Back to the Tropics, Day III

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Day III

Aquatica and the Cannonball's 14th Birthday

We didn't have to wake up as early on this day as we had the previous day - Aquatica doesn't open as early as Discovery Cove, and we didn't feel the need to get there right when they opened - but we were still up and out of the condo by 9am.

Alayna has wanted to revisit Aquatica since we left Florida in 2015 - she used to love this place back when we had season passes - so, seeing how today was her 14th birthday and everything, this one was a no-brainer.

We parked a convenient five miles from the park, but fortunately it was only supposed to get into the low 100s today, so the short walk across the concrete wasteland wasn't too bad at all.

We were pretty excited the admissions line was snaked back so far. 

(Fortunately we only had to wait for like 20 minutes, it was moving pretty fast.)

Scanning our old Discovery Cove park-hopper ID badges.

(Alayna of course refused to get in this picture with the rest of her fam.)

Breaking out the GoPro for our first water attraction of the day: the 'Crazy River.'  This was always me and the kids' favorite back in the day - it's essentially just a fast-moving lazy river, and you're wearing a life vest so you can just zoom along down the river.  We all wanted to hit this one up first, and made a beeline for it once we had stowed our belongings in a locker (which, unfortunately, we had to rent this time around.)

The kids enjoyed it, but it definitely wasn't as intense as it was for them back when they were like, you know, six years old.

Just took a wave to the face.

More selfies.

I had to ask Abby not to float face-down in public, as it would freak out the lifeguards on duty.  I had to ask her this probably a dozen times throughout the day.

After a few rounds on the crazy river, we decided to hit up some of the park's waterslides while the park wasn't overly crowded (the lines for some of these slides get ridiculously long.)

We were lucky enough to practically walk right on to this one (granted, it's not an intense one by any means - the girls wouldn't do anything too crazy.)

View from the top.

The sand you see here became impossible to walk over by the early afternoon.

Capturing this with a GoPro was pretty cool - I was excited to finally break it out for some more intense rides.

We got in line for these two slides next, and this was probably the longest wait of the day - 45 minutes, maybe - but it was a pretty long ride compared to the other one, so the demand was much higher.

This was probably everyone's favorite.

After getting funned out waiting in long lines for brief waterslide runs, we decided to wade into the park's legit lazy river, which you use inner tubes in instead of vests.

It was hot as hell out - and muggy to boot - so we were pretty grateful to be in the water.

This was probably my favorite thing we did today - I love lazy rivers.

Cooperative children.

By early afternoon, we made our way over to the zero-entry wave pool, which is nowhere as big and impressive as, say, Typhoon Lagoon's, but it was change up from the lazy/crazy rivers and waterslides we'd been hitting up all morning.

Waiting for the next wave to be released.

Messing with Mom

Family pic in the wave pool (my shoulders were severely burned the previous day at Discovery Cove, so I had to wear a swim shirt today - not my favorite.)

Grabbing an overpriced lunch at some restaurant.

Chowin' down on some ice cubes.

We rarely see her on her phone.

After lunch, it was back over to the crazy river for a few laps before calling it a day.

Around 3pm, we decided to call it quits.  Aquatica was okay, but not wanting to wait in hour-long lines for 20-second runs down a waterslide limits you a bit - you're either doing multiple laps down rivers or else waiting in crowded wave pools.  After five hours, the girls were done; next time we're in Florida, we will not be revisiting this park.

Waiting for our humble little rental to cool the f*** down.

A frigid 102 outside.  And probably 202 inside.

Back at the condo, we set down our stuff, grabbed some snacks, and reapplied sunscreen in order to head down to the resort's pool for a bit.  I tried to squeeze a few more shots of the rental while we were up there.

The coffee maker was ghetto as hell, but I suppose it worked.

Probably goes without saying that we never ate at this table. . .

Getting a recharge before heading downstairs.

Alayna is currently binging Stranger Things - just getting into Season 4.

Back down by the pool.  Still hot as holy hell out.

Brought the GoPro down again in order to get even more water-ish pics and video (as if we didn't have enough by this point in time.)

I'm a classy guy.

We log some serious time in this pool.

$5 for a 16 oz can of Miller Lite.  Not bad as far as vacation prices go - at Sea World or Aquatica that shit would cost like $13.25.

Yes, these three are crazy.  Why the hell would anyone want to sit in a hot tub when its triple digits out?

After coming back upstairs to shower and change, we prepared to head out for Disney Springs for some shopping and a celebratory dinner for Alayna's birthday.

Parking was kind of a bitch, but, then again, it usually is at Disney Springs. . .

They've added these color sensor thingies above all the parking spots in the various parking garages around Disney Springs: they turn red when a vehicle is in the spot, and are green when there's a space open.  At the end of each row of parking is a digital display telling drivers how many open spaces are in each row, which makes parking sooooo much easier.

Heading out after finally finding a parking spot.

Escalators are a big hit with this kid.  Still.

Coming down into the Marketplace (or whatever the shopping district is called, I forget.)

Canyons of outlet stores line the walk in towards the waterfront area.  We popped into a couple on our way in, but planned on canvassing the area in greater detail later on in the trip.

Abby really wanted to hit this place up first. . . so that's what we did.

Can you tell it's officially Pride Month around here?

The girls didn't really find a whole hell of a lot in this store that struck their interest.

Father's Day, as you can imagine, is somewhat neglected on trips like this.

This summer was also the 50th Anniversary of Walt Disney World, so we saw a ton of '50th' decor in all the Disney parks we frequented throughout the week.

Leaving the shopping district and heading over the center area ('Restaurantland,' or whatever the f*** it's called.)

Disney is full-on shoving the new Star Wars movies down everyone's throats.  I'll die on this hill, folks:  the Sequels are a trash heap, and I won't spend a cent on anything that earns Disney money from this dumpster fire.

This guy is still here.  Just in case you were curious.

Still hot as hell out.  Thank God.

Passing by a T-Rex. . .

Raglan Road, one of my favorite stops in Disney Springs.  I made Kris and the girls wait while I darted into the merch store so I could look for a polo shirt in a larger size than the one I already have:  I bought a Medium back in 2019 but it shrunk like crazy so I wanted to get a Large, but all they had were a few Smalls on a clearance rack.  I was pretty bummed.

Alayna wanted sushi for her birthday dinner, so we headed on over to the only Asian joint in Disney Springs that had it. . .

Morimoto Asia.  This place was pretty swanky, and Kris and I braced ourselves for the ticket price.

Checking in at the front counter.

The bar (which I did not get a chance to frequent.)

Some weird-ass decor up in this place. . .

We were seated upstairs on the second floor, overlooking this stuff.

Some lettuce bowl thingies Kris ordered as an appetizer.  Service was pretty slow, but that's usually the case with nicer restaurants.

Family selfie while waiting for food.

Kris ordered ribs, I got some Korean steak of some kind.  Alayna got a small, 6-piece sushi roll (thinking the price of $25 was instead the number or pieces in the roll), so after devouring that she just ate a bunch of ours.

After dinner, we bought these melon-ish 'floats' from Japan for the girls for dessert. 

There were like boba balls in there and everything, it was bizarre. . . but the kids liked it.

Two hours and $200 later, we left Morimoto Asia and began walking back to our car. . .

After leaving Disney Springs, we headed back to the Blue Heron and put the kids to bed.  Tomorrow is our third park, Sea World, and - from what we've seen - the hottest day of the week.  Wish us luck. . .

- Brian