Feb
15
2009

Seaworld

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSunday, February 15, 2009 - 09:26:19 pm
(Posted Under: Travel)
This morning after a much welcomes night of sleep, we headed out to catch a bus to Seaworld, not before stopping at a Coles (now open, woo!) for some supplies and to pick up some more brochures, which Katie spent most of the bus trip frantically leafing through looking for entry deals.

Photobox ImageWe arrived a bit later than we would have otherwise planned (10:30ish), and after a few steps from the bus, I had to exclaim "Christ on a crutch!" on seeing the line. Although the place had been open for half an hour, the line of people flowed well in to the carpark. It was somewhat surprising, given school has gone back, but I guess it was a Sunday. We considered coming back tomorrow, but given having to get to the airport, we stayed the course. At the end of the day it took just under and hour to get inside the gates. It seemed like it was going to be a Disneyland experience all over again (crowded), but once we were inside, it was all good, though we were constantly on the go to fit everything in.

Photobox ImageFirst stop for me was a cigarette while Katie got donuts (with our all day meal deal), and then over to watch the Fish Detectives show. Ironically my camera batteries died half way through it, which was an incredible pain. And kind of testament to how full on things have been the last couple of weeks, since I'd obviously planned to charge them, but just haven't gotten around to it. Kind of a kick in the teeth to have to buy batteries at a theme park though.

After the show we had a bit of time to recoup, and look around. Although we'd both commented on how Seaworld was more expensive than both Dreamworld and Movie World, we were both impressed by it, and was definitely worth it, not only because it was the only theme park that we didn't do last year. And to that end, it being really good that we decided to make the trip 3 days rather than just one, or two as we were originally looking at doing.

We stopped off at Seaseme Street Beach to pick up some batteries, and also a Seame Street Beach enviro bag for Katie. Where I learnt that she had seem some last year, and had wanted to come to Seaworld since, pretty much so that that she could add that to her enviro bag collection! Aww, how cute! It's quite impressive how giddy you can make my girl by buying her a $2 environment friendly Seaseme Street Beach bag! [smile]

Photobox ImageAfer that we touched some sting rays (another animal for Katie to add to her impressive list of animals she's touched in Queensland), which really seemed like a liability suit just waiting to happen. A huge tank of sting rays, unsupervised, inviting anyone and everyone to touch them. Messing with a string ray didn't work out that well for Steve Irwin1. Neither the less, it must be safe somehow, and we left without any barbs sticking out of ourselves. [smile] From there it was over to Shark Bay. Definitely one of the highlights in my opinion. The Melbourne Aquarium is pretty good, but really pales in comparison to the two tanks of tropical fish and sharks at Seaworld.

Photobox ImageAfter this we headed over to the Seaseme Street Beach show. Sitting next to me, was one of the most excited audience members. That's right, Katie's enthusiasm and excitement about the show rivaled that of any of the 3 years olds there! [smile]

From here, we decided that it was time to cash in on the unlimited popcorn portion of our meal deal, which was the major selling point of the deal, but had been largely overlooked, due to how busy we'd been since we didn't get in to the park until around 11:30. Unfortunately this meant a walk back to the entrance of the park. Which immediately turned into a hustled walk right back to the back of the park for the dolphin show, when we denied entry on the monorail because we had popcorn. Our only complaint with Seaworld (other than the stupid "no food or drink on the monorail" rule [wink] ) was that the narrow long layout of the park makes it hard to quickly get around to the attractions.

On the way we stopped back at Seaseme Street Beach for the scheduled photo opportunities, for Katie to get her photo with Grover. Which turned out to be a disappointment, as it was a $15 a pop affair, which is a bit rich. We'd expected all the characters out, and not to have to pay for a professional photo. That, and the fact that there were no roving characters throughout the day left Katie a bit cold.

Photobox ImageWe made it back to dolphin pool (ironically passing a popcorn vendor! You bastard! [wink] ) in time to catch most of the show, which was something I didn't want to miss. From here we took the monorail back to the entrance to cash in the rest of our meal deals - which turned out to be a good deal, since it was $16 odd a person (2 donuts, lunch, an icecream, and unlimited popcorn all day) and the meals themselves were $14. By this time it was almost 5pm, which goes to how we really didn't have time throughout the day to worry about eating. I guess the heat (it was a scorcher) also helped in us not being that hungry throughout the day. But we got our meals and icecreams, the meals which neither of us could finish - which brought on a predicament with our plans to eat at New Mexico tonight. We were both too hot, too tired and too full to be able to conceive doing that. And trust me, I have been really looking forward to a melt your tongue off spicy New Mexico taco, but at this point, more food was the last thing we could think about! [smile]

After stopping at the incredibly packed gift shop, we headed out, and home, stopping off along the way to try and pick up some more drinks, only to find, once again, every supermarket in town was closed!

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