Mom's buying so we're flying TR About This Page:

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by coffeechef

You made it to Sea World... I knew Abby would change her mind after a good nites sleep. Sounds like Lenny was well rested too. I was last in SW in San Diego in 2007. I love the Penguin enconter and spent quite some time there ... yeah that smell just about knocks you over ... but I was sharing a room with 3 teenaged nephews so... it was an upgrade I could watch the penguins for hours.. ask the nephews they will tell you that they had to drag me out as I did not mind the coolness as I have meat on my bones. You really cleaned up on the pennies. DId you get any souveniers or pressed penny books there? Love the picture of Abby reflection in the glass and one of those pictures made her look much older. Glad you enjoyed your time in SW even leaving the Disney bubble.

Lenny was something alright...well rested, I'm not so sure about . If I thought the penguins were bad then I definitely don't want to know about your nephews. Maybe you should call Febreeze and really put it to the testWe did get souvenirs - 2 pressed penny books to hold all the pennies, a dolphin towel, a shark towel, a souvenir book, a magnet, a pin and the pictures..

The picture that you think is a reflection of Abby?? It's really a fish tank that you can poke your head up into. I just happen to snap that one just right that you can't tell. If I post the next one, she looks like she's wedged in there because she's so tall.

Originally Posted by shnewell

at Abby's comment about the scooter!

Glad you had a good day at Sea World. Wow -- 79 pennies! That's impressive. You got so many good photos. I especially love the one of Abby on the manatee sculpture.

I hope you find your sunglasses. I am terrible about losing sunglasses, which is why I now refuse to pay more than $10 or $12 for a pair. My current pair is from DLR -- I managed to make it there in September without my usual pair (which have since been lost). I'm coming on a year of wearing these, which surely means they'll disappear soon!

Thanks. We're going to remember that comment for years to come and laugh about it. Ah yes, the manatee sculpture. If I'm remembering correctly, it went something like this. "Abby stand with the manantees." "But mom, I'm so tired, can we just get going?" As for my sunglasses, I wish I could get away with not paying more than $10 or $12 for them. Mine are prescription and if you add about $100 to what you're willing to pay, then that's a lot closer to what I have to pay for mine - and why Lenny got so upset. Other than that, I'm keeping quite about what happened with them.

Originally Posted by Cam22

Great day at Sea World! After reading Cheryl's review and yours, I'm thinking we just might have to head to Sea World for a day. I love Abby's saying she needed one of those (scooters). Too cute!

Thanks Cam. I think for at least one day to try it, it's worth it. If you really don't like aquariums then not so much but other than that, it is something non-Disney you can say you did "Yeah, I went to Sea World one year. I did Disney too but I did leave the property and go somewhere else so I didn't stay with strictly Disney". We still laugh about Abby's scooter comment. For her, it was just so unexpected and the way she said it was really too funny.

Originally Posted by lauriep

What a great day at Sea World! You got a lot done for it being such a hot day. I'm afraid to start with the pressed penny collecting because I know I'd become obsessed and HAVE to go everywhere looking for them!

Thanks Laurie. Yes, it was hot and yes, we got a lot done, but there was a lot we didn't do either. We didn't do any of the rides (all 3 of them ) nor did we do any show but the one. And I hear you on the pennies - that's exactly what happens (did you ever read my 2009 TR?). They do become an obsession - to the point if we're going somewhere, I'll look online to see if there will be pennies there

Originally Posted by chezp

What a great day at SeaWorld! I love Abby's comment about the scooter.

Thanks Cheryl. I have yet to finish you're TR - I'll have to go back and see how the rest of your Sea World day went (you hadn't finished it before I left on vacation).

Originally Posted by Huntermom

Sounds like you had a good day at Seaworld. I haven't been to the Florida one since the 80's but it sounds like there have been lots of changes for the better.

Hope your penny collecting continues to be so successful.

Oh yeah, LOTS of changes to Sea World. Like I said, the dolphin Nursery and the Shamu Stadium are all I recognized out of everything at the park. I know the last time we went, they had the Sting Ray area where you could feed them but I didn't recognize that so I don't know if it's completely new or just changed beyond recognition.

