Sea World

 

Today was our first visit to Sea World Orlando. Our admission was free with the passes we bought last year at Busch Gardens. It is pretty similar to the one in San Diego, which we had visited back in 2000, and to Marine World, which we went to often when the kids were young.

There’s not a lot of theming at Sea World, and few rides, but we still had a nice time watching the Dolphin, Sea Lion, and Killer Whale shows and seeing the animal exhibits. I thought Journey to Atlantis, their water coaster, was pretty well done. It's not as well themed as Disney or even Universal, but it is better than a lot of rides at Six Flags or even Busch Gardens.

They also have a lightly themed roller coaster called Kraken which is pretty wild, with multiple inversions.

Animal Kingdom

Our second day was spent at Animal Kingdom, the fourth and newest park at Disney World. It’s only got a half dozen rides and a half dozen shows, but it’s easy to spend a whole day there by checking out the animal exhibits. 

We went on every ride, including the new roller coaster, Expedition: Everest. It has a great queue and is a lot of fun, although Susan didn't like the part where it goes backwards, and said she'd never ride it again. One ride we always do is Kilimanjaro Safari. It’s very good. Animal Kingdom definitely needs more family style rides like it. It’s a beautiful park, with really great theming, but does get quite humid in the heat. 

That evening we went to Magic Kingdom, the first and oldest park. We enjoyed some rides, meeting characters, and watching the fireworks. Magic Kingdom is of course very similar to Disneyland, though there are several differences. 

Today we went to Blizzard Beach, one of two water parks at Disney World. These two parks are really well done, much better than any other water parks we've visited.

Disney World

We checked into the Pop Century Resort. This was my and Susan's sixth visit to Disney World, and the fourth for the kids. It was our first time staying at a Disney World Value Resort. The theming isn't real impressive, just frameworks of giant icons of the last half of the 20th century, and the rooms were a little small and noisy, but we were only staying a couple of days, then checking into a two bedroom timeshare, so it was fine.

Yesterday, we met up with friends, and spent a day at the Flower and Garden Festival at Epcot. It was our first time visiting Epcot during a festival, and we enjoyed seeing the topiaries and other garden exhibits. Epcot was the second park opened in Disney World, and consists of two halves: Future World in the north, which contains pavilions exploring science and technology, and World Showcase in the south, which contains pavilions celebrating eleven nations from around the world.

The kids enjoyed Mission:Space, but Susan rode that in 2003 and wasn't willing to try again. Epcot had added Soarin' and Turtle Talk with Crush since our last visit, but we had already experienced those at Disneyland. Still we rode most of the rides and the kids met characters and did some Kidcot activities.

That evening we went to our friends' timeshare for dinner and a swim in the pool.

Florida National Parks

 

We flew out to Florida this week to visit some National Parks and some theme parks. We flew into Miami, and from there we drove south to Biscayne Bay National Park. This park is mostly water, but we checked out the Dante Fascell Visitor Center on the mainland, and walked a bit along the coast. After the kids earned Junior Ranger badges, we drove west to Homestead.

After checking into a hotel in Homestead, we drove out to the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center of Everglades National Park. We picked up Junior Ranger programs and looked around a bit, then the kids helped the Ranger retire the flag for the night.

The next day we drove south through Everglades NP to the Flamingo Visitor Center, stopping to walk some trails where we saw Anhingas and Alligators. After the kids earned their Jr Ranger badges, we headed back into Homestead, then turned west and stopped at the Shark Valley Visitor Center to look around.

We continued west to the Big Cypress National Preserve, where the kids earned another badge. We spent the rest of the day driving north to Disney World.