Pizza, Wings and Stranger Things 2019 Day 16

[wizzo]

Day Sixteen – 26th August 2019

THE INDEX IS HERE

Today started with a big lie in. We all agreed that the last 2 weeks had probably caught up with us having not surfaced until 9am. It didn’t make any difference to our plans as we were only going to Aquatica anyway.

Everyone was soon up and into swimming attire and after a brief stop at the hotel shop for breakfast items (and a paper for me) we were parking up at Aquatica bang on 10am opening. Now I don’t know how it came about, but Lynn had been in charge of paper tickets over the last couple of days. This is a real break from the norm as I always do the driving and party organising. In fact I do everything on holiday except the one thing I’m absolutely useless at…………..remembering what food people want in a restaurant. For this, I have Lynn and I am truly grateful and therefore never moan about driving 2000 miles in a fortnight, paying for everything, ushering people into the right park, queue, taxi, doorway, beach etc. etc.

Anyway, on this morning Lynn failed in her new part-time job and as we got out of the car she realised she’d forgotten the tickets. We drove back to the hotel. Luckily this hotel is about 2 minutes from Aquatica, so it wasn’t the end of the world. She did retire from paper ticket duties for good after today and now only orders food in restaurants and kiosks.

Half an hour later and we were back at Aquatica and had secured a shady spot for base camp. Some of you will remember that over the years I’ve grown to loathe, no hate waterparks. We still go because the girls love them and that is what Dads do. Plus I always buy a paper now prior to park entry.

I do however, love Roa Rapids. You can keep your lazy river sitting in a tube, the fast pace of this river is far more fun. We always start in here and today was no different.











The kids disappeared to do slide after a lap or two but me and Lynn must have done a good 10 laps before we got out. The kids reappeared and took Lynn off to go on some slide or other and I settled down to the first of 2 or 3 Dad breaks to read my paper.







To cut things short, the rest of the day was exactly the same. I would periodically enter Roa Rapids for a few laps then retreat to my lounger and this repeated until 3:15pm.













So we had a good 5 hours at Aquatica and that was more than enough for us. The plan was to freshen up, get some food and then hit SeaWorld later for a few rides.

The kids watched a bit of Jerry Springer while we got ready and they were absolutely gobsmacked that this could be on TV. It was funny watching them laughing their heads off at the plebs Jerry was ‘interviewing’.

By 5pm we were heading to Red Lobster via the Navigators desk again for some free quick queue tickets for SeaWorld later.







Lynn secured herself a cocktail and we all enjoyed Red Lobsters famous biscuits.





No starters tonight. I had the ‘Crab Lovers Dream’ (king, snow plus linguine).



Lynn had the lobster linguine.



Lauren had fried popcorn shrimp and a side of langoustine mash



And Maddy had garlic shrimp, scampi and soy salmon.



No one wanted dessert in favour of theme park sweet treats so we paid and cleared off. It was a lovley meal but our server was soooo sssllloooowwwwww.

As we got into the car it was looking a bit gloomy and we had decided to go to Walmart to stock up on t-shirts and sweets to take home for everyone at work. On the way back, those looming clouds turned into torrential rain.



There was plenty of thunder mixed in and as we approached Seaworld you could see that Manta and Kraken weren’t running. It looked bleak so I dropped the girls off in front of the hotel (in the dry) and I went to park the car.

I waited more than 20 minutes with it absolutely lashing down. It was a 50-yard sprint to the nearest door and I was going to wait it out.

This was my view.



After nearly half an hour waiting it eased ever so slightly so in the end I just legged it. I still got soaked but managed to take a couple of photos of the hotel on the way back to the room for some reason.





It soon became obvious that these storms weren’t going anywhere fast so we got Maddy the bartender to make some drinks and settled down for Wheel of Fortune and yet more Stranger Things.



This was the view from our window captured on the new GoPro.



After a couple of episodes of Stranger Things, the girls were shattered and turned in. I was awake last having watched a bit of baseball before turning in. A pretty relaxed day in the end which was just what the doctor ordered.

Tomorrow – Discovery Cove

[mick]

A good day shame the rain spoilt your evening


Joan

[Tinkermom]

Lovely day, I might be strange but I love a good thunderstorm

[littletink]

Red lobster warm garlic biscuits... 🤤🤤🤤

[darbs]

Those biscuits look lovely! Never been in red lobster but will try next time we are in florida.

[Rozie]

Fab report thanks for sharing !

[HerculesTiger]

Roa Rapids is the soul reason that we fit a waterpark into our visits. it is just the best thing to lean back in a life vest and let the water take u.

I love the Florida rain so this just sounds like the best day to me. Thank you for sharing.

[ShezMcQ]

Just binge read this full report, what a fantastic trip you've had so far! Like others, I cant believe how the girls have changed, especially Maddie, she's taken such a stretch.

Thanks for a fun read as always, looking forward to the next instalment.

[yellowrose78]

Fab day, the rain looks awful though, shame you were stuck in the car so long.

[prettymiarose]

Great trip! More nature, sports, sea, sand & chilling out but how can you loathe water parks! Best days!
Loving your food choices too!