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By Little Mummy, July 14, 2010 6:34 am

On our final day in Florida we visited Aquatica, SeaWorld’s water park.

I went sporting my new ‘I follow @SeaWorld_Parks‘ t-shirt and the mildest of hangovers.

Aquatica is brilliant, definitely my favourite water park. There’s something for everyone and the slides, tyre rides and flumes were the right balance of thrilling without being too scary! We rode Omaka Rocka, Roa’s Rapids, Taumata Racer, Loggerhead Lane and my personal favourite Whanau Way.

There’s a white sandy beach and a huge children’s area too.

I could quite happily return with my family for a few fun filled days at Aquatica (and hopefully I will do soon)!

FACTBOX

Discovery Cove Ultimate Adventure Package includes 1-days admission to Discovery Cove with a dolphin swim and a further 14-days admission to SeaWorld Orlando, Busch Gardens Tampa Bay and Aquatica and is available on seaworldparks.co.uk from £177 pp.

3 amazing parks for the price of 2! Book by the 15th December 2010 and you can buy a 3-Park Ticket which includes unlimited admission to SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens for 14 consecutive days. Adult £79 / Child (3-9 years) £72 – under 3s go free www.seaworldparks.co.uk

VIRGIN HOLIDAYS

7 nights in Orlando

Seven nights in Orlando with Virgin Holidays, including scheduled flights with Virgin Atlantic from London Gatwick direct to Orlando, accommodation at the 5V Renaissance Orlando Resort at Seaworld on a room only basis with car hire included starts from £1,095. Prices are per person based on 2 adults travelling and sharing a run of the house room, price includes all applicable taxes and fuel surcharges which are subject to change. Prices are based on select departures in November 2010.

To book: www.virginholidays.co.uk , 0844 557 3859

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By Little Mummy, July 8, 2010 2:24 am

Yep, still going on about Florida. I’m a little short on ‘other’ news at the moment due to a crohns flare up.

So on our third day in Florida we had the opportunity to visit Discovery Cove.

Discovery Cove is an exclusive park that combines tropical reef, sandy beaches, lagoons and even an aviary. You can snorkel with tropical fish, paddle with stingray, float along the lazy river and of course the main attraction is swimming with dolphins.

I did attempt snorkelling but found myself coughing and spluttering. My brain wouldn’t accept I had good access to oxygen and kept going into drowning mode. Oh dear…

So I tried ‘floating’ in the tranquil lagoon instead, but Tara, Englishmum and Laura kept laughing and that put me off floating and even caused me to lose my sunglasses. Fortunately Englishmum dived to rescue them. I’m not a strong swimmer so I occasionally had to cling onto my passing friends, rather than help their bloggy pal they accused me of groping them??!! I know, shocking isn’t it..

The swimming with dolphins bit was amazing, the getting the wetsuit on bit not so much. I tugged and pulled and with just the zip to do up I emerged from the toilet to ‘my friends’ laughing and pointing, apparently the zip goes at the back I had to peel it off and start again. At one point I thought I was going to die of exhaustion, the rest of the party had to go ahead without me while I fixed myself…sigh

Despite adversity I made it and I have the picture to prove it

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By Little Mummy, July 7, 2010 8:48 am

This is a picture of Erin playing crazy golf during our 2009 holiday in Florida. Good times.

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By Little Mummy, July 5, 2010 2:26 am

I wasn’t expecting much from Busch Gardens, I hadn’t heard great things and why would you drive an hour and a half for something you can get in Orlando?

You won’t hear me say this often. I was wrong.

Busch Gardens does offer something different, and those rumours?

Unfounded.

Busch Gardens was a highlight of the trip and I’d happily recommend it, in fact it has been the impetus (along with Aquatica) for my wanting to book and get back to Florida asap.

Fact Did you know that included in the ticket price you can catch a shuttle bus to Busch Gardens from SeaWorld, which means you don’t have to worry about driving or parking fees.

