Day 12 Seaworld

Today was the best day of the holiday so far! We went to the wonderful Seaworld. When we arrived we went to guest services for fast passes for the rides. They were only $20 each. We bought dolphin encounter tickets too. Very different from 10 years ago,now you pay $15 each to be in a group of 8 with a trainer and 2 dolphins. You cant take photos but they take them for you, for a price of course. You get to stroke the dolphins and they splash you, a lot. It was great. They feel like rubber.

We also stroked sting rays, saw the wonderful Manatees, giant turtles, and went on a walk with Flamingos!  

The dolphin show included dolphin acrobatics, human acrobatics and a flock of parrots. The Clyde and Seamore sea lion show was the best and hilarious. They did all sorts of tricks, and there was a cute cameo from an otter. Best of all was a walrus doing sit ups at the end,spectacular!

We watched the show introducing and giving information on killer whales, the Shamu show, where the killer whales jump in the air and drench the audience. 

We 'flew a helicopter' into the arctic to see a beluga whale and seals, and went into a 0° penguin arena. The weather today was sweltering, and no rain! Yay! We saw sharks and went through a moving walkway aquarium of sharks.

The rides are amazing at Seaworld. Journey to Atlantis is a log flume which cooled us down nicely. Kraken is a fun roller coaster and Manta is the best roller coaster EVER! Its got a loop where you go over forwards, instead of the usual backwards loop. We sat in tbe front row. Awesome!

There is a 300ft high tower with a moving viewing platform that we went up which was fun. 

We got subway on our way home. You cant get meatball subsin Germany, so i was very happy.

An absolutely fantastic day.

Day 11 Medievial Times

Today we had a lovely relaxed day. We had leftover tacos for breakfast and enjoyed a lazy morning in the sun by the pool, the weather finally being nice enough.

Later in the afternoon we popped out to Disney Springs which is Disneys shopping area, including the buggest Disney shop in the world. I knew exactly what i wanted in there, but couldnt find anything on my list. Very disappointing! I did find a fridge magnet for our usualholiday collection, but that was it. We stopped for ice cream, and wandered about the other shops, such as Harley Davidson (and posing on them of course). We popped into Walmart for a few supplies, then rushed home for a quick shower and change.

Then we were out and round the corner to Medieval Times, dinner and tournament. Im so glad that Matt was persuadedtogo, because its fantastic. We were on tbe red and yellow knight's team (10 years ago i was on the red knight's winning team). You get a crown in your colours and sit with those on your team. We were next to two very friendly chaps from Florida, who were so southern American it was great. They had wonderful southern drawling accents too.

The food was nice. Half a chicken, jacket potato, tomato soup, garlic bread, and apple pastry. No cutlery!

The show was great, and included dressage, falconry, jousting, hand to hand combat, and finally the victory of our knight! We went crazy when he won, it was great. Then our knight defeated the baddy knight and all was well in the world of Medieval Times! Awesome.

Day 10 Disney Hollywood Studios

Not Seaworld i know but we changed our minds after a lazier breakfast than planned. We ended up getting to Disney at about 11. It was the busiest we had seen any of the parks and the wueues were extreme. We had a nice morning, despite the queues and the weather was nice. We did the great movie ride, the incredible Tower of Terror, my favourite ride in the world, getting thrown about up and down, up and down 13 stories in a lift. Matt loved it! We also had a wander around the props area of the new Star Wars films, which was interesting.

We stopped for lunch, pulled pork with mac and cheese, and since we couldnt get into the 3pm showing of the Indiana Jones stunt show,we headed to the Lights, Motors, Action stunt show to make sure we got seats. We waited for an hour and 5 mins before the show was due to start the thunder storm started and they cancelled the show. Big waste of time. We wandered around aimlessly for a while, trying to get a table in a cafe for a hot drink, just like everyone else, with drenched feet and getting cold with only our thin ponchos to shelter us from the torrential rain. The queues were even bigger and we were miserable. We were all set to leave at 6, when the short queue for Toy Story caught our eyes. The ride is fun, your firing at 3d screens from a 'pie gun'. Matt won this time, but ill always have the men in black ride victory.

