[Amelie:] Safe but scary

On Friday we went to Seaworld again. We saw some flamingoes as we walked in and when we walked out. This time we went to see the manatees, leafy sea dragons, octopuses, string rays, dolphins and turtles without Daddy.

Then we went to find Daddy who had gone on a 'Manta' roller coaster ride, that me and Ben were too small for.

Then we all went to see a 3D show about a turtles journey, there was a shark that made me jump because it was in 3D. The screen was all around and above our heads and I kept trying to touch some of the things that floated towards me but I couldn't, it was just the screen

After that we went to the dolphin show. There were people riding on dolphins and  skiing on dolphins. 

The one that was really good was when some people  jumped from really high up on a platform into the deep dolphin pool. One Man jumped into the water with two dolphins, who pushed him along. 

I liked the gymnasts who were doing gymnastics in and out of the water, two of them were dressed to look like eels and they were really good. There were also birds flying around in the crowd, one nearly flew onto Daddy's head.

Then we went to feed some dolphins and pat them under their chin 'Good Dolphin'. 

I thought that was great. One dolphin kept coming up with it's mouth open wanting more fish. Dolphins feel all rubbery when you touch them. The dolphins were all playing and my hand was in the water one when one of them whizzed by and I touched its tail. The tail felt rubbery as well.

Then we went on an Antarctica ride. We chose to go 'wild' rather than 'mild', as we were both tall enough to go on either.

 I didn't think the Antarctica trip was that fun, the only bit that was fun was the spinning round. We saw some penguins in the real cold and we were in shorts and Tshirts - Brrrrrr. 

They had real snow but the decorations had false snow.

As we left we saw pelicans. It was really late, again and I'm in bed doing this blog.

[Benjamin:] Hollywood Studios

First we went to a Toy Story ride, in which you shoot lots of different things in lots of different settings I got 28% accuracy. (In this game if you just shoot loads and loads then you'll do better than if you if you pay attention to every shoot and aim).

Next we went on a Pirates of the Caribbean ride where there was Captain Jack Sparrow as an idiot! He nearly killed himself and he admitted he was his own worse enemy. 

The next ride was my favourite ride, it was called Star Tours and you were in a space ship where C3P0 and R2D2 were arguing about how to fly the space ship. When R2D2 got his way we flew at the baddies blatting them and most of the time going at light speed. When C3P0 got his way we fled from the baddies but never hit light speed. We got to deliver a rebel spy to the rendezvous coordinates. This ride was so good we went straight back on it. 

Then we went on the Toy Story ride again. This time I got 43% accuracy. 

Then we went to something called Jedi training, where you got to slash your light sabre around at someone pretending to be Darth Vader.

We also spotted 3 people dressed up as builders who were pretending to be idiots. There was a Boss who told the other 2 to go somewhere and told them to go back to where they were before and the workers were twice meant to stack cones in a truck the first time they did not do it very well but the next time they did it well. After the second time the Boss asked why they didn't stack the cones this well the first time and the wormers said it esas because the first time it was because they weren't told they were going in a break after they had stacked them.
Then I went to a souvenir shop where I got this:

[Amelie:] Hollywood Studios is Awesome

On Thursday we went to Hollywood studios. First of all we tried to get tickets for Star Wars training and we did! We got space in one of the afternoon sessions, there were 2 spaces, so me and Ben could go together. 

Then we went on a Toy Story ride and you had to shoot things, it was quite fun. We Fast Pass'd this ride to do it again, it was so good.

Then we went to The Legend of Captain Jack Sparrow adventure. I thought it was a bit scary to start with then I got used to it. Jack Sparrow was a bit stupid as 

he just wanted to drink rum. 

Then we went to the Little Mermaid show and we watched it and got wet. 

Then we went to the Star Wars ride. The captain of the ship had got off as C-3PO got onboard. Then the ship took off with C-3PO driving and he couldn't drive the ship, he jerked us around everywhere. We went back on this ride straight away. 

We also went into the Star Wars shop where we saw lots of stuff that me and Ben really liked, Mummy said we could keep looking and come back to buy it if we wanted to. 

We went to use our Fast Pass on the Toy story ride but it wasn't working, this was the second time we had a problem with a   Fast Pass ride not working.

So we went to see what else we could do and we spotted Mike and Sulley from Monsters Inc. We had our photo taken with them.

Then we went to a climbing play area, that also had water, and we played there until Daddy said the Toy story ride was open again so we went and did that ride.

We then sat down for a rest (that doesn't happen very often) with some drinks and snacks to get ready for our training.

Then we went to do our Jedi training. 

I really liked this and followed the instructions well. 

I was a bit scared when I saw Darth Vader but then then I watched some of the others having their turn and our Jedi teacher had taught us exactly what we needed to do to beat Darth Vader.

On the way back to the car we saw some people being very funny who were suppose to be building something using Cones, which they were throwing to one another and clapping. The Boss said the other two men should throw the cones to him, so they did that, then the boss shouts 'Stop throwing the cones at me!'. They were being very funny, so we sat down to watch them.

Then we went to get the things we really wanted to buy from the Star Wars ride. We found Ben's toy first and Mummy found mine, an R2D2 lunch cool bag, it makes a noise and one lights flashes and one glows. It's really good. Ben got a  Mickey Mouse with a light sabre in his hand, we like to play going on Missions with it.

Then we went back to the car, which was parked in Mickey Stage 44.

[Amelie:] Awesome Aquatica 2

Today, Wednesday, we went to Aquatica. Mummy said it would be a rest day but it wasn't a rest day! 

First we went to the car park then we got out of the car. After that we went to the wave pool, there were lots of waves, I had a life vest on so I could stay above the water easier even though I can swim. We went to the water place opposite which had smaller flumes, me and Ben got an inflatable to go down the flumes. And we played there for a while.

Then we went to the lazy river Ben and I put float vests on so we didn't have to swim and could just float around. Some times there are islands in the middle and you can chose to go left or right and they really push you around and Ben and I like going in the currents and being pushed. We went round there a couple of times then we came out at the red entrance and exit and we went to a kids fun water park area. 

We went down a flume that went into a patch of water that I could only stand on my tippy toes so Ben always went first and helped me to my depth. 

Then we walked back to see Daddy, who had been on some other flumes. We went on some of the flumes that Daddy had gone on which went through dark tunnels and went really fast and made my tummy feel funny but I really liked them. We went 3 times, one time we went on the green one, then the pink one and yellow one. Daddy and Ben went down the green one twice and pink one once. The yellow one was my favourite as it went up and down more and made my tummy feel really funny.

Discovery Cove Grand Reef

We all swam over the deep part of this reef, which for the kids was their first snorkelling experience. Not a bad way to start...

[Benjamin:] Aquatica second

On Wednesday we went to Aquatica. We went to the wave pool first. Well when you say went we pretty much went in and then got out.

     Then we went on the same flumes as we did before for a while. After that I went to play in a place like "Funky Fun House", but with water instead. We went down a green flume. Then we went back to our holiday home. 

[Amelie:] Disney Rocks!

On Tuesday we went to Disney Magic Kingdom.

We parked in a huge car park and we were on the baddies side, we were Scar 112. If we forgot where we were parked the car we would have been searching everywhere, and I mean everywhere, forever.

We first went on Captain Jack Sparrows boat and the best bit was when we went down hill in our boat. Then we got off and went into the shop that had lots of great things to play with, including hand cuffs and ball and chains and we both played with all of them. 

Then we saw the Splash mountain ride that was really good, it was quite long and at the end it went straight down and it felt really weird in your tummy and you got really wet. And we really liked it and wanted to do it again, so we FastPass it. 

Then we saw the rocky mountain ride, that was more like a roller coaster, which we've never been on. But we decided we wanted to do it. I really liked it jerking me around and I was screaming my head off. I felt really weird and happy afterwards. We wanted to go on this ride again so we FastPass this ride too.

Then we had some lunch, with some music and dancing happening around us.

After lunch we went on a spooky ride it was very spooky, there were ghosts everywhere. We had a ghost on our chair and Daddy and Ben had a ghost lying across the top of their chair. I got quite a lot scared on this ride, it was very dark.

Then we went on the rocky thunder mountain ride again which was great.

Then we tried to go back on Splash Mountain again but it was closed as it was broken so we couldn't go back on that ride again.

We went on the train to take us to a different part of the park where saw a Mickey and Minnie show, 'I have a Dream' show. There was lots of singing and dancing and fireworks and Mickey asked us all to chant 'Dreams come true' to help Donald believe in dreams and the second time it was to get rid of the ugly witch, which worked.

Then we went on a Buzz Light year ride which was great, it was a shooter game where you had to shoot the 'Z's. There was a twister control that you could turn to the left and turn to the right.  

That was our last ride and then we saw a parade with lots of carriages and Peter Pan and lots of other characters like Snow White and the ugly sisters.

Then we went home. 

Then we went in the pool because it was really hot at Disney.

Mummy said it would be even hotter tomorrow, Wednesday, and said she might melt. 

[Benjamin:] Disney World Magic Kingdom

On Tuesday we went to Disney world Magic Kingdom. First we went to the car park by car, next we went to  the monorail station by tram, and got to Magic Kingdom by monorail.

The first ride we went on was one that was recommended to us by Paul (Scott and Kaleigh's dad), and it was "Pirates of the Caribbean". On the ride we saw lots of skeletons and pirates, also at one point we got splashed by a waterfall.

The next ride was called "Splash Mountain", and it wasn't called this for nothing! There were lots of ups and downs in this ride, and in the last one it looked like we were going to knock into some fake thorns. The last down was also one of the times were we got splashed, the other one was when another boat was coming down the last drop and it splashed us.

 Next we went on a ride called "Thunder Mountain", which had less ups and downs and lots of sharp turns. The setting for this ride was in a gold mine. We were in a runaway train. The ride may have only been a few minutes long but it was still my favourite and first ever rollercoaster.

The fourth ride was a Buzz Lightyear ride, which was recommended to us by our cousins, Ewan and Calum. You were meant to zap 'Z's and score points to defeat Zurg, ie, a baddie in Toy Story.

At the end of the day, I thought that I'd left my stomach on one of these rides!

[Benjamin:] Whale watching again

On Monday we went to SeaWorld. SeaWorld is a sort of water park, but instead of swimming you watch shows.

    The first show that was actually on that we watched was a show about a fisherman (the first one we tried to watch was cancelled because of dangerous weather). In the show with the fisherman, he was pulled into the water where there was a sort of circus with a wicked queen. There was also a princess who fell in love with the fisherman, but the wicked queen forced them apart (it's hard to know exactly what was going on because it's a mime). Then the fisherman snatched the evil queen's staff and used it to get rid of her.

    Next we watched a sea lion and otter show, which was about pirates. At one point in the show an actor said a brilliant pun, which was "that's our pie-rat!' (the actors thought the otter was a large rat!).

    Then we watched a orca whale show. We were splashed with freezing cold water that smelt of fish! During the show the orca whales were fed.

    My favourite was the sea lion and otter show, because I wasn't splashed with freezing cold water that smelt of fish!

[Benjamin:] Aquatica

    The first thing we did when we were at Aquatica was check out the dolphins, they were cool and ever so playful. Then we went and had a little swim around in the wave pool, which was half tiring half fun but mainly fun.

    Next we went to a set of flumes which we went down and most of the time it had a covering over the top but just at the end there was a vertical drop with no covering.

    Next we went to the lazy river. It pulled us along at fairly high speeds, and there were islands and you had to pick to go around one side of the island or the other. The narrower side was the faster side.

    After that we went home.

Stingray stroke-athon at Discovery Cove

Right at the end of the day, the sun came out, and we found ourselves in shallow water creating a channel between us through which swam a stream of stingrays...

[Amelie:] We smell of fish!

On Monday we went to Seaworld and we went to lots of shows and I liked all of them. 

The one I want to tell you about first is the Shamo show, which has Orca whales in it. And we got drenched and smelt of fish.

[before]

[can you guess .. this is after]]

We also saw a show with sea lions and otters, this was very funny. I liked it when they got a man from the audience and the sea lion drenched him. The sea lions were really funny.

We also saw a gymnastics show. There was a fisherman who sunk to the bottom of the sea and liked one of the mermaids but the wicked Queen didn't like it, she got angry and she made a dragon appear with her a staff. The dragon made me jump. But the fisherman stole the Queen's staff and killed the Queen and the dragon. So the fisherman and mermaid could live happily ever after. The gymnasts were really good at swinging on their heads and holding on only with their feet, right above our heads. This show was also really good.

Then we came home for a quick tea and went straight to bed.

We're not the only thing on its travels

When we were in Fort Lauderdale, we visited a geocache to drop off a travel bug ("London Skyline Tag"). This is our first foray into the world of geocaching travel bugs and 'trackables', so I want quite sure what to expect. We set it the task of getting home, hoping that someone would pick it up, get on a transAtlantic flight, and drop it off at a geocache in the UK; from whence it would make is way back to our geocache in Milton Country Park.

Someone picked up our travel bug the day after we dropped it off... and then we heard nothing more. Until yesterday, when I received notification that it had been dropped off at a "TB guest house", which I think is a staging post for collection by someone who can help it across the Atlantic.

... so I went to look it up, and discovered that it's done more stops than we have!

[Benjamin:] Discovery Cove

We went to discovery cove to go snorkeling for the first time without any practice. We had one of the largest breakfast ever. When I got into the reef for the first time I came out thinking it was too cold, after looking at creatures through water-logged goggles, and breathing salty water I thought I would never snorkel again. But then mum showed me how to use the mask and snorkel and I went back in, and I really got the hang of it, after doing four laps of the reef I thought I could live down there. Plus I saw all of these creatures:

Then we went to the lazy river which was nothing like a lazy river because it moved so slowly. (The last one was really fast.) Next we had lunch which was gigantic and very filling. 

Next we went to check out the otters, there must have been about 6-8 of them. We also had a look at some Brazilian Marmosets. 

Then me and Dad returned to the reef, while  Mum and Amelie decided to explore the aviary instead. This time we found one of the things we'd been trying to spot, which was the spotted conga eel, which on the whole wasn't that impressive. After that we just stood there stroking rays as they swam by.
They also for some random reason they put some parrots in the park.
Then we went and had a shower before getting a 'I touched a stingray' T-shirt.
The whole way through the day we were having snacks and drinks while watching the dolphins leaping around, just like this:

 

[Not forgetting stroking an Armadillo]

[Amelie:] Discovery Cove

We got up early, we left at 7:15am and we got back at 7:15pm.

We went to Discovery Cove all day.

We had a brilliant breakfast there, there was waffles, yoghurt, croissants, pastries (all of which I ate) plus other things like sausages and potatoes. 

Then we went and had a little explore and put on wetsuits and got a mask and snorkel.

We got to see sting rays, which didn't have their sting, so they are lovely and I'd like to own one. I was a bit scared to go over the deep edge bit but I accidentally drifted over the deep bit without realising it, I had a floaty thing on and was holding Mummy's hand. I saw a spotted eel. I saw loads of different types of fish. We saw sharks in the water but they were behind glass so they couldn't eat me up but it felt like we were swimming with them. 

We saw some dolphins and they were awesome and sometimes they jumped over and sometimes they jumped straight up and back down. They made funny noises, clicking and whistle whistle.

We went into the Lazy river which was pretty lazy, you go under waterfalls, you should try it.

We had some drinks while sitting in seats in the water.

