The Search For Wild Manatees - Day 10 - Florida: The Grand Adventure (Spring 2017)

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Story so far:

• Day 1 we flew out to Orlando.
• We checked into our first AirBnb and loved it.
• Day 2 We went to Disney Springs to watch Beauty & The Beast at the AMC Dine In Theatre.
• We checked into our main accommodation for the duration of this trip and... our first impressions weren't the greatest.
• Day 3 we had a sunrise hot air balloon ride, that took an unexpected diversion over Disney World landing behind the scenes at Animal Kingdom.
• We then headed across the city and flew through the skies in a different way when we were flyboarding.
• Day 4 we had an amazing time behind the scenes at Gatorland doing the Trainer For A Day experience.
• Day 5 we went to explore "space stuff" at Kennedy Space Center.
• After KSC we went to a WWE NXT house show in Cocoa Beach, before ending the night with the best chicken wings ever at Hooters.
• Day 6 we spent the day hitting some of the smaller attractions and getting lost on International Drive.
• Day 7 was a relaxing day at the villa.
• Day 8 we went on a day out kayaking in search of the wild monkeys that inhabit Silver River and Silver Springs.
• Day 9 was another relaxing day at the villa, although we did take manscaping a little bit too far.

Day 10 - Tuesday, March 28 2017

For those who would rather watch the trip report in video form instead of reading...



For those would rather read the trip report instead of watching...

We start the day early again as we have to meet up with the tour company's bus at Maingate Lakeside Resort on the 192 at 7:15am. It's the first stop for the bus, so we were some of the first people to get on. We make a half dozen or so more stops on the way (& maybe a bus change if I remember correctly) before making our first stop of the day for an "activitiy" as we are brought to a Ponderosa on I-Drive for a buffet breakfast that was included with the tour. Truth be told, two and a half years later, I can't remember much about it other than it wasn't much good. We never returned to a Ponderosa in the remaining 7 weeks, so we clearly mustn't have enjoyed it. Doing some Googling, it looks like it's no longer there now anyway & in fact only have one Ponderosa in the whole state of Florida (let alone the Orlando / Kissimmee area) now which hugely surprised me because I remember them being everywhere!

As we got back on the bus, the tour guide got everyone all talking about each other, which was nice seeing as we were all spending the day together. It was good to get to know our fellow tour guests a little bit. We were the only Brits. If I remember correctly, I think everyone else was American. They couldn't believe how much holiday time Brits get, let alone the fact we were on an 8-week adventure!

The first main activity on the agenda was the manatee swim!

It was an hour, maybe 90 minutes, up to Three Sisters Spring at Crystal River where we would be doing the swim. The tour bus was incredibly modern, air-conditioned, really comfy and had built-in flatscreen TV's into the ceiling so they showed the movie A Dolphin's Tale which... I guess was the closest thing they could find to a relevant movie seeing as we're not that far away from Tampa where Winter is, and I don't know of too many or ANY movies based on manatees! We watched half of the movie on the way there, and half on the way back actually. It was good. It was certainly better than nothing!

So we arrive up at the Crystal River and first of all we need to change into wetsuits. Now, these weren't provided which I did know about beforehand and did cost only $10 each to rent, but if they afford to include the cost of breakfast and all these other things, surely they could cover the cost of a wetsuit rental? We don't so much get changed, more that we just put them on over the top of the swimming costume or whatever we were wearing for the day. So we didn't really get changing rooms, I think we ended up sort of behind a sign. I didn't really struggle finding a wetsuit to fit me, but Dannie had a little bit more difficulty due to her "awkward" body shape but we got there in the end!

The swimsuit rental place wasn't actually where we would get on the boats that took us out to the swim, so we got back on the bus for a short ride to the docks where we would board the boats.

As we get the docks, the tour group is split into smaller groups and each group goes on a different boat. Each of the different boats went to a slightly different part of the spring / river so once we set off we didn't actually see the other boat or it's guests until we returned.

Now that last picture above kind of shows it, it's much easier to see in the video, but basically the water was way too murky to see anything. We got to see some very nice properties, other people out enjoying the waterways, other boats, some turtles, alligators and birds... but not really any manatees. We could just about make out what looked to be a mother and a calf as they just barely popped up above water, but we didn't get a good view at all.

Getting in the water didn't help either. As the video shows, you could barely see past the end of your arm. It didn't help that I'm not the world's best swimmer. But we did all get given pool noodles to use to help us float, although I could not get the grasp of that at all. Don't know why, but I could just not understand how to use it the way they instructed us at all. Alas the visibility was too poor, so we didn't spend a whole heck of a lot of time in the water.

So after some time trying to spot them from the boat, we headed back to the docks, dried ourselves up, and returned the swimsuits. I believe it was here where we were given our lunch for the day which was surprisingly large and properly chilled which was a great surprise. We each got a sandwich, packet of crisps, cookies, fruit pot, Capri Sun, & a bottle of water, and again it was all included in the price of the tour.

From here we headed off to the next main activity of the day, Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. We had about an hour or so here. First thing we saw was the hippo, and then you'll never guess what... some alligators!

We then headed round to the manatees. Our first impressions were that the enclosures seemed a little bit small, especially when we saw this...

Hopefully this manatee was just being transitioned, or was in such a small enclosure for some kind of positive reason. However as we walked around, we noticed that the enclosure on the other side of the fence of the tiny enclosure / on the right-side of the photo actually extends quite a bit and possibly into open waters (although not 100% sure, so don't quote us on that). This gave us an opportunity to definitely see some manatees in Crystal clear (I can't believe I've only just thought of that!) waters. You could see where some of them had unfortunately been struck by boats, but it was great to actually see what we had ultimately come on this particular trip for. They're such beautiful docile animals.

