Originally Posted By Autopia Deb Day 3: Today was originally slotted for Busch Gardens in Tampa. A good plan as it would have spaced Sea World or Aquatica and Discovery Cove evenly every other day between the big theme parks, Busch Gardens and Universal Orlando. But I wanted to get that presentation out of the way and I wanted to leave early for BG because of the drive and short operating hours there so Tampa was delayed a couple days. We got up around 7:00 (4:00 AM home time, yikes), skipped breakfast and went to the presentation. The continental breakfast they offered was a bit of a disappointment but whatever, I was really there for the cash. Usually these things don’t take very long, but the sales guy went “‘round Robinson’s Barn” about it, as my mom would say, and it took all of our morning. The thing is, for the first time the sales pitch made sense. I’ve been feeling very trapped in our timeshare and trying without success to sell it for years. It’s a 3 bedroom unit, far too large for what two people need, and it’s usually available during Thanksgiving on the years my cousin (who is one of my very favorite people) is able to bring her kids home. So of course, I miss seeing her or risk losing out on my maintenance fee for the year. Exchanges have always resulted in what K would call “an epic fail”. We have fun on our trips when we use the condo, but I really wish I’d never bought the thing. Anyway, the pitch was basically for not much money I could take the condo share I had, which was very restrictive, and convert it to points usable both with our TS company and RCI (without the yearly membership fee with them). So I went ahead and converted. It’s costing me more money, mostly because I move from every other year to every year and it cost me my morning, but ultimately I think it was worth it. Especially, since I can either get a smaller unit right near DTD for very few points leaving me more to use later in the year for a different trip or even a DVC for about the same points as my current unit. So after all these years I may get to stay at a deluxe resort. True it will be a DVC unit and not a regular room, but really are the Villas at Animal Kingdom or Wilderness Lodges that different from the main Resorts? I may never know because I can never bring myself to pay for the regular rooms there, but I can get into the Villas for less than $200 for the week (on top of the fees I already pay my TS company every year). Also, the new plan has resorts available from Solvang, a mere 35 miles from home to half way around the world in places I want to visit like Australia and Greece. Anyway, after our morning was eaten up by all this we went back to Aquatica for the afternoon with plans to finish our day at Sea World again. Aquatica is Sea World Orlando’s answer to Wet & Wild and the Disney water parks. It has one unique slide, the dolphin plunge, which takes you through the Commerson Dolphin habitat in a clear tube that goes under water. Sadly you’re going so fast the dolphins are difficult if not impossible to see. You can see them from viewing ports and from nearby walk ways, but we couldn’t see them from the slide. These dolphins look like tiny orca, and are apparently deaf so the sounds of screaming tourists don’t affect them. I guess that’s why they are part of that attraction now and previously part of Journey to Atlantis at Sea World San Diego. There are several other slides and the theming is really nice. We very much enjoyed our visit, but after only 2 or 3 hours we had done all there was to do there. I suppose during the Spring and Summer months when it is hot the lines make it an all day park, but with everything taking only as long as it takes to haul yourself up the stairs the park can be enjoyed in its entirety in a very short time. I’ve never been to Wet & Wild, so I don’t know how it compares, but I would place Aquatica third for Orlando water parks behind Typhoon Lagoon (which I rate number one over-all) and Blizzard Beach (which I rate number one for attractions). But even in third place it acquits itself quite nicely, if there were more to do I might rate it higher and by the looks of it I would say it tops the others as far as dining, but since we didn’t eat there I can’t say for sure. We were both quite hungry, so we went in search of some place to eat outside the park, I’d left money and credit cards in the car along with the cameras and phones. Just up the road near the entrance to the 528 (the toll road that we eventually took to get us back to the airport very quickly) was a local pizza joint. The service was slowish, but the food was good. We then returned to Sea World where we finished out our day. Unfortunately we left both cameras in the car so I was only able to get pictures of ‘One Ocean’, the current Shamu show, with my cell. It’s a shame that I only have a few cell phone pix, and only one of them any good as we never got back to this show. But WOW, I’ve seen ‘One Ocean’ in SD a few times and even though they have one orca who seems to be quite a bit larger than the performing orca in Orlando who makes quite an impressive site (I imagine Tilikum is as large or larger, but understandably I don’t think he performs anymore) Orlando has more performing at any given time. The sight of all of them jumping out of the water at once is just awe inspiring! I always get a little “ferklempt” at the One Ocean for some reason, maybe it’s because they always start by honoring our veterans, past and present, but the first time I see one of those amazing creatures jump out of the water I have to deal with that dust that’s somehow gotten in my eyes. We did get a bit of a laugh in when they made a big deal about how all the whales just LOVE to get people wet and then the dramatic “you’re going to get very wet” music starts and… nothing. The orca in the tank just sat there, and none of the others had much interest in getting the front rows wet either. After a minute or two a couple of the orca did make the rounds making big splashes, but the crowd got a big laugh and no one seemed to mind at all that the performers weren’t going to do what they didn’t feel like doing at the moment. After the show, the park was about ready to close. I was just telling K how I didn’t want to bother with Wild Arctic, as it was likely to be the same ride as SD, when I noticed Wild Arctic had a holiday over-lay. The Polar Express was now in its place! We almost rode, but the line was very long and we knew we’d be back at least one more time. So the attraction I was planning on skipping moved to the top of the list for our visit at the end of the week.
Originally Posted By 999HAUNTS Phew! I just knew you were going to say that when you went back to your car it was broken in to. Sounds like a great trip so far!
Originally Posted By WDWdreamin Well, I hope the new timeshare arrangement works better for you. That's great about the orcas not wanting to splash. Thanks for taking the time to share.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb >>>Phew! I just knew you were going to say that when you went back to your car it was broken in to.<<< Nah, other than some health issues (I actually went into A-Fib three times during the trip, the first two times didn't last long or hurt as badly as it often does) and getting a little lost, nothing bad happened all trip .
Originally Posted By magic0214 For some reason, I remember hearing that Tilikum was back in the show...so you might have seen him!
Originally Posted By Rsey103 I saw a video online of the premiere of One Ocean. Orcas dancing and jumping for dead fish---with rollercoaster track in the background. Fake concern for the "planet." The most disturbing thing was seeing so many adults who were willing to pay money to a company to force the animals to entertain them. It must be a living nightmare for those animals to be there. Orcas belong in an "Ocean" alright, but it's not the one at the amusement park.
Originally Posted By Autopia Deb How about you post a topic in WE instead of dumping on people's vacation? I happen to think parks like Sea World bring awareness to environmental topics and have improved the situation for sea mamals in the wild. Americans find waling and other similar activities repugnant largely because places liked Sea World introduced us to these amazing animals. I don't pretend to be an expert, but watching The Cove doesn't make you one either.
Originally Posted By Rsey103 I don’t read or hear the name Tilikum without thinking of Dawn Brancheau and the others who were killed by him. Holding killer whales in a stressful, captive environment and putting performers in the water with them has been a money-making but an otherwise failed experiment. No theme park show is worth the loss of a life. Would you like to live in an enclosed area 24/7 that is virtually nothing like your home environment? That’s what we force these animals to do in exchange for a few minutes of entertainment. It’s abuse. It’s wrong. You don’t have to be an expert or watch a documentary movie to see that.
