Rolling in the Upside Downs - 5th Jul 22 - Day 2- Seaworld, Walmart and Dockside

[Rescuer]

Rolling in the Upside Downs - Day 2 - 5/7/22 Conquering the Sea Creatures

Index is here

The plan: Breakfast - First Watch✅
Seaworld - the coasters✅
Lunch Cheddars✅
Walmart - snack shopping✅
Evening - citywalk ❌

14 upside downs today
Total - 18

17.5k steps

Weather - shock horror another scorcher.

Another early start, I was wide awake at 4.30am and no chance of going back to sleep, Ds was awake shortly after but Dh was loving the snoozing again this morning.

I headed down to Starbucks a little earlier this morning and got down there at 5.55am, there were 3 people ahead of me and by the time I left the line was pretty big. It still took a while. I had my stuff by 6.15am.

I had a cappuccino with almond milk and Ds had asked for a strawberry frappaccino which I reluctantly agreed to at 6 in the morning and a banana and walnut slice for them to share.

$14 with the discount.

Now I have resisted doing laundry on holiday on every trip, even the 26 nights one. I am a terrible over packer. I had been paranoid about how much stuff I had put out to pack for 22 nights but on the other hand I am still in the no laundry on holiday camp. So I half relented and brought travel wash with me for emergencies. Cue Ds this morning saying, that top I had on yesterday was super comfy can you rinse it for me. As you can imagine, like the perfect parent I am, I obliged without uttering a single complaint or cracking a frown 😂. Actually for the dry fit tops that the 2 of them bring this is probably a perfect solution for me. They bring less and I can carry on overpacking till my wee heart is content. Win win!

A totally new place for us this morning, First Watch. The menu actually looked good for me for breakfast and I was confident the other two would find something to love.

I ordered an Uber, it was only a few minutes away and was $9, I swear every Uber has seemed to be $9

I find breakfast hard at the best of times, not an egg fan, I eat omelettes at home but the ones here aren’t well enough cooked for me ( think cremated) and have too many eggs in them, I’m a 2 egg maximum girl. First watch does frittatas and I thought I might have better luck with those.

I had the salmon one with mixed greens, it was lovely, I just asked for it without the toast, it was more than enough.

Ds had the French toast and really enjoyed it.

Dh had the Floridian French toast, he really liked it.

They also had some million dollar bacon as a side, this looked amazing but was sweet so not for me.

Great server and lovely to go out for breakfast, I want to go back to try the other frittata.

Even without the low carb the menu looked brilliant. Our server was saying they get crazy busy at the weekends and to check the app or website for wait time and join the list before we leave Universal if it’s really busy.

Once done we waited 4 minutes for an Uber to Seaworld and had a wee milk around while we waited, it was $11.

As this was our first time using the tickets we’d taken passports with us as it said on the tickets to present ID but they never asked for them. They also seemed to be doing random security checks rather than every person. We were in in no time at all. No maps anymore so we just took a picture of the poster but it wasn’t long till where everything was came flooding back.

In usual Seaworld fashion nothing was actually open at the start. Ds was really keen to do Manta, a ride we’ve never done. I’m not sure why as we have done Air at Alton Towers a long time ago. It wasn’t open though and a lot of people were hanging around.

We wandered round to the back of the park and about 5 minutes later Kraken started running. This was one Ds had to conquer.

Back in summer 2018 in the days before rollercoasters were his thing, Ds had tried this, he got all the way into a seat then the checks for Vr took so long that he panicked and got off setting back the coaster riding for another couple of trips.

It was walk on this morning and not only that but it was walk on straight on to the front row. He loved it.

Dh had been bothered with a bit of motion sickness the last couple of trips and was a bit wary of living up to the demands of Ds wanting to ride everything multiple times. I did a bit of research and suggested motion sickness patches to him as there’s no drowsiness with them. He’d popped 2 on, one behind his ear and one on his tummy. He coped fine but just didn’t want to re-ride straight away which is fair enough. Gone are those youthful days where we rode this 12 times in one day 😂😂

Ds wanted another shot though, so we selected a row further back this time to see the difference, still good but I have to say the front row on this was awesome. As we were coming off a large South American tour group was waiting to ride so twice was enough.

