SeaWorld Again

We made it to SeaWorld again today. Today is a mixed weather day. Partly sunny, but overall a bit cloudy and from time to time some rain.

But that does not bother us too much. The rain is warm and not at all cooling off. I’m guessing that we had upper 90′s today. When we left our hotel room, it had just stopped raining. The temperature was close to 100. When we arrived at SeaWorld it was even hotter. We were in time to see a couple of shows today. We skipped the Antartica attraction, as we were not in the mood for waiting in line, partially in the hot sun, for close to 60 minutes.

Instead we hopped from show to show in the afternoon. The first show we watched today was the Blue Horizon show. A great acrobatic show with dolphins, a lot of acrobats and some tropical birds. The show tells a story of a young girl who discovers the secrets of the sea and sky. We enjoyed the show very much (and of course it helps having platinum preferred seats to the show, making sure you have the best view.

From the Blue Horizon show we visited Antartica, but not the attraction. We moved on to the Clyde and Seamore. Clyde and Seamore are sea lions. The show was extremely funny, as a great part of the show today was improvised, as the animals were not quite doing what they were supposed to do. Also the interactive part with the audience was funny, as also these guest-appearances did not quite listen to the show masters. In all, very well done, and very funny.

After the show finished, we visited the sharks, in their Shark Encounter. Here we saw a lot of fish and sharks in huge fish tanks. We also looked at baby-sharks and walked through another aquarium before heading for the exit. When we exited, it started raining and we walked in the rain to the Pet’s Ahoy show. This is an indoor show with rats, cats, dogs, pork and skunk. Never knew that you could teach cats so many tricks. A fun show (again), but this time all executed according plan.

From the Pet’s Ahoy show towards the One Ocean show, we stopped at the Oppa Oppa Oyster, a shop, where you can let divers get an oyster to your liking, and have it opened for you, and you buy the pearl that was inside. Xandrine bought an oyster and got a nice pearl. Not the blue or black pearl, but still a beautiful pearl.

Then we headed to One Ocean, the Shamu show. Today a lot of killer whales are in the show. And a lot of splashing was going on today. If you were in the splash area, you were about to get soaked. Even if you were not in the splash zone, you were in jeopardy to get wet as well, so amazingly high the splash came. We were fortunate enough to sit even higher and thus avoided getting wet or soaked. The show itself was well organised and very well executed.

After the One Ocean show, we walked a bit through the park and checked out the swimmers again at the oyster hunt. We also saw the Groove Chefs play some music and checked out the shops, before going back to the stadium to watch the last show of the evening, the Shamu’s Celebration, Light Up The Night show. An even better show than the One Ocean show. The show ends with fireworks and four killer whales. A great show, which ends another great day at SeaWorld.

SeaWorld Again

Double Day

Today a double post, as we headed back to Orlando from Tampa and did not have internet in our hotel room the first day.

But let me start with day 8 of our trip. We had to check out from our hotel room in Tampa. It’s a great hotel, very close to the Tampa Bay Times Forum, where we had a great time at the Katy Perry concert. Today we woke up in time to check out and ate breakfast in the hotel at The Bar. After breakfast, we put all our belongings in the car and drove off.

On our way from Tampa to Orlando, we stopped at Dinosaur World. We have been here before a couple of years ago, but Xandrine likes it a lot and would like to visit it again. Since it is on our way from Tampa to Orlando, we do not have to drive a lot for it. This would be a good opportunity to visit the park again and check out what has changed. So instead of following the I4, we took a different road to the park and when we arrived, it was hot, over 100 Fahrenheit.

We took the chilly pad with us and needed it today. In the park most of the dinosaurs are the same as on our last visit. What has changed is, that there are more activities than the last time. There is still the fossil dig, but new to us was the dino gem excavation. We also got the chance to view a show about the excavation this time. Last time it was not there as I can remember that they were rebuilding the structure.

So we did the whole tour this time again. Saw hundreds of dinosaurs and Xandrine did both the fossil dig and the dino gem excavation. Besides that she also played at the boneyard, where kids can play in a sandbox excavating a dinosaur. The show was also very entertaining and learning experience. Very well done. After a couple of hours, we had seen everything and it was time for us to move further east towards Orlando.

Between Plant City, where Dinosaur World is located, and Orlando, where our hotel is located, is a place called Clermont. We have stayed in Clermont several times in the past, in a rental home. This time we visited Uncle Kenny’s BBQ restaurant, down by the Clermont Citrus Tower, for dinner. We have had BBQ here before and that was very good, so why not support the locals and do it again. Xandrine’s choice was not very BBQ. She had chicken tenders with fries, but she ate them with BBQ sauce, so a bit BBQ is in there. I took the pulled pork egg rolls and a meat combo of ribs and brisket. And they were very very good again.

After dinner we moved to Orlando and got at the hotel late that evening. We spent some time watching television before going to sleep.

The next morning, we both slept until after 10AM. We stayed at our hotel room the morning watching Food Channel. After that we went out for some shopping. We first stopped at Publix and bought a few things, but saw the whole store. Still amazing how big the stores are and what can be bought. After that we went to the shopping mall around the corner and before going shopping, we ate a bite at food court. Then we spent the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening at the Orlando Premium Outlets before leaving the mall for dinner. Today’s choice was made by Xandrine and we ate at Golden Corral. It’s packed in there and even when we left, after 10PM, there were still people coming in. From the Golden Corral we stopped at Walgreens for some afterbite as we were bitten by some insects a couple of days ago and those bites itch. Then around the corner of Walgreens, we were back at the hotel, where we quickly got ready for bed.

Double Day