Day 5 – Aquatica, Sea World & Shopping – Wednesday 7th May

This morning was a bit more of an easy day so there was no alarm set! Luckily I was still a keen early riser so I was up at 8.30am. While Liam slept I had a bath and got ready (my sun creaming ritual, obvs!) As was the fashion on our non-alarm days Liam was up an hour later at 9.30. We decided we’d go down and try out the free breakfast that came with our Enclave booking.

Now, when we booked it I’d read wonderful things about a cute little grab and go breakfast bag. I had been saying to Liam how handy it was that we’d be able to pick up our little bag and head on out, but at some point before we arrived I think they got rid of these and just changed everyone who was entitled to that to a continental breakfast buffet.

So down we trundled into the Pizza Hut restaurant onsite wondering what awaited us. There were no seats and the room was packed but we couldn’t see anyone who worked there. Eventually we found someone who took our ticket and told us we were allowed to pick anything from that side of the room. Ok… except that the side of the room we were on contained nothing but toast and doughnuts. The other side of the room had access to a small hot buffet, we were told you could upgrade to that for something like $4 a day but why would you do that when you can just go to the Sizzler for a similar price but a better selection!

Liam had a bit of toast with a scraping of jam while I had a doughnut. With nowhere to sit and our breakfast begin a complete failure we headed back to the room where I munched on a pop tart and he had some yoghurt, nuts and cereal. Healthy, isn’t he? Too healthy to appreciate the fact that on holiday you’re supposed to stuff your face with sugar for breakfast! Hehe.

We headed out to Aquatica after that but never got the camera out of the locker so no pictures I’m afraid. We made up for it with tons of pictures next time we came back though. We absolutely love water parks and think we managed to do them on about 8 of our 14 days or something ridiculous! Our top tip is to arrive at the water parks at about 3pm, which is the height of the heat so you really don’t want to be walking around there. But coming later means less people are there and if the parks closing at 5pm in Disney then they only charge $6 for a locker, $5 of that is refundable! If it’s been raining as well it’s especially empty!

It was pretty empty here, so I don’t recall anything being TOO long a queue. In both times we went to Aquatica we didn’t go in the wave pool once! Just ran from slide to slide! We did the rapids first and then we headed over to Omaka Rocka and Whanau Way. We did the one in the separate yellow rings first and there was no queue for that at all. Whichever one it is where you go in a big blue double tube there was a tiny queue.

After that we headed to Tassie’s Twisters. We remembered doing this in 2012 and thought it was really funny. Liam would always do something ridiculous that would make us go round the swirly circly bit at the slowest speed known to man! It took us a little while to find the entrance as for some reason they had roped it off, not sure why. But you had to grab your tube and float on the lazy river until you found the other entrance! Once up the stairs the queue took about ten minutes. This year once again, once we were on we seemed to go round the twister forever and ever! We went round about 5 times, I was sure we were about to pop down the middle at once point but Liam moved in a funny way and we got stuck! Our tube just slowly dragged along outside the hole and eventually we popped into it hehe. I was paranoid someone else was going to come flying down and collide with us!

We floated round the lazy river one time after that as we were right next to it and then onto the HooRoo Run. We did this as it was for 2 or more people whereas Walhalla Wave said it was for 3 or more. We queued for a long long time for this and it was a little disappointing as you just drop just down more or less.

Liam then forced me to do the Taumata Racer. Things like this make me immensely paranoid. I came to Florida in 2009 with my ex-boyfriend and back then I was a bit of a blimp! About 4 stone heavier and god knows how many dress sizes. Anyway one day in Blizzard Beach we had gone on the toboggan racers ride there and I’d gotten stuck at the top unable to shift myself, a bit like a beached whale! It was so embarrassing. So I had never done a ride like that since without the fear of that happening again. So I really didn’t want to do this ride but Liam talked me into it.

It was much more fun than I thought! And didn’t hurt at all either! It was so much easier here because they allow you to start standing up and almost jump onto the mat and down the tunnel once the light goes green. No danger of becoming a beached whale here! I do tend to keep my eyes constantly closed on these water rides though as it seems to all just splash into them if I don’t. So once the slide flattened out again I was all disorientated! I never know if I’ve beaten anyone because I can’t look! It is strange having your eyes closed and the floor falling from under you as you descend done on the last dip.

