Almost 2 years ago we bought a two year season pass for Busch Gardens and Sea World and have been enjoying going to Busch Gardens and Sesame Place around us. With it about to expire we really wanted to get down to Florida to go to Busch Gardens and Sea World there. We finally made it during the kids spring break.
We used some of Craig's skymiles to get cheaper flights and his Marriott and Hilton points for hotels so it ended up being really affordable. Plus my awesome cousin Kelly and her husband Jim were willing to let us stay with them a couple of nights and with our season passes most of the parks we went to were already paid for.
We flew down late Saturday night and went to Busch Gardens in Tampa the next day. Kelly, Jim and two of her children met us there in the late afternoon. It has been almost 6 years since I had seen her so we had a wonderful reunion.
The kids favorite part of Busch Gardens is the Sesame Street section. They met Elmo, Big Bird, Abby, Grover and Cookie Monster. The rides are perfect for them and they especially loved the Elmo roller coaster.
We went to Liam's favorite park the next day - LEGOLAND!! He was so excited to see everything made out of Lego's and all the fun rides they had there.
Their favorite ride was this driving ride. They controlled their own cars and had to follow the stop signs and stop lights. At the end they both received thier own driver's licenses. Liam also loved seeing all the Star Wars Lego's, including R2D2, Darth Maul and Darth Vader. Lego City with landmarks from several large cities was pretty amazing also.
The following day we went to Magic Kingdom at Disney World which was CRAZY!! I thought I had seen Disney busy before but I couldn't believe how many people they were able to pack into one park. Needless to say Caitlyn really wanted to meet Merida, so we waited for about two hours but she was soooo excited. Then she bought her very own Merida doll with her money she had been saving. That experience was her favorite of the entire trip.
Liam was able to meet Buzz which he also loved, though I think riding the rides were more exciting for him.
I am not sure how but Caitlyn also convinced me to wait in line to meet
Ariel. Her line was only an hour long so I think after waiting so long
for other rides one hour did not seem too long.
We ended up staying at Magic Kingdom until pretty late so we could ride some of the other rides that calmed down a little when people started leaving. So as we were walking out I snapped this picture of the family in front of the castle all lit up. We did sneak out before the fireworks, we were beat.
Wednesday we went to Aquatica, Sea World's water park and it was so quiet. The weather was a little cooler so nobody came. The water was heated though so we loved relaxing in the lazy river and of course I rode the water slide through the dolphin pool. A very laid back day after the couple of crazy days before.
Thursday we met up with Kelly and her family again to go to Sea World, my favorite park. Like Disney it was pretty busy but we were able to see most things. The dolphin show was my favorite as always.
At the end of the night we went over to the kiddie rides and there were not any lines so we stayed there until the park closed. The kids had a good time not having to wait in line and riding as many rides as they wanted to.
Friday we were going to go to Busch Gardens one more day but the park was so packed we could not even park our car. We decided to get a frisbee and relax at a park. The kids loved playing frisbee with Daddy and climbing the trees. It was a beautiful day for the park.
That evening we went to a pier in St. Petersburg with Kelly and her daughter, who convinced Craig to rent this 4 seater bike and ride around a little. We had a good time though I think Liam and Caitlyn had the best seats and didn't have to do any work.
Florida was a wonderful getaway for Spring break. A vacation the entire family will remember for a while. Kelly and I are already planning another trip together.
