Sunday May 7 – Aquatica
Today was our Aquatica day and our chance to catch up with the D Family. It was a little emotional because the dad is very close with DH who wasn’t with us. However, the kids were excited so we forged ahead. We had booked 2 cabanas for what was supposed to be 8 of us thinking that the guys could visit while we chased down the kids. Aunt P, Aunt R, and Uncle C were staying behind. They slept in and had a late lunch at NBS sports with a local friend. Lesson learned though – they were planning to hit the parks in the evening and they closed early that day. In the week we were there, the parks closed at 6 on Fridays for grad nights and there was a private event that Sunday evening. Make sure you check park hours!
Back to the water park, I had very low expectations for the day but my kids love the water. I’ve never been to the Disney water parks but I’ve been to many others – including their sister property Sesame Place in PA - and this was, by far, the cleanest I have even seen. There were two attendants in the restrooms mopping and keeping it tidy. There were misters that kept the sidewalks cool for your feet and the service was just awesome.
We left the hotel at 8 since I didn’t know where I was going. It was on the early side and we arrived at 8:21 which meant we had to sit until the parking lot opened. Ha! I had printed out the parking pass I purchased for $30 on the Discovery Cove website, the cabana rental papers, and our tickets from the DC link. When we got to the front gate, I ran over to the ticket booth while the kids held our spot (I was where I could see them). I verified that the tickets were in fact tickets and asked if she could help me with the cabana. On my reservation, it said to go to Guest Services in the park but I was hoping for good luck. She checked us in, put our 3 wristbands on, and told us we could get the other wristbands from the cabana staff since D family was running late. This worked out so well since I didn’t have to wait in a longer line inside. We were ready to go.
When the gates opened, they took our pictures, scanned our tickets (but returned them so we could use them for the rest of the week), and we were on our way. Nope – wait. There was still a rope by Loggerhead Lane holding us until exactly 9 am. We headed over to Cabanas 30 and 31 which are just over the bridge across from the Banana Beach Buffet. This wasn’t a super quiet location but it worked really well for us. It was easy for the kids to find us, we were right at the bridge so the kids could call out when they swam by, and it was very close to the restrooms. We had 24 bottles of water for the 7 of us, 8 towels, and plenty of chairs. The lockers were so convenient too.
I cannot say enough about how great this day was. It was a cooler morning and not very crowded until the afternoon when the lines did build up. The cabanas were not all booked though. Here’s what we accomplished: Dolphin Plunge, Loggerhead Lane, Tassie’s Twisters, Walhalla Wave, HooRoo Run, and then the kids jumped back into Loggerhead Lane while I went to meet the D Family. Once we all met up, the kids were stuck on repeat in Loggerhead Lane and Roa’s Rapids. They were having a blast and we let them go but, in hindsight, we missed out on the shorter lines for the slides. We did do Taumata Racer twice, Omaka Rocks, and Whanau Way with no lines but later in the day it was just too long to wait. The kids didn’t care though because they hung out in Roa’s Rapids, Cutback Cove, and Walkabout Waters so they didn’t feel like they were missing out.
We ate lunch at the Banana Beach buffet since it was right there and it was better than I expected. We took our time and visited over our meals so it was perfect for what we needed. They had pizza, hot dogs, sausage and peppers, a nacho bar, meatballs, salads, fresh fruit, and all sorts of desserts. At around 2 pm, DS1 started complaining that he was majorly chafed and his boy parts were not doing so well. My kids typically keep their liners in their swimsuits and don’t wear underwear although DS2 does sometimes. So, we improvised. I stopped in the little gift shop across from Walkabout Waters and asked if they had scissors and a dressing room. DS1 and I headed in and cut out the liner from his suit. He was much more comfortable for the last two hours but even DS2 was hurting a little by the time we were done.
We were meeting friends from Maine back at the Hard Rock for dinner at 6 so we had to get going. We left at 4:15 and stopped for pretzels on the way out. DS1 had a cinnamon sugar pretzel which he raved over. It was a slow walk to the car with the boys complaining how much they hurt. That said, the boys declared that they would like to head back again while we were there if we had the time. They boys slept in the car on the short ride the we showered, powdered, and put on some Body Glide before meeting our friends in the lobby. The S Family hails from Maine – hubby used to work with my DH when we lived there and they have two boys around my sons ages.
We walked over to NBC sports for dinner. We shared the spinach artichoke dip and the cheese curds. The dip was okay but the cheese curds were amazing! I can’t remember what the kids had but the three adults had the lamb burger (a little dry), the chicken mac n cheese (two thumbs up), and the bbq combo which was brisket, ribs, and pulled pork. It was really tasty but I probably only ate half of it. The best part was the beer list – they make their own beers there and we sampled two flights. Just like at Cowfish, we had an awesome server.
We debated dessert but were just too full so we wandered around the City Walk and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel. We bid farewell to the S family who were flying home to Maine the next day and dropped into a sound slumber. The boys requested the following day (Monday) as a rest day. However, I reminded them that it was our last day with Aunt R, Aunt P, and Uncle C. Instead, we negotiated that Tuesday would be a rest day and we would move Sea World to Wednesday. They agreed!
I didn’t wear my FitBit since we were in the water all day. If I had to guess based on other days, we walked about 5 miles.