Beryl, Breakdowns, Beauty and the Bates family - Day 10

[Nimbus]

Previously...
Pre-Trip
Day One - The Journey There
Day Two - Around the World at Epcot
Day Three - Swimming and Shopping
Day Four - Soggy at Seaworld
Day Five - Hollywood Studios
Day Six - Manic Magic Kingdom
Day Seven - Islands of Adventure
Day Eight - Wet at Universal Studios
Day Nine - More Splashing and Shopping

Day Ten - Sunday 3rd June 2012 – Sunny Seaworld

What a difference a week makes!

It was almost a week ago that we went to Seaworld and it was now time to utilise our free second day. And today, it was a hot, sunny day.

Our driver on the E Superstar shuttle bus was "E for Eric" again. We left the hotel at about 10am and headed down International Drive. It was a little busy near the convention centre - the Beauty Con was still on - but didn't delay us much. The bus parked up, we were given the usual speech, and then off we sauntered towards the entrance.

Last week we had expected to get another ticket for our second day at Seaworld from Guest Services (as we have done in the past) but the staff member we spoke to said we could reuse our printed out e-ticket. So, slightly unsure whether it would work, we gingerly approached the turnstiles, scanned the barcodes on the ticket and put our fingers on the scanner. I then realised that, mistakenly, I had Michelle's ticket whilst she had mine. However, the finger scanner let me in. Hmmm...

Through the entrance we stopped briefly to take a photo or two.



Our priority today was to make sure we did the things we'd missed last week. So the Clyde and Seamore Take Pirate Island show was first on the list. Blimey, that show has been going ever since we started coming to Florida 15 years ago and hasn't changed one bit. Of course, the best part about it is this guy:



Yep, he's still there. Anyway, after seeing this show so many times we know when to groan even before they finish the "jokes". It's still fun to see animals though.



Just around the corner from the show are the seals themselves. We stopped and watched them being fed whilst those huge birds tried to intercept the flung fish.



Now, until this trip we didn't know that a new aquarium existed next to Manta. Having walked past it last week, today we decided to see what it was like inside. Although small it's actually quite good. I love the frilly sea dragons but couldn't get a decent photo of them. Instead here's a photo of a shy octopus and his buddy...



...and some sort of spotty fish...



I'd certainly recommend a quick browse through here.

It was late morning by now and getting hot. Would you believe it, the sun was out! So Hannah and I rushed over to the Journey to Atlantis ride. Michelle and I had been on this years ago when it was new and because we'd got a "bit" wet on it, she decided against repeating the experience today. Luckily, the queue was only 10 minutes or so before we were off exploring.





That's us behind the post, honest.

It's quite a good ride and, actually, we didn't get that wet - just mildly damp. Hannah wasn't sure about the indoor section of this attraction; it was a bit dark and promised more scares than it actually delivered.

By now we were hungry and it was time for lunch. We ended up at the same place we'd stopped for lunch last time:



...(and that's the same photo from last week too). This time we had some bagels, fruit and goldfish. Yes, we ate goldfish at Seaworld! They were pizza flavoured.

Once we'd eaten and filled our refillable cup full of fizzy foaming Fanta (or maybe it was Sprite?), we strolled over to the dolphin area and watched these playful porpoises again.



Then it was time for the Blue Horizons dolphin show!

This has to be my favourite show here at Seaworld. For me, it's has more 'wow' than One Ocean and less cheese than the Clyde and Seamore show. At times, there's just so much going on that you can't follow everything that's happening. If there's one show you should see, it's this one.





That didn't mean it would be the only show we'd see. No, indeedy. After Blue Horizons, we dashed across the lake in the middle of the park in order to watch the aforementioned One Ocean show with Shamu. And this time it wasn't rudely interupted by Beryl's blustery barrage.



It's a better show than the old version - the dancing fountains and music help.

Streaming out of the stadium with everyone else we got given some tickets for free goes on some sort of bashing frog stall (?). Those in hand, we first went and obtained some ice creams. Hannah had her own cone whilst Michelle and I shared a huge ice cream in a waffle dish. These also came with a large amount of toppings. These were delicious, although there wasn't really anywhere to sit and enjoy them.

As we sauntered along eating our ice creams we noticed that the place where you used to get free bear is now an 'all-you-can-eat' buffet restaurant (so we couldn't even sit outside that building either). This whole area at the far side of the park seems very empty now; no more beer and no more horses.

Remembering those free fun-fair frog-bashing tickets, we went to the stall to try our hand. Unfortunately, Hannah didn't win anything. I'm not sure we wanted a massive cuddly Shamu anyway; it wouldn't fit in our suitcases!

After this, we spent quite a bit of time in Shamu's Happy Harbor area. Hannah and Michelle went on the fishy carousel...



...and also on the Shamu coaster...



I suspect that coaster is just the same as the Woody Woodpecker and Hippogriff ones. Hannah then also tried out the other rides, such as the Flying Fiddler:



Plus she had a climb around the covered playground thing. Y'know, this place...



Meanwhile, I spent most of my time stood under one of those sprinkler things cooling off. Two days ago we'd been running away from the watery rain and today I was happy to get a little wet. It's somewhat ironic, really.

It was late in the afternoon by now and time to wander back to the exit via the numerous shops trying to pluck every last dollar from your wallet. We got back to the bus parking area and waited a few minutes for the "E" for Eric bus to arrive. It looked like everyone else had decided to make their own way back because this evening we were the only ones returning on this bus. Knowing how busy the convention centre was, Eric decided to take us a different way back to the Homewood. Although it took a little longer than usual, we were thankful for that - we didn't want a repeat of yesterday's 1.5 hour crawl along International Drive.

For dinner, we "ummed" and "aahh" but finally chose to go to Ponderosa again. We'd had a great meal here last time so hoped to repeat the experience. I had a Sirloin steak, Michelle had the Hawaiian chicken and Hannah had a cheeseburger. Plus we all had our fill of the buffet, including plenty of lemon drizzle cake, brownies and ice cream (not with the steak, I should add). It was nice but not quite as good as last time. BTW, our server was Minnie Mouse! She had a really high, squeaky voice and sounded just like Minnie. We kept saying "Thank you" so that's she'd keep replying "You're welcome" which would cause Hannah to giggle.

She was very good though - especially when we left and she came running after us holding Dave, the minion. Hannah had forgotten him and left him in the booth! She would've been very upset if she had lost Dave.

After dinner, we wandered around Bargain World and Walgreens (I can't remember what for but that's what my notes say) and then went back to the hotel. Today's visit to Seaworld had been much better than the one last Monday, all due to the lack of wet weather. The sun makes everything better!

Food Score: 7/10. My steak was nice but not excellent.

Favourite Attraction: Blue Horizons.

Next…
Day Eleven - Back to the Future World

[disney owl]

good to hear you had nice weather on this Seaworld visit

[Milner]

Good day at SW.

[anniebee65]

Great to see the sun out

[hross42877]

Great read!

[madhatter3]

Great day, love seaworld and love the horizon show much better then one world.
Yep you guessed it ponderosa is on my list now!

[Nimbus]

Originally Posted by madhatter3

Great day, love seaworld and love the horizon show much better then one world.
Yep you guessed it ponderosa is on my list now!

See more...

Ponderosa is great. It's an inexpensive all-you-can-eat buffet so don't expect high quality service and food. But the steaks are nice and it's handy for kids because they can choose what they want (or don't want) from the buffet which has a large variety on offer.

[WileyCoyote]

Fab day, love the aquarium and brill to see 3 shows in one visit. Thank goodness Davethe minion was rescued. Really great day.