Day 25 - Sea World, Golf & Swimming

Sarah back blogging tonight.  Alan will add his 2 cents worth in green

 

Today has been a very full day.   

 

We have had SeaWorld booked for a very long time as I've wanted to do the dine with Shamu, the killer whale.  We were hopeful today's weather would be clear and it was, although of course it was extremely humid again. 

 

We arrived at Sea World shortly after 9am and went to confirm our time to dine only to learn that it wasn't until 4.15pm.  We were terribly disappointed, as who wants lunch at 4.15pm. Obviously a lot of people aren't happy when they arrive and find out lunch will be so late that we were offered a refund on the spot which we took.  There was no way we could fill 7 hours at Sea World waiting for lunch. 

 

Our first stop was at the sea turtles and then we were on to the stingrays again.  I think we've fallen in love. At the stingray pool you can pay $4 for a tray of food to feed them.  We chose not to do that but the stingrays come up to you anyway just to see if you have anything for them.  One came up to Alan and put his little eyes out of the water begging him for food. It was so cute. The stingrays just keep doing laps around their pool and they seem to enjoy being touched by people. There's also a small pool at one end with about half a dozen little baby stingrays in there. They were so cute.

 

We then moved around to the dolphin pool and watched them get fed.  Next stop was the manatees followed by the crocs/alligators.  We then moved into the stadium to watch the dolphin and whale show.  If was great although there isn't much photographic proof.  The camera is too slow.  I said THE CAMERA Alan, not me.  By the time it focuses on the dolphin, it is back in the water again.  I have lots of splash photos if you'd like to see them.

 

We then decided it was ride time.  A quick trip onto Journey to Atlantis saw us get totally soaked.  Probably shouldn't have sat in the front row. I really should take the travellers cheques out of my wallet before going on wet rides because they get really wet. Alan then went on Kraken which is a very scary looking rollercoaster with 7 inversions. He said it was very smooth but I'll just take his word for it.  There were enough people screaming to tell me that the ride wasn't for me. Yes, it's a floorless roller coaster; tall and fast and very smooth and does indeed go upside down an amazing 7 times. It even goes underground briefly. I loved it.

 

Next was the penguin enclosure.  They were so cute. Then we moved on to the seals.  Again you could buy food for them but we preferred to keep our fingers smelling fish free.  But, my goodness they made a loud noise.  They scream for their food. Most of the people trying to feed them kept throwing their fish too far away from the seals and seagulls got it instead.

 

Sarah forgot to mention that we went to the shark and dangerous fish exhibit in here.

 

By this time it was time for the Shamu killer whale show.  The place was packed, not a free seat in the house. The show was OK.  I've seen better whale shows at Sea World in San Diego.  Again, a lot of photographic proof was just splashes but I was lucky to get a couple of nice shots.

 

After the show we ventured into the Wild Arctic where we saw beluga whales (which didn't look white at all), walruses and a very angry polar bear.  He needed a friend or at least some toys to play with.

 

We then returned to the rides where Alan and I went on Journey to Atlantis separately just so we could get the photographic proof.  After that, Alan went back to Kraken and I decided on another trip on Journey to Atlantis.  It is a strange ride.  It is part water ride and it turns into a rollercoaster just before the end. You really don't expect that the first time you ride it.  However, on this trip, it broke down.  Why does it always happen to us?! Thankfully I was still in the queue - the next one to get on actually when it broke down and I didn't get stuck on the ride like many others. I was sitting around waiting for her to come back for ages. I should have gone on the roller coaster a couple more times.

 

It was then time to leave but we had to go via the stingrays again.  Once you've touched one, you just can't stop.

 

We ended up taking 170 photos today.  They will be thoroughly edited before we upload them.

 

We had a late lunch again, like we did yesterday.  Right now we are only paying for one meal a day.  A great money saver.

 

We then returned to the room for a late afternoon nap.  Unfortunately Alan hadn't washed his hands before getting into bed and they were still smelling like stingray, YUK.  When we woke up it still wasn't raining, a first for us in 6 days.  We decided there was no better time to hit the mini golf around the corner.  Maybe Alan should have stayed home because he got his bottom kicked by me.  What a legend putter I am! It was very dark and I couldn't see what I was doing. I'm sure Sarah probably cheated without me seeing. At one point I almost fell in the river while taking a shot too.

 

It was still very humid and still not raining so I convinced Alan to come down to the pool.  I couldn't believe it, he actually went swimming, although it took him a good 15 minutes to ease himself in. The water was absolutely freezing. The water was beautifully warm and we met a nice couple from Boston here on their 30th wedding anniversary.  They told us that there are some raccoons that came down to the pool earlier at night so we might have to have a look tomorrow and see if we can see them.  I've not seen a raccoon in real life before.

 

We've put in a video of the seals making a racket begging for food.