Florida Villa

Aquatica has some great areas for the smaller children, better than Blizzard beach and typhoon Logoon.

Walkabout Waters - (Similar and better then Universal Studios kids water area)

This is a two story structure with lots of water things for kids to do, slides, sprays, drop water on people, all situated in a large pool. This was packed full of kids aged 12-14 and under (And lots of parents!) Have to be over 3 feet high. Every 10 minutes or so a large bucket of water tips over and soaks everywhere (similar to Universal Studios water area for kids)

There is also lots of seating around this area with shaded areas under large umbrella’s.

Top Tip - If you have small kids this would be a great place to camp out for the day, you can sit on a chair of bed while keeping an eye on the kids.

Kata’s Kookaburra Cove

Another kids area, smaller than Walkabout Waters, which has a pool with several slides for the smaller kids.

Overall if you have small children we think this is the best park out of all the water parks in the area.
Life vests are free and readily available, and lots of places for the kids to play.

Tassie’s Twisters

A dual tube which opens up into a large bowl which you spin around until falling out of the bottom into a pool. Quite fast and good fun. Not as good as the one at Wet ‘n’ Wild, but still good fun.

Once you exit this ride in your tube, you can continue to float around a slow lazy river which is quite small but takes you through two separate viewing areas.

Fish Grotto - Very Sea World, like the shark exhibition but with fish. The tube floats past a large glass window with fish behind it.

The other lane takes you past the dolphin plunge pool, where you can see the tubes and dolphin’s. This is one of the areas that I mentioned in part 1 on the dolphin plunge attraction.

Buzz….Buzz

Ha ha, the whole park is Australian themed with names and commentary, the voice artist they used is Jason Donavon well known for appearing in neighbours and being the voice artist used in the PS2 game Buzz…

Conclusion

We liked the park, it’s a must visit for any trip to central Florida. It has some great unique attractions. The park is quite small, much smaller then the Disney parks so gets busy very early on. We felt that the park is suited more to the younger kids rather then thrill seeking teenagers and adults.

All in all a good day out.

We visited Aquatica on the 17th of April 2008, below is some basic information which may help you get a little more from the park, or at least save you some time navigating. The information is our opinion based on our day at the park.

Getting to the park.

We wasn’t too sure where the park was, so we just followed the signs to Sea World, the park is very well sign posted once you get near Sea World. The park is across the road from the main Sea World Park.

On the day we arrived the park opened at 10:00, we decided to arrive at 09:30 which we did. Parking was normal $10 for car, we parked easily with a very short walk to the park entrance. At 09:30 the queue to enter the park was already 150 foot long, queuing to the left of the main entrance along the foot path, we joined the back of the line It wasn’t long before an Aquatica employee walked down the line making sure that everybody had tickets, as this was the entry line only and not for buying tickets. Luckily we had pre-booked our tickets and had them with us. If you do not have tickets you have to go and buy them (at front of queue) then rejoin the entry line.

Not sure what time they started letting people into the park but the line started moving as soon as we joined it at 09:30. It took around 20 minutes to get to the bag check area, we was through the entrance gates by around 09:50. The park does not open until 10:00, once through, another queue keeps you out of the main attractions until opening time. At 10:00 the park opened and the queue quickly dispersed into the park.

Top Tip No. 1

Buy your entry ticket before you get to the park, this will save time.

Attractions

The park is made up of two large wave pools, and several areas where slides and attractions are located. Sitting areas are spread across all of these locations.

Dolphin Plunge

This is a very unique ride, a first of its kind, but for our party a disappointment.

The idea is great, slide through a dolphin pool and see the dolphin’s, the reality is unfortunately quite different. Queue for an hour, take a trip down the slide, which is dark until you see the clear bit of tube you then have 2-3 seconds to turn your head and try to see a dolphin. I would guess you have a 5% chance of viewing a dolphin on this ride, if you are in the blue tube. If you are in the green tube them even less of a chance as 90% of the pool is obscured by the blue tube.

The designers obviously took all of this into account as there are 2 great areas to see the dolphins, either the tube lazy river and a viewing area.

There are 4 dolphins in the pool, which are free to roam around the entire pool, including an area out of view where they can go and hide from the public.

It’s best to do this ride as soon as you can as it gets very popular and is very slow. People try to slow themselves down to get a better view of the pool; it has two tubes one rider at a time. Not sure of how many people an hour throughput but it’s not a fast queue.

This attraction is right by the entrance to the park on the right hand side over a small bridge.

Top Tip No. 2

Do this attraction as soon as you can.

Team boat rides (Walhalla Wave & HooRoo Run)

Not as good as Blizzard beach, but still OK.

Blue slide is longer (Walhalla Wave) of the two rides with some dark areas of the slide, the green (HooRoo Run) being shorter, faster and straight. Both these rides will only seat 2 or 3 in one raft

Roa’s Rapids

Again this is a unique idea, different to the other water parks it’s a lazy river set to turbo! I really liked this ride; in place of tires they have life vests which keep you afloat while you drift around the river. Vests are optional and not a reflection of if you can swim or not. The current pushes you around the river very fast.

Taumata Racer, 8 lane matt race.

Better than Blizzard beach.

This is a race ride where you can race down against 7 other people.

Overall, I feel this park is designed more for the younger children, and not 14 or 16 year olds, as our children are. Don’t get me wrong, we all had a great time, but the rides were a bit tame compared to Blizzard Beach.

Disney World is the most popular attraction in Florida, and the reason that most families decide to visit Orlando.
One common error is mixing up Disney World and Disney Land.
Disney World is based in Orlando Florida, while Disney Land is in California LA. So World is on the east coast and Land is on the west coast.

Disney is the biggest complex of parks and attractions in Florida, and also one of the biggest local employers. Disney World was the first theme park to open in Florida, over the years it has expanded into a multi park empire with hotels and parks linked via its own transportation system. You could if you wish land in Orlando and stay at Disney for all of your stay, and many families do just that.

Disney World is currently made up of the following 4 main parks :

Magic Kingdom, Epcot, MGM Studios and Animal Kingdom.

They also have two nice water parks :
Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon

Also Disney have smaller attractions that are worth a visit :

Downtown Disney which is great for shopping and eating.
Disney Night Life?

Disney offer a selection of ticket options to cover the length of your stay, tickets are not cheap but they cover a great selection of parks. Some tickets cover 7 days in any parks of your choice, which is great for packing a lot into your holiday but can be very tiring.

Please click on the attractions list on the right to view more details on individual parks.