At the start of our day we headed for the Myombe Reserve where we were met with a keeper who was feeding Sim Sim. The keeper demonstrated some of the things that they try and train the animals to do so that they are able to administer medical treatment without having to resort to putting them to sleep.

The Elephant Keeper Experience saw us run about like mad women filling giant balls and blocks with treats for the elephants. The animal care team try and do this daily to stimulate the animals, and stimulate it did! After being let out to their enclosure the elephants actually broke into a run (or kind of a trot!) to see what goodies they could find. The elephants had their own favourite treats so while one headed straight to snaffle all the grapes another went searching out the apples. Really fun experience that all the family could enjoy.

Serengeti Safari

Unlike The Elephant Keeper Experience and The Tiger & Orangutan Keeper Experience, The Serengeti Safari has been around for a while. You’re taken out with an animal expert in a jeep like vehicle to see zebra, rhinoceros and giraffe. Shortly into our tour we stopped and had the opportunity to experience the giraffe up close, even feeding them a tasty snack of lettuce.

Tiger & Orangutan Keeper Experience

One of my favourite experiences of the whole trip was the tiger and orangutan experience. We were able to go behind the scenes and see an orangutan being trained. We met Lunabella a very mischevious orangutan who likes painting, playing harmonica….and squirting water over unsuspecting guests. It was enlightening to hear the keepers describe the reasons for the different activities. We were also given an

original Lunabella painting which I’m going to frame for Erin’s room. Afterwards we saw the tigers from various vantage points and also being fed a treat of raw chicken wings.

Finally, we soaked ourselves on a log flume ride where I was made to sit on Liz Jarvis’ lap much to the amusement of Tara and Laura, and we saw the Sesame Street Safari of Fun which is a huge children’s area with rides, climbing and paddling areas.

Overall a fantastic day which I hope to repeat with my family very soon!

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By Little Mummy, July 2, 2010 12:51 am

Human Aquarium

Leafy Seahorse

Giant Octopus and Sea Anenome

Stingray

Overhead Aquarium

Tropical Aquarium

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By Little Mummy, July 1, 2010 12:18 am

Following on from yesterday then…

Believe

Believe is SeaWorld’s largest show featuring the killer whales. Here’s a little video;

*New* Sea Lions Up-close Tour

This experience started with an educational talk by one of SeaWorld’s animal trainers, which was followed by the ‘opportunity’ to feed the sea lions. I was thinking this would be fine, it hadn’t occurred to me that we’d be feeding them stinking dead fish, furthermore it didn’t occur (yes, I’m a little slow on the uptake) that we’d be doing said feeding with our bare hands. I’m not a fan of fish and I don’t even touch raw chicken or beef with my bare hands. Well, we were issued our buckets and as soon as my bare skin touched the scaly, wet, smelly, squelchy fish I began to retch and retch until the tears were rolling down my face and members of the crowd began to shout instructions and encouragement, not a good look! Certainly an ‘experience’

Afterwards (and after I’d washed my hands *very* thoroughly) we saw the sea lion show Clyde & Seamore Take Pirate Island, a fun show that young children would really enjoy. We got our ‘close-up’ photo – you don’t realise how big they are until you’re standing beside one!

Dinner at Sharks Underwater Grill

To round off an excellent day we headed for the Sharks Underwater Grill to meet Anna and Melissa whom are both part of the digital media team (they do the SeaWorld Tweets!), they were absolutely lovely. New York Striploin + strawberry daquiri + good chat = great combination

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By Little Mummy, June 30, 2010 12:31 am

Manatee Rescue

Our day at SeaWorld started with a behind the scenes tour of the manatee rescue and rehabilitation area. Steve our host has worked at SeaWorld for 33 years and was hugely passionate and knowledgable about the animals. SeaWorld is Florida’s no.1 rescuer for manatees, they’ve had 17 rescues so far this year and 10 releases. The whole program is funded by SeaWorld which surprised me somewhat. Steve and his team are doing a great job and it was wonderful to see the good work that was going on behind the scenes.

