Orlando Day 8 - Sea World

This was a bitter sweet day. It was our last day in Orlando but we were going to use every minute before we went home to get one more theme park in. We went to Sea World this day. It was awesome.

Scott and I of course hit the roller coaster first thing. It was called the Manta and it was awesome. (Sorry we forgot to get a picture of it). You sit in a chair and then they tilt you onto your belly and you actually feel like you are flying.  After that one I knew I was pretty much done with Roller Coasters. I couldn't do any more. Scott did a couple more of the roller coasters and he was fine going by himself on them so I let him and just hung out waiting for him.  7 parks in 8 days I was just exhausted.  We then hit all the animal shows. The dolphin show was my favorite.

 Dolphin hanging out.

 This is a baby whale.

 This guy is riding the nose of two dolphins.

We were completely disappointed in the Shamu show. I understand why they don't want the trainers in the water with the whales any more but it's just not the same. 

 Shamu taking a swim around the arena.  Yes that is a huge LED screen that had awesome pictures on it throughout the whole show.

 The four whales they have there.

 This whale got everyone wet in the splash zone.  Totally saw it coming.

 This was in the sea lion and otter stadium.  

 The sea lion "Star".

Yes that is a walrus and it's got to be the biggest walrus I have ever seen.  When he came out there was a gasp across the crowd.  

Of course we loved the penguin exhibit.

 I don't know where we are at?

 Sting Rays.  We actually were able to touch them.

The baby dolphins.  They have their own little cove where they keep the babies when they are born.  They were so cute and so tiny.

 Manatee

 Our friendly alligators.  I don't want to get thrown into that beach with them. 

We left Sea World around 3:00 and took the rental car back and they took us to the airport. This time though we decided we should get at least a sandwich to take with us on the plane. So we all got something to have for dinner. The ride home was alot quicker. We only had one stop in Denver instead of two like we had going there. We actually made it into Denver 40 minutes early. Unfortunately we had to wait the 40 minutes plus another 30 minutes for another connecting flight that was late. It was so frustrating. We just wanted to get home. So we got off the plane and walked around the airport for the hour we had to wait. Once we made it back to Boise, it was so nice to be back in Idaho where there was NO humidity. I was happy to not have my clothes sticking to me anymore. So that's our trip. It was a lot of fun. We had a really good time. We did tons of things but there are still lots of other things that we need to go back to see again. Someday we will get back there.

Orlando Day 7 - Busch Gardens

Today took us to Tampa to Busch Gardens. It was only 50 miles away but we have decided that a mile in Idaho is not the same as a mile in Florida. It's so crazy because it took us forever. It took longer than 50 minutes to get 50 miles and so it just didn't make sense. We first tried to go to an adoption agency there but no one was there. We were a little disappointed that we were never able to meet with someone. We got to Busch Garden just as it was opening. That park is awesome. 

Scott and I just went from one roller coaster to another.

  This was the 1st roller coaster we rode. It was awesome.  I was a little nervous on it but it was fun. We then did Gwazi, they had roller coaster after roller coaster to ride.  After the 5th roller coaster I told Scott I needed a break. So that ended up being walking through some of the different countries. 

 

Yes that is a kid in like an observatory with the lion right on top of him.  It was cool to be that close to them.

 Outside the lion entrance.  Topiary it's everywhere.

We found Kathy and Wade and eat lunch with them. We then went on the train ride.  The following pics are some of the animals we saw while on the train.  They were all laid back and didn't really care that people where riding this train through them.  It was like a Sahara ride.

 Rhino

 I can't remember what these are called but the flamingos in the back are actually pink so they are eating enough shrimp to turn them that color.

 Zebras

Dirty Rhino 

The next few pictures are of Scott and I just having a little bit of fun with all the statues that were around this park.  

