and Steve went on a few slides at Whanau Way before the crowds started to build up, whilst I just lay back to catch some rays.

We then all walked over to dip into the wave pool . Cutback Cove was closed due to water quality, but Big Surf Shores was fine and we had fun in there leaping over the big waves.

As a plus size lady I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. I am a 26/28 at the moment and wore a swim dress. I had a thin pair of shorts underneath as we were walking around the park all day and I didn't want any nasty chaffing going on! There were people of all shapes and sizes in various states of swim wear, so if you are conscious of yourself, please, please don't worry, people are too into having a good time with their friends/family to notice you, and as my mum always taught me, if someone is having a gander or a chin wag about you, then you're pretty special I saw some large blokes wearing shorts and t-shirts to do the rides, so if that is more comfy for you, go for it. We also brought aqua shoes with us which we wore all day - a great buy from Sports Direct for Ł2 each! I can imagine the concrete floors getting pretty hot and these save our tootsies lol.

We took a walk over to Kata's Kookaburra Cove which Liam decided was too babyish for him, before hopping into Loggerhead Lane, the lazy river. Disorganised chaos is the best description for this! The entrance for the lazy river is also the entrance for Tassie's Twisters (a water slide), and there are two different coloured inner tubes for each ride - blue for the lazy river and yellow for the slide. People were just grabbing any colour - ignoring the life guards requests to take only the blue ones for the lazy river… Eventually we managed to get one each and it was impossible to plonk my butt in to lie on top so I went from underneath and just hung over the edge. Liam did manage to clamber on top though and lounge! The ride takes you through a tunnel where the Dolphin Plunge ride goes through the commerson's dolphin tank. We were lucky enough to see them swim by which was nice. You can also pass by an aquarium filled with colourful tropical fish, but I couldn't work out how to get into that part without going against the flow of the river. :/

Out of there (another big chaotic mess as the exit goes through the entrance and was very crowded!) and a walk around to find Roa's Rapids. I decided I was boyant enough not to need a life jacket, but both Liam and Steve wore one. This ride was SO MUCH FUN! We must have ground it about 20 times that day…partly because it was so hard to actually exit the ride owing to the force of the rapids and also because it was such great fun to be propelled along by the water. Our aqua shoes really did help on this ride as my feet scraped the bottom a couple of times and I would have cut them :/ Steve also got whalloped by someone who had been jetted along and couldn't stop and scratched up his arm, so be mindful of people around you!

All now feeling peckish and having so much fun too, we decided to stay all day. We went and bought the 'all you care to eat' bands at Banana Beach Cookout. It is described as a 'variety of pizzas and pastas with a bountiful array of fruits, sides and desserts' A little bit over described lol…bountiful fruit was watermelon and desserts were banana cake, banana pudding and cookies. There were I think three types of pizza and two pasta dishes. I think there was pulled pork too and some chicken legs, maybe salad? I didn't jot it down in my diary, so my memory is sketchy. We all enjoyed the food though and made 3 visits there throughout the day. At $15.99 each we thought it was very good value! You was not allowed to take food out from the eating area, but you could take drinks out with you, so cheap drinks all day! (Sorry, no photos from here at all today! *Shock*)

After our lunch we sat down for a while to allow food to settle before going back into the wave pool which, by now was considerably busier.

We saw that there was a multi-person ride - Walhalla Wave. It doesn't tell you until half way up that the combined weight must not exceed 600lbs, so if there are four of you weighing more than 10.5 stone then all 4 can't ride together!

A quick addition of our weights to make sure we were okay to ride together (would have helped if that sign was at the bottom of the line!) we were soon sitting in the dingy - it says to hold on…and that we did! I thinking owing to the weight of our dingy we had a very slip slidey ride inside the tube. I remember seeing Liam lurch forward and screeched out to him to hold on really tight - I believe I kept shouting that out to him between squeals of delight as we rushed through the tube! I was so worried that he was going to fall out :/ It was such a fun ride though, even though I was half petrified for Liam! Steve rationed that they wouldn't have let us ride together if they thought it was a problem. As much fun as it was, I didn't want to risk doing it again for fear of Liam going flying!

After calming down, we went back to the lazy river - even more chaotic now, but eventually grabbed some tubes and had quite an amusing time with the park photographers taking pictures and throwing down wrist bands to you to view the photos later on.

Despite slapping on sun cream, I was starting to feel the burn, so went to lie down in the shade whilst Liam and Steve went back out into the wave pool. The lines for the slides were huge and they just couldn't be bothered to queue.

Eventually they came back and woke me up (blush) and we wall went back on Roa Rapids for a few more circuits before changing. I just air dried and threw a maxi dress over my cossie as it was too much grief to find a spot in the changing area. We grabbed some dinner from the buffet before heading towards the exit as the sky was starting to darken.

We viewed our photos and ended up purchasing a couple - yeah we've been sucked in - but hey - it's our first visit! There was a lovely one of Liam which for reasons unknown, I didn't buy and now regret :|

On the drive back we spotted some nasty fork lightening and then later saw on the news about a strike at Discovery Cove with eight people needing to go to hospital - frightening stuff.

Back at the villa, Liam asked 'can we have a relax day tomorrow' to which we all agreed. He crashed early, whilst Steve and I planned our last week (boo hoo!) and watched the ever so dramatic US version of Masterchef on TV.

I read mixed reviews about Aquatica on here - and for us, we loved it. Granted we didn't do either of the Disney water parks *sob* but even so, I'm sure we would have still enjoyed it just as much as had we done either of them as well.

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Read the next day:
Day 14 - We Hop Downtown: IHOP, Downtown Disney & Earl of Sandwich

Read the previous day:
Day 12 -On Safari: Busch Gardens, Serengeti Safari Tour & Zambia Smokehouse

[pudge]

Lovely day! We tried Aquatica for the first time last October and loved it too...we also have never been to another waterpark...did not think it was our thing as DS cannot swim but he loved the relaxed atmosphere of Aquatica and loved walkabout waters and loggerhead lane...

[Mrs Pumpkin]

Hubs was apprehensive about a water park too as he's not the most confident of swimmers, but he loved it - being able to wear a life jacket around the rapids and lazy river also helped him.

[MFras23]

Another good day Aquatica looks great, apart from the crowds.

[Milner]

Another great day we also enjoyed Aquatica when we tried it in 2009 (I am not a big fan of waterparks but did enjoy it) not sure if we will go next year.

[asdageek]

thanks for sharing! maybe i would be ok at water park even although i can't swim much!

[huggybear]

We also loved Aquatica and will definitely spend a whole day there next year.
Enjoying your trip report too x
Janine

[Strommie]

Sounds like a fun day. We've never been to Aquatica.

[Cinderella]

Great day at aquatic!

[disneyforever]

Another great read! Thanks