After that, we spent the rest of the hour or so that we had there exploring the rest of the wildlife that inhabited the park. There was an underwater viewing platform for some of the fish. There was lots and lots of all different kinds of birds, including flamingos fighting as they always seem to do and the American bald eagle.

We enjoyed our time brief time here, probably wouldn't really need to spend any more time than we did, and we were especially glad to see the manatees get a lot more space than we first thought. It was a good way to kill some time before heading the next activity, and more importantly / cynically I think it's main purpose is to guarantee that you atleast see some manatees on the day even if they are inside of a wildlife park.

A few of the other guests were getting ice creams, we decided not too. As we were getting on the bus, we realised we made the wrong decision!

Next it was time for the final big activity of the day, as we drive to Tom & Jerry's Airboat Rides on Lake Panasoffkee. I don't have many tremendous pictures from this, better off watching the video if you want to check that out. But I did manage to get a few.

We thought that this bug was incredibly weird-looking. Never seen anything like it before. Very unusual!

The airboat ride was meant to be half an hour long, apparently according to Dannie at the time it was actually more like 20 minutes which was a little bit annoying but hey it was good fun. It wasn't the best airboat ride I've done. We didn't really see a whole heck of a lot. Saw some more gators, surprise surprise, and a few birds but it was almost just like that we were the reason that they could go out and play their toy if you know what I mean. Again, they can't force wild animals to appear when we're there, but I don't know if the reason we didn't see much was because of that or moreso because of the location? I'm genuinely not sure.

As we got back, Dannie had dropped her phone (or maybe it was a hoody) under the seats to the bottom of the boat. Luckily the airboat operator had a pair of long tweezers (like the ones used to pick up rubbish) and grabbed it for us.

Next everyone got the opportunity to get a couple photos holding a little gator. So, as we just couldn't get enough of them, we had to get a couple photos each...

We then headed to the gift shop, and found a map where you could pin where in the US you were from or if you were from outside the US you'd write it on the white border. We thought for sure that there was going to be no chance that there would have been anyone else from Blackpool at this random attraction in the middle of Florida but you'll never guess what... Dannie found that someone had in fact beaten us to it!

This conluded the tour really. We got back on the bus and drove back to the Orlando area. I was surprised that considering we were the first to get on the bus, we were also the first stop on the way back. I would have thought that we'd have been last to get off, but no. Dannie was very, very tired, falling asleep on the way back, so she was rather happy that we got off so much sooner than we expected.

All in all, it was a great day out, organised well, and service was great can't fault any of that at all really. But would we do it again? No, probably not. It was fortunate that we didn't get to see the manatees when we were in the water or even from the boat, especially when other people on the tour apparently did get both of those things happen but I guess that just shows it's completely up to luck really. Nonetheless, there would be nothing to do on this trip that we wouldn't have done before, and as good as the service was, we just felt like there wouldn't point in repeating the day if we for some reason ever had the opportunity. It was a shame because I had really high hopes for this, and I think Dannie did too once she found out about it. As I've said though, it can't be helped that nature wasn't playing in our favor. It wasn't Disney. This was real life, and sometimes that just happens. The activities were all good, staff were all great, but yeah... the day was a bit of a let down, it wasn't our favourite day of the trip so far. BUT I do have to also point out that when I booked the trip, I didn't think / realise we got anything else with it outside of the swimming with manatees experience, so really then you could consider everything as a bonus really...

Anyway, before we headed to the supermarket, Dannie found out our plans for Day 11 which were to continue using the Go Orlando card to visit some of the smaller attractions around the Orlando area, but I didn't tell her what we would be doing, where or when. I still had to keep some surprises for the day!

Dannie decided to go to Publix for the first time. I couldn't, and even still now can't, believe how much more expensive even basic things like bread cost. Like, looking at $2-3 for a loaf of bread? The GBP/USD is even worse now than it was then, so god knows what it's like today. We spent about $45 and barely got anything. If I was in England and spend the equivalent of that here in Tesco I'd get like a weekly shop! Ah well. So yeah, we got some groceries and headed back the villa.

For dinner that night we decided to make a favourite easy meal from home in chicken wraps, as we each like to think that we personally make the best wraps ever. We struggled to find normal chicken dippers, but we did end up finding some larger chicken tenders that were honey flavoured. Wasn't intentionally going for honey, but I don't think we had much choice in the matter given the non-existant options. They turned out quite alright, apart from maybe the chicken could have done with being a little crispier but that's probably because we took it out a little too soon as Dannie was getting impatient for her food.

Also, we were having more problems with the pool, but what's new! Dannie had been struggling with something either biting or reacting with her legs, causing her to itch her legs constantly, making them very sore, visibly scratched up, and she was in a fair bit of a pain. Not sure if it was a heat rash, or what it was, but she said she thought it was similar to how I explained my eczema / dermatitis to be. Think it opened her eyes just how hard it can be to stop yourself from scratching!

Other than that, we spent the night catching up on wrestling as we only had a few more days until WrestleMania weekend and it was really stressing me out that we had spent all the money that we had to come on this trip and go to WrestleMania but we were so out of date with what was happening at the time and we had so much to catch up on. But atleast we were working on it!

That's it for Day 10 I believe. Day 11 coming soon...