Originally Posted by Alex'sMummy

Just found your TR and i'm already so far behind. So glad that your flight went smoothly and you managed to sleep for a while on the flight. Great pics of Seaworld- it looks like you had a good time. I can't believe how many pressed pennies you managed to get!!!

I hope you managed to get your sunglasses back. I left my fave glasses at medieval times a few year ago and never saw them again( i was gutted)

Rachel

You're not that far behind. I kind of got a jump on it and posted a little more than I think I should have. In the past I've only posted one or two installments at a time but this time I started with doing entire days. I think from here I'll go back to one or two installments to give you guys a chance to take in what we've done instead of giving too much info at one time, KWIM?

Thanks for the comments. As I've said, the pennies become a mission and the glasses weren't disposable ones so that's why those are always such a big deal.

[tinker_me_happy]

Wow! I'm EXHAUSTED just from READING about your first day!! I'm usually pretty lazy... I get to the hotel on the DME (never mind renting a car and going shopping!)... then a couple hours at Epcot. Lazy stroll. MAYBE do a ride IF the line isn't too long!! The thought of EVERY THING you did AMAZES ME! Plus the fact that you barely slept! WHEW!
Sea World sounds like a lot of fun! Love the photos!! Can't wait to read some more!

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by tinker_me_happy

Wow! I'm EXHAUSTED just from READING about your first day!! I'm usually pretty lazy... I get to the hotel on the DME (never mind renting a car and going shopping!)... then a couple hours at Epcot. Lazy stroll. MAYBE do a ride IF the line isn't too long!! The thought of EVERY THING you did AMAZES ME! Plus the fact that you barely slept! WHEW!
Sea World sounds like a lot of fun! Love the photos!! Can't wait to read some more!

The lack of sleep is something I'm still kind of use to. Because of her Autism, Abby has always had poor sleep habits. So bad in fact, her life has pretty much gone like this (and no exaggeration either):

1 YO = 1 hour of sleep at a time before waking mommy up crying
2 YO - 2 hours of sleep
3 YO - 3 hours of sleep

and so on. By the time she hit 6, I was actually getting pretty close to a full nights sleep. There are still some nights I can't sleep all night even though I'm exhausted. I'll fall asleep around midnight but by 6 I've already been up a few times. Other nights I'll wake up every hour on the hour. It all comes from being a mom - you do what you have to do. That and the fact that I have "strong" people in my family that tend not to show any kind of weaknesses so even when I'm totally exhausted, I act like I'm not.

And I'm glad you're enjoying my TR. I'm going to post another installment in a minute or two.

[KMB733]

What a great day at SeaWorld!!!

[CinderAbby]

Friday July 22 Part 1

Friday morning I was up at 6 and I woke Lenny up at 6:30. My original plan for the day was to leave the hotel early and park at the TTC. From there, we were going to walk over to the Poly for our Ohana ADR and then after we were going to take the monorail over to the MK for the day. Lenny had different plans for the day however. His plans were to valet at the Poly, then leave from there to go back to Sea World to see if my glasses were at lost and found. Needless to say, he was still mad at me for being careless with my glasses and nothing I could say would calm him down. At 7 am, while I was trying to wake up Abby Lenny took the phone number I had found for Sea World and tried to call them . The message said they were currently closed but please try back during normal business hours - which the message said started at 8. After getting Abby up and ready for the day, I headed to check in just in case I dropped my glasses from where Lenny let us out the night before to the food court. I didn’t have any luck, no sunglasses matching my description had been turned in but they said I could fill out a lost item report. I thanked the CM and told her we had a breakfast to get to and I had the feeling I had lost them at Sea World and if I didn’t find them there, I’d come back to fill out the form.

