By then we were definitely ready for a snack. After all, we had breakfast at the crack of dawn. We headed to the bakery. Graham had some Coffee and a Danish Pastry and I had a Caramel Macchiato and Vanilla Cake with Cinnamon Frosting. They now serve Starbucks Coffee at SeaWorld so I thought I knew what I was letting myself in for, but I think they got the syrup mixed up as there was a distinct mint taste to my Caramel Macchiato. It was not unpleasant, but somewhat unusual. I had to admit that I preferred the old view when the Flamingoes were next to the bakery. Now we had Manta swooping past. Still, this reinforced the realization that this is definitely not our kind of ride.
At that point, we were essentially done. With the early start; we were starting to run out of steam. However, there was one thing we still wanted to do: Turtle Trek. We headed over to that area. Turtle Trek is in the area that used to be the manatee underwater viewing area. Again, we used our Quick Queue. The setup is a little strange. We lined up and at some stage the doors opened. However, rather than heading for the actually attraction, we ended up in the underwater viewing area. This has been redone and is great. There are two separate underwater viewing areas. The first one is a freshwater habitat and contains the manatees and assorted freshwater fish. The second one is saltwater habitat and contains the sea turtles and various saltwater fish. This habitat is a lot nicer than the old turtle habitat and both underwater viewing areas are fascinating. A short while later, we were then called to pick up our 3D glasses and to proceed to the attraction. It is a real shame that you can only access the two underwater viewing areas if you want to do Turtle Trek. The idea behind the film was that you follow a female sea turtle from birth to returning to the beach to lay her eggs and showcases the dangers that the turtles face. The film is visually stunning as it uses both surround cinema technology in a dome were the images are all around you, but also above you and 3D technology. Unfortunately even though you are not moving during the film, I still got a strong sense of motion sickness. Once the film was finished, we had a look at the outdoor part of the manatee habitat and watched them for a little while.
We then headed out. We had walked enough for one day and decided to take the I-ride Trolley back to the hotel. To my delight, the trolleys were decorated. They all had a wreath on the outside around the front light and garlands with Christmas baubles on the inside they all looked rather festive. When we got back to the hotel, we had to go to reception. We had a letter over night to advise us that the locks would be changed and that we needed to collect new room keys before returning to our room that evening. We were issued new keys, but were asked if we still had our old keys, as they were not sure if the lock on our room had already been changed. We did and headed over to our room. When we got there, they were in the process of changing our lock. This was one of the new RFID kinds where you just have to touch the card to the reader and the door opens. This is essentially the same technology that the Disney Magic Bands work with. We were told that they would be about 10 to 15 minutes. We went into the room and chilled out until they were done. I checked in online and caught up with my emails. Once the lock had been changed and we had checked that our key cards worked, we got changed into our swim stuff and headed for the pool.
One of the hotel pools was very close to our room. This was supposed to be the family pool, but all that this meant is that it had the bow of a pirate ship with some water cannons outside the pool at one end and some pool toys like pool noodles available. This also happened to be the only pool area in the hotel that had a hot tub. There were no children around, but quite a few adults. The pool is a decent size and even though it was just before sunset, it was still quite warm and the water was a lovely temperature. There were some other people from the UK and we chatted with them for a couple of minutes and then swam some length. We were treated to quite a nice sunset while we were swimming. Once we had swum enough, we headed for the hot tub. The hot tub was very nice and a good size and it was a shame that I never managed to get back. The people from the UK were in the hot tub, too and we chatted with them a bit more. About 20 minutes later, we decided that we had enough water for one day and headed back to the room. We got dried off and changed and then went outside to the stop for the I-Ride Trolley.
I had asked Graham to decide where we go for dinner that evening. We got on the I-Ride Trolley heading north on International Drive. I asked Graham where we were going for dinner and he told me I just would have to wait and see. We passed the stops for Pointe Orlando and Olive Garden and I started to get a little puzzled. I figured maybe we were heading for Chilis or Sweet Tomatoes, but once we crossed Sand Lake Road, Graham indicated that we would get off at the next stop. