PART 3: SUN, SEAWORLD AND STORMS
As expected, we woke up quite early on our first full day due to the time difference. We had to be at Sea World for 8am for the Welcome Meeting and to sign the villa registration document so thought we might as well stay there and make a day of it afterwards.
After breakfast we set off in good time on a leisurely drive to Sea World and got as far as the gift shop with the wizard when I realised we didn’t have the actual park tickets with us so had to pull a quick u-turn and hightail it back to the villa.
We set off (again) and this time the drive wasn’t quite so leisurely. We arrived late and gate crashed the welcome meeting (which was hosted by the nice fella from the airport who sounded like Tom Hanks), filled in the form, swiped a bunch of free bagels, muffins and juice drinks and headed off to the Sea World main gates.
I have very fond memories of past visits to Sea World but could never really understand why. There weren’t as many rides as in the other parks and was basically just a bigger version of Marine World that we had been to in Majorca three or so years ago wasn’t it?
We grabbed a park map, got our bearings and headed off toward Journey to Atlantis...
Now, rewinding back six months or so when looking at the park websites on a cold Sunday afternoon in January my eldest, Ben (aged 11) revealed that he didn’t really want to go on rollercoasters, or rides that go too fast, or rides with high waterdrops...
“Why didn’t you tell me this before we booked!” I said rolling my eyes. We had a family “discussion” about it and eventually agreed that we wouldn’t make him go on anything that he didn’t want to as it was everyone’s holiday and didn’t want to spoil it for anybody.
“YOU CHICKEN!” was the parting shot from Jack, aged 6. “I’m going on everything!”
So, we arrived at Journey to Atlantis – Ben took one look and said “I’m not going on that!”. We tried some gentle persuasion but he wasn’t having it. “YOU CHICKEN”, said Jack, “I’ll go on it with you dad”. So he did.
We stood in the queue for a good half hour and boarded our boats. It tootled of on its way with the pretty lights and dancing water – Jack was loving it!
We then climbed rather steeply in to a dark abyss and on reaching the top in total blackness I could feel Jacks grip on my arm tighten. Two giant green cat-like eyes opened, there was some sort of evil laugh and Jack started to scream. The doors then opened, revealing daylight and the boat tipped over the edge revealing what looked like a vertical drop to the water below.
“I WANNA GET OFF! I WANNA GET OFF, I WANNA GET OFF” screamed Jack in between him gasping for breath, screaming and crying as we plummeted down and got absolutely soaked at the bottom. Another few twists and turns later we got out of our boat. Jack, stumbled off in complete silence, his legs trembling, looking like a drowned rat with what can only be described as a vacant look on his face.
“Who’s the chicken now?!” said his brother with a smug look of revenge on his face...
The rest of the day went without incident and was extremely enjoyable. We didn’t do Manta or the Krakken but enjoyed all the shows, stroked the rays, fed the dolphins and marvelled at the wonderful sea creatures in this awesome park.
Having been up since 5.30am and in Sea World since 8.30am we were flagging by about 5pm so decided to call it a day. We said we would call back another night to see the new evening shows so headed for home.
I still can’t explain what it is about Sea World but since getting home I still rate it as pretty much my favourite park.
I think the day ended with us grabbing a takeaway Italian, having a relaxing dip in the pool and crashing out at about 9pm.
Our plan was to try and alternate between doing a park one day and chilling out the next.
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