Once we were all in the car, because it was finally 8 am, Lenny called the Sea World phone number and got through to someone. They couldn’t help him but they gave him a number right to lost and found at the Orlando park. I wrote it down for him, he thanked the person and then we headed right to the Polynesian resort. We valeted and headed up to breakfast. We checked in and it wasn’t long before our pager went off. The person who seated us was really, really nice and Lenny was kind of upset that she wasn’t to be our server. I was trying to look on the bright side and think this time our meal would be different at Ohana’s and while we were seated in the same section, it wasn’t at the same table from the previous two years. Our server seemed nice too but Lenny was upset when she offered us coffee but didn’t bring it out. And then when the chef started walking our way, he stopped at a table that was seated after us. After talking with them, he made our way to our table and said something about allergies and before I could even open my mouth, Lenny was down this poor guys throat saying I don’t have allergies, it’s intolerances, we were seated first and should have been seen first not that other table, we were offered coffee but he was still waiting for it and on and on. I was so bull at him for doing that. I can speak for myself but I wasn’t even given the opportunity. Needless to say, by the time Lenny was done, my stomach was already acting up - and I hadn’t even eaten anything yet. I did finally get to have my say with the chef and the only thing that had added oils and acids were the potatoes. I was able to have the eggs and the Mickey waffles that everyone else was having. I asked the chef about the yogurt that I had last year for breakfast and he said they still had yogurt but it was mixed with granola. I said I’d like to try it and he said he’d send it out for me My yogurt came out first and although I wasn’t sure about the granola on it , I really liked it - and even asked for a second bowl . When the rest of the meal came out, the chef had put the potatoes in a separate pan for us. And unlike last year, we did get Mickey Waffles. We got an entire bowl of them. So in regards to the meal and the service we received, our Ohana meal this year was much better than our previous ones. I was able to eat stuff without getting an upset stomach (or I should say without it upsetting my stomach even more than it was at that point in time) and our server was constantly at our table. Unfortunately Lenny ruined the meal for me. Abby enjoyed seeing the characters and taking part in the parade. We were there so long she actually got to do the parade twice.

We were finally out of there about 10 and we headed back to valet. However, they couldn’t get the car until Lenny handed over the key fob for it - he had forgotten to leave it behind. He handed it over, the CM ran to get the car and when he came back, he and Lenny talked a minute about new cars and some of the things they do. Once he got back in the car, we left there and headed to the Car Care Center. We went there because it was the easiest spot to pull over and make a phone call . I gave Lenny the number to lost and found and he got yet another message and then he shoved the phone at me to listen to what they wanted. After that, we ended up arguing, how I make Lenny clean up my messes, how I’m irresponsible and careless, and that we should go right to Sea World and on and on . It was pretty ugly I can tell you that.

We headed to Sea World and it didn’t take long and instead of going to the main entrance and paying to park, Lenny went down the road we had taken a wrong turn on the day before. Down this road was a parking lot for drop offs and pick ups so that’s where he headed and dropped me off. I headed back to the front of the park and I talked to one of the two employees there. I asked where lost and found was and I was told that it’s inside the park and that I’d need admission to get in . I was floored. No way was I going to pay to get to lost and found but luckily, they took pity on me and found a supervisor. The super said no, I didn’t need admission to get into the park but I would have to be escorted by an employee. I had no problem with that as all I wanted to do was to get to lost and found. We finally got there and when it was my turn, I explained everything and the person behind the counter went out back to look. She came back and said nothing matching my description was there . She said sometimes it takes extra time to get items from "further out" sections of the park and that I should fill out a lost item form. I had nothing to lose (it was already lost ) so I filled it out and thanked her then I got escorted back to the front gates. I thanked the employee for her help and she wished me luck in getting my glasses back and I headed back to the car. I knew Lenny wasn’t going to be happy but oh well, they were my glasses after all and if I wasn’t concerned this time then he shouldn’t have been either.

I got back in the car, told him I had no luck and that I’d filled out a form but didn’t actually expect to ever hear from Sea World. Lenny then went on to ask if I’d checked under the seat. I told him I had but I couldn’t get my hand under the seat so there was no way my glasses were under there. Then he shoved his hand between the seat and the console and asked me if I could check as his hand was too big to fit. I checked and that’s all I’m going to say on that subject .

[buzzspal2]

I'm sorry you lost your glasses. I hope your husbands mood improves. What happens next?

[B.M.]

Oh goodness; too bad about Lenny's mood..... I would have been tempted just to buy some new ones and say "problem solved"! They were sunglasses, right? Not prescription glasses?..... I have lost my sunglasses several times.... to the point that I only buy cheap ones so that it is not too bad of a loss..... Once they fell off my face as I climbed out of a water ride and went right into the water and floated away before I could grab them....