Liam went on again without me while I waited at the bottom for him to come down. Liam, despite being small in weight, seems to be able to propel himself down the shoots faster than anyone else. He’s like a big long streak! Once he’d come off we went on Roa’s Rapids a few more times. This is our fav! We love sliding across the floor on our feet! It’s way more entertaining than a simple lazy river. I just love floating along them at top speed. By this time we were getting really hungry and decided it was time to head to Sea World.

We went and got changed and ready (re-applying sun cream of course!) and met up outside the changing rooms to get our deposit back and then walk to the car. I also popped to buy a nice vest. It’s tradition now I have to buy a top in Aquatica, I got one in 2012 and now 2014. This time it was a nice Billabong vest which said Florida! How appropriate.

(Ok, NOW I took some pictures, apologies for the boat loads of text





Walking out and arriving at SW were boiling hot – it was at this point we decided in future we would always do the park first and then a water park in the afternoon and NEVER the other way round. The heat was a killer. Once in SW we walked straight over to the Terrace Garden place where the buffet is. I have a thing for pizza and pasta buffets in theme parks . I know it’s not the greatest of foods but I crave stuff like this! Several times we’ve made packed lunches to take to Alton Towers and we’ve ended up in the pizza pasta buffet there! Mmm there’s just something about that mass produced pizza haha!




Well this was my one pick for SW and Liam wasn’t that keen but went along with it. You pay at the little booth outside before you go in, it was $14.99 but that’s not so bad because you do get a refillable drink as well as being able to keep going and getting as much food and desert as you like. I did enjoy it, but not as much as I did in 2012. Liam however enjoyed it a lot more, as the food selection seemed to have changed. In 2012 there was a lot more salad, this time some of the different salads had been replaced with different types of pasta and rice. I had 2 plates, about 4 or 5 pieces of pizza and loads of mac n cheese and baked ziti. I’m a sucker for pasta. God that true America mac n cheese is just great though! Liam had 3 plates but only about 2 pieces of pizza. He filled up on pasta, rice and salad. He had the chocolate slop for desert which he loves – I think it’s originally from France but you can buy it in Lidl in a big tub too! I had the apple cobbler which was super tasty.






After that we headed straight over to Antartica as this was new since we were last here. The queue time said 45 minutes and we had to do it as we handed before so we got in it. We were both stuffed from the lunch though and it was boiling hot – the queue was all outside, I thought I might die!





To illustrate our clamminess and displeasure here is the most hideous photo in the world

There were fans every now and then but seriously, not enough. At one point I had to kneel on the ground because I thought I was about to collapse, my face went all sweating and clammy like in a film where someone’s in hospital and they’re about to die! My face was stinging all over from the sun cream and the sweat mixing together and it was a really horrible feeling. The combination of being stuffed to bursting and being uncomfortably hot is one of the worst combinations I can think of! I just wanted to make it to the front of the queue. They let a huge group in at once so everytime I was thinking please let us be in this group until we finally were! It was more like 25 minutes than 45, I’d say.

We watched the little pre-show movie and then were split up. We opted for the wild one. At the end of it we couldn’t really understand it was THAT different, you just span a bit more, so we’d probably just do the mild version in future as the queue for that wasn’t as big. We weren’t blown away by the whole ride. We thought it was going to be a river ride based on the pictures there were round the construction walls in 2012 and I had really been looking forward to a nice boat journey through an area inhabited by penguins. It was a weird one. We were impressed by the lack of tracks on the ground but that was about it!

My favourite bit was the reveal of the little penguins. At the very end the screen dropped behind you and you could just see them all mooching around. I love penguins, they’re super cute. Once off the ride we looked at the penguins for a while but it got really cold in the end so we had to move on.





This penguin is quite literally me in penguin form

I couldn’t believe after the nightmare heat of the queue I was now too cold! There was one huge big fat penguin that looked properly grimy, bless him! He looked like he was wearing a big tramps coat, the keeper said he was getting his new feathers in and would look good as new next week hehe! We then went and had a look at that swimming from the bottom before we eventually left.

We headed straight over to Kraken after that, I did it one time with Liam. Once off I had a sit down in the nice shady bit with the eggs while he went on again. Some kids stopped for ages, leaned over the wall and started punching the eggs! Seriously, there’s a sign that says don’t disturb them!

Before going back on the ride Liam had tried to convince me to do Atlantis next. I’d put my foot down and said no because I didn’t want to get wet. While I was having my little sit I realised that life is too short to worry about getting wet in a theme park! So once he came back I told him I would go on after all – he looked really surprised!

