Sea World Orlando, FL

As a semi-spontaneous decision, I took off work last Friday and spent my day off marveling at killer whales, dolphins, sharks, sea lions, and of course my amazing husband at Sea World in Orlando! Matt had been in Orlando all week for work and I was working in the northern part of my territory on Thursday....soooo driving a few more hundred miles for a fun-filled weekend seemed like the only logical decision. :)

Hotel Since part of my blog always finds it's way to http://www.tripadvisor.com/members/Aiiyosu/, of course I need to briefly touch on our hotel experiences with every vacation! For this particular stay in Orlando, we booked the Sleep Inn Convention Center http://www.sleepinn.com/hotel-orlando-florida-FL191?promo=gglocal/. I booked the hotel using Hotels.com, which now has a special promo where if you book 10 hotel nights with them, you get one night free....8 more to go! http://www.hotels.com/. Our primary search criteria included (a) close proximity to Sea World (b) decent reviews according to Trip Advisor and (c) price. Sure enough, the Sleep Inn fit the bill. For two nights with tax, our total came out to $108.46. Given the incredibly cheap rate, we weren't expecting much more than a basic bed to sleep on. Much to our surprise, the Sleep Inn was a relatively nice hotel fully equipped with continental breakfast (which, Matt and I never got to enjoy since we "slept in" at the Sleep Inn! I couldn't resist. ;) ), free high-speed Internet, morning newspapers, etc... Our room was also pretty nice for the price that we paid. The bed was surprisingly comfortable and the shower was spacious. My only complaint would be that the room smelled a bit musty, which could somewhat be masked by blasting the AC unit. The Sleep Inn also did provide shuttles to the neighboring theme parks. The times were a bit limited with Sea World morning departure at 9:35AM and return times 5:00 and 7:00PM. Matt and I missed the morning shuttle so ended up walking to Sea World from the hotel which took about 15 or so minutes. Overall, the Sleep Inn was a great value for a basic hotel.

Sea World:
Our original plan was to visit Sea World on Friday and then drive to Tampa on Saturday and go to Busch Gardens. We bought the 2-park, 2-day tickets for FL residents which came out to $74.95 per person. Overall, Matt and I were both incredibly impressed with Sea World!

Shows and Attractions
Our timing worked out perfectly where we were able to see pretty much all of the shows. The Shamu show was by far our favorite. I am still in awe that it's possible to train a killer whale! Something about standing on the Killer whale's mouth, knowing that hundreds of jagged teeth are mere inches below you....hmmmm....not my ideal career path, but nonetheless, majestic to watch from the bleachers! As a rule of thumb, regardless of which show you see in Sea World, if you sit in the "Splash Zone", you will most certainly get splashed! My second favorite show was with the Sea Lions. This was more of a comedic show and sure enough, Matt and I were laughing the whole time. I had no idea that sea lions could stand up on their hind flippers or roar so loudly! Amazing! Another great show to see is called "Allure: Call of the Ocean". Though a rather slow beginning, the show was simply captivating by the middle and end! It reminded me a bit of Cirque de Solei with the costumes, acrobatics and dance. We were also able to check out the sharks, dolphins and sting-rays...very cool!

Roller Coasters
Growing up in Ohio, I can proudly say that I have a rather extensive roller-coaster rider resume thanks to Cedar Point! Sea World Orlando had two main rollercoasters that Matt and I dared to try: Kraken and Manta. Kraken was a good time, although I would highly recommend Manta! The entire ride occurs with riders placed in a horizontal riding position http://www.ridetheflyingray.com/manta/. Matt and I rode Manta twice, once in the first car and then in the last car. The last car is definitely the best on this ride!

Food
Per usual, Matt and I had huge appetites yet again on this vacation. Some food for thought: At the Shamu show, they sell hot pretzels in the shape of a killer whale....very cute and very tasty! We really only came across two main places to eat an actual sit down meal. The first looked like a beautiful restaurant and had a view of the shark pool while guests ate. Unfortunately, the menu was also quite fancy and our total bill probably would have come out to $60.00+. Instead, we came across a cafeteria style restaurant which had everything from BBQ ribs to giant pickles to turkey sandwiches. Needless to say, we chose this place and paid a total of thirty-some dollars for an obscene amount of food. We finished off the day with the best vanilla soft-serve topped with strawberries and rainbow sprinkles...Mmmm mmmm mmmm! :)

By the end of our action-packed Sea World day, we were absolutely exhausted! In lieu of our Saturday Busch Gardens adventure, we opted to buy His and Hers Palm Pres http://www.palm.com/us/ and head home to West Palm Beach. The good news is we now have a very god excuse to jet away to Tampa another weekend!

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