Dad's Taxi Doesn't Do Disney - Part 2

[Dads_Taxi]

Dad’s Taxi Doesn’t Do Disney - Part 2 - Less Words, More Pictures!

Today we visit SeaWorld. After the long day yesterday I expected to sleep like a log, but I had a dreadful sleep and woke again and again really tense and fists clenched. No idea what was bothering me, but it wasn’t a good start to the day.

We decide to start the day with a proper breakfast, so we drive up to SeaWorld, then go
beyond and find a Denny’s on International Drive where we all have pancakes,

some of us supplementing them with meat and eggs. It was delicious, but I have to say I don’t remember the sausages being so small, they were tiny.

Soon after the park opened, we are already feeling the holiday spirit, and the weather was just perfect

We head straight over to Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin, as we’ve not done this attraction before. It had just opened when we were last at SeaWorld, two years ago, and we never saw the queues at less than 70 minutes wait. This morning we walked straight in, and it’s a cute little ride which we all enjoyed, but our verdict was that you would be very disappointed if you had stood in a line for 70 minutes for it.

The penguins are very cute though:

Next stop: The Blue Horizons Show. We’ve seen this many times, but we still think it’s probably the best show at the park. We got great seats and noticed that the theatre was far from full when the show started, yet another clue that SeaWorld are losing their visitors. We love it here though, and as always the show was amazing.

The show was slightly different, in that the high-diving display didn’t happen, but the trapeze artists
were in full force and the birds were flying around the audience, including the fly-past by the condor which I had completely forgotten about and consequently missed the photo opportunity.

More follows, read on below……..

[Dads_Taxi]

Part 2 Continued

The dolphins are the real stars of the Blue Horizons show of course, and the finale is their big moment.

I’m quite proud of that photo!


Onwards we go, and the girls want to go on Manta, and why not, wait time is 5 minutes, we are seeing a pattern emerging here. Sadly Kayleigh is told that she needs to grow another 4 inches before she can ride on Manta, so she is cheered up by some Dippin’ Dots

And as the wait time is so short , Georgia decides to fly on Manta for a second time. It’s rather zoomed in, but she did spot me pointing the camera at her -

Last year we were disappointed to read that the Clyde and Seamore show had come to an end, but we were very pleased to see today that there is a new show, Clyde & Seamore’s Sea Lion High.

If you’ve been to SeaWorld you may remember that the Shamu show makes a point of honouring men and women who serve or have served in the armed forces, with service men and women asked to stand for applause. As the theme of the Sea Lion High show is Education, Imagination, Exploration, we were asked if any educators would stand up to be applauded. Mrs Dad’s Taxi and Lydia stayed sat firmly in their seats! Chickens.


It was great to watch a show where we didn’t know every gag! However we really did miss the pre-show mime artist, who has been replaced by a very energetic guy who does the usual interaction with the crowd organizing mexican waves and such-like. The mime was brilliant.


One more extension to Part Two is needed to get all the photos in, so please read on if you’re still awake…..

[Dads_Taxi]

The Continuation of Part Two Continued

Oh well, the mime may be gone, but at least the producer of the show knows what people want to see - blondes in cheerleader costumes:

And blondes in nurse costumes:

We loved the show, which is based around a high school graduation day, and had some good gags and let the stars show off their talents.

One more first for us today was a ride up the SeaWorld Tower. It was a beautiful clear day, and the views were great. This was previously an extra cost, but this year it is included in your ticket, so we gave it a go. As we were up there we could see a show underway at the Shamu Stadium, and the rollercoasters look small from up there! I did take some photos but I’m really hitting the photo limit in this report. Might add them later.

We were looking forward to a ride on Journey To Atlantis, hoping we might get a little wet to cool us down, but unfortunately the ride was closed for undisclosed reasons - hopefully nothing too bad.

We went to watch Pets Ahoy, which is a very clever show featuring goodness knows how many animals. Imagine the tedious dogs on Britain’s Got Talent and multiply it by a hundred, both in numbers of animals performing, and entertainment value. The finale is a brilliantly choreographed sequence of events, with each animal triggering the next event by opening a cage or door, or pushing a button or something similar. It was going great until there was a very long pause (paws?) in the flow, and eventually a trainer came out to explain that one of the cats had fallen asleep!.

Our last show of the day was of course Shamu, the One Ocean show. I’m still amazed that these huge creatures can be trained to perform to command, and although a much simpler show than it used to be, it is still impressive. A lot of the show now is focused on making sure the people in the splash zone get wet, which is fair enough as I suppose that’s what a lot of people are there for. Before the show I remember in the past the cameras used to hose around the audience picking out people to wave on the big screen, but this seems to have stopped now.

We finished the visit by Kayleigh having a run around the Happy Harbour, getting soaked by the various fountains. We had a great day at SeaWorld, probably helped by the reduced number of visitors. On the way back to the car, having dryed Kayleigh and put her in dry clothes, we took the obligatory photo on the whales

And then finished off the day with a trip to Lydia’s favourite restaurant.

[Laurel Oak]

Another great report, it's like being there.

[eagleydo]

Love your reports, full of fun and pictures, thank you