Welcome to the Chronicles of

~ the Second Noordam Adventure ~ the 15th Anniversary Cruise ~
12/06/2008 - 12/17/2008

12/19 - Orlando, Florida

8:39am - In Search of Spam Whales!

Another gorgeous day in the land of the orange! It looks like we will be headed off to SeaWorld today (since we already paid for the ticket with our jaunt to Discovery Cove yesterday). Anyway, here is the morning view:

It looks very similar to yesterday's view, but that is because unlike the ship, this window doesn't move! So it gets a little boring. Of course, with views like this, I could get used to it! I get the feeling that I will be missing waking to it day after tomorrow. White is such a harsh color (major snow expected today and Sunday - thanks to all who wrote to let me know what I had to look forward to). In the meantime, I will enjoy today's sunny 81F forecast (turnabout is fair play!).

Talk to you later!

9:25pm - Back at the Hotel after the Spam Whale Hunt

Today was an excellent way to spend the last full day of vacation, and a fabulous anniversary trip. Weather was gorgeous, everything worked out just fine - heck, we even got good parking spots. It was the perfect day to go hunting the elusive Spam Whale.

I suppose I should back up three steps, and tell you all about the not widely known about Spam Whale. Way back when, when we were on the cruise ship, there was a Travel Expert by the name of Olga. She gave talks on the islands we were going to go to, she gave history talks about pirates, and culture lectures on the islands. During her talks on what guests to Dominica would see, she mentioned that the island was famous for sightings of both Sperm and Spam Whales. When guests asked if she was serious about the Spam Whales, she repeated that we would see some.

Well, when we were off Dominica, we saw Sperm Whales, Mellonhead Whales, and porpoises, but had no sightings of Spam Whales. Now Clay was very upset, because he had his heart set on seeing, or at least seeing pictures I took of, the Spam Whales. Apparently, they are very shy.

I emailed Clay & Dennis when we got here, and when I mentioned that we were propbably going to SeaWorld, he said if anyplace is going to have a Spam Whale, SeaWorld would be the place. So today, Carol & I went out determined to find that elusive whale!

By the way, Caly & Dennis, I hope you guys are feeling better!

So after breakfast, we headed to SeaWorld. When we got there, the first Christmas Tree we found was just inside the front gates. Carol liked the big balls they used to decorate it.

As we rounded the corner, and heard a comotion - could we have already found the Spam Whale? Surely such a rare creature would cause a reaction from the crowd! It turned out it was the dolphin nursery, where pregnant dolphins go to give birth, and where they spend the early days with their calves.

Not a Spam Whale

After spending some time watching the dolphins, we headed over to Shamu Stadium, figuring such a venue would be the perfect place to find our quarry.

Shamu got the crowd going! He obviously wasn't a Spam Whale, but it seemed like he wanted to eat one!

It is amazing to see such a large animal fly thru the air, toss trainers about like toys, and yet remain in complate control!

Of course, one of the highlights was seeing the whale fly thru the air, and then soak everyone in the lower level. I can tell you, Shamu was quite effective at soaking anyone he wanted to!

But we pressed on, in our search!

At the Artic display, we found our next pretty Christmas Tree, in the Polar Express Spectacle:

And while we saw some great animals, we didn't find the Spam Whale!

Not a Spam Whale

Not a Spam Whale

As we crossed the bridge to try a different part of the park, we asked these guys if they had seen a Spam Whale

and they told us if we found one, they wanted a piece!

We started rounding up search parties to help us find that Spam Whale

And this is what we found:

Not a Spam Whale

Definitely Not a Spam Whale

The Camo Croc...!

Not a Spam Whale

Not a Spam Whale

We even tried the Dolphin Show! They were great! They had 9 dolphins in the show, birds, acrobatics, and so much more. It was a fabulous show!

After the show, we headed for the penguin house.

Not a Spam Whale

Not a Spam Whale

Frustration setting in, we started heading to the front gate, starting to feel we would never find that darned Spam Whale. Then we saw this "Cast Members Only" path, but it was quite loud back there. So we looked at eachother, and then walked up the path. We found an old stadium. When we looked inside, this was the sight that greeted our eyes:

Success!

They were diving right in and eating the Spam Whale! We slowly backed away with our photographic evidence of the Spam Whale, and felt lucky that we finally saw one!

So we left the park, satisfied, and headed over to Macaroni Grill for a late lunch. Then we headed over to the Disney Marketplace to do a bit of shopping.

This is the start of the Christmas rush, and tonite, the Marketplace was insane. Parking was hard to find - for others! We found a spot almost right away, close to the entry of the Marketplace. We poked around, and first saw the Lego Display

They also had window displays of the great cities of the world:

Then we went inside to find a new parlour in the shops - a Princess Factory! They do princess makeovers for girls! We saw at least 10 girls getting hair, makeup, nails, and costumes done. Incredible!

Then I turned around and discovered that Carol was all set to be the next guest to be done up!

I got her out of there, but quick! The we went across Pleasure Island, which has changed incredibly. They closed down the clubs that made Pleasure Island an amazing place to visit - no comedy club, adventurers club, or anything. Clay & Dennis had mentioned that was going to happen, but we hoped it was still there, so we could go one last time. It is a shame it is closed, but it had a good run.

So we went to the West Side, where they had street performers around, bands, and a yo-yo act that was based out of Boston! It was a great place to walk and enjoy the warm weather, shop a bit, and enjoy the entertainment.

Then we went to the Ghiardelli Ice Cream Shop, and I have to tell you, it made for the sweetest ending to a perfect day.

Tomorrow, we head home to see how much snow fell today. Hopefully, it will not be bad. But we are going to enjoy our last minutes of this anniversary trip! I'll let you know what we do, how the flight goes, and how much snow is waiting for us! At least the flight is not first thing in the morning! I'll talk to you tomorrow!

Clay, I hope you enjoyed the Spam Whale!

Til then....

Keep Smiling!!!

Your Intrepid Servant, the Timethief Beachbum