SeaWorld!
What a great weekend. The dilema for us always in Orlando is which park to choose. There are so many great options. Being total Disney junkies, we tend to go back there again and again. And then there's Epcot, Universal and a myriad of other choices. This time we thought we'd try out some parks we'd never been to before - SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. So we started at SeaWorld this weekend.
The Shamu show was absolutely incredible. Somehow I found that surprising. Afterall, we've all seen clips of the show on TV throughout the years, right? But it was jaw-droppingly amazing to see those creatures and their trainers. Soren was just disappointed that he didn't get to go up and be a part of the show!
You'll see in the picture below that Soren is carrying a small plastic bag. They were doing trick-or-treating in the park this weekend! If we hadn't already fully surpassed any reasonable level of sugar consumption this certainly drove us well over the limit!
And of course there were the requisite characters to hug and shake hands with.
Seriously, Soren is always on the lookout for a princess or a character to hug. He totally loves it!
Of course, covering such a big park in only two days (and still fitting in some naps) required a good deal of logistical planning...
And there were many more than just "sea" animals to talk to:
Alligators to pet!
And the best thing of all - Dolphins to feed! This was so awesome! Soren and I went in and bought some small trays of fish. You could then hang over the wall and have the dolphins come up, open their mouth, and then you'd drop the fish right down into their mouth.
It was incredible! We spent almost about a half hour petting them and feeding them. Along with Shamu, this was without a doubt a highlight of our visit.
Oh, and we can't forget the rides! There was a great kiddie area with rides, climbing toys, and sandboxes!
It was a stupendous weekend. We moved to Tampa this afternoon though, were I have work starting on Tuesday. But tomorrow we're heading to Busch Gardens. We'll let you know what we think.
The Shamu show was absolutely incredible. Somehow I found that surprising. Afterall, we've all seen clips of the show on TV throughout the years, right? But it was jaw-droppingly amazing to see those creatures and their trainers. Soren was just disappointed that he didn't get to go up and be a part of the show!
You'll see in the picture below that Soren is carrying a small plastic bag. They were doing trick-or-treating in the park this weekend! If we hadn't already fully surpassed any reasonable level of sugar consumption this certainly drove us well over the limit!
And of course there were the requisite characters to hug and shake hands with.
Seriously, Soren is always on the lookout for a princess or a character to hug. He totally loves it!
Of course, covering such a big park in only two days (and still fitting in some naps) required a good deal of logistical planning...
And there were many more than just "sea" animals to talk to:
Alligators to pet!
And the best thing of all - Dolphins to feed! This was so awesome! Soren and I went in and bought some small trays of fish. You could then hang over the wall and have the dolphins come up, open their mouth, and then you'd drop the fish right down into their mouth.
It was incredible! We spent almost about a half hour petting them and feeding them. Along with Shamu, this was without a doubt a highlight of our visit.
Oh, and we can't forget the rides! There was a great kiddie area with rides, climbing toys, and sandboxes!
It was a stupendous weekend. We moved to Tampa this afternoon though, were I have work starting on Tuesday. But tomorrow we're heading to Busch Gardens. We'll let you know what we think.
Wow, the squirerel's talk in Florida? My kids need to go there! I think the dolphin stuff would be pretty fun. Who were the wizard of oz looking soldier/halloween guys? Did I miss a disney movie somewhere? How could that possibly happen when I have 3 girls?
ReplyDeleteLOL, Natalie. I wondered the same thing about those soldier characters...and in fact almost all of the characters that we saw at SeaWorld. But since it isn't a Disney park, I came to the conclusion that they just dressed people up on some sort of kid's fantasy costume. There were all sorts of mermaid characters (though not Ariel) and sea creatures, none of whom I could recognize.
ReplyDeleteI totally agre with you on the Sea World thing. I was very pleasantly surprised when we went there a couple years ago. For some reason it was just wayyyy cooler than I ever thought it would be! Jameson still talks about Shamu to this very day and we watch the video we took while we were there all the time! I have to admit...even as a thirty-something I was quite in awe of the whole thing too!
ReplyDeleteCan't wait to hear about Busch Gardens.
Can I come on your next vacation?!!
ReplyDeleteLove the pic of Soren studying the map!
ReplyDelete