Strategy to beat the heat in the Summer at the Theme Parks

   

 Since it is vacation time everyone wants to get out and have some fun at Disney, Universal and Seaworld, but no one wants to be in the heat all day long. You can enjoy the theme parks and miss much of the hottest parts of the day if you take advantage of the extended hours during the summer. Most of the parks are open until 10 PM or later so you should be able to enjoy most of the attractions and not deal with 90+ temperatures all day.

     The easiest way to do this is to get to each park as soon as the park opens and do the most popular rides and attractions first. Next, hang around and do a couple of the older rides and attractions. In any of the parks this should get you to around 12 noon so now you can grab some lunch in the park or better yet take a break and go somewhere off the properties. If you are at Disney, then you can head to the Buena Vista area that is not too far from Downtown Disney and there are lots of cost conscience restaurants for your selection. If you are at Universal Studios or Seaworld, then jump over to Sand Lake road or Internal Drive and you can find some good, reasonably priced restaurants as well.
     After you have lunch, take a nap, chill out and recover some. By now depending on the time it takes for lunch this should bring you to somewhere around 2 PM or so. Next, you can go to the pool for a couple of hours of splash time for the children and the adults can enjoy some relaxing sunning. Depending on your ticket packages you could enjoy one of the Disney water parks like Typhoon Lagoon or Blizzard Beach and at Seaworld you could go to Aquatica. No matter what you choose to do you should spend a few hours and this should get you up to 5 PM. Now grab a quick early Dinner, then head back to the park.

     Now you have almost another 5 hours to spend in the park so do something that you did not do earlier in the day and maybe go back and do the most popular ride or attraction again. Finally, you and your family will be rested enough that you can hang around and catch the closing shows at the parks. At EPCOT you can watch Illuminations, Hollywood Studios has Fantasmic, Magic Kingdom has Wishes, Seaworld has One Ocean and Universal has added a firework and audio visual show.
     No matter what you choose to do you do not have to stay in the parks from opening to closing, but you can still  enjoy all of the park without staying in the heat all day long. You may even have a chance using this strategy to enjoy a sunset.
    Enjoy...

Disney Star Wars Weekend Parade 2012

While you can enjoy the thrill rides it is also cool to see the Star Wars characters portrayed in a parade. It was an okay parade with nothing very unusual; unless you consider the heat and I am sure that the people in costume had to be hoping for a cool rain, but that did not happen today. At any rate you can enjoy the movie and pictures below and you did not have to brave the crowds and the heat.

Star Wars Weekend Parade 2012 part one

Star Wars Weekend Parade 2012 part two

Here are a few shots of some of the Star Wars characters including young Anakin Skywalker.

 

 

 

 

Star Wars Weekend at Disney Hollywood Studios

On May and June weekends you can check out some of your favorite Star Wars heroes at Disney Hollywood Studios. You can even catch a few shots of the 501st Legion on duty. I would suggest that you get to the park early because it does get crazy busy later in the day. Get there early because usually the park opens early and I got there at 7:45 AM and the park was already open and these were not the early magic hours.
Most of the activities do not start until 9:00 AM, but if you want your child to participate in the Jedi training school, then arriving early is your goal because the line to sign up at 8 AM was a one hour wait.
Get there early, ride

Star Tours | Walt Disney World Resort 

 a couple of times, jump over and enjoy the

Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith | Walt Disney World Resort

 then take a few shots at 

Toy Story Mania! | Walt Disney World Resort

 At 9 AM take your time and walk around to get some pictures of all of the characters and remember that most of the photo location will have different characters at different times so make sure you check the schedules so you do not miss your favorite Star Wars character.

Enjoy the pictures:

Still frozen in time,  Star Wars always captivates us

 

A great place for a vacation

Feels like home

Going, going and Sold for two light sabers!

Galatic symbol for touchdown.

Are those ears of hair rolls?

Do not look down...

Too hot for wool.

Are you having a great vacation and do you like what I am wearing?

So is she telling the truth? The Force will reveal if you are not being truthful.

Identification, please

 

A classic head shot

I believe I can fly...

Trying to find the "Dark Side" page.

 

 

 

I guess that I should end this with and even though it has been said many times:

"May the Force be with You"

SeaWorld new Turtle Trek experience 2012

If you like or love sea turtles, then you need to see the  new Turtle Trek experience at SeaWorld Orlando. This is a 3D 360 movie that is more like 4D and designed to show you the journey that a sea turtle makes from birth to giving birth over a 20 year span in 7 minutes. That seems like a short time window, but you get caught up in the experience of surviving the race to the Ocean while avoiding several predators, avoiding killer sharks, swimming with jellyfish and finally after a 20 year journey returning to the same beach where you were born to start the cycle over again by building your own nest.
After you leave the dome spend some time watching the three larger and several smaller sea turtles swim in the turtle lagoon.
Next checkout the One Ocean show in the Shamu stadium and the Blue Horizon show. There are several picture below of each of the shows.

Pictures from One Ocean

 

 

 

Pictures from Blue Horizons

 

 

 

 

 The Spring time is a great time to get out and enjoy the weather plus you can catch some really nice shows. Also take some time to look at all of the flowers and why not sit down for a few minutes and relax and watch the animals.