Seaworld and Animal Kingdom

We had to write off our first full day in Florida, as neither myself or the girls slept at all well that night, and thus in the morning were completely unable to function beyond a trip to the outlet mall - and even that was a bit of a bust, because we'd managed barely two hours before we all had to go home and rest.

In order to try to help with the time adjustment, we rudely chivvied the girls up after scant 1 hour of sleep, and forced them to have fun with us in Downtown Disney, where I experienced my first Rainforest Cafe. I'm sorry to say I was slightly less than overwhelmed, leaving me, probably, just about whelmed. They messed up our order, and left our main course sitting, drying out, while they worked out what else we wanted, so by the time the dish arrived, the ribs and steak were dry and tough.

And so on to our first actual theme park: Seaworld.
You can probably imagine the sort of park I was expecting, can't you? Loads of tanks of fish swimming around, with little helpful labels telling us a fair bit about the fish, and incidentally, some rides thrown in to keep the kids amused. Well, the latter was certainly true, although I disliked Manta because the position you're in for the ride is rather uncomfortable, leaving you craning your neck to see where you're going all the way through. I'm rather pleased it wasn't just me who didn't like it, as Lottie deemed it "Meh", while Lizzy and Ian felt pretty much the same as I did. So we raced over to Krakken, another water-themed ride. Which was EXCELLENT! This was a very exciting ride, a bit like Colossus back in Thorpe Park, but without the neck jerking as you go round. And since we'd deposited our goodies in a locker for the duration of the ride (for which we had to pay two shiny, American quarters), we thought we might as well leave them there while we queued for the Atlantis ride, which is a log flume. And a very good one, if I may say!

And those are the rides at Seaworld. Back to the education part.

Having covered the education part, let's get on to the shows. These were good, but rather over-produced, and a bit cheesy, although I really enjoyed Shamu and Shamu Rocks (yes, we stayed for the evening show). We went to see the Sealion and Otter show, where neither of the sealions were in the mood for performing, although the show was funny. Actually, I'm not sure the unwillingness to perform didn't actually enhance the show somewhat!

OK - that was mean. There IS a small educational element going on in the park, but it's VERY much overshadowed by a creeping commercialism which is rather frustrating. This conversation, between a woman and a park worker did actually happen, leaving me wishing there was actually MORE educational content in the park.The park worker was showing a Hawaiian Goose...

Womain: Why are they in danger of being extinct? Is it because of the volcano?
Park Worker: No, it's because of humans.
Woman: What? Are they eating them?
Park Worker (with no small exasperation): It's the pollution!

The promised (still on the internet, you understand) Penguin Encounter didn't happen, although a whole area of park was given up to a "coming soon" development called Antarctica. Which is nice - if you happen to be coming back in July :(

Seaworld was OK. Not brilliant, although Krakken was a great ride. The park was let down by the number of missed opportunities for education.


Day 2 - Disney's Animal Kingdom!

Staying on Disney property does have its moments. One of which is access to the bus system to take you from your hotel to each park. You can get a bus pretty much every 20 minutes, and during your ride you're fed information about the park you're about to visit. And so it was that I found out about their latest ride at Animal Kingdom, Expedition Everest!

I know all the blurb is going to go on about an "exciting, runaway train ride through the peaks of the Himalayas", but actually they'd be pretty much correct! It starts off pretty sedately, and since you're not completely strapped in, you know there are no loop the loops, so assumptions are made about how fast you're going to be going. The ride is brilliant, as you start out up a small incline, and round a fairly low-level spiral, before heading up a much higher incline, through the temple of the Yeti! Expecting a fairly standard ride as you whoosh downwards, it's a surprise to find that your rail tracks have been bent out of shape, and there are some very large claw marks in the "snow" by the side of the track... The train, having paused for long enough for you to make out these things, starts rolling backwards, quicker and quicker, until it goes inside the mountain, where, again, you pause...

A silhouette of a yeti tearing up the tracks is shown, accompanied by some jolting in the train (and roaring, before you plunge downwards, out of the mountain (and have your picture taken, screaming like a girl), and finish the ride partly in the dark of the mountain, partly in the blazing sunlight.

After that, the Kali River Rapids seems quite tame by comparison. Which it is, if you're one of the lucky ones who end up mildly damp at the end of the ride.

We took a walk through the Maharajah's temple, a beautifully "ruined" temple housing tigers, fruit bats and other Asian wildlife. The temple ruins were beautifully done, and looked really realistic.

A little lunch in the Yak and Yeti restaurant sustained us for the next part of the adventure, into Africa.

The next ride wasn't a white knuckle affair, but a savannah safari, in a large jeep. This was really interesting, as there were many creatures roaming, including giraffes, elephants and a small herd of wildebeest. We even saw the top of a lion's head!

Over to Dinoland, where we discovered two very fun rides, although neither of them was in any way white-knuckle. The first, with a wait time of barely 10 minutes, was called Dinosaur, a ride telling how a (slightly) mad scientist wants to send us back in time (in a time travelling jeep) to the Cretaceous period and bring back an Iguanadon. The ride is part on a moving platform, but it does travel round a cunningly set up circuit, stopping to identify dinosaurs en route, all the while spinning the yarn of the mad scientist trying to make sure we get out before the meteor which destroyed 90% of life on earth hits. This ride is REALLY fun, with enough sudden dinosaurs to make you jump, and rather good story thrown in, too!

At this point we discovered one of the silliest rides in Disney, the Primeval Whirl, reminding me of nothing so much as a VERY old fashioned roller-coaster I remember doing at a park in Sydney. And I only mention it because it's also one of the most fun rides we did!

I'll move onto Magic Kingdom and Epcot as soon as I can...