Hey look! ACE was here too!

Well, it's kind of like an ACE convention... you just feed them stuff and they do tricks!

Ok... Empire of the Penguin time. I had not ridden this since opening. I will say that 50 minutes was too long to wait...

So we came back later when it was posted at 15, and actually there was no wait at all.

I'm gonna preface that I wanted this ride to be AWESOME! I, as much as many other locals in Orlando wanted SeaWorld to produce a ride that made the other parks go "Oh, crap! We have to seriously up our game!" Unfortunately, that didn't really happen here...

We will choose WILD side because we're a couple of WILD AND CRAAAAAAZY GUYS!

It's a trackless dark ride system, much like Tokyo's Winnie the Pooh and Hong Kong's Mystic Manor. This is the loading area and it's DAMN IMPRESSIVE! In this room is where you go "OMG! Orlando has a seriously KICK ASS dark ride! SQUEEEE!!!!"

Then you go into what I call the "pointless spinny room" where there isn't much to look at but these colorful thingys and you spin (wild) or do not much of anything (mild)

The majority of the ride is spent watching movies ala 1990s "motion simulator" style in the very, very, very expensive dark ride system. What a shame.

On the plus side, the new penguin enclosure is actually quite AWESOME!

It's cold and no touchy the penguins!

You can get right up close to these guys! Seriously CLOSE!

NO TOUCHY!!!! =)

I will admit that the enclosure is VERY cold, and it's hard to stay in here a long time, but it's worth it. The new habitat is *almost* worth riding the ride for, but unfortunately not if you have to stand in any sort of line.

I wish they could figure out a way that you could see the penguins without having to ride, like you used to. They claim you can't because the ride helps adjust your body temperature for the cold, but there are hundreds of "Ice House" attractions in Japan and they are colder, and you walk right in.

I seriously do love the new penguin enclosure. I'd even be happy just walking through a building for a few minutes to adjust. Anyway, onto our next adventure!

TPR's October 2013 Trip - Page 1 2

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