Vacation Day 4: December 19
The boys finally slept through the night last night. When we told Michael how proud we were of him, he said he should get a "Mom Mom sticker". Months ago when we were having trouble getting Michael to stay in his room all night, Mom Mom sent a pack of stickers with a note that said he would get one whenever he stayed in his room all night. He started calling them "Mom Mom stickers". Mom Mom has replenished them several times, although he no longer gets a sticker every night. But he was asking for them, so we had to find some! Off to a gift shop to buy some stickers!
We took a break from Disney today and went to Sea World. It was our day of getting little perks all day long!
I had purchased our Sea World tickets online. They have some special where if you buy them online, you can get an adult ticket for the price of a child's ticket. Might not sound like much, but that's $11 a ticket! So I had our computer-generated tickets, and we went right to the turnstile. When we gave them to the attendant, she said to us, "You know about cashing these in, don't you?" Well, no we did not! She said that we could take them over to the Guest Services office and trade them in for free passes to use within the next 6 days. In other words, two days for the price of one.
We probably won't use the second day, but it's nice to have just in case. But for anyone who may be going to Sea World in the future, buy the tickets online, and only buy for one day if you are planning to go for two.
Our first show was Clyde & Seamore. It's the sea lion show. Pretty cute, but not quite as funny as the one I saw here 10 years ago. The actors made a bunch of flubs. And I must say, that was pretty hilarious!
From there we went to the Penguin exhibition and then to the Shark exhibition. The shark one has some pretty cool glass tunnels that go right through the aquarium. It's pretty wild to see all the fish right above your head! Matthew was totally amazed by it. We also stopped by and saw the Clydesdale horses. (Sea World is an Anheuser Busch park.)
Next up was the Shamu show. It's always a favorite. Michael was getting a bit tired and hungry, so he and Greg left early. Matthew loved the show though! It is pretty wild to see animals that huge jumping out of the water and flipping around!
Greg took Michael over to Shamu's Happy Harbor, which is a kids entertainment area. They rode on some flying teacup type ride, and then on the Shamu coaster! It was Michael's first "roller coaster"! Greg said he looked terrified, but if you ask Michael if he liked it, he says a definite, "Yes!"
Time for lunch, which was at the Anheuser Busch visitor area. They have a deli in there. No desire for the free beer samples (we didn't even try ONE), but the deli had a pretty short line. And the kids meal came with a cool Shamu box.
After filling up with food, we visited Wild Arctic -- the polar bear, beluga whale, and walrus exhibition. Matthew totally conked out. Then we went and visited the dolphins, manatees, stingray, and the penguins again before leaving the park.
Shortly after lunch, I stopped in a gift shop to pick up a couple things. (The Emporium at the front of the park.) As the cashier rang me up, she said, "Do you have an annual pass?" I said no. She looked at me again and said in a firm voice, "Do you have an annual pass?" The woman beside her looked at me and said, "Say yes." So I said, "Yes?" Turns out that an annual pass means a 10% discount. And apparently they don't check to see if you actually have one. Shhhh. It will be our little secret.
There was one little catastrophe at Sea World. At one point we realized that "Froggy" was gone. Froggy is Matthew's stuffed frog, and he is very attached to it. Bedtime and naptime would be a real problem without Froggy! But where was he? I retraced our steps, even going back to Shamu Stadium. Finally and thankfully I found him in the children's playground. He was sitting there right on the ground, untouched. What a relief!
We had reservations for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. That's always been a favorite of Michael's. It's so cool with all the animatronic animals, fish tanks, and periodic thunderstorms. (Michael even eats exclusively off a Rainforest Cafe plate at home.) The Rainforest Cafe we were eating at was at Disney's Animal Kingdom. (So we didn't actually make it a WHOLE day without Disney!) You center the restaurant before the ticket booth at the park, so no park admission is necessary. However, you still have to go in and park. When we pulled up to the parking cashier, Greg asked about parking for Rainforest Cafe. The guy waved us ahead and said, "I'm not going to charge you." $10 saved!
