Stay on top of the game.

I have a horrible habit of letting things slide: the housework, the bills, my weight, my hobbies, my blog, birthdays, even Christmas. Unless I have plenty of what I call “brain space”, I find it very difficult to remember to do all the things that I have to do, and even if I remember them I find it even harder to find motivation. If it can be left until later, invariably it is and if it can be strategically ignored then all the better.

For 2010 I pledge to stay on top of the game.

To keep my house clean and tidy, to remember all the bills and paper work and have them done on time, to lose weight and exercise, to be organised with birthdays, Christmas and other important dates and to use my free time wisely so that I may achieve my goals.

I am not writing this here because I think people will want to read it. But so that it’s here for me as something tangible, as a reminder, and hopefully as a little kick up the bum when I start to slip.

To all I wish you a Happy New Year and all the best for 2010.

And if you did kindly take the time to read this, I’d love to hear any top tips for staying organised as well as what your New Year’s resolutions are in the comments!

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Discovery Cove is not like any other theme park in Florida, spaces are limited, so you have to make reservations. This means that there are considerably less people than in an ordinary theme park and as it is also quite a small park, it feels very private. None of this prepared us for the wonderes we experienced today.

First up when we arrived for 8am check-in, they were experiencing computer problems which meant they were checking everyone in by hand. Waiting for this was no bore, as the Discovery Cove staff kept us entertained by bringing out some of the animals including an Owl, a Parrot, a Sloth and an Armadillo! After having a “meet n greet” with practically every member of staff we got stuck in to breakfast (included) which was more than adequate for excited bellies!

Discovery Cove provides either a vest or full wet suit, a snorkel & mask (you get to keep the snorkel if you wish), and special sunscreen which isn’t harmful to animals. After getting suited up we headed to Starfish Cabana for our 9:25 dolphin interaction where we watched a short film & got to chat to the trainer for a while. We were split into four groups with just 8 people in each and taken to the lagoon.

The kids in our group seemed put-off by the cool salt water, but I couldn’t wait to get in there and meet some dolphins. We got to stroke, kiss and hug a 12 yr old dolphin called Jenny who was very friendly and a bit of a poser! She then took us for rides across the lagoon and boy do dolphins have torque! You put your right hand on the dorsal fin, and as soon as your left hand touches the flipper, away she goes! (I’ll upload the photos when I get home, don’t have my EEE-PC CD drive with me)

The 2nd dolphin we got to play with, was Rose, a younger “model” dolphin – long, thin, dark, and gorgeous! We used hand signals to ask her to talk, jump, and sadly to say goodbye :( but this was only the beginning of our day. Discovery Cove has an area where you can snorkel with tropical fish and be just a glass pane away from barracudas and sharks, a ray lagoon where you can feed rays, and a lazy river which floats you through the awesome aviary.

The aviary was the one surprise we weren’t expecting. It’s in 3 sections, and you can feed the birds in each part. Some are vegetarian, but I had great fun feeding mealworms to Cuckoos. Many of the birds are very friendly, and there are so many different types all with different personalities from the proud peacock to the sleepy tawny frogmouth! We spent hours in the aviary feeding various birds and learning all about them from the (mostly) friendly staff.

Lunch is also provided, and is served from 11-3pm so you can feasibly have two lunches :) The food was pretty darned good, included some yummy deserts and all the cookies, crisps, ice-creams, soft-drinks and annheuser-busch alcoholic drinks you can eat! Posh toiletries, towels, loungers, parking and 14 days unlimited access to Sea World, Aquatica and Busch Gardens were also included on our ticket making it great value for money in my opinion. The one thing they sting you on is the cost of photographs which are totally irresistible of course, but what the hell, this really was a fabulous, once in a lifetime, unforgetable, amazing experience.

Sorry for the long post, but I want to document today as much as possible!

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I was really worried about the hotel before we came, I had the idea of a dodgy American motel in my head, but the hotel we’re staying at is really nice. Clean rooms, friendly staff, plenty of onsite ammenities and several pools. Being on Highway 192 means we’re really close to everything, and there is every type of restaurant and fast-food chain you can imagine a short walk away.

Our first day here was spent at Animal Kingdom where we got really, really close up with some white rhino on the Safari, and then almost as close up with a tiger on the Maharajah Jungle Trek. For some reason we got considerably wetter than anyone else on the Kali River Rapids, which was fun until the Sun went in!! Expedition Everest is a pretty impressive ride, I always love dark coasters & something about the mystery of the Yeti really makes for a good freaky atmosphere!

Sunday we did Sea World, which never ceases to be amazing. The shows have been updated since I was last here 10 years ago (you’d be amazed at what hasn’t changed in some of the parks), but I don’t think the Shamu show could ever get boring! Manta is very similar to Alton Towers’ Air, apparently there’s not another one like it in the area, so I guess we Brits are spoilt!

Yesterday we visited Aquatica, which is way better than either of the Disney water parks. The map makes the beach area look small, but the beach is huge, and there are plenty of loungers to go around. There was very little queuing or hassle which made for a lot of fun, and more of the slides and rides are multiple-riders which also made it very enjoyable. One warning – wear sandals when walking around – the floor gets HOT!

Of course we’ve done many of the other parks on the other days, but if I write about everything I’ll have nothing to talk about when I get back! Tomorrow is our day at Discovery Cove, where we get to swim with Dolphins. I am SO excited, and we still have another ten days here, so there’s bound to be more to tweet about & I’ll keep adding photos to my Flickr Stream :)

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We’ve got tickets for everything, full Disney and Universal passes, tickets for Kennedy space centre, Busch Gardens, Seaworld and the big one: A day out at Discovery Cove swimming with dolphins. Although I have always intended to keep this mostly a technical blog, this is one thing that I want to both document and share. So from Monday morning, in keeping with the current trend of social media, I’ll be keeping everyone informed of every detail of our trip via Twitter and Flickr!

I have twitter and flickr streams in my footer, but take this as an advanced warning that for the next three weeks the content of this blog may go slightly “off topic”. But don’t go away, there are also a couple of “proper” technical posts which I hope to get live before I go & a couple more to keep this place ticking over whilst I’m away! So keep an eye out, enjoy the pics, and I’ll see you all when I get back!

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