Sea World, Part 1

Sunday was going to be our last day in Orlando and we had a full day planned. We began by checking out of the hotel and heading over to Sea World. We were looking forward to a relaxing day watching shows, wandering around the park and hitting the big roller coasters! Jeff and Ashley were meeting with some of her friends from Orlando, so it was just Papa, Mimi and our family. We missed them, but we had a great time!

The park was fairly empty, we it was nice not to be swamped with crowds. As we walked in, we were greeted by Shamu. I think there was only one family in front of us for pictures with him!

We stopped by the Pacific Point Reserve to check out the sea lions. Craig decided to splurge for the day and purchase three areas of food for feeding the animals. It was very fun to watch them catch the fish that we threw their way. One sea lion actually took his fish and threw it up in the air and caught it in his mouth while swimming around one of the rocks about five times before he finally ate it. Each of the kids got the opportunity to feed them.

A little while later, we went to the Shark Encounter to watch the sharks. It was very cool to ride on the moving sidewalk through the large underwater viewing tunnel.

The shark viewing tank was very interesting to watch the small sharks swim around. We had hoped to feed the sharks, but the feeding shop was closed.

The Wild Artic exhibit was fun! It was very cool to see artic animals such as the polar bear, the (huge) walruses and beluga whales.

Checking out the polar bear in the corner

Beluga whales

We also got to visit the Stingray Lagoon. Here, we got to feed the stingrays and they were quite interesting to watch! They actually pop out of the water a bit to try and get the fish. We had to keep reminding Trinity not to tease them - the stingrays would freak her out a bit and she would pull her hand (and the food) back. Everyone had a great time with the hands-on experience.

Cast of Characters

While we did not get pictures taken with Mickey and Minnie while we at Disney, we did come across a number of other characters.

We stood in line in Ariel's Grotto for pictures with Ariel. The grotto actually had a fun water spout area where the kids could play while the adults stood in line. We also found out (later) that a friend of Ashley's knew Ariel!

Xander seemed pretty excited to hang out with Ariel

We also took time to meet three of the princesses - Cinderella, Belle and Aurora (Sleeping Beauty). Trinity had fun showing Belle her picture on her name tag - we picked the kids favorite Disney characters as the front of their name tags with their names, our names and our cell phone numbers on the back, just in case of separation. This area was nice because each princess had her own little royal section. Both the girls were all excited, but Xander wasn't so sure. The most the princesses got from him was a quick hug for Cinderella and an even faster high five for Belle (so fast that my camera missed both of them).

Smiles with Aurora

Elegant Cinderella

Sweet Belle

We found Wilderness Donald and Goofy. Xander was a bit more excited about them, especially since Donald was on his shirt. Donald gave him the big thumbs up then squatted down to be on his level.

Saturday, we got to see Jasmine and Aladdin. This was Kalyn's opportunity to show off her name tag to Jasmine. Again, Xander kept far away from these crazy characters. The girls loved it.

While everyone else was on Big Thunder Mountain on Saturday, Mimi and Xander got to see Woody. It took a minute to warm up to his movie icon, but he did and both got big hugs out of it!

All of the characters were so sweet to actually stop, talk (well, the ones who could) with all the fans and sign all the signature pages. It wasn't just a smile for the picture and move on second. Taking into consideration the lines and people waiting, the all the characters seemed to know just the right amount of time to make each visit that more memorable.

Day 2, Part 2

The sunshine continued all through the day. The weather was just perfect, not too hot and just cool enough for a light jacket. A gorgeous March Florida day!!

We hit a few of our favorite rides from Friday once again on Saturday. Remember that five-minute wait for Big Thunder Mountain I raved about from Friday? Not there. Suddenly, there were tons of people waiting to ride. So, we utilized the Fast Pass and had a slightly shorter wait, but still not the walk up blessing from the prior day. Everyone had just as much fun riding in the day as they did at night. Second day, still a family favorite.

We also hit the Buzz Lightyear ride once more, again using the Fast Pass. Ashley was our big score winner with over 50,000 points - or so she said she had that many.

We had a second day of fun pin trading. I think the kids ending up coming home with only one that they left with. It was always interesting to see what Disney cast members had which pins.

We also had a nice relaxing trip on the train. The kids enjoyed seeing a different side of the park and simply being on an open-air train.

We got some great shots with Cinderella's Castle in the background, from Main Street Station. Our timing was great - one of the cast members had cleared out the area for an upcoming performance, but they were still on their way. So, we were able to have her take our pictures without having to move any body else out of the way!

