Aquatica - Orlando

Aquatica is Seaworld's water park, it's directly across the road from Seaworld and when you're on the higher rides there you can see the slides from the park.

== Attractions in Aquatica ==

===Dolphin Plunge ===

Here you slide down a tube without the help of any mats or tubes. The start of the ride is dark as the tunnel is fully covered, part way down you suddenly emerge into the light as the tunnel becomes transparent. At this point you actually go under the water and through a dolphin tank, which contains black and white Commerson's Dolphins. You are supposed to be able to view the dolphins as you're whizzing past, but we didn't find this to be the case. Firstly the dolphins have to be swimming near the tube to see them and very often they're not, and secondly you're going too fast and there's too much water hitting your face to see anything. 6/10 for this ride, because it's a decent slide but doesn't deliver what it promises.

=== Tassie's Twisters ===

On this ride you need a tube, either a double or a single tube which you collect at the bottom of the ride and carry up to the top. This can be a bit of a pain because they are unwieldy, especially for smaller children. The ride consists of a half tunnel (it's open at the top) which takes you to a large bowl, where you swish round a couple of times before dropping into another tunnel and splash landing in Loggerhead Lane. When I went down I found I had to push myself toward the opening for the finally splashdown because my tube had slowed down too much. I thought initially this was due to my excessive weight, but the children both said the same thing, and they certainly aren't fat, so just a 3/10 for this ride from me.

=== Loggerhead Lane ===

This is what I termed the lazy river, because basically you just float around on a tube (either single or double) and relax in the sun. Although it isn't quite as lazy as other examples of these rivers because there are waterfalls and sprays at various places. But you can also view the dolphin tank as you float by, and it's a much better way of seeing them than the Dolphin Plunge ride, you can also view a tank of tropical fish part way round as well. It's a very peaceful and relaxing ride and would have received an 8 at least, except that occasionally a group of awful louts descended on the river and the lifeguards did nothing to stop their dreadful behaviour and language. At one point my daughter got tipped out of her tube by one group and elbowed in the head by one of them at the same time, not a single apology as they raced off around the river annoying everyone else on their way. So from an 8 to a 5/10.

===Roa's Rapids ===

This is similar to Loggerhead Lane in that you float along a river going round and round. However there are no tubes, only life vests allowed. All the children and the majority of adults used them. I didn't because I found them too awkward, but the kids did and they loved being able to float along. The current if very strong in the rapids, and at certain points it gets extremely strong indeed and actually looks like rapids. If you miss the exit you've no chance of swimming back to it, my daughter missed it as we were getting out, and it took two people grabbing her hand to pull her back against the current. This ride is really fun, so it gets an 8/10.

===HooRoo Run ===

This is a wiggly slide where everyone comes down in dingy style rings. I never actually went on this one, but the kids did and they weren't overly impressed, they described it as 'meh', which says it all really.

=== Walkabout Waters ===

This is a big water playground. It's well designed and very colourful and the kids spent hours here. There are two buckets at the top of the structure which fill with water and eventually tip onto the poor unsuspecting people below. There are slides and water gun and buckets that people can fill up to tip on people below. It gave me a couple of hours peace to sunbathe so 9/10 from me (the kids loved it too).

===Taumata Racer ===

This is a slide that has a 360degree turn where the people using it slide down forwards on mats, and race against each other to the bottom. Getting on the mat in the first place is the hardest thing about this ride, and as so many of the adults I watched going on before me, I was left standing at the start trying to get going. So I came in last in the race, but really enjoyed the ride which has a really steep drop at the end . 8/10 for this one.

=== Kata's Loobaburra Cove ===

This was a play area for really small children (under 5's), so we only passed though here, but from what I saw there were a couple of slides and some stationary toys to climb on.

=== Cutback Cove and Big Surf Shores ===

I've put these together because I actually didn't realise they were two different areas whilst we were there, because they are very similar, just partly separated by a rock wall. It is a large swimming area that doubles as a wave pool every so often. I can only presume that the big surf shores side of the pool has stronger waves than the other. Not the most exciting and the wave were only as large as the ones in our local pool, so just 5/10 for this one.

=== Whanau Way ===

This is another slide where everyone uses a tube to slide down on. There are four different slides, each has a full 360 degree turn part way down. The tube stops you scrapping your back on the slide, so 7/10 from me.

== Shops and Food ==

There are several shops around the park, Sunnies n' Such, Kiwi Traders, Adaptations and Beachies. They all sell much of a muchness, but they're all worth a visit if only to cool down!


There are 3 main diners, Banana Beach Cookout, Mango Market and Waterstone Grill. You had to buy tickets for Banana Beach, and from the outside it looked to be some sort of all you can eat buffet. We ate at Waterstone Grill, which was fine, but a very limited choice and nothing particularly healthy, also very expensive, but par for the course in theme parks. There are also lots of stalls to purchase snacks and drinks around the park.

== Other Areas ==

The toilets were all kept very clean, which I imagine is made especially difficult by all the sand around, but they were spotless.

We had need of the first aiders because of my children's delicate skins (they had a reaction to the chlorine), they were very understanding and very efficient.

There are lockers around the park and as I was the only adult on our trip and I didn't want to leave bags on the loungers, I found being able to rent a locker close to where we were sitting invaluable.

There's a beach around Cutback Cove, which is lined with sunbeds. I can't say I was over keen on this idea, because sand gets absolutely everywhere. I prefer the loungers to be on a solid floor as they are in Wet 'n Wild.

=== Final Point ===

One thing that annoyed me during the day was an announcement that Aquatica valued everyone's safety, and for that reason no lifeguards were allowed to make direct eye contact whilst talking to customers. I found this very annoying because I hate it when someone doesn't look me in the eye when talking, and it did make me wonder if it was an excuse so the lifegaurds could ogle without being in trouble for not looking a person in the face.