We both got pretty wet on Atlantis. Mainly our bottom halves which got soaked – Liam got even wetter because after the initial tidal wave an extra wave splashed over him hehe. It was quite refreshing in the heat though tbh! We went back on Kraken after that one more time. Now it was nearly park closing time so we went to go and have a look at the stingrays. Last time we’d been here they were inexplicably attracted to us and kept flopping over each other and up the sides of the tub to get near us! This time they were less than impressed.


Come to me little stingrays

Every time I tried to touch one he’d speed up to get away from me. There were some people there feeding them but that looks scary, the way you hold the fish from underneath. I’m still wary of stingrays after the whole Steve Irwin thing. I don’t trust them.

On our way to the park exit we went on Manta. I went on one time. I do enjoy it but the problem is if your head isn’t in the right position from the get go it ends up getting trampled once the rides in full swing! At one point my neck had a really horrible feeling so I didn’t want to go on again. Liam did though. I went off the find a toilet… I really needed to go, you know? Floridan food and all that . I found the nearest toilets totally empty until a cleaner walked in just after me and obviously I couldn’t do that to her when it was just the two of us haha! So I left and went to get the bags from the Manta lockers and wondered to the bench by the gift shop at the end so Liam could see me when he got off the ride.

We left the park but it was still early at this point. It was only about 6.30. SW had been closing that evening at 7pm. We thought we may aswell pop to the Premium Outlets on Vineland Avenue since it was close. This was another one of those soul destroying shopping experiences though! Mostly for Liam. He didn’t really fancy it and neither of us liked the Premium Outlets as this end as much. We didn’t think there seemed to be as many good shops down here so we didn’t end up buying anything, though I did see lots of nice stuff in American Eagle. That’s the one shop the other PO’s are missing.

After walking to the car sorrowful that we didn’t buy anything Liam agreed we could head to Michaels, the hobby shop. I really wanted some bits and pieces for baking. The Wilton stuff over here is so expensive and it’s pennies in the states! We needed to go to Walmart too, after our failed attempt the previous evening. So I said even though it’s further, we need to go to Michaels first because it closes at 9pm and by this point it was 8pm. As we got closer I saw Walmart on the left-hand side and my brain did a massive brain fart and thought it was being clever so I said, “What are we doing?! We need to go to Walmart first what’s the point in driving past it to come back?!” It was only when we parked up I realised my previous logic – that Michaels was about to close and Walmart was 24 hours. Silly me. So I didn’t get my Michaels visit.

We had a longer look round Walmart tonight as we were less tired than last night. We got a bit more food, including some nice sandwich stuff for me and then we came home, ate some snacks and retired to sleep!

Tomorrow… Animal Kingdom, Typhoon Lagoon and Hollywood Studios!

Enjoying your report and loving your honesty too.

I totally know what you mean about the plastic pizza buffets - we always seem to end up at the one at Alton Towers too. It seems a good idea at the time...until the next ride that is.

Wow, 8 days out of 14 you made an appearance at a water park.. keen!

That Florida heat suuure gets to ya.. it's horrible at times! Specially when you are in a queue

Grand day though, i'm sure you'll get your Michaels shop before you head home!

great day. love both of these parks

Thank you for reading warts and all!

Omg I can't get enough of them. We always pack a lovely lunch with fruit, sandwiches, snacks... "Shall we just put this packed lunch in a locker and go for pizza?"

We could not have survived without water parks, it's sooooo hot! Definitely super keen lol.

I did manage to get a Micheals shop... it was rather scary and eventful haha

Thank you for reading

I love water rides in the parks but also hate the feeling of being wet for the next hour or so! Nice on a really hot day though
Thanks for sharing,
Jen xx

I hate it so much, next time I would be tempted to take a change of clothes in my backpack. I also hate ponchos though! Cowards way out and essentially turns you into some kindof boil in the bag human on a hot Floridian day!
Thanks for reading

Another good read! I am also a fan of cheap pizza! hahaha!

Heard so many people say the penguin ride is a let down, shame! x

Can't beat it. Managed to have it at Alton Towers a few weeks back ahhh cheapie pizza nom nom.
I think I found it a let down because I really did think it was going to be a boat ride, on water, through what looked like a penguins natural habitat! I blame SW for false advertising when we went in 2012 and all the construction walls were up, the poster advertising the ride literally made it look like that!
Thanks for reading