Sea World...

We arrived in Florida Sunday evening after a relatively painless journey. We found our hotel straight away, the Parc Soleil Hilton Grand Vocations Club, which is a new hotel and therefore everything is immaculate. We have a one bedroom suite which is bigger then an average one bedroom flat in the UK. The kitchen is fully kitted out including dishwasher, microwave, cooker, washer/drier and a large fridge. Tegan and Fraser are on the pull out sofa which is the size of a king size bed. Our balcony also looks out towards Epcot and Disney so we can watch the firework display each night. The other facilities include several heated pools with water slide, hot tubs, outside play area and indoor activities centre for Tegan and Fraser, gym along with a running trail around the lake (which we have both used already!) and a couple of eating places. We think its about the best hotel we've stayed in.

Monday we had glorious sunshine (Tuesday's forecast was not so great, thunder storms) and about 70F, so we headed off to Sea World for the day. The drive from the hotel to the park was 6 minutes - so we are very near to all the attractions. We all qualified for free entry into Sea World thanks to the generosity of the American armed forces welfare package. This recognises the British Army also and as such Chris was allocated "Hero" status on is his ticket and Tegan, Fraser and my ticket read "Hero Dependents"! Due to the time of year the park was relatively quiet and we could see all the attractions/animals that we wanted to get up close to. Obviously we watched the Shamu show however this had been downscaled due to the recent fatality involving one of the trainers. As such none of the trainers got into the water with the whales but it was still an amazing show. Later on in the day was saw the dolphin show which was spectacular, then whilst having a look at the dolphins in a smaller pool - Fraser commented as one of the dolphins cleared its breathing hole - "that dolphin has just farted!" We got to see the polar bears, walrus's, beluga whales, sharks, sea lions and many other aquatic animals. Tegan and Fraser also braved several childrens rides including the Shamu express (mini roller coaster) whilst I finished up the day going on the Manta - a new very fast ride where you are hanging by just your harness, what a buzz to finish the day.

Tuesday was as predicted very overcast with strong winds so we collected all our Disney tickets from Shades of Green, which is a hotel within Disney that is solely for America Armed Forces personal. Once again they provide a fantastic welfare package for their guys but also allow British serving members to purchase tickets for Disney attractions at a reduced rate. On our way to Shades of Green we spotted several Armadillos on the grass verges, which I have never seen before. We then headed off to an outlet mall for the rest of the day. I have thought of several friends throughout the day who would love to have been shopping there. Needless to say we came home with several bags of goodies and a much lighter bank balance. We then all jumped into the hot tub although the sky was black and strong winds - great fun.

Tomorrow - off to Universal Studios ...