Our Trip - Orlando at Sea World

I finally downloaded all the vacation photos last night & organized them by place. I'll do my best to logically track through our trip with photos. As always, I wish I'd taken more photos but I did end up with some good ones.

The new banner photo is of the kids on our first dress-up night on the cruise. This is the hallway outside our cabin. Thanks to Amy M. for fixing the banner for me!

Now - on to the trip. Orlando was great. We had fun there as it was a mini vacation before we went on the cruise. We flew in on Friday morning & headed over to Sea World.

Kids & Bruce on a water ride - I decided not to go. Glad I did too cause they got drenched with smelly water - at least the kids did; not Bruce so much.

Bruce was the only one looking happy after the ride :)


The kids loved the stingray tank at Sea World. Of course, they want you to buy the over-priced stingray food (aka shrimp) to feed them. We got one container only but kept petting them as they swam by. It was fun & they feel slimy & rubbery at the same time.

We didn't get a chance to feed the dolphins since that part was closed but watched them from the underwater observation area. If you look past Bruce's shoulder, you can see the dolphins tails - click on the picture & it will pull up larger.

We stayed at the Renaissance Hotel across the street from Sea World. I highly recommend this place. It was great to have the flexibility to go back & forth from the hotel. And, it was a really nice too. Our travel agent got us a great rate so all was good!

Bruce at the hotel's pool bar relaxing and rockin' those shades :)

The kids acting like they like each other as we grabbed some food at the hotel to avoid any food at Sea World - also a perk of being just across the parking lot! The pool area was really nice. We decided to change into suits and cool off but a big storm blew in and they made us leave the area. Here's a photo to give you an idea of the pool area.
The storm forced us back to our room where the green-eyed family members (Bruce & Megan) promptly took naps. Ryan & I (aka the brown-eyed ones) decided to go back to Sea World & catch the Shamu show & other areas we did not get to see earlier.

Photo regret #1 - I didn't get any photos of the Shamu show. Ryan took some with his phone so maybe I'll try to download some later on. I will say the Shamu show has been really watered down (no pun intended) since the trainer was killed earlier this year. The trainers don't get in the water with the whales for any tricks. The culprit is in the photo below with Ryan.

That's Tilikum in the observation tank behind Ryan. He's enormous. I think they said 12,000 pounds. Can that be right? Anyway, he's only in the observation area now since he mistook his trainer's pony-tail as a toy. Sad story!

Can you tell Ryan was thrilled to pose with the Flamingos? I thought they were pretty & wanted someone in the picture.

We always enjoy Sea World. Bruce, Ryan, & I walked over at night too for the fireworks but I didn't get any photos. Megan was sleeping.

The next day was our Discovery Cove adventure.