Day one of our Orlando vacation. It didn't take long for JC to change his mind and decide he was coming and excited about it. The fact that we mentioned Spiderman was at Universal Studios was an additional incentive. We flew AirTrans and the terminal in Philly has a little playground for them to wait in, a very nice touch and got our trip off on the right foot not having to chase them through the airport.

Once we arrived the fun started. Due to some confusion on my part I had some difficulty getting the right car with a lighter socket to power our GPS and I am pretty sure they gave my the crappiest car on the Avis lot as a reward for making their life richer. I could tell this Impala was rolling wreck by how it handled, and the fact they hadn't bothered to wash the exterior clean of bird poop. Interior was clean and I just didn't want to go back so I took it.

Then the GPS directed me to a hotel that USED TO BE the Radison Hotel in Orlando.. tree years ago. The new hotel is on the other side of the county. The original hotel was in an area where my Treo was roaming so I couldn't get to the internet to look up the address. I asked around, bought some maps and got nothing but bad directions and blank stares. After driving around following bad lead after bad lead for three hours I rechecked my cellphone and got a good connection. I got the address off the web, put it into the GPS and arrived as I expected the thing to work in the first place.


Too early to retire for the evening, we decided to check out Sea World. I have never been there and no one ever told me much about it. We arrived at 3 PM to discover it closes at 6 PM. Well.. we really should be able to do it in 3 hours I figured and they give you a second day free anyhow.

For the first hour or so I was pretty disappointed. Each show plays 1-3 times a day and always on the top of the hour. We missed the 3 PM show cause we didn't now about it and we were 2 minutes late to the 4 PM show and the doors were closed. The shows are what you are there for. Otherwise it is a really big aquarium, and an expensive one at that. In other words, you need to plan this out and not just show up with expectations. We caught two excellent shows after that and the closing light and water show which was kinda cool too. We have return tickets so I think we will try to plan our return out a little better. JC laughed hysterically at the otter show. I never would have guessed at how funny he thought it was.

All in all, a decent first day. Many lessons learned.