A spoopy half-day at SeaWorld

I just got back from a pleasant day at SeaWorld. Most of their rides and many of their restaurants were open (aside from a lack of pizza, they weren’t anywhere near as bad as Disney on the lack-of-food front), though most of their shows were scaled down considerably: “Dolphin Days” was 3x daily, now just one at 11am (and when it ends, that entire section of the park closes with it).

Yeah, closing a third of your park at noon is good for crowd control, but if your kid is a fan of dolphins, sting rays or turtles and you arrive at 1pm? Tough luck. Oh, and forget seeing their famous Sesame Street parade or their show in the Seaport Theatre as both are on hold due to COVID (though character M&Gs were still happening on the stoop in front of Bert/Ernie’s apartment building). “Pet’s Ahoy,” which usually takes over the afternoon slot at Seaport, is also dropped from the schedule.

Anyway, I spent the morning taking photos at the Turtle habitat (the viewing area was open, the ride was not, a trait it shared with their Artic and Antarctic exhibits – the latter having its food court closed as well, so no Asian food either!) before getting a quick lunch at the Seafire Grill. After that, I was there for the surprisingly crowded – and not socially distancing – rope drop for the rest of the park!

I’ve already seen their sea otter show and walked through their shark exhibit (it’s similar to SeaLife Aquarium on I-Drive), so the bulk of my time was spent trying to find a restroom in Sesame Street Land (I know there’s one there, I just don’t know where). You would think an “Autism Certified” park would make Sesame’s sole Autistic neighbor slightly easier to find, but, noooo, she was relegated to half of ONE shelf in a dark corner in the verrrrrrry back of their gift shop. I mean I really had to search to find her.

(her stuffed toy, Fluffster, got more shelf space than she did)

That being said, their “Kooky and Spooky Halloween Maze” was kinda cute (and not at all “spooky,” lol), but the REAL maze was trekking through their Wild Artic queue on the way to the animal enclosures. I tried getting pictures of the walruses, seals and beluga whales… but none of them seemed willing to cooperate with my camera phone. They had some nice t-shirts and board shorts in the “sale” rack in the artic gift shop though.

The main path back to the exit was closed (as they are using it for their weekend “Trick-or-Treat Trail”), so I had to backtrack a bit to get back to the main shopping hub, but from there I could take the shortcut back to the entrance area. I grabbed a medium Starbucks coffee and a large cookie and made my way out the gate – all before my watch chimed 2pm.

Autumn Autism memes

Photo: Original plans for wkend

This was the motivation for my planned trip to PA.

Fortunately, I was able to make other plans for the weekend.

Hopefully, other volunteer opportunities will present themselves as the year progresses.

I can’t go home again

Today (Tuesday, more likely Thurs) was the day I was planning on going back to Pennsylvania to visit my family and tour my estranged brother’s now fully approved projects. I could also drive past my grandmother’s newly painted house (it’s supposedly blue now, but I can’t link to a picture of it), check-in with the pizza place that is moving in below my old apartment, volunteer at St John’s Rummage Sale and take some photos at Knoebels Amusement Resort.

None of that is happening… at least, not yet.

Apparently, Pennsylvania, which has not fully reopened yet, has a 14-day quarantine on visitors from high risk places like NY, NJ, or Florida (though Florida’s infection rates are down and the state hasn’t seen a death from the disease in two straight days).

I guess there’s still Thanksgiving and Christmas to look forward to (assuming they aren’t cancelled too) but, as much as I want to see my nieces/nephews, I don’t particularly trust a rushed, politicized vaccine. Heck, I know some people who don’t trust vaccines at all (yeah, forget Measles, Mumps, Diphtheria, or Polio – we all know Autism is the absolute WORST thing that can happen to your child).

I guess this gives me time to plan a Disney or Universal photo trip this weekend (as I love fall at Disney). I know Universal isn’t hosting HHN this year, but they do have two pop-up daytime haunted houses – which IMMEDIATELY “sold out” for the entire day when they opened! If I thought SeaWorld was decorating for the season, I’d go there, but they aren’t… and I was just at Disney last month (though some less budget conscious sites post new photos daily).

 

PS: I wasn’t thinking about this when I was writing this last night, but Happy First Day of Fall!

Memory: Feed the beast

This post originally appeared on my Facebook page two years today: Sept 9, 2018. The markings in red are my current stats. The beast must be fed…

First time at FunSpot America

Confession: I’ve lived in Orlando for over five years now, and I have never been to FunSpot America.

Well, that streak ended today!

Granted, it’s not Disney or Universal (which it’s situated directly across the highway from), but $47 for a Single-Day pass is steep for what you get – a chintzy me-too carnival cashing in on its fancier neighbors across the street.

Now, most of their rides were open (though I’ve never felt particularly “safe” on carnival rides) as well as their go-carts and “GatorSpot,” a large cross-promotional area for another park I haven’t been to. Crowds weren’t that bad, but at least most of the visitors seemed to be wearing masks. I did see some workers wiping down ride vehicles, but I can’t say how common that was throughout the park.

Food here was standard amusement park fare – some of it even served in those gaudy carnival trailers or silly themed buildings. I think some of them were closed (Disney food service wasn’t fully operational on my last visit either), but none of them were listed on either their map or their website. Honestly, how am I supposed to plan my trip, if I don’t know what dining is available?

This is far from the worst amusement park I’ve been to. It has decent enough food, friendly (though not always helpful) crew members, a good selection of rides (though not all of them were open), and short lines for everything… except the main restaurant on campus.

Charm city revelations

In March, I toured a bunch of apartments in both Allentown and Baltimore. I’ve ruled out Allentown, and despite some really good deals on apartments and condos, I’m really close to striking B-more off my list.

Why? Because:

1. I’d be living there full-time from May-Sept – a solid five months out of the year thus making it more of a “vacation home” than a primary residence. I guess I could add April and/or October if I really wanted to… but eh.
2. Charm City has a lot to do during the year, but the summer is pretty much a dry zone aside from Artscape – and even that isn’t worth it! I guess Sailabration was kinda cool though, pity it was only held that one year.
3. Inner Harbor is somehow a bigger ghost town than normal thanks to Saturday’s closure of the iconic Barnes & Noble on Pratt Street. This follows the shuttering of Ripley’s Believe It or Not in May (the victim of being a large attraction in a tragically small space) and the closure of the rest of Harbor Place (and it’s supposedly the “better off” neighbor across the street) sometime before my aforementioned visit.

Anyway, I was just doing a quick scan of Zillow. It’s the same properties that have been on there all year, and they’re not as good of a deal as I remember (either that or the really cheap ones have already sold!). The ones that are worth investing in are either far from downtown (which given the rest of this post probably isn’t a bad thing) or have visible damage of some kind… though I can still buy a few one-bedroom units and rent them out. Nah, people are fleeing this city (and its notoriously corrupt government) in droves. I’d never make a profit.

For the record: No, I’m not re-adding Allentown to my list.