Our last attraction was one that Craig really wanted to hit, the Hall of Presidents. We thought the sitting down for a bit would be a good idea, so we headed inside the air-conditioned room. The idea behind the Hall of Presidents is the combination of a film on a huge screen that then rises to reveal animatronic presidents, all of them. It really is a pretty cool show. During the movie section, Disney takes time to highlight some historical events in presidential history, one of them being the civil war and Abraham Lincoln. The movie played bits of pieces of Lincoln's campaign speeches, talked about his campaign and then showed a scene from a civil war battlefield. Kalyn, who was sitting next to me, began to cry. When I asked what was wrong, she responded, "They killed him." I answered that they didn't kill him, but as I was speaking the animatronic Abraham Lincoln came forward. Her face lit up as she exclaimed, "He's alive!!!!"

As we headed out, we were amazed by the color of the quickly setting sun on the castle. What a great way to end our day in the park!

It had been a long day, filled with laughter, smiles and memories. We still have a bit of travel back to the hotel and the kids barely made it.

I think everyone was pretty tired by the time we arrived back home. We picked up some Chick-Fil-A for the kids and put them down. Thankfully, we remembered to bring our long-distance (and very-handy) monitor and were able to enjoy and adult dinner without missing anything going on in the room!

Day 2, Part 1

Saturday morning began with the giving of the souvenirs. This was another great idea from either Frances or Ginger! (I really picked their brains about Disney with kids, since this was our first time and they are both seasoned vetrans.) Because they already had gifts, the kids didn't ask for any gifts throughout the entire trip. Correction, Kalyn asked for one stuffed animal. However, that was mostly our fault for stopping to regroup in one of the huge gift shops. Uncle Jeff and Aunt Ashley gave the kids their gifts of t-shirts for the girls and a Cars lunchbox and t-shirt for Xander. We gave the girls princess rings and princess fabric covered slap bracelets and Xander a Mickey Mouse mini tambourine and a Cars kaleidoscope. (All purchased at the Dollar Tree for a grand total of $6.36 - what a deal!!) I also made sure that we already had Disney shirts for them to wear, so they wouldn't feel the need to buy some (Xander shirts were all hand-me downs from Ginger's two older boys, and the girls' shirts I made or bought at a consignment shop for $2.50 - together.)

Thank you Aunt Ashley and Uncle Jeff for the great gifts!!

Oh the memories of slap bracelets. Now it's time to pass along the fun to the girls.

A fun music maker for Xander.

Saturday, the sun came out and brought the crowds with it. It was a beautiful day!! We were so excited to hit the rides we missed as well as hit our favorites once again. Unfortunately, the lines were a bit longer than on Friday, but that only meant that we got to take advantage of the Fast Passes a bit more. We loaded the ferry for the trip over to the park. There was a long line for both the monorail and the ferry, but we thought the ferry's line would move faster. We choose correctly. The kids enjoyed watching out the ferry windows, until the breeze got a bit more than they could handle.

Ready to begin the day!

We headed off to Adventureland first, the only section we didn't get to on our first day. Xander loved seeing all the pirates on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. I would also have to say that Xander and Uncle Jeff really bonded over the weekend!

The Jungle Cruise is another long-time favorite. There's just something great about the cheesy humor behind this ride. It's all about how the "cruise director" embraces the cheesiness and this one took it on completely. It was great! After all, cheesy lines and bad puns fill our house on a pretty regular basis - maybe that's why I like this ride.

We took our tour of the Swiss Family Robinson Tree House. I think Kalyn and Trinity got some grand ideas of a tree house in their backyard. They'll have to be content with their swing set for now. It was fun to tie this attraction back into our Robinson Crusoe day from a few weeks ago.

We then hit Tom Sawyer's Island. This was one of the movies we had rented for the kids to see, so we had fun talking about the movie as we toured around the island.

Such cute smiles from my girls.

All boy, yes, he's all boy and really enjoying protecting the fort from the bad guys.

Kalyn was such a trooper Saturday morning. During breakfast, she commented that her ear had hurt, especially as she ate her bacon. A couple of hours later, we could tell she just wasn't herself. So, we headed off to get her some Tylenol hoping that would knock off anything that was slowing her down. Within 30 minutes, she was great, back to her singing, dancing, joyful self.



The Magic Carpet Ride was another one where the kids got to drive. Thankfully, Kalyn and I got the short line as everyone else stood in line while we went to get Tylenol. We timed our return right before they got on the ride! The kids loved deciding how high up we went and how much the carpets tilted.

Even standing in line can be fun with Papa!

We were having so much fun. Even the slightly more crowded streets and lines were not dampening our excitement! What was fun was seeing the fun through the kids' eyes. I have my own memories of Disney as a child. It was so much fun making new ones!! More to come soon.