By: Marcia Abramson
In fact, she was packed and ready to leave a good month before our departure. We started our odyssey with a flight on Jet Blue Airlines from John F. Kennedy Airport to Orlando.
The airlines television advertising campaign of a TV at every leather seat has made them the airline of choice for most kids, including my grandchild. They really do go out of their way for the children and are nice to the adults as well.
They offer a wide assortment of soft drinks and juices, in addition to chocolate chip cookies, Oreos, Munchies and of course Terra Blue Chips with enough seconds to sate every appetite. I can understand why even my adult friends are giving up their "frequent flyer" miles to Florida to fly Jet Blue. When I asked Maris how she found the flight, she said, "I'm loving it."
After deplaning and picking up our bags we headed for the Mears Super Shuttle to take us to the luxurious Peabody Orlando Hotel. We checked into our spacious suite with the fabulously comfortable "pillow top" beds. I had no problem getting Maris to retire for the night; my only problem was getting her to leave her bed in the morning. We were only planning to spend two nights at the Peabody before heading off to Cape Canaveral. Maris had the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful Olympic-sized Peabody pool and enjoy her favorite Caesar salad and pasta at the wonderful Capriccio Restaurant.
Thankfully, Maris had already been to Disney and Universal theme parks with her parents and this time it was Sea World Orlando that she wanted to visit. I felt that this marine life and adventure park would be smaller, with shorter lines and still give Maris some sea-themed rides, shows and animal attractions. Dinner with Shamu, the Killer Whale, was on our itinerary and it proved to be delightful. We walked around the park, stopped off to watch the lazy crocodiles, the playful dolphins, the formally-clad penguins and the elegant peacocks. Maris could not get enough of the killer whales. After watching one show where the skilled trainers put the whales through all kinds of maneuvers and tricks like riding on their backs, having them come up close to the spectators and spraying them, we then went on to have Dinner With Shamu. This was a buffet dinner and show where the whales swam into this smaller pool and performed again. The cost of the dinner was $37 for the adults and $23 for children under 12. The menu had many choices, including an assortment of salads, soups, fish, chicken, seafood and beef dishes as well as the kids' favorites.
Quite frankly, I too enjoyed watching the trainers and the intelligence of these killer whales perform and play to the crowds as they devoured buckets of fish as rewards. We could not leave Sea World without Maris' joining the other children in the first row of the stadium for the last evening performance of Shamu and the other whales. The reason for this front row madness was not only to see these huge mammals up close but also to be sprayed by them as they swam by. Fortunately, the weather was warm and all the children were prepared for the water park with swimsuits. And so, a wet, weary and contented grandchild and dry grandmother left Sea World for the comforts of their Peabody Hotel "pillow top" beds before continuing on their trip to Cape Canaveral to embark on the Disney Cruise ship "Wonder" for four-nights to Nassau, Grand Bahamas and Disney's Castaway Cay Island.
Our Mears Super Shuttle took us right to our ship where we joined other families to share another great grandmother-granddaughter pleasurable experience.
Copyright © by Marcia AbramsonE-mail: mascribe@aol.com