We managed to get on the Star Tours ride, and then the fantastic rock and roller coaster, an indoor, in the dark zoom around the streets of hollywood. After that, the rain had eased a bit and it was only 45 minutes until the Fantasmic show. We got a churro and chocolate sauce, and i watched as Matt got a true glimpse of tbe Disney magic. The show was great, Mickey mouse, fireworks, villains, heros, boats lit up carrying beloved disney princesses, and scenes from films projected onto screens of water. Wonderful.

When it finished it was only 15 minutes until the symphony in the stars fireworks. They wrre incredible fireworks to the music from Star Wars. The colours matched good and evil depending on the music. Truely spectacular. By now we were having a great time, despite having very uncomfortable wet feet. We saw omeone with a light up light sabre umbrella, and set off in oersuit of making it ours. We scoured the park and blagged our way into a closed shop just to buy it, ours is a darth vader one, with a red handle. I wont tell you how much it cost!

We had only had a churro for dinner so we got a drive through Taco Bell on the way home. Matt panicked when he ordered so we ended up with 12 tacos and a huge buritto!

The weather is set to improve from tomorrow, which is great as we have had rain every single day since we arrived!

Day 9 Pirate Adventure Mini Golf

Today we went on our breakfast/time share tour of Celebration village, in order to get our Seaworld tickets for tomorrow. Our sales rep Jason from new york was lovely and had the best accent we've come across so far.  We had a nice breakfast with him at the celebration Columbia restaurant. Then we looked around a lovely apartment before the big sales pitch. They really made the hard sell, but we googled the company when we got back and they have awful reviews online! I wonder how many people fall for a deal that sounds too good to be true. 

We were done by 11, and went to JoAnns craft shop/nike outlet for a bits. Then onto a flea market to escape the torrential  rain.  We have had such terrible weather for parts of this week! 

It finally stopped raining and we headed round the corner from our villa to the pirate adventure mini golf. I love mini golf and we always manage to find one on holiday. We played 36 holes and Matt thrashed me!

Dinner was Domino's pizza takeaway and wrestling on tv. Were off to Seaworld tomorrow so an early night.

Day 8 Millers Steak House

Today we went to Shoneys for breakfast. I loved the buffetk but Matt wasnt such a fan. He preferred Ponderosa. We found a ticket seller and managed to get tickets for seaworld on tuesday including a food pass for $20 each, saving $120. What do we have to do to get such a deal, you ask? Well, tomorrow morning we go for a tour around the very posh homes for sale in Celebration, tgen we get breakfast at a nice hotel. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me! This afternoon we lounged in the sun by the pool.

In the evening we got a cab via the Uber phone app which gets you really cheap cabs. We went to Millers steak house on international drive. Its a proper american sports bar with screens everywhere showing all sorts. My new love, wrestling was on so i was happy. I had salmon, crab and veg, which was amazing. Matt had a very very very rare steak and lobster tail! We shared a delicious ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate sauce cake. Amazing! Lots of beers too. Yum.

Day 7 Cinema

Today was very wet. We got up late after our big night out and popped out to buy cinema tickets for later this evening. Matt was wearing his new Captain America tshirt, which made him some friends with the scouts in thd cinema complex selling voucher books. We went home for a late lunch of nandos chicken buns then went back out into the torrential rain to the cinema to watch Batman v Superman. The cinema only sold salted popcorn which was disappointing, but we got some chocolate instead. The film was really enjoyable and it had even stopped raining by the time we got out of the cinema. Were feeling properly relaxed now.

Day 6 Shopping and Bar

Today we had a leisurely breakfast before heading off to the Orlando Premium Outlets shopping mall. You have to be quite selective here because not all the shops are factory outlets. We came away with some great deals, including  2 pairs of converse each. I have been after a replacement for the leather jacket i bought here 10 years ago, so found a new one in the same shop. A leather jacket for $40! Matt decided he wanted one too and his was only $30. A bargain if it lasts me another 10 years. We also went into Gap for jeans/shorts. A proper spending spree, such fun. We went to Cicis pizza buffet on the way home, and we had a voucher, so all you can eat/drink for 2 ended up being $12!

We had a lazy afternoon, then got ready to go out for the night. Our friend from school picked us up and drove us to his villa (huge!) Where a local taxi driver called Nancy collected us. She is an absolute nutter! After driving all over the road while texting, she cut up another car, who phoned to complain. She was on speaker phone, lying about being run off the road, then she started to swear a lot after Nancy told her she should be ashamed of giving the finger in front of her kids. We stopped at traffic light and nancy was out of the car trying to start a fight. All i could think about was how many people carry guns in America! Still we made it in one piece, just about!