Scott really wanted to ride the Shiekra again and so I sent him to do it. Come to find out he actually rode it 3 more times. The lines were short so he was able to go back to back on the rides. We never waited to ride any of the rides. This was the least amount of people at any of the parks that we went too.   We did the Rhino Rally which wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be.  The one in Animal Kingdom was better.  We went to Walkabout Way where we learned all about Kangaroos and Wallaby.

A picture of both.

The weather started to get crappy again and so some of the shows got postponed because they couldn't use their wireless mics when there was lightening in the area. When we got back to Orlando was listened to the news and they had over 250 accidents on the freeway because of the rain. I thought that was crazy since usually we don't usually have that many accidents even in Idaho when it snows. We got a few pictures but not as many as the other parks.

Orlando Day 6 - Magic Kingdon

On the sixth day of our trip it took us to the Magic Kingdom. We parked our car and rode the little tram to another stage of the parking lot and had to then take the ferry over to the entrance.

 Our Ferry.

 The park entrance.  So awesome.

I was so antsy I just wanted to get in and get on the rides. Scott and I took off going all over the park. The park tour guide had us everywhere, from one end to the other end. It was crazy.  We were happy we did the tour guide because we didn't have to wait in the lines for very long at all.  We ended up riding Thunder Mtn roller coaster several times before heading onto the next ride. We hit every ride we wanted to see. We also saw all three parades that happened during the day.   I felt bad about Kathy and Wade but Wade wasn't moving fast enough and they were very gracious to let us just do our thing and hook up for meals.  The ride pictures that I took didn't turn out very good so I'm not putting them in here.  I liked the Buzz Lightyear Ride even though Scott kicked my butt on the score.  We got lots of pictures of the Swiss Family Treehouse.  I don't know why but here are some of them.

One of the rooms.

One of the walk ways.

The cooking area.

While in the area of the tree house we waited around for the Country Bear Show.  It was alright.  I remember when I was younger it was so much more fun.

 Most the characters on stage at the same time.

Of course the wall mounts talk.  That was a fun part of the show.

We headed to Tom Sawyer island.  I'm not sure it was a great idea since getting off of it took so long and we missed part of the 1st parade.  Oh well.  Here I am pointing at my escape Tunnel.
Scott hanging at the Rifle Roost

The afternoon parade was so packed.  We couldn't get very close at all.  It showed how many people showed up that day for the Magic Kingdom.  Definitely the busiest part we went to.

Belle and the Beast

Mary Poppins and Bert on Aladdin.  You know I'm going to have this picture in.  I just love the show Mary Poppins.

 Cinderella and Prince Charming

Scott Just hanging around.  ;-)

Me hanging around. ha ha ha
We eventually made our way over to Toon Town.  Some of the rides were closed but we rode what we could.  Definitely a little kid area not really an adult area.  We hung out in line waiting to see Mickey and Minnie and I finally was like let's go.  We are wasting to much time.

Mickey's House

Minnie's House.

We watched the show at Cinderella's Castle.  We actually had good seats because we were waiting for the 2nd parade to happen.

 Mickey and Minnie were in the show also.

 

I just love Cinderella's Castle. It's gorgeous.

The afternoon parade was a party in the streets.  Everyone was so close and the characters and dancers actually let the kids get close to them and dance in the middle of it also.

Chip and Dale

The dancers on stilts.  They were really good.

Pierre the candle stick.  Love this picture of him.

Donald and Mickey

 I took this picture so you could see the clouds rolling in.  We decided to head this way so we could ride rides that were inside.  We did end up missing the down pour because we had just walked into the carousel of progress ride. We literally missed by seconds.


You always have to get a picture outside the gate in front of the Mickey topiary.



 At night time this is how the train station looked.
The night parade was so awesome. They had great floats. My favorite float of the lights was the Elliot and Pete from Pete's Dragon. It was cool. We were there until the park closed. I had to laugh though because I kept thinking to myself why did I think some of these rides were so cool. I think I've grown up and decided that Magic Kingdom really is a little kids park. Great place to take younger kids but fun for adults is definitely Animal Kingdom.