Walt Disney World ICP - Day 58 - Seaworld!!... - 30th July 2013

Oriel and I were up bright and early and met outside my apartment at 7:45 for an exciting day at Seaworld. Today was really a spur of the moment idea but I was so excited to visit a new place! We got the 25cent-for-CMs iRide trolley and were at Seaworld at 8:30 for the 9:00am opening. The secret is that the park actually opens 15 minutes earlier so we started going in at about 8:45am. Even at 8:30am there were already a lot of people in line. Probably 200-300 which granted is a lot less than other parks but it was still a lot more people than I expected.

Oriol had an annual pass so knew the secret about the lockers - you need 4 quarters to rent one and they cannot be re-opened so he got change for them whilst we waited for park opening.

The new ride of course at Seaworld is Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin. We were on within 10 minutes which was great because the line reached 100 minutes later in the day. It was an interesting ride to see as they use the new trackless technology vehicles but they definitely didn't use them to their full potential which is a shame. The reveal with the penguins was really cool and the score was nice too, I feel it was just too over-hyped but I went in with low expectations and enjoyed it!

Next it was time to experience the flagship ride - Manta - which was my first flying rollercoaster. The wait time said it was only 20 minutes but it ended up taking more like 45 minutes as only one of the stations was operational and the ride broke down a few times. It was an absolutely incredible coaster, it was really comfortable and the feeling of flying is great - the upside down loop was really intense but so much fun. I wanted a memento of my time at Seaworld so I got a photo package - it was really affordable at $35 for 3 photos printed including the frames - one for each of the big rides.

Manta - my first flying coaster!

Next it was time for Kraken, a coaster I’d heard about for years and the biggest coaster I had ever done. It was my first floorless coaster and I chose the back row which was really intense and rough but the 7 loops were great.

Kraken
Next it was Journey to Atlantis which was a long wait at 30 minutes long - I wasn’t too impressed to be honest though some of the effects were cool on the ride. I did manage to get absolutely drenched on it on the front row. Every other row seemed fine though...

That was it. All the big rides were done so it was time for lunch which we ate at the smokehouse. It was surprisingly really nice and the meat was cooked for perfection.

A trip to Seaworld isn’t complete without a visit to see Shamu, so Shamu’s One Ocean show followed. We left a few seconds before it ended to get ahead of the crowds and got on the kid’s Shamu rollercoaster next.

Shamu - One Ocean!

With just a few hours left before work - yes I had work after this day - we managed to ride Manta twice more through single rider lines and had one more ride on Kraken. I collected my photos from the front of the park and had a look for some merch but there wasn’t anything that caught my eye.

We got the lynx bus over to the TTC, caught a monorail and then Oriol went to work as he started a bit earlier than me. I went to grab a Starbucks and caught up with my friend Eilidh who I hadn’t chatted to properly for over a month. Work was alright but I managed to ride stop the carousel again because a guest jumped off it as the cycle was finishing and then I forgot to hit another button to park it. Not great. However a ride on Winnie the Pooh instead of Track Talk cured my annoyance at the carousel issue. A very tiring day but I’m so glad I did it!

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