We are back from our action packed vacation down to the sunshine state and beyond. We've spent the past couple of days unwinding, unpacking, and sorting through a bazillion photos.
To say we had an amazing time would be an understatement. As always, when traveling with little ones, there were ups and downs. But, despite working around nap times and a few fevers {ugh, yes it's true!}, we made some fabulous memories.
We decided to make a pit stop at Sea World before we headed to our cruise departure port. I figured chances are we won't be making a drive to Orlando just for Sea World in the near future, so why not squeeze it in this trip.
We left home a day early, spent the night in Orlando, made a visit to Shamu the next day, and then headed on to Port Canaveral for a good night's rest before setting sail on the Disney Dream.
I basically went into the whole Sea World day blindly. I spent so much time researching and planning our cruise that this day at the park got shoved to the back burner. However, I did score an amazing deal with Marriott Springhill Suites Sea World. We got our room {which was plush and roomy}, tickets to Sea World, and "resort guest" passes for one extremely reasonable price.
The guest passes were worth it all. We got to head to the front of the line for rides and had special reserved seating at the shows. Priceless. Not to mention, the hotel was great. It was located within walking distance from the park {although we took the recommended shuttle}, the staff was super friendly, each child received goodie bags filled with a pile of loot {including a stuffed Shamu}, and the kid themed pool was great with a splash area. We were sorely disappointed when our time did not lend itself to enjoy it.
We arrived at Sea World nearly at opening time. It was already sweltering hot, but that's to be expected in July in Orlando.
Within minutes of our arrival Shamu was standing near by and picture ready. {I'm sure he was cursing the sun under that costume.} We learned very quickly that Lucy was not fond of costumed characters. Good to know since we were heading on a cruise filled with Disney characters after all.
One of our favorite rides was the Penguin Expedition. However, if I had it to do all over again, I may have saved this one for later in the day. It is seriously 30 degrees in there, if not cooler. If this tells you anything the snow and ice were real and the staff were wearing snow suits complete with gloves and hats. No joke.
We lasted a whole three minutes observing penguins after we had disembarked from the ride.
If we weren't freezing we were melting. We headed to the famous Shamu show next. Our VIP seating was incredible, as was the heat. I found the nearest concession stand and stocked up on frozen fruit bars to make it through.
The remainder of the rides and exhibits were very interactive. It generally started with a ride and/or show and ended with an up close look at the sea life.
My favorite exhibit were the sea turtles and manatees.
Jack must have worn his brave underpants this day because he begged to ride Journey of Atlantis. I opted out, seeing as how I'm not much of a daredevil, not to mention someone had to hang with the girls.
I had my camera ready for their decent and wouldn't you know that one of those sweet sisters needed something just as the boys came barreling down. I missed it by a millisecond. I did however catch this. Jack is somewhere under that wave.
After drying off and hitting the gift shop {because you know we really needed a souvenir} we shuttled back to the hotel. From there we grabbed our car and made the hour drive to our hotel in Cape Canaveral.
Mickey was calling our name and we needed a good night's rest before setting sail.
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