So all in all, today we got 3 free one-day passes to Sea World, a 10% discount at the gift shop, and free parking at Animal Kingdom! My mom would be so proud!
We took a break from Disney today and went to Sea World. It was our day of getting little perks all day long!
I had purchased our Sea World tickets online. They have some special where if you buy them online, you can get an adult ticket for the price of a child's ticket. Might not sound like much, but that's $11 a ticket! So I had our computer-generated tickets, and we went right to the turnstile. When we gave them to the attendant, she said to us, "You know about cashing these in, don't you?" Well, no we did not! She said that we could take them over to the Guest Services office and trade them in for free passes to use within the next 6 days. In other words, two days for the price of one.
We probably won't use the second day, but it's nice to have just in case. But for anyone who may be going to Sea World in the future, buy the tickets online, and only buy for one day if you are planning to go for two.
Our first show was Clyde & Seamore. It's the sea lion show. Pretty cute, but not quite as funny as the one I saw here 10 years ago. The actors made a bunch of flubs. And I must say, that was pretty hilarious!
From there we went to the Penguin exhibition and then to the Shark exhibition. The shark one has some pretty cool glass tunnels that go right through the aquarium. It's pretty wild to see all the fish right above your head! Matthew was totally amazed by it. We also stopped by and saw the Clydesdale horses. (Sea World is an Anheuser Busch park.)
Next up was the Shamu show. It's always a favorite. Michael was getting a bit tired and hungry, so he and Greg left early. Matthew loved the show though! It is pretty wild to see animals that huge jumping out of the water and flipping around!
Greg took Michael over to Shamu's Happy Harbor, which is a kids entertainment area. They rode on some flying teacup type ride, and then on the Shamu coaster! It was Michael's first "roller coaster"! Greg said he looked terrified, but if you ask Michael if he liked it, he says a definite, "Yes!"
Time for lunch, which was at the Anheuser Busch visitor area. They have a deli in there. No desire for the free beer samples (we didn't even try ONE), but the deli had a pretty short line. And the kids meal came with a cool Shamu box.
After filling up with food, we visited Wild Arctic -- the polar bear, beluga whale, and walrus exhibition. Matthew totally conked out. Then we went and visited the dolphins, manatees, stingray, and the penguins again before leaving the park.
Shortly after lunch, I stopped in a gift shop to pick up a couple things. (The Emporium at the front of the park.) As the cashier rang me up, she said, "Do you have an annual pass?" I said no. She looked at me again and said in a firm voice, "Do you have an annual pass?" The woman beside her looked at me and said, "Say yes." So I said, "Yes?" Turns out that an annual pass means a 10% discount. And apparently they don't check to see if you actually have one. Shhhh. It will be our little secret.
There was one little catastrophe at Sea World. At one point we realized that "Froggy" was gone. Froggy is Matthew's stuffed frog, and he is very attached to it. Bedtime and naptime would be a real problem without Froggy! But where was he? I retraced our steps, even going back to Shamu Stadium. Finally and thankfully I found him in the children's playground. He was sitting there right on the ground, untouched. What a relief!
We had reservations for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. That's always been a favorite of Michael's. It's so cool with all the animatronic animals, fish tanks, and periodic thunderstorms. (Michael even eats exclusively off a Rainforest Cafe plate at home.) The Rainforest Cafe we were eating at was at Disney's Animal Kingdom. (So we didn't actually make it a WHOLE day without Disney!) You center the restaurant before the ticket booth at the park, so no park admission is necessary. However, you still have to go in and park. When we pulled up to the parking cashier, Greg asked about parking for Rainforest Cafe. The guy waved us ahead and said, "I'm not going to charge you." $10 saved!
So all in all, today we got 3 free one-day passes to Sea World, a 10% discount at the gift shop, and free parking at Animal Kingdom! My mom would be so proud!
posted by Susan | 7:24 AM
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