Atlantis was up next, a 5 minute wait, I like this but I wasn’t keen on getting wet early on, so sat this one out and Ds and Dh went on. They liked it but Ds commented how it felt a little tame to him now.

We passed by Manta again but it looked quite busy and we ( read me) weren’t really sure we were ready for that yet.

Round to Mako which said it was a 15 minute wait. It wasn’t, it was walk on. Again a first for Ds and straight on the front row. We all loved this. So high. Fast and smooth and pretty gentle feeling in the front.

Straight back on again for all 3 of us, still walk on and back row this time, mental, the sir time is even crazier at the back I thought. Still loved it but the front row was definitely our favourite. While we were waiting they had a few technical issues but they resolved it pretty quickly.

I will say at all the rides there was no one telling you where to stand. This worked fine but it wasn’t overly busy. It also meant you could pick your row. The downside was the vehicles weren’t always full so I’d imagine the lines could get long quite quickly.

It was absolutely roasting and we felt in need of a bit of a cool down so we went for a wee stroll though the shark encounter, we all like this. I noticed there was a massive check in line for sharks underwater grill but I don’t know if had just opened up for reservations or if it was people waiting to get in, it was on the plan to try and eat there this trip but it’s been on my radar for years and hasn’t happened yet. At this point I was not that bothered about spending a whole day at Seaworld but I might change my mind and undoubtedly Dh will get fomo and want to do everything!

The heat was a struggle now and we’d sort of decided we were pretty much done. We wandered round to manta to see what the line was like, 95 minutes! No thanks.

I wonder if that was accurate though.
We escaped the heat with a wander through the Manta aquarium, this is fab.

I checked the itrolley thing to see if one was due and it said 11.58am but times kept changing though and then it showed 12.07 and right enough that’s exactly what time it turned up. As I said we’d bought 14 day ticket, we used Orlando Attraction tickets and it was £10 each, a voucher had gone straight into our wallet online which was good because for some reason I’d left it till the very last minute to book these.

We easily exchanged the voucher for tickets and off we went. Again the air conditioning was very welcome.

It was just us and somehow we managed to miss our stop, in our defence there were 2 stops very close together. The lovely driver stopped anyway and let us off probably thinking tourists 🙄.

It was hotter than the surface of the sun waiting to cross the road.

So when we arrived the air conditioning at Cheddars was very welcome and we were seated straight away.

This had been getting a lot of love so thought it would pair well with a morning at Seaworld.

They had warm croissants to start.

Dh went for what I think was by far the most unhealthy thing on the menu, the monte cristo. He really liked it but it defeated him.

Ds had the shrimp Alfredo and loved it.

I had the lemon pepper chicken with broccoli and southern green beans. I wanted to love it, I didn’t. The broccoli was really soft, didn’t like the green beans and the chicken tasted nice enough but I didn’t like the texture. I’d go back I think but I’d go with a salad next time.

To be honest Cheddars didn’t really live up to the hype it had been getting for us anyway, maybe it was just me… we were also switched servers shortly after we were seated and the new one, in training, wasn’t really that good at keeping drinks refreshed or checking on the table.

Once we were done we ordered an Uber to Walmart, pretty quick arrival and you guessed it, $9 again. Ds was shattered, up too late and up too early so he was pretty grumpy doing the shopping, cutting his nose of to spite his face though by refusing to pick out any snacks. Teenagers 🙄

I’m pretty sure with having his own room he’s on the phone well after we are asleep.

We still picked up loads of snacks, Dh picked out some of the usual favourites, I got some interesting low carb goodies as well as almonds and kind bars which are a bit of a staple for me. We also got some fresh things for breakfasts and drinks for the room and taking out. Those sparkling ices are carb and sugar free and the pineapple and coconut one over ice with a splash of double cream is one of the best things ever especially if actual pina coladas are a thing of the past due to the diabetes.