Manta

I chickened out of Manta at the last second and will probably live to regret it, fortunately the other bloggers did it and reported back that it was amazing and the best coaster they’d ever been on!

Wild Arctic

This is the bit where I have to tactfully say that it wasn’t good, although that wasn’t very tactful so I’ll tell you how it is. Basically there are penguins and a polar bear in indoor enclosures (that are conditioned to mimic their natural habitat) that made for some uncomfortable viewing for some of us. Don’t get me wrong the animals looked well cared for (and all the animal handlers and trainers are true professionals that really care and bond with the animals in their charge), it just wasn’t very ‘wild’.

However, I did get to stroke King Midas, a King penguin and it was amazing! Check out how close we were to him, it was surreal to be that close to a penguin, obviously you wouldn’t be able to experience without facilities like ‘Wild Arctic’ so I guess that’s where the ‘highs and lows’ come in.

Shamu’s Happy Harbor

Shamu’s Happy Harbor is the kid section of SeaWorld and comprises kiddy rides, a paddling area and the most humongous climbing frame I’ve ever seen. Loved this, and could totally picture Erin spending a happy hour here. Check out this short and poorly shot video, although worth watching until the end to see Englishmum imitating a monkey

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By Little Mummy, June 23, 2010 3:15 am

This is a photo I took at Busch Gardens during the Tiger and Orangutan Keeper Experience;

Experience what it is like to be a Busch Gardens zookeeper caring for Jungala’s Bengal tigers and Bornean orangutans.

You’ll go behind the scenes to see where the animals sleep, have the unique opportunity to help the zoo staff prepare the animals food and perform routine health exams. Your group will also take part in an orangutan training session, and then test your strength against a tiger.

We got to go behind the scenes and meet Lunabella, an orangutan who was having a training session. The trainers explained how each of the ‘tricks’ they teach the orangutans actually has a purpose, they can get the orangutans to open their mouths, lift their arms etc.. this allows the staff to administer medical treatment without having to put them to sleep. Lunabella also had some ‘play’ time and likes playing the harmonica and painting. She was very mischevious, at one point sneaking off to fill her mouth with water to squirt over us!

Definitely my favourite animal experience during our trip to Florida.

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By Little Mummy, June 22, 2010 5:29 am

Just a wee video of clips from our amazing trip to SeaWorld and Busch Gardens. The music kind of overlaps in some bits, sorry about that. Here it is;

In this video;

* Introduction to mummy bloggers
* Huge walrus
* Short clip of the ‘Believe’ show
* The children’s area in SeaWorld and the massive climbing frame
* Sealion show
* Gorillas
* Orangutan ‘Luna Bella’ having a health check. That cage is not her permanent home by the way, they have a fantastic series of indoor and outdoor areas where they live.
* The elephants foraging for food in their enclosure.

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By Little Mummy, June 20, 2010 2:29 pm

So after a good night in the Yotel we met with our lovely PR host Lucy. A quick breakfast in the V Lounge and we were on the aircraft en route to Florida.

Unfortunately there was a backup at Orlando and it took us 3 hours to get out!

There’s a lesson to be learned in every situation though, or several in this case;

* US Immigration are fierce

* People in wheelchairs don’t need to park themselves next to the baggage conveyor when they aren’t collecting their own bags.

* Tara ‘Sticky Fingers’ Cain doesn’t like queueing (and will make her displeasure known to all)

* Orlando aiprort staff need a lesson in organisation. ‘Headless chickens’ springs to mind.

* You can fit *a lot* of people in one shuttle bus if people have been waiting three hours to escape!

We eventually arrived at our hotel – The Rennaisance Orlando which was lovely and my room was absolutely massive.

I also had my first striploin steak which was mmmmm good