Disney - Day 2

Technically, Day 2 was at Sea World . . . and it was a blast! We saw all the cool sea animals . . . turtles, manatee (Barbara Manatee, manatee, manatee - you are the one for me, one for me, one for me - sent from up above . . . ) dolphins, whales, sharks, stingray, and all kinds of other cool stuff. There were lots of people there, but it was still really cool - you never felt like you were fighting crowds or really waiting in line. Again, I think we got really lucky with our line waiting - or lack of.

We kept up with our character sightings and got the kids’ picture taken with this dolphin. Dude humored us and took the picture, even though he’s certain he’s way too old for this kind of stuff

One of the first things we saw was this cool turtle! I’ve never seen a shell like that before. It looks like the layers that you’d see on a dinosaur. Pretty neat!

Here’s the therapy picture! We decided to go on Journey to Atlantis right away because there wasn’t a line. Dude was a bit nervous about it, but he was a trooper and went anyway. This ride was WAY more than we’d expected! We expected a leisurely little water ride that ended with the big plunge to the bottom where you get wet. But this was neat! It had really cool stuff to look at on the ride, and there were a couple smaller falls in addition to the huge one that scared the pants off of Dude and Princess. There is also a roller coaster part - so way cool When you go on this ride, you’re not allowed to take any “carry ons” with you, so we rented a locker. It worked out well - I just took my waterproof camera with us and we left the back pack in there for the day. Didn’t do us much good to have the rain coats in there when it rained, but it was no big deal. Dude did not go on this ride again. Princess, on the other hand, went on this two more times on our way out of the park. We got lucky and didn’t have to wait in line at all for this ride any of the times we went!

The first show we saw was the dolphin show - there are some dolphins and a couple smaller whales. We got there just in time to get some seats in the Soak Zone - it was cool! The water felt great since it was so hot and humid - we forget what humidity feels like since we live at altitude and have dry weather. Anyway, the show was pretty cool - it got a little cheesy at times with the “show” part of it, but for the most part it was really neat. The kids really enjoyed the dolphins and whales and loved it when they used their tales to splash us with a ton of water.

After the dolphin show, we wandered around and went on some rides and rode the space needle type of ride and saw the whole park. We decided to catch the Shamu show and headed that way, looking for some lunch. One thing I will say about Sea World is that if you want food on the run, you’re out of luck. BLUCK! We ended up at the stadium about 20 minutes before the show started and sat out of the soak zone But we still had good seats. We ate Shamu shaped pretzels while we watched the show. I’d forgotten how big Shamu actually is - oh my god! The little whales that are out there before the actual show starts are cool - then Shamu shows up and is humonstrous! The show was very cool

The splashes from Shamu’s tail were quite a bit bigger than those from the dolphins’ tails! I think it’s so cool how they can train them to flap their tail and send half the tank of water out onto the people. The show is so worth the wait to get in to see it . . . the kids absolutely loved it! Dude would have liked to sit in the soak zone, but I was kind of glad we didn’t get there early enough since the soak zone was SOOOOOO soaking wet!

Just like every other day, it rained in the afternoon. After the Shamu show, we went on some more rides in the kid ride area and had fun playing in the rain. Quite a few people actually seemed to leave when it rained, which was weird since it rains every single day. But, that was OK for us because the lines for the rides were a lot shorter. We took in the Arctic helicopter simulator and fed some sharks before we headed out.

We had to stop and ride the sea creature carousel on the way out - the creatures were so cool!

Just like at Disney, since it was Halloween they had a lot of fun fall decorations around the park. Dude and Princess thought it was cool to play on the huge pumpkin fish.

We also ran across this fun statue and had to get a photo.

The last thing we did on the way out was stop at the Anheuser Busch tent and see the clydesdales. I thought it was cool how the horse looked right at the camera for us. The clydesdales are so pretty the way they stand and pose. It would have been cool to see them pulling the sleigh.

We had another great day and had a lot of fun! It was definitely worth it. We headed back to the hotel, grabbed a bite to eat, and got ready to go check out the pool. The kids had been dying to check out the cool pool at the hotel . . . after Magic Kingdom, the pool was closed because of the weather. After Sea World, almost all of the pool was closed, except for one little area. The kids had been dying to go on the water slide, but would have to wait yet another day. We ended up hanging out in the hot tub for a while. After the hot tub, I grabbed us a couple beers and Bloddy Marys for the room while we hung out and relaxed for the night. We weren’t sure what we were going to do on Day 3 . . . it was either going to be Universal Studios or hang out at the pool.

Check back tomorrow to see what we chose to do!