The bar we went to is on International Drive, called Howl at the Moon. Look it up on you tube, its awesome. Its a duelling piano bar where 5 singers/musicians play requests. If you tip them you are far more likely to get your song played. You can tip for messages to go up on the mirror behind the pianos too, so we put up some rude ones about our friends back in Germany! They must make so much money in tips. The mirror message got up to $40 for one message which was a proposal! People put birthday messages and phone numbers and all sorts. The singers were great, and all qble to play the piano, drums and guitar. Even some of the bar staff sang songs. We danced and shared a gugantic bucket of cocktails and had a generally great night.

Nancy picked us up at 1am and we went home via the biggest Mcdonalds in the world.

Day 5 Islands of Adventure

Yesterday we went to Islands of Adventure theme park. 

We already had tickets, but decided to splurge on fast passes so we didnt have to queue. They were very expensive but really worth every penny. When we got in we headed straight to the super hero island area for the Spider Man ride. It was another roller coaster type 3d screen rides, and was amazing! These types of ride are so immersing and the quote of the holiday so far is coming off a ride and saying 'cleverly done, really clever'. We then went on the only type of ride that makes me nervous, the free fall towers. This one was dr dooms fear fall, a 150 ft tower that powers you quickly to the top then drops you, there are 4 drops each slightly lower than the last one. The view from the top was fantastic, not that you had long to enjoy it before your stomach tried to leap through your mouth! I get such an adrenaline buzz after those types of rides. It was there that we bumped into my boss and his partner and friends. Their villa is just round the corner from ours. They have been hitting the theme parks hard spending 4 days in a row at theme parks. They are only here for 2 weeks, and were going for a night put with them on Friday.

Onto Seuss landing where we experienced the trippy Cat in the Hat ride before heading to the lost continent. We dudnt have to queue for anything for more than 20 minutes and it was amazing breezing past the 90 minute wait sign for everyone else. We went on Posiedons Fury, which was a walk throughOf an archaeologists site. Of course we became trapped in a chamber and could only get out by returning Posiedons trident to him. We walked through a tunnel of water and there was a fight between 2 gods projected onto a wall of water. Very cool. Next we watched Sinbads stunt show where he rescued a very feisty princess who was doing a fine job of rescuing herself until Sinbad showed up.

After that we wandered to Jurassic Park for lunch. Matt had a huge chilli dog and I had chilli nachos. Delicious. We had taken our own snacks in to save money, and we bought a free re fillable drink for 12 dollars. We dedinitely got our moneys worth. After wandering about the various photo opportunities in Jurassic Park, wewent on the giant log flume. Thank goodness for ponchos. Matt had been mocking them, but he wore his just the same as i did!

We went into the second half of Harry Potter world, which is modelled on a snowy Hogsmeade. The shoos arent as good here as in Diagon Ally, but the rides are better. There is a ride inside a huge Hogwarts that the fast passes dont work on. We had to queue for an hour, but its probably my favourite ride so far,the journey through Hogwarts. Simikar to the other one in that it has the huge screens, but you are strapped in like a roller coaster on a movable arm that tips you every angle, just not quite upside down! No 3d glasses for this one which is even more clever! A really fantastic ride. We went on the Flight of the Hippogryph, a family Roller coaster past Hagrids hut, then o to the Dragon Challenge, where you choose either the Hungarian Horntail coaster or the Norweigan Ridgeback coaster that intertwine. We, of course, did both.

Next we jumped onto the Hogwarts express to Diagon Ally in .universal studios, the window is a screen showing a journey past Hogwarts, well loved characters and the lovely English countryside, before pulling into a remarkably accurate Kings Cross station.

We were back in universal to do the things we had missed first time around. We went straight for the Rock It roller coaster, which is a big dipper that only has a lap bar to hold you in! You choise your own music, and it flings you about a lot! We decided to go to the Universal City Walk for dinner. Its a street of shops and restaurants tgatconnects the 2 parks. While we were in the shop waiting for our table tbe heavens opened and there was a huge thunder storm! We went to the Cow Fish restaurant for a blue cheese burger (me) and burger sushi (Matt - sushi made with all the ingredients of a burger).

It wad still pouring, but the the ponchos and adash back to the park for the last hour. We did the Transformers ride, and the Minions ride, both variations on the big screen, 3d goggles, moving coaster/chairs. The Transformers one was great!