I sure hope the day improved; looking forward to more!

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by buzzspal2

I'm sorry you lost your glasses. I hope your husbands mood improves. What happens next?

Thanks - and you'll just have to stay tuned.

Originally Posted by B.M.

Oh goodness; too bad about Lenny's mood..... I would have been tempted just to buy some new ones and say "problem solved"! They were sunglasses, right? Not prescription glasses?..... I have lost my sunglasses several times.... to the point that I only buy cheap ones so that it is not too bad of a loss..... Once they fell off my face as I climbed out of a water ride and went right into the water and floated away before I could grab them....

I sure hope the day improved; looking forward to more!

They were prescription sunglasses. Believe me, had they been cheap "disposable" sunglasses it wouldn't have been such a big deal - and we certainly wouldn't have wasted a minute on trying to find them. I would have just gone to one of the many gift shops I had access to that morning and just bought a new pair

And you'll have to stay tuned to find out what happens next

[DMA]

Just found your TR today, so I had a little catching up to do.
Can't believe you got so many pressed pennies in one day! AND were able to see so many other things as well!

Hopefully Lenny's mood will improve. It's not much fun when someone is in a bad mood - kinda puts a damper on the day.

So, are you saying you found your glasses in between the console and the seat, or am I reading too much into that? I hope so, since prescription sunglasses are not cheap!

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Sounds like a great day at SW. Wow - 79 pennies in one day very impressive! Can't remember if I said this before but I like all your fun new smilies!

Off to read the next installment so I can keep up.

[WeRDisneyFanatics]

Caught up! Glad breakfast at 'Ohana was an improvement over your previous visit. Sorry Lenny was in a bad mood - hope the day gets better and that you find your glasses!

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by DMA

Just found your TR today, so I had a little catching up to do.
Can't believe you got so many pressed pennies in one day! AND were able to see so many other things as well!

Hopefully Lenny's mood will improve. It's not much fun when someone is in a bad mood - kinda puts a damper on the day.

We did get a lot but from our previous experiences getting pennies, is it really any surprise? And you're 100% right - it does put a damper on the day when someone's had a mood. Even now I'm still not happy with Lenny over it

So, are you saying you found your glasses in between the console and the seat, or am I reading too much into that? I hope so, since prescription sunglasses are not cheap!

Nope, you're not reading too much into it . You read exactly what you were suppose to . And the really pathetic part is Lenny was suppose to have checked the car the night before. I guess he missed a very obvious spot . I did too, but if he had only looked when he was suppose to have or mentioned looking there first thing that morning, we would have found them sooner so I'm not taking blame for it .

[lauriep]

Glad your 'Ohana breakfast was better than last time, but what a sad waste of precious vacation time dashing about after the sunglasses (that you didn't even care about).

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by WeRDisneyFanatics

Sounds like a great day at SW. Wow - 79 pennies in one day very impressive! Can't remember if I said this before but I like all your fun new smilies!

Off to read the next installment so I can keep up.

Thanks. I'm glad you like my TR and the smilies I found. I had some help (thanks PrincessSharon) when it came time for finding some of them. Others I had to search for them

Originally Posted by WeRDisneyFanatics

Caught up! Glad breakfast at 'Ohana was an improvement over your previous visit. Sorry Lenny was in a bad mood - hope the day gets better and that you find your glasses!

Thanks. Overall Ohana's was an improvement but like I said, Lenny ruined it this time. Right now I'm up in the air as to whether I would go back or not. If Lenny had kept his mouth shut and we still had received the same service, I would say yes I would. Unfortunately he did open his mouth so I just really think there's something about that restaurant that brings bad luck and right now I'm really leaning towards never going back.

As for my glasses, maybe if you go back and read you might find the answer

[CinderAbby]

Originally Posted by lauriep

Glad your 'Ohana breakfast was better than last time, but what a sad waste of precious vacation time dashing about after the sunglasses (that you didn't even care about).

The service was better but like I said, Lenny ruined it with his attitude. As for my glasses, it's not that I didn't care at all, I just resigned myself to the fact that I had lost them. Plus too, the glasses are at least 3 years old so I figured it meant it was time to replace them.