Sorry for the delay in getting this up, got a little busy.

Part 3 (Wed 6/18 - Sat 6/21)

Wed - 6/18 -- nothing, basically a day off to do whatever. We did take the kids to see Kung Fu Panda, shopped at Downtown Disney, and went to Capones Dinner & Show.

Kung Fu Panda -- Not bad not great. Kids liked it and that's all that mattered. I will say this though ... we went to the AMC 24 in Downtown Disney for this and I can honestly tell you this is the nicest movie theater I have ever been to anywhere.

Downtown Disney - ehhh it's ok. Not a place I feel I need to go back to next time. We did not go to the interactive arcade though which may bring me back next time we go down.

Capones - Ok 13 years ago on my honeymoon we went to this and had a decent time. My wife and her family REALLY wanted to go so I agreed. This show SUCKED! The food was ok but to be honest with you it's hard to ruin buffet food. One performer was very very talented the rest ... were ok. My wife and her family enjoyed it which is fine I guess but I sure would like that 2 hours of my life back please.

Only good thing I got from it was a crack a waiter made when one of the performers mouthed of to him. The performer smart mouthed the waiter about something (I think the coffee he got him) and here is the Waiter's reply ...

"How about I rip your ears and stuff 'em in your back pocket so you can hear me kickin' your a$$!"

Now this had me laughing my a$$ off but other than that I hated the show ... oh well.

Thur - Sea World
**Weather -- SCORCHER!!! This may have been the hottest day yet. 1/2 our crew fizzled out at 2pm and went home it was so hot. We stuck it out though.

**Preface - SW or any aquatic park is always the most anticipated thing for me. I have a degree in Marine Biology but was never able to persue a career in that field. Whenever I get to go to an Aquarium, Aquatic Park etc. it brings me back to what I studied in college. The visits are always bittersweet for me as I love to be there but also get disappointed knowing that I could have been doing this myself.

Kraken -- outstanding ride no matter what anyone says. Wait time all day was a max of about 20 mins. I guess I am just a floorless coaster kind of guy as this ride always does it for me. 7 rides for the day.

Journey to Atlantis -- did not ride as it was a long wait all day since it was so hot. I have been on it before and it is one of my favorite water rides.

Wild Arctic -- Still a great ride and exhibit. The themeing and the ride are very good. A little short but the experience is worth it.

Kids Area -- nice little area. The spinning fish (think tea cups) ride SUCKS as the fish only spins 1 revolution before it stops you. You then have to get it going again just to have it stop you again.

Shamu Express -- kiddie coaster -- very fast for one btw. It is a simple ride but it was pretty quick. This became my kids (both of them) OFFICIAL FIRST COASTER. Neither of them liked it as they were rather freaked out. They weren't hurt or crying but both said no to another ride on it or any other rollercoaster. Hey at least they gave it shot.

Jellyfish ride -- this was very cool. Think spinning tea cups about 30 feet in the air. Took the kids on it and they had a blast!! Can you tell from my TRs that my kids love the tea cups or what LOL! Very neat twist on a classic ride.

Shows -- let me just say that I am normally blown away but everything Sea World does ... UNTIL NOW. Last time we were here (about 6 years ago) the shows were fun, entertaining, and educational. Well sadly Sea World has gone "MTV".

The shows have ZERO educational value now. I think you here someone speak maybe once in the Shamu show and 1 in the Dolphin
show. The shows are more about a performance than anything else.

Clyde & Seamore (Sea Lions) Show -- this show was basically the same "pirate" show as before. My guess is they haven't changed it yet because they aren't sure how to make Sea Lions "flashy" yet. The show was ok. It seemed VERY VERY short this time (maybe 10 mins) vs. in the past. Also neither the performers nor the animals were into it at all. Performers were flat and the sea lions seemed more interested in doing their own thing vs. following commands, ie poor training in my book.

Dolphin Show -- More HUMAN performers (acrobats, divers, "actors", etc) than dolphins. More HUMAN tricks than dolphin tricks. While the overall show was interesting and neat it looked and felt more like Cirque Du Solei than it did a Dolphin show at Sea World. When I come to see a show about dolphins I expect to see them doing things NOT 20+ HUMANS doing dives, jumps, acrobatics, swinging on wires etc.

Shamu Show -- Saw both the day (Believe) and night (Shamu Rocks) show. Again you can pretty much cut and paste my comments from the dolphin show into here with one exception. Shamu actually was a little more of the focus than the dolphins were.

Believe -- semi-inspiring. The choice of music helps here but again it was more about the THEATRICS than the actual animals. Only once did we here from an actual trainer -- this was when they brought a kid from the audience to do 1 trick with the whales. No educational info whatsoever.

Shamu Rocks -- FUN show but that's it. It was fun because of the rock music so that was cool but again there were performers EVERYWHERE!! I came to see Shamu not a bunch of people diving and running around. I especially didn't come to see a friggin' guitar player.

The shows are much different than they used to be. I can understand the need to change the shows/routines from time to time but I feel that SW has abandoned what made them special simply to fit in with our "MTV culture" as I have heard it put. The shows were more about loud music, flashy videos on monitors, HUMAN acrobats, and wowing the audience with it vs wowing the audience with the animals or even trying to educate the audience.

Sea World you really let me down this time. I still love the park but your shows need to be looked at again. I realize I may be in the minority here but I would prefer to have the old ones back.

**I should mention though that the park was very neat and clean as usual and the staff was friendly and helpful.



Continued next post as this one was too long.

6/20 - Islands of Adventure

This was definitely my most anticipated park on the trip as we had never been before -- it did not disappoint!

**Weather .. probably the nicest day of the trip. It was hot but only got up to about 90 all day long (vs the 98 degree weather we had been experiencing).

First up SPIDERMAN!! We made a B-Line for this the moment we got in the park. We had the Express Pass for the park but wanted to get 2 rides on this so we hit it right away.

Spiderman -- 5 min wait to start. Great Dark Ride. EXCELLENT themeing and a ton of fun. I can see why everyone likes this ride. I disagree that it is the best ride in the park though (at least for me). It is the best noncoaster ride in the park.
Rate it a 4 1/2 out of 5.

After this we saw Spiderman so the kids went and got pics with him. During this wait time I decided to run over to ride Hulk since I had passes my wait time was almost 0 (may be 5 mins). Stand By line was at least 40 mins already.

Hulk -- WOW what a great ride!! Loved this coaster a lot. The themeing again was superb. The story line excellent, the que terrific. The ride itself was great as I love launched coasters. Much like Kumba I banged the snot out of my ears the first time out. Once I leaned slightly forward I was fine. I liked everything about the ride, no complaints. 2 total rides (this time).

Oh and for those who say B&M rides are boring & forceless you are full of it. I have ridden on lots of B&Ms and never once did I think they were boring or forceless.

After this I met up with the family at the Accelatron. The kids had already ridden twice and begged me to go on with them. I did and like all other tea cup style rides it was good. I will say this though, we were able to REALLY get this one spinning. Much more so than any others we had been on to date. I was actually pretty dizzy once we got off this time.

Marvel Super Hero Island -- this whole area was awesome. I loved the themeing, the look, and just the overall feel from this entire area. Excellent!!

Next up -- Jurassic Park area

We bypassed the Toon Lagoon area for later in the day and went to Jurassic Park.

Oh man the walk through the main gates with the music playing was great. What a totally cool feeling that was for all of us. Once there we worked our way through things and got on Jurassic Park the ride. I actually got my mother in law and brother in law to ride with me. I was sure I was on my own as NO ONE in our group does anything with a hill, a dip, or anything like a coaster.

JP The Ride -- I loved this ride. I enjoyed this from top to bottom. The animatronics were very good, the themeing great and the ride was very good as well. Hi thrills ... no but fun. Rate it a 4 out of 5 for me.

Pterandon Flyers -- never got to do them since it was a 60min + wait time all day. They do not take Express Pass here which sucks.

I split from the group again while they did some of the dinosaur exhibits and I went on Dueling Dragons.

DD -- WOW what can I say about this ride. Very unique experience. I can say that w/o both sides of this ride it would not be very good (ie Fire or Ice by itself would not be fun). The themeing was excellent until you were on the ride. The que, the station, the trains are all well done but once on the ride there is nothing ... just gravel and buildings. A little disappointing since everything is so well done. It only mildly took away from the ride experience though. The "near misses" on this ride are what make it unique and very very good. Without them I think this would be an average invert but with them its over the top.

Fire vs. Ice -- Fire was the clear cut winner here for me. I cannot pinpoint the major reason why but I just enjoyed it more. Ice has a lull near the end of the ride where it just feels like its not doing anything at all. Both sides are very fun though. Fire rates a 4 1/2 out of 5, Ice 3 3/4 out of 5 -- Ride as a whole 4 out of 5. 4 total rides for the day (2 on each).