I had lemonade but it was very unusual as you had to lick it like an ice cream to start with, then you could drink it, it was great, I had lots of these.

We also saw otters and Marmosets and stroked an Armadillo.

Mummy also had a couple of birds on her shoulder, pecking her neck rather than the food I was holding.

At the end we got some T-shirts and me and Ben both got 'I stroked a singray' T-shirts.

It was all awesome!

I am so tired I'm doing this blog in bed. Night night.

[Amelie]: Awesome Aquatica

On Saturday we went to Aquatica. Aquatica is a fun water park and we are able to come back here too. 

At the start we saw some dolphins, they seemed quite small as they looked like Orca whales, but they were Commerson dolphins. We had a chat with their keeper about how long they held their breath, which was 10 mins. 

We first went into the wave pool and we played in there for a bit and then we saw another pool that had some flumes that needed inflatables for 2 people. Ben and I found an inflatable, Ben found the first one and I found one when we went back. The person who was not so tall had to go in front, which was me, and Ben was in the back. It was quite hard, as people wanted to cross the flumes and you had to be careful about people being at the bottom.

We also went to the very big flumes, there were lots of stairs to the top and I got quite tired. When it was our turn to go I was a bit nervous and excited.  We went down head first, holding onto a mat. When the man says 'Get Set Go' You push down and off you go. I didn't really know what was happening in the flume tunnel. Mummy and I started on flumes side by side in the middle and ended up apart at either side at the bottom, this is because the flumes wiggled so much.

Then we went to the lazy river, it's pretty lazy. You have something on that helps you float along. There were also currents pushing you along and I noticed people going faster along the edges so I went along the edge as the current was faster there, which was fun. Daddy had to swim fast to catch me. But it was difficult to swim out of the currents. Then we went back to shore, just as everyone was called out of the water, because of a storm coming.

Then we went back to the pool with the double inflatables, where I found an inflatable for Ben and me. The red flume was the shortest but it pushes you faster and the yellow flume was longer. 

Then we went home.

[Benjamin:] Chill Day

After breakfast we went in the pool for three hours. Then we had a early lunch before heading off for Disney Downtown. On the way there we dropped off somewhere and dad spent loads of money on tickets for four Disney theme parks and five days.We went to a dinosaur area were we saw electronic moving dinosaurs we also did a quiz and a hangman.

We saw a fake volcano erupt, lots of giant lego sculptors and a real storm. 

Then we had tea.

[Benjamin:] Boston to Orlando

The next day, Thursday, I got up had breakfast and got in a cab to go to the airport. We dropped off our luggage at baggage drop, and went through security before realising that dad didn't have a boarding pass. So we waited while dad sorted it out he came back with his boarding pass to our relief. Then we boarded the plane after a second/first breakfast. When we we were on board the plane I switched channels until I got to the sport channel then I watched American football for most of the flight and after that I watched football/soccer. Early on in the flight we had a apple juice.

      When we got off the plane we took the tube to baggage claim. Then dad drove to the holiday home. We got in the pool for a hour before having tea.

[Benjamin:] The Aquarium

On Wednesday we went to the Aquarium. The first thing we did was stroke Sting Rays, they felt sort of slippery and slimy.

I am going to tell you that if I named everything we saw and did this blog would go on for ever. But that does not mean that I will not show you any of them. There was only one thing that I and dad saw that mum and Amelie didn't and that was a conga eel. This video and this picture are from the main tank. 

Then I had Macaroni cheese and chicken wrapped in bacon which I did not eat all of. Next we went and got a red socks  baseball cap for twenty dollars! After that we went back to stroke the Rays this time we also stroked the sharks. 

Then we went to watch a seal show and found out we were on the wrong place. But we enjoyed watching the seals fight over a ball.  

Then we went back and played in a water park for a while. Mum and dad decided that our lunch was so big that we were not going to have a proper tea. But a ice-cream, so me, Amelie, mum, dad and Gemma had one ice-cream each.