Polar Parlor at Sea World Orlando

I found myself at Sea World one evening and decided to get some ice cream. I was going to get the ice cream from a location in the back of the park but they didn't have waffle cones. I made my way up to Polar Parlor near the park entrance, and found that their waffle cones were cheaper than the regular cones elsewhere in the park. Weird.

I had strawberry and mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone. The portion of ice cream was huge, overflowing over the edges of the large waffle cone. Out of the two flavors, I preferred the mint chocolate chip. The strawberry flavor wasn't as pronounced as it should have been, while the mint chocolate chip tasted like I expected.

Terrace BBQ at SeaWorld Orlando

I was at SeaWorld and had dinner at a restaurant called Terrace BBQ. This is located in a building once occupied by the Hospitality House where you could get free beer when Anheuser-Busch owned the park. I noticed Anheuser-Busch beers were still available in here, but you have to pay for them now. I was last at Sea World back in October and this building had an Italian buffet in it then, so the conversion to Terrace BBQ has apparently happened within the past couple months.

I tried the rib platter. This came with three good sized ribs, macaroni & cheese, and a roll. The ribs were good, covered in a slightly spicy dry rub. One of the three contained more fat that I would have liked, but they were otherwise good. The macaroni and cheese was also good. It was very cheesy and had nice bits of crumbled something over the top. Texture in macaroni is good. The roll was disappointing mushy white bread.

As far as Orlando theme park food goes, I normally rank SeaWorld last on the list. I've had some pretty bad food in the park, so I was a bit surprised when the ribs and macaroni were actually tasty. With SeaWorld's financial woes and budget cuts all over their parks, it is good to see their food hasn't suffered. Hopefully these ribs were a sign that it's getting better!

Expedition Cafe in Sea World Orlando

I ventured over to Sea World to see the recently opened Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin section of the park. While there, I had lunch at the new restaurant called Expedition Cafe. The restaurant is very nicely themed as an Antarctic base built into ice. There were three different counters to order from inside. One served Italian food, another served American food, and the counter that we ordered from served Chinese food.

I had the Shrimp Lo Mein. This was basically a large plate of lo mein noodles with the very occasional vegetable mixed in. Shrimp were served alongside the noodles and the meal was completed with a fortune cookie. Serving the shrimp separate from the lo mein was a bit different. I do understand the reasoning behind this to accommodate vegetarians. This definitely wasn't worth $13, but in terms of theme park foods, it was acceptable. The person visiting the park with me also ordered the Pepper Steak and fried rice. The normal bell peppers were absent from the pepper steak which was a bit unusual. Let's be nice and assume the lack of vegetables in both the lo mein and pepper steak was because of authentic Antarctic base themeing where I imagine fresh vegetables in food wouldn't be readily available... 

After eating, it was time to stand in line for 75 minutes to ride the new penguin ride. Big improvement of the the old penguin exhibit. The ride was way too short, but you get way closer to the penguins now. Overall, Antarctica was pretty cool (figuratively and literally)...

Wawa in Orlando, FL (Sea World)

Everyone seems to love Wawa. This gas station/convenience store chain recently expanded from the Northeastern United States to the Central Florida area. I've heard coffee drinkers rave about their coffee. People love their milkshakes. Above all else, I've heard people explain how wonderful their sandwiches are. I recently stopped into the Wawa across the street from Sea World to finally give one of these amazing sandwiches a try.

This Wawa had a large deli area. Orders are placed at several touch-screen computers set up throughout the area. While I do see the usefulness of this computerized ordering system, I just found it to prolong the ordering process and make it more confusing. Several orders could be placed at once using the computers and I'm sure they can keep track of inventory better, but it would have been much easier to directly order with the sandwich maker since the Wawa was empty at the time. Another thing that bothered me was the upcharge for wheat bread. Most other places don't charge extra for a sightlier healthier choice. I ordered a turkey sandwich topped with spinach, tomato, cucumbers, onions, pickles, jalapenos, mayonnaise, and mustard on my first visit to Wawa. 

I actually returned to this same Wawa for a second time to try another sandwich. On this visit, I had a buffalo chicken sandwich. This consisted of fried chicken, topped with cheese, spinach, tomato, onions, pickles, and jalapenos. Whoever made this sandwich definitely went way overboard on the buffalo sauce. There was a large pool of sauce that dripped out of the sandwich by the time I finished. Otherwise, it was tasty enough.

The sandwiches from Wawa were tasty enough and way beyond sandwiches I've seen at other gas stations. Wawa's sandwiches were pretty equivalent to a Subway in my opinion. Alright for what they are when you want to get a sandwich quickly and you're already getting gas, but there's far better sandwiches out there elsewhere...

Waterstone Grill at Aquatica

On the second day of Winter, I decided to celebrate the seasons changing with a trip to Aquatica. Don't know why I thought going to a water park in winter was a good idea (even a Florida winter), but it actually wasn't that bad. Beside the chilled temperatures out of the water, the park turned out to be completely deserted except for British tourists for some reason. The first thing we did after arriving at the park was get some food at a restaurant called Waterstone Grill. After the meal, we did every slide and lazy river at Aquatica in less than an hour. Winter means no lines at water parks...