We met up for lunch and then afterwards got changed for the toon lagoon.

Popeye & Blutos Rafts -- Very good raft ride. More thrilling than most "slow" raft rides. The story was good and all the themeing throughout the ride (and que) makes it the best raft ride I have been on to date. 60 min + wait all day. 1 total ride with the whole family and we got good and wet! Rate it a 4 out of 5.

Dudley Do-Right's Ripsaw Falls -- WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is HANDS DOWN the best "flume" style ride ever. I enjoyed this ride so much I can't believe it. The themeing (the canadian mountie uniforms on the workers was great), the story and the ride as a whole couldn't have been better. That final splash down is the absolute best!! Sadly only got 1 ride on it but man did I want to ride this again. 60 min + wait all day. Rate it a 5 out of 5!!

We change and now move on to Seussville. What a really well done theme job. I really felt like I was in a Seuss book.

Carouseusel - nice twist to the standard Carousel. Good ride.

One fish, two fish -- GREAT flying ride. I had NO CLUE I was going to get wet on it. Caught me by surprise. My daughter loved it as well. Nicely done.

Train (forget the name) -- neat little ride over top of everything. Not worth a 30 min+ wait that it had all day but still cool.

Cat in the Hat -- very good ride. My kids went nuts over this ride. It is very simple but it just worked as a whole. We rode this twice and would have easily ridden more but we had other things still to do.

Moved on to the Lost Continent. Themeing here was ok. Not as good as other areas (Marvel, JP, Seuss) but still way better than most parks.

Sinbad -- very nice stunt show. Easily on par with some of the Disney stuff. Nice Special Effects as well. Rate it a 4 out of 5.

We grabbed dinner and waited out an hour long viscious storm. It took some time for the rides to run again so we goofed off and shopped some.

Once thing were running again we went back to Marvel Island.

We hit Spiderman again on Express Pass (wait time was now 40 mins +).

I split off and rode Dr. Doom -- it was ok, rate it a 3 out of 5. Good theme and idea but the forces were minimal.

I then rode Hulk 5 times in a row all over the place but mostly in the back since that is what was available and it was nearing closing time.

While I was doing this the kids rode the Accelatron about 8 times in a row. Did I mention that the kids like tea cup rides??

So its basically 8pm and we packed up and headed out to the parking deck. It was pretty cool walking out as all 4 of us held hands from the park to the car. A nice family moment for me.

Side note -- HOLY CRAP was City Walk a zoo. It was Friday night and you could tell because there thousands of people there to party it up. This made getting out of the park and to the car a nightmare but hey we made it out w/o incident.

We concluded our trip with wee bit of shopping Sat morning and made the trek about 7 hours to our hotel in Florence, SC. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites there and I have to tell you this was one damn nice hotel with very big rooms. Good clean quality hotel with a nice breakfast the next morning. Well worth the $60 we paid.

We stopped at South of the Border on the way home to VA and got home late Sunday afternoon.

In general we had a great time. We had a lot more mishaps/problems on this vacation than I had ever had before but we worked through it all and just had a blast.

Only downside was on Sat (on the way home) I picked up a nasty cold which I have been unable to shake for the last week. Oh well at least it happened at the end of vacation and not at the beginning.

It will be a long time before we can take another trip like this (both magnitude and length) as we pretty much blew out the bank to do this one but in the end we have a ton of great memories, a lot of good photos, and plenty of souvenirs.

Again I want to thank all of you that have read my reviews. Enjoy and I hope all of your trips can go as well as mine!!

Take and see you guys around!

Greg

Amazing TR again. Great that you had a good time. If CityWalk was over packed that friday i can only imagne how it will be once Disney's Pleasure Island closes.

I love South of ohe Border. My family use to stop there every time we came back from vacationing at the beach which was about 4 days a month but i have not been in about 5 years. I assume it's changed alot.

__________________

2008 Carolina Panthers: 8-2 / Next Game: @ Atlanta
Carolina Tarheels: 2-0 / Charlotte Bobcats: 3-7
New Orleans Hornets: 5-4

Very nice. I agree Islands of adventure is AMAZING. I went about a year ago and am going back in September. Cant wait. Glad you guys had a great time. Florida is one of the best vacation destinations for me!!!

Thanks. SOB was the same this year as it was 6 years ago when we passed through.

The arcade in the back coffee shop spot was under renovation. The Silver Slipper Arcade of course is still gone.

Otherwise pretty much the same.

Greg