Florida day 3: Aquatica

 I heard of a place in Florida called "Discovery Cove" where you can swim with dolphins.  On Black Friday we got an amazing deal for a day at Discovery Cove (with the dolphin swim package), a day at SeaWorld, and a day at Aquatica for about $150 per person.  So on Monday we went to Aquatica, which is SeaWorld's waterpark.

In Moab we were always late to meet Roberts in the morning (largely because Hazel was still nursing and I couldn't get the other kids ready).  So this time we were determined to be on time.  We did really well the whole trip.  And it was super awesome because the Roberts were in the same condo building as us, just a flight or two below us, so the kids would run back and forth between our rooms as we finished getting ready.  The first morning Luke threw a massive fit and was being a grump.

But the first slide you see as you enter is a body slide that is in a clear tube that goes through a tank with dolphins swimming in it.  That amazed everyone and Luke's attitude improved.

There was a "toilet bowl" slide there that Isaac and I were excited about.  My favorite water slide of all time was one in Wisconsin that we called the toilet bowl.  This one was with tubes, not a body slide, but it was still fun.

There was also an amazing splash park area where Hazel had a lot of fun playing in.  Unfortunately a lot of the tiny slides on that were closed due to covid (no clue why).

The kids always love swimming the lazy river.  And the decor/vegetation at Aquatica was great.  It's fun to see all the tropical plants and palm trees, since we don't get that kind of thing in Utah.

Isaac and I had to keep switching off going on slides so one of us could stay with Hazel.  That was kind of a pain, but worked out okay.  Some of the slides had height requirements that wouldn't let Luke and Theron go on them either, so we watched them as well.  But there was one slide that had foam mats that you lay on and race your friends down the hill.  Probably about 8 people could go at the same time.  I took Luke up to the top and he started freaking out.  I tried to calm him down, but he was still crying when it was our turn to get on.  He was too short to push himself down the hill (face-first on his belly), so I was up there trying to push him off. After pushing him off, I went down.  The first drop was massive and I was thinking "Oh crap, Luke is going to be hysterical".  But when I got to the bottom and found him, he was so excited and kept talking about how awesome the ride was and it was his favorite.  So then he was up for anything.

The thing I liked best about Aquatica was that you didn't have to rent tubes and carry them around all day, or stash them hoping no one would take them from your stuff.  All the rides with tubes provided the tubes for you.  The people getting off would just hand you their tube and you would go up.  Other rides had converyor belts that would take the tubes to the top and you would just get on.  They also provided free lifejackets for kids.

Kjirstin and I decided before the trip that we would just make breakfast at the condos and buy lunch and dinner to simplify things.  We planned to pack a lunch, but most parks had more strict "no outside food or drink" policies because of covid.  We still managed to sneak in a bunch of snacks, but it was a lot more convenient not to have to make lunches (although definitely less healthy).  

The other downside was that all the parks closed a 5 or 6pm due to covid, so they had time to more thoroughly clean before opening the next day.  Sometimes this was a bummer because we could have used more time, but overall worked out really nicely.  We were able to leave the parks and go out to eat at normal, less expensive, restaurants and still get home in time to shower the kids and get them to bed at a decent time.

So that night we went to an Ethiopian restaurant that Isaac and Brad wanted to try.  Kjirstin and I were more hesitant because we didn't think the kids would eat it.  The food was basically like fajitas with meat and peppers, but you used these weird spongy tortilla things to scoop up the meat and veggies.  It was okay, but I think fajitas are better.

All around, Aquatica was a lot of fun.  It will be nice to go to places like that when all the kids can swim and are tall enough to do all the rides.  Vacationing with babies is exhausting.  But it was a really fun place and we would definitely go back sometime.