Since this was Sea World, I figured I had to get Waterstone's Fish Sandwich. The sandwich consisted of fried fish, lettuce, and tomato on a slightly sweet roll. French fries were served on the side. The sandwich tasted good, although the fries were cold. Only real quirk was with the size of the fish. When you enter the restaurant, they have all of their menu offerings on display. The fish sandwich behind the glass had a piece of fish about double the size of the fish I received. Regardless, my sandwich was still plenty to eat.

Another brave swimmer that came along to Aquatica ordered a Southwestern Chicken Wrap. I took a picture...

Spice Mill Restaurant in Orlando, FL

During a visit to Sea World in Orlando, I had lunch at the Spice Mill Restaurant in the Waterfront section of the park.

I had the Spice Mill Club. This sandwich consisted of ham, turkey, salami, monterey jack cheese, lettuce, and tomato on a multi-grain bread. Potato salad was served on the side.

Overall, I enjoyed my meal. The sandwich was good, especially since Sea World's food can sometimes be hit or miss (especially in the past- they have improved their food in the past few years). It was a good sized sandwich compared to the small hamburgers and chicken sandwiches that Spice Mill also sold. I don't visit Sea World often, but I'd gladly eat at the Spice Mill again on my next trip to the park!

Banana Beach Cookout in Aquatica

I recently visited Aquatica at Sea World. For a water park, they had lots of food choices with three different restaurants, and I ate at the one that seemed to be the best value for the money. The Banana Beach Cook-Out is an all-you-can-eat buffet where you can pay for one meal, or get a wrist band and return all day long. I choose the single meal option...

The food here consisted of hamburgers, hot dogs, pulled pork, chicken, salads, and various sides. First I tried a pulled pork sandwich, caesar salad, and potato salad.

Next, I had chicken, cranberry salad, corn, macaroni & cheese, and potatoes au gratin. Out of the meats, the chicken was my favorite, and out of the sides, the potatoes were the tastiest!

At this point I was full, but decided to get one more plate of food. I picked a little more chicken and macaroni, as well as chocolate pudding, brownie, and fruit salad for dessert.

Overall, I thought Banana Beach Cook-Out was pretty good for food from a water park. Since I noticed that a personal sized pizza was almost $9 at one of Aquatica's other restaurants, $13 for what I ate really wasn't bad!

I wonder though, how many people wait a half hour before they swim after stuffing their faces?

Sea World's Manta...

I made a Twitter account for Watch Me Eat (@WatchMeEat) a few months ago. I didn't really understand what all of the buzz with Twitter was about. The whole Twitter thing seemed so pointless to me. I would post something about the blog, but I really don't think any of it was read. Today, that all changed and I found out the purpose of Twitter: To get on new roller coasters for free!

Somehow I found out about Sea World's Twitter account (@RealShamu) and through that, I wound up getting admission into a private after hours event at Sea World called Manta Madness to ride Manta a day before it opens to the public.

We got to Sea World at the instructed time and were lead into the park to the entrance of Manta.



Once at the ride, everyone was free to eat the food and drinks that were supplied. I thought I remembered hearing that when Anheuser Busch was sold, they removed all of the free alcohol from their parks. Apparently that doesn't apply to special events since they had this bar set up serving drinks. I went with an exotic Sierra Mist...



And then there was the table of food. It was filled with vegetable platters, assorted cheeses, tortilla and potato chips, crackers, and a really good artichoke cheese dip. The table of food was constantly getting refilled. It was really nice of Sea World to feed everyone...




While everyone was eating, the park president did a speech, and Manta was opened.


After I finished eating, I entered the line leading to Manta. It traveled under waterfalls:


And eventually the line led into an aquarium. I was kind of disappointed that Sea World didn't have any actual manta rays on display. I saw a few varieties of rays, but no mantas. I've only seen manta rays on display once before (at Atlantis in the Bahamas), and I was hoping for a ride named Manta, there would actually be manta rays on display. I hope this isn't a continuation of the dumbing down of the Orlando theme parks that I've been noticing over the past few years and hopefully Sea World will be getting some mantas to put on display once the ride officially opens. They had a connected aquarium that was closed, so maybe they have some manta rays in there.



And finally, for the ride itself. I've only been on one other flying coaster (Superman at Six Flags Great Adventure), and Manta is definitely a step above that. It starts out with it's unique loading where you get strapped into the very comfortable seats which then get pulled up backwards leaving you dangling. You proceed up the lift hill over a backstage area of the park. It would have been nice if this area was themed a little more, but what could you do. Soon, the train dropped down the first hill into a pretzel loop which started with some great airtime and then went directly into having everyone lying on their backs for a second or two of really intense g-forces. After leaving the pretzel, the ride got much more relaxing with the occasional twist as it zoomed around it's track. After the halfway block brakes, Manta got fun with lots of near misses. If you were on the the right side of the train, you got close enough to reach out and touch water in the ride's splash area. I actually liked the left side of the train as it seemed to come a bit too close to waterfalls, rockwork, and the ground in certain spots.











Manta is definitely a winner. I haven't decided where I would rank it yet in terms of Orlando's other roller coasters, but it does kind of have a monopoly now as the only flying coaster in the area.

I checked out some of the other Manta Madness postings that have popped up on the internet from this event, and I'm disappointed that I left before the T-Shirts were given out. I did get a Manta pin, but I would have loved a shirt.

Thank you Sea World for letting everyone in to ride Manta!