At 9.45 there was a fireworks/fountains show with images projected onto screens of water. The theme was 100 years of Unuversal. It was very cool. I love a firework show. The rain even stopped for it, before returning with a vengeance for tbe drive home. 

We were at the park for 12 hours! Exhausted! When we got home, the batgroom floor was soaked and there was a small hole in the ceiling.  We could hear therain dripping onto the ceiling from the room. Will have to calk maintenance tomorrow!

Day 4 pool day

Today we felt in need of a rest day enjoying the villa and pool. We had a lazy morning sunbathing, and i drove to Walmart with the roof down for a bit of shopping. I bought some scrapbooking bits and Matt bought a captain america tshirt and beach towel.

There is a McDonald's inside Walmart so we stopped for a milkshake, just because it had to be done. More relaxing by the pool now, then maybe out for dinner later.

We ended up in a restaurant called Smokey Bones. I had a huge turkey and avocado burger. Matt had ribs and chicken wings. Delicious. We went to a Publix for a bottle of apple flavour Jim Bean whisky and played pool and air hockey back at the villa.

Day 3 NASA

We went for a Ponderosa breakfast buffet yesterday once we were up and dressed. The buffet was delicious. Matt had steak and scrambled eggs, then fruit then yoghurt and granola. I had a fry up, including beef baked beans, yum. Then an omelette with more beans (they really were good), then fruit, yogurt, granola, banana pudding and peanut butter mousse! The restaurant opened up into a shop, where we ended up buying Matt a darth vader watch and me a light up batman watch for 20 dollars each. I wonder if they will stop working the second we step off the plane!

The drive to NASA took ages and we had to queue for a long time to get in. We were worried about not having much time there, but in the end, we saw what we wanted to see. We headed straight to see Atlantis, the worlds first reusable space craft. We had to queue for 40 minutes to get in, but the way they set it out is very clever, you watch a video on it then the screen lifts and you walk out into the exhibition space with the shuttle hanging over you. Matt went down a slide that shows you how steeply the shuttle lands. Its very steep! We went on a simulator of a shuttle launch, which tips you up vertically and shakes you around a lot, you can even feel the pressure when the thrusters stop once you leave earths atmosphere. Very cool.

We had to queue for a very long time to get on a bus tour to see the Saturn 5 shuttle. The buses take you around the building where they assemble shuttles. Its the biggest single story building in the world. There is an American flag on te side and each stripe is wider than a bus! We saw the moving platforms too which take the shuttles to the launch pads.

The Saturn 5 shuttles are the largest ever built and are the ones that put people on the moon. Nothing can quite prepare you for the size of it. It is quite simply enormous. I took a great photo of Matt looking suitable in awe when he first saw it!

We also touched a piece of moon rock, watched a great video presentation on the moon landings and on the Saturn 5 itself. And had great fun in the gift shop buying souvenirs, and maybe a present or two. We looked around the rocket garden, stood in the walkway that is the last place ob Earth that astronauts see before they leave Earth, and wedged ourselves into an astronauts seat on a shuttle cockpit. The park supposedly shut at 6, but we were finally kicked out at 7.15. It was a great experience.

We headed down the islamd to Cocoa beach where we had dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant  (i had lobster ravioli, Matt had seafood pasta, and we shared a tuna in sesame seed starter). Our helpful waiter told us where to go for the best view of the shuttle launch, so we headed down to the pier,  along with a few hundred other people. The atmosphere was great. At 11.04, just 2 minutes into the 30 minute launch period, we saw a bright flash of light from the launch pad which was about 15 miles away. We heard a distant rumble, then a very bright dot of light went shooting up into the sky. You can even see the fire from the engines in tbe the zoomed in photos. I love my camera! There were a few clouds around, which were lit up orange against the night sky, then the rocket emerged above the clouds to the clear sky. We saw a brighter flash as the rocket left Earth's atmosphere, and the bright dot grew smaller and fainter until it was gone. Matt vidoed the whole thing, so we have so e great footage as well as yhe electric atmosphere recorded on the beach.

I dont know what it is about space travel, but it makes me feel very emotional. Matt asures me that its not just me! The launch was really one of the mosy wonderful things i have ever seen!

I cant upload photos from my camera to the tablet, but here is a photo of the shuttle launch...

And one of the car too...