It’s Walmart so it’s never just food is it? Between us we picked up a few of their sporty tops and some essentials including batteries!

After we got back we had snacks and finally settled down to watch the end of Stranger Things, oh it was so good and I’d managed to avoid any spoilers. Note to self check fire stick batteries before thinking it’s a great idea to bring it in your holidays!

There had been a letter in the room to say hot water might be disrupted between 10am and 5pm tomorrow. We were going going to Busch Gardens so that didn’t really matter to us.

The plan had been to head to Universal, dinner, parks, golf…However, Ds definitely needed to catch up on his sleep. It was clear he was in need of more that just a quick power nap. Dh and I decided to go for a walk, I wasn’t keen to leave Ds on his own and go into the parks but as long as we weren’t going to be far away it’d be fine.

Decided we’d have a walk across to Surfside to see what that was like. It was nice, almost tiny compared to Dockside and it did feel much calmer and less hectic. They are right opposite each other so I don’t think you can go wrong with either of them.

When we were walking back we bumped into a family who had got off the bus at Surfside by mistake so we suggested they could follow us back. It was a woman with 2 kids. A teen and a tween and they were hilarious at winding each other up, although probably not hilarious to their mum.

I texted Ds to check he was ok and see if he wanted anything or wanted to come down but he didn’t fancy anything or want to get up so we decided to stop off at the bar for a drink. Wine and beer but very nice and relaxing.

They have a good cocktail menu but we were boring and had a wine and a beer. $20 which again compared to Disney isn’t bad at all or even at home at our wee beach bar it costs £15 for this.

We decided to switch our Busch Gardens day for the tomorrow as we were all tired and had all struggled to stay in the parks longer than midday today, never mind how shattered Ds was as well, so agreed a full day with no option to leave wasn’t quite for us yet.

The food court again for dinner. Dh and I weren’t that hungry, we’d had sond snacks earlier and 2 meals out today already. My holiday appetite isn’t quite there yet. 😂

We shared the chicken Caesar salad, this was delicious and way bigger than it looked. Dh got a chocolate cookie at the bakery and we bought a white macadamia one for Ds.

This was $13 with the discount.

Ds was fast asleep when we got in and he slept right through to the morning. Must have needed it. He was grateful for his cookie in the morning😂.

End Game was on tv and we watched the end of it, it had also been on even before we went out! I know it’s long but the amount of adverts on American TV made it take all evening.

[mick]

Another good day not surprised your son was tired with heat like that !

Joan

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by mick

Another good day not surprised your son was tired with heat like that !

Joan

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Thanks Joan. It was certainly roasting this year.

[mick]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

Thanks Joan. It was certainly roasting this year.

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We were there in May some days it was too hot for us too, we were thankful of a large shaded lanai and a pool

Joan

[MickeyMoose]

American tv adverts are ridiculous during a film, practically unwatchable.

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by MickeyMoose

American tv adverts are ridiculous during a film, practically unwatchable.

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😂 must make their scheduling easy though. 1 film for the whole evening 😂

[jothp]

Another great day with lots of upside downs. Teenagers certainly do seem to be nocturnal at times!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by jothp

Another great day with lots of upside downs. Teenagers certainly do seem to be nocturnal at times!

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😂😂They are strange creatures Ds is constantly surprising me with enthusiasm for strange things and a lack of enthusiasm for things I’d have sworn he’d love!

[jothp]

Originally Posted by Rescuer

😂😂They are strange creatures Ds is constantly surprising me with enthusiasm for strange things and a lack of enthusiasm for things I’d have sworn he’d love!

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I'm sure sometimes they do it just to make us look silly!

[Rescuer]

Originally Posted by jothp

I'm sure sometimes they do it just to make us look silly!

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Certainly manages to keep me on my toes 😂