Day 5 - The Titanic Experience

We were supposed to get rain on Thursday and Friday so we planned activities that would take us indoors. As it turned out, the weather cooperated enough that when it did rain, we were either in the car or under cover.

Since the previous 3 days had been so full of walking on pavement while park hopping, being outside all day, bustling in crowds and generally just wearing ourselves completely out, we decided this should be more of a relaxing day. We got up when we woke up, and not a minute before. Since we didn't have to be anywhere by a certain time, we took our time getting ready to leave, so it was probably close to noon before we left the condo.

Since our condo, which was the Hilton Grand Vacations Club at Sea World, was located just down the street from Sea World and Discovery Cove, we were also located very close to International Parkway, or "I Drive" as the locals call it, which is loaded with hotels, the convention center, restaurants, stores and Titanic, the Experience.

After the tour, we ate a late lunch at Chili's on "I Drive", then drove into Orlando, where we stopped off at a Russian bakery, then went on to the White Wolf Cafe, which was a restaurant featured on Rachael Ray's Food Network TV show $40 a Day. We sat outside under the awning behind the front sidewalk at a rough granite slab table and just enjoyed our time together. The temperature was perfect, and as we sat, we watched as a thunder shower came through. As there was no wind and the rain wasn't heavy, it was a very enjoyable experience.

The covered porch wasn't very deep. Taylor and I sat on the bench with our backs to the glass windows of the restaurant. The table had a bench seat on the other side which is obscured by the railing with potted flowers. I stood on the sidewalk out front to take the picture after it quit raining. There was an unoccupied table on either side of us, then 3 tables on the other side of the entrance, so we pretty much had the space to ourselves.

I took this picture from my seat next to Taylor of the little antique shop across the street from the cafe. You can see the clouds and the wet street from the storm that had just passed.

As we drove back to the condo, the rain started again, but it had quit raining by the time we pulled into the parking lot, so as it turned out, we never needed our umbrellas.

Next time, Day 6 - Kennedy Space Center.

Day 4 - Discovery Cove

Before I start, Please note that I have added a flickr site for additional pictures as a link on the right side of the page. I've exceeded my limit of space for the month of April, but I do have all the pictures from Disney World posted, and will add pictures from Epcot and Discovery Cove in May.

Wednesday morning...a start to another beautiful day in Florida. Since Discovery Cove was open between 8 and 9:00 for check in and scheduling of the dolphin experience on a first come, first serve basis, we had to get up before 8:00 to get to the park by 8:30. We were able to time our check in so that we were able to have our dolphin experience after the day warmed up and just before lunch. The one thing that worked in our advantage was that the park was less than a mile down the street from our condo, so the travel time was non existent. Now I had originally thought the price per ticket was a little steep, but the ticket price is all inclusive for the day (you'll see all that's included as you read) including parking, not to mention it includes a free pass to Sea World as often as you want to go over the next 7 days, so it ends up being pretty reasonable.

After checking in, scheduling our dolphin experience and checking out the tree sloth held by a park staff member in the lobby, we entered the park for our complimentary photo (code for security photo) and a complimentary breakfast of pastries, yogurt, fruit and milk or juice.

We then visited the gift shops for some souvenir hunting, then picked up our wet suit, goggles, snorkel and sun screen. That's right, they provided the sun screen as well. This way they knew that even the sun screen worn by the guests in the dolphin habitat was safe for the animals. We still had plenty of time before our dolphin encounter, so we ventured to the sting ray lagoon, where we could get into the water with and touch the stingrays. We purchased a few underwater cameras, (so we were able to leave our expensive digital cameras at the condo) and I took one into stingray lagoon with me.

After stingray lagoon, we spent a little time in the bird aviary before making our way back for our dolphin encounter, which lasted about 45 minutes and included all kinds of petting, rubbing, kissing, feeding and riding (the dolphin).

The photo's were all taken by a photographer who was in the water with us. It was the high light of the day, and an experience I would highly recommend and love to do again.

Cutest picture of the bunch, don't you think? I married a beautiful woman.

After swimming with the dolphin, we had a lunch of grilled salmon, potatoes and salad (which again was complimentary along with anything we wanted to drink throughout the day), we plopped down on a couple of lawn chairs on the beach of the dolphin habitat and took about a 30 minute nap to end the day.

Before leaving the park, we returned our wet suit and mask, took a hot shower (they had body soap, shampoo and conditioner provided in dispensers in each shower) removed our personal items from the locker provided to us at the start of the day and went back to the condo for the evening.

Next time...Day 5 - Titanic the Experience, and Dinner near downtown Orlando.

Day 3 - Epcot

Tuesday we made our way to Epcot.

Now I remember Epcot from when I went in the 80's, and I have to say I was a little dissappointed in it to start out. Everything changed in the buildings around spaceship earth (The big ball in the above picture for those who haven't had a chance to visit Epcot). You couldn't take a direct path to anything!! We had to go the long way around buildings, as the direct route was blocked off for one reason or another. It was also the warmest day of the week, so we were sweating it out for a little bit. After lunch in Mexico...

the first (or last depending on where you start) country in the ring of countries, we checked out a couple of the buildings around spaceship earth, and rode 3 rides (Imagination, Land and Spaceship earth.) We then started a treck around the ring of countries, which circumvents a large lagoon or small lake.

We ate dinner at Morrocco, which was one of the best meals of the week (I can now say I've had roast Lamb).

After dinner, we continued around the ring of countries all the way back to Mexico. We then backtracked to Italy to watch arguably the best firework and pirotechnic display I've ever seen. At one point, there was a small barge, made exclusively for burning as much fuel as quickly as possible!! The burning barge put out so much heat we could feel it from the shore, which was at least 300+ yards away!! It was like a giant blow torch!

At some points, fireworks would launch from the shore in front of our seat, as well as other points around the lake, leaving a trail of sparks in their wake, of which we had a tail end view.

After the show, like in Disney, we headed for the exit, where I took one final picture of spaceship earth before we boarded the tram to our car. By this time we were about ready for a break. First however, was to come the day that we were looking forward to more than any other day of our honeymoon...Stay tuned for Day 4 - Discovery Cove, and our swim with the dolphins.