The Magic of Memories & a Wedding September/October 2016 - DAY 5 - SEAWORLD AND DISNEY SPRINGS

[SleepingSophie]

DAY 5 – SEAWORLD AND DISNEY SPRINGS

It was a beautiful morning when we woke up. Standing on the balcony of the AKL was beautiful. We were just about up early enough to catch the sunrise. Our plan for today was SeaWorld. Everyone wanted to be there for opening so Dave and I gathered up the very little stuff we had with us and made our way back to the lobby. It was while we were walking I realised how poorly I felt. My head was banging, I felt very bunged up and achy. So we made a quick pit stop in the hotel shop to buy some cold and flu tablets. We also wanted a magnet from AKL as we like to collect magnets and mugs everywhere we go. They didn’t have AKL ones specifically so we settled for these.

We got a taxi back to Saratoga Springs just for speed because it was still early we weren’t sure how buses would fare. So $13 later we were back. Everyone was up and ready so they headed off to grab some breakfast while Dave and I got showered and changed and I booked a taxi.

The journey took around 15 minutes or so to SeaWorld and we spent the time catching up on everyone’s evenings. Dan, Sarah, Justin, Amy & Dixon had spent the evening at Disney Springs and had a meal at The House of Blues which they highly recommended. The mums both had a meal at the hotel as they were tired. My mum told me Tom & Chrissy had a really lovely day at Magic Kingdom; they got loads of memory maker photos and had dinner at Cinderella’s Royal Table which I had booked for them 180 days before hand. They said the loved the atmosphere and the food but they did feel a tad out of place not having kids with them, but enjoyed it all the same. They were not coming to SeaWorld and had ventured off to Universal for the first time.

I love these photos of them

On arriving at SeaWorld we had to wait 5-10 mins for the 2nd taxi to meet us, meanwhile Mummy B saw a 12 seater mini bus taxi pull up and asked the driver for his card as this would be much easier in future. He seemed to take quite a shining to ‘Miss Vanessa’! He said to text when we were ready to leave and he would give us a time to collect us. With that we headed off.

The que into SeaWorld moved fairly quickly, we had to exchange our vouchers for real tickets and we had also paid in advance for the Quick Que so did that too. All done of some machine you use yourself and was really straight forward.

As Dave’s last wedding present surprise I had booked and paid for the SeaWorld Penguin Interaction as they are Dave’s favourite animal! So the others headed off towards Manta, I pretended to need the ladies and told them to carry on ahead. I quickly ran back to the counter and the lady gave me the tickets for the interaction. Caught up with the others and we headed into Manta. Mummy B had watched it go round a couple of times and decided she didn’t want to do it, but Mummy H did.

So we were given red wrist bands as Quick Que proof so we didn’t have to mess about with tickets, I thought this was a much better idea. Walked pretty much all the way through to the loading gates, separated into rows of Boys V Girls and waited. The next train came round and un-loaded the guests but the gates never opened. Why was this becoming a theme for us! We then realised someone had clearly had a nose bleed as there was blood dripping all over the concrete and all the way back up the loading platform. If anyone doesn’t know this ride it tilts you 90 degrees so you are kind of laying on your front rather than sat upright. So the poor bloke had been dripping blood the whole way round. The staff were really quick at sprinkling some kind of powder over every drop, then a maintenance team of about 10 people appeared and very quickly sprayed disinfectant over it all and washed it all away. I was really impressed at how quickly the staff got organised and they kept us all informed the whole time. It was about 20 minutes in total until we loaded. Meanwhile, Mummy B was driving herself crazy something bad had happened to us as no trains had been round in a while!

We all loved it! I do think this ride is so sleek and smooth and such a different feeling to most other thrill rides.

We headed off towards the stingrays, I love feeding them so spent some time doing this, and convincing Amy she wouldn’t get stung by them!

Love the baby ones!

Had a brief look in the shops and Mum and I noted some wine glasses we wanted to come back for. (Sadly we never did) We had already decided before today not to do any shows. I’ve seen them all lots of times and no one else was fussed.
We stopped to take a peek at the Manatee's. My mum adores these!

So we headed round to Kraken. The boys and Amy all headed off, Sarah and I remained with the mums. I was really struggling with my head cold and was worried I would get a migraine if I carried on.

They all loved it and I think they went round a 2nd time in fact.

It was coming to the time Dave and I needed to meet our tour group so I surprised him with the ticket. He was buzzing! We said goodbye to everyone and agreed I would message in What’s App when we were finished.

We were due to meet outside a shop near the Turtle Talk. Upon arriving I realised very quickly this was not the correct tour. I quietly asked the tour guide and he did confirm we had been booked onto the backstage tour, not the penguin interaction! I was fuming! This was not the first mistake our travel agent had made and definitely wasn’t the last. He suggested we either continue with the tour, or head to customer relations and see if there was anything they could do. So we did the latter.

The lady was lovely and handled me really well considering I had totally lost my rag and was crying. I think all the stress and emotion of the last few days as well as how poorly I felt had built up. She did explain the tour we had been booked onto would have cost $24pp. We paid our travel agent $75pp. So not only had she booked us on the wrong tour but she had pocketed the difference! There wasn’t much the lady could do as they tickets were not booked directly with SeaWorld. She did offer us a Quick Que pass for the day but as we already had them it didn’t really help. Totally not SeaWorld’s fault though.

Dave and I were very dis-heartened and I was still a bit emotional. So we took some time just sat together with a drink from the Cypress Bakery near the entrance. We did spot a photographer so Dave convinced me to have one done.

He then said instead of meeting the group or letting them know what had happened yet we should go and do the penguin ride and see them by ourselves, so we did. The actual ride was closed but we did the walk in and spent a lot of time in there taking photos. A very kind lady offered to take a photo of us together which has become a bit of a tradition for us.

We heard about this little guy in this jacket, he had a problem with not developing his feathers properly to keep him warm, however, since returning home i have now found out he finally has grown them and no longer needs his jacket

We left and went into the gift shop to get our obligatory magnet and mug. These were chosen.

No idea where my magnet photo has gone, but it had a penguin on it im sure! However i have a photo of a frame we must have bought here.

It was here we bumped into Dixon. The rest of our group had already been and done the penguins and he had come back to buy a present for his mum! So we walked with him off to meet the group. Explained what had happened. Everyone did feel really bad for us. We decided to cheer ourselves up with a ride on Journey to Atlantis. Mummy B loves this ride and remembers Dave on it when he was little. So we rode with our mums and the others rode together. Dixon managed to get this shot of us as we loaded!

We did get drenched but it was very welcome as the weather was very humid and muggy we spent a little time in the shop here then left.

It was beginning to grey over so the others all decided they wanted to try and ride Mako before it got any later. Again Sarah and I opted out, but surprisingly Mummy B wanted a go!

So we wandered off with Mummy H to watch the pearl divers in the Waterfront section and looking round the shops. Then they all re-appeared again saying Mako had already closed due to inclement weather. So we headed round to the Wild Artic section. Did the simulator there, we all did, even the Mums. Wow I forgot how much this makes me feel sick. When we came off I really wasn’t feeling my best and desperately needed a drink. The others took a slow walk through stopping to watch the beluga whales and asked a member of staff about the Polar bear, to which we found out he had sadly passed away

When they came out I was sitting with my mum feeling really not good. Grabbed a Pepsi from a stand nearby in the hope the sugar would help. The rain was pretty much over by this time so the boys all headed back to Mako. We walked with them only to be found it was still closed and as there was lightening in the area was unlikely to re-open today. They were all really annoyed about this as they had really been looking forward to it.

We took a slow walk back to the exit; I messaged our taxi driver man to ask for a return trip to which he replied he would be there in 10 minutes. So Dave and I hot footed it too the photo counter as we had wanted to purchase a couple from today.

Met the others ready outside and got the taxi back to Saratoga Springs.

Our plan for today was a meal at Disney Springs in Paradiso 37 for all 11 of us. Tom and Chrissy were already back when we got home. We had a little while until our reservation so Dan, Sarah, Me and Dave headed off early to catch some time in Disney Quest which we had really enjoyed back in 2014. We walked to the boat dock and caught the boat over. I believe the Mums just had a rest, Tom & Chrissy were also at Disney Springs looking in the shops and the other 3 had a little rest before meeting us over there.

It was really busy in DQ. We did do some arcade games, played the human pinball, and Sarah and I had time for a photo booth shoot

But we decided to leave as it was so busy, grabbed a drink from an outside bar and sat and watched a band playing. They were trying to make the crowd choose between Country Music or 90’s Hits! They chose country and the band played a medley. It contained one of ‘Our’ songs from Florida 2014. Derks Bently – Drunk on a Plane. It was really nice actually sitting and listening to that with our best friends. We thought we better walked round to Paradiso to meet the others and everyone arrived bang on time. That’s a first. But it had just started to rain again.

I checked us in and we were seated pretty quickly, on an outside table. Ok it was under a canopy, but it was leaking and water was dropping all-round the table, Amy & Justin were getting soaked; the tables were all wet and wobbly! Not impressed I asked them to move us indoors. I really don’t think they should use those outside tables in the rain!

We were seated at a long table towards the back of the restaurant. Everyone was complaining how loud it was and no one could speak to anyone else. We all ordered our meals but before they had even come out I had to step outside. I was feeling very dizzy and sick; my bad headache had returned and all in all did not want to go back inside. I did because I thought I should eat. The meals came out and I just couldn’t stomach it, I picked at a few bits but really left the meal. A few others wanted desserts so waited to order them. I needed to be outside again so went and sat on a wall opposite the restaurant when Dave came out to find me. He knew right away I wasn’t well and went back to tell the others we would be leaving and caught a boat back to Saratoga.

By this point I determined the whole day was a wash out, felt like everything that went wrong was my fault and all in all felt very sorry for myself. Dave did his best to reassure me but I think I just needed to sleep and be better. Such a shame as in most of our previous visits SeaWorld has been one of our best days! In fact, back in our 2014 trip the day we got engaged we had been at SeaWorld all day and then drank lots of cocktails at Paradiso, so i had been really looking forward to re-creating it. It just wasn't to be!

Number of flip flops purchased/obtained = 0
Number of illnesses/injuries = 1 still feeling very poorly…
Number of tetchy moments = 2
TOMORROW – TYPHOON LAGOON AND MAGIC KINGDOM

[collybird]

What a shame you felt rotten, you were probably just totally exhausted and ended up getting run down.

I can't believe the drama with the Penguin tour, you must have been so disappointed. Did you ever get the money back from your TA?

[SleepingSophie]

Originally Posted by collybird

What a shame you felt rotten, you were probably just totally exhausted and ended up getting run down.

I can't believe the drama with the Penguin tour, you must have been so disappointed. Did you ever get the money back from your TA?

See more...

I was exhausted. In hindsight i should have given myself a couple of days to relax

And no we never did. She caused us so many issues i haven't even written about but once i returned from Orlando and tried to complain she had changed her company name, and therefor ABTA wouldn't help me! Never mind. Its all a learning curve!

[Excitedx4]

What a shame you had a rotten day. It was probably your body relaxing after the stress of the wedding and making you ill. Hope you perk up after a good nights rest, nothing worse than a head cold.