Seaworld

Woke at a better time than yesterday, much more relaxed. Breakfast at the Ponderosa, not the ranch of Bonanza fame, but a fast food joint where you can eat as much as you like for $3.99, plus your drinks. Once again the kids are not too impressed but Chris, Russell and I dig in and make absolute pigs of ourselves. Whilst not as upmarket as Bob Evans it is certainly very good value. We confirm the decision of yesterday, and off we go to Seaworld.

The brave travellers before being dunked

Seaworld is one of the parks in Florida, which is not a Disney one. The brochure looks very impressive. Off we all toodle together in the A-wagon. We arrive in good time for the opening of the park. We decide that the best course of action is to do the big ride first. This is called Journey to Atlantis, and it is basically a big roller coaster come log flume with a big drop into water. Andrew and Brigitte decide to sit this one out, but the rest of us go off to join the queue, which is quite small fortunately. Lauren and Russell take the front seat of the eight seat "log", followed by Anita and I, with Joy and Chris behind us. Off we go through a series of interesting statuettes and "shows" and then we suddenly drop about 100 feet into the water. Fortunately no one got particularly wet at this point. The flume then goes around a little course. When you get to a little bend, as you go around the corner, there is a small but violent drop. Russell and Lauren are immersed into the water, whilst the rest of us fare a little better. You are then taken back up into a pyramid style building and "do the drop" again, but this time in the dark. A great if somewhat damp ride. Trouble was Lauren was so wet that we had to buy her a complete new outfit. She didn't seem to mind that at all. She even got a new pair of shoes, not that the girl needs shoes - she makes Imelda Marcos seen like Sandie Shaw!

We then went to see the Dolphin show, which was very funny. The whole thing is a really good show. The show begins with a singer singing a couple of really good songs, one which I have been able to track down (Volcano by Jimmy Buffett) and one which is a really good ballad about swimming with dolphins and whales which I am unable to trace. The dolphins are very well trained and the kids loved every minute of it. It was so much better that the dolphinariums in this country.

We then visit the Orca's at Shamu stadium. Once again this show really puts the shows that we can see at home so much into the shade it's nighttime. The pre-show consists of the crowd being videoed and then being asked questions which if they get it wrong a cartoon shark eats them on the massive screen. The Shamu family goes through their paces and everyone applauds. There is an area around the bottom of the stadium called the splash zone. Basically if you sit in any of these seats you will get very, very wet, and most people that sat there got very wet.

Another good thing to see here is the sealion show, but regrettably they are learning new routines so we don't get the pleasure. Russell and Brigitte had both mentioned how good this was in previous visits. The Manatees: Last Generation is a very striking and worrying exhibit. These animals are beautiful to watch and yet there are very few left. You leave feeling as if you had murdered them, personally.

Andrew and Lauren enjoying the sun at Seaworld.

Seaworld is owned by Anheuser Busch who make Budweiser Beer, so surprise, surprise there is a hospitality suite where you can get 2 free samples per adult of one of the beers that they produce. Fortunately Anita, Brigitte and Joy don't drink beer so the men get double portions. Um lovely. Another highlight of this day was the Wild Arctic ride. This is a simulator in which you are in a helicopter, flying over the Arctic. You view many animals such as whales and polar bears. Once the ride is over you are "released" into the real exhibit. Here you can view real polar bears, beluga whales and walruses. The polar bear was up and about when we first arrived, but soon he laid down and fell asleep, and not a bottle of Diet Coke in sight!

Everyone posing at Seaworld bar Anita.

There is the penguin experience, which shows them in their native environment, cold and icy. It is completely different to anything I've seen in this country. There is a ray petting pool, where you can stroke and feed the rays.

The best bit of the day, especially as far as Anita is concerned is the dolphin area. Here you can feed and touch and stroke the dolphins. It has always been something she has wanted to do, along with swimming with them. She was so ecstatic as she touched and stroked them. It put an idea into Brigitte's head. Basically we, Brigitte, Russell and I investigated the ways that would allow Anita to swim with them. Unfortunately because of the Hurricane we couldn't go down to the Keys where it normally takes place and for her to do it at Seaworld was an astronomic price. It wouldn't have been so bad but because we had already booked our tickets for Seaworld, and got one extra day free, it did not seem very prudent.

We decided that we would now leave Seaworld. We had seen most of what we wanted, and we did have our second day to come back to. The kids were desperate to go swimming, so that was what we decided to do. We jumped back the "A-wagon" and returned back to the hotel.

Everyone got changed and we went to the outside pool. Chris had bought a couple of beers down with him, which we consumed. The kids had a great time in the water. They both swim very well. Chris decides it is children tossing time. Andrew panics and does not want to be thrown. However he finally relented and Chris, Russell and I all take turns at launching him. He decides he quite likes it really. We all dry off and get changed ready for dinner. We decide to try a restaurant called Shoneys. We all eat very well, return back to the hotel. Once again the kids are very tired so we tuck them off to bed, whilst we watch some TV before falling asleep ourselves.

Andrew, Lauren, Russell, Brigitte and Gordon ride Shamu.