March 28 th.
Well, I haven’t written very much lately because life has been very busy. In my last post I mentioned we had a very good two week vacation in Florida. Miss Jay replied to that with... “How can you be sick of amusement parks?”
Easy … we did 8 amusement parks in 8 days, with 4 days set aside for driving.
Day One = Disney - Magic Kingdom, 9am to 11pm
Day Two = Disney - Animal Kingdom 9 am to 7 pm
Day Three = Disney – Epcot 9 am to 6 pm
Day Four = Universal 9 am to 9 pm
Day Five = Discovery Cove 9 am to 5 pm
Day Six = Busch Gardens 9:30 am to 8:30 pm (include one hour drive to Tampa and back)
Day Seven = Disney MGM 9 am to 7 pm
Day Eight = Gatorland 10 am to 12:30 pm
Plus we had access to the rides at Kissimmee Old-Town at no charge, we did a Time Share presentation, so the kids (or at least middle youngest and Wife, eldest didn’t think they were cool) went on those rides most nights that we were home early.
Hey I’m not saying I didn’t have fun, we had a great time. It’s just that I am sick of crowds, lines, and noise. The rides were awesome.
If fact if you go, here are a list of must do rides.
Magic Kingdom => Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Splash Mountain
Animal Kingdom => Expedition Everest, Kali River Rapids,
Epcot => Soarin’ and Mission:Space
Disney MGM => Rock 'n' Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Universal => Jaws, Revenge of the Mummy
Busch Gardens => Gwazi, SheiKra, and Congo River Rapids.
But rides weren’t the only thing we did... all the parks have some really good thrill shows and 3D shows. Disney MGM’s Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Lights, Motors, Action!™ Extreme Stunt Show and Muppet Vision 3D or Disney Animal Kingdoms It's Tough to Be a Bug are well worth the lines and are a lot of fun, but use the fast passes that Disney offers for free.
If you plan a trip, spend the money and do a day at Discovery Cove. Large salt water pool were you swim with fish, a really large fresh water wading pool which is kept at 85 F (we never got middle out of that pool, she wouldn’t even get out to swim with the Dolphin), another pool where you can walk around and pet the rays, and finally a half hour swim with a Dolphin. They even have a aviary were you can walk through and see over 30 tropical birds that will fly down and eat off of cups in your hand. (Eldest liked this the best) On top of this, the day we went they introduced a guided horticultural walk; unfortunately having 3 kids and only 2 parents I missed out on this. You arrive at the door and the only thing you have to pay for is any souvenir or photos you want. All food, snacks and drinks are included in the price. In fact, even though we weren’t told, you can link you credit card to you pass so if you want to buy something you just have to swipe your pass. To me Discovery Cove was the best day of the trip. I had a ton of fun snorkeling in the salt water tank, kids loved it and I even got wife to snorkel with me (she doesn’t like deep water)
Gatorland was okay, you have to say that you went there when you go to Orlando. I have this great show of Eldest staring down a 13 foot gator that was swimming towards him. (he was on a enclosed walkway).
Youngest wanted to be carried all the time, Middle wanted to ride with either Mom or Dad, Eldest complained the most, he didn't want to wait in line, he was to hot, he didn't want to get wet or he just picked fights with his sisters. I did get some great shots of him when he was happy doing something. Gone was the pout, gone was the anger. I only saw the smile and joy. By the way Eldest is 14 now, as of March 24th, so yes we are in the middle of the teen years. Heaven help me.
So we’ve come home to relax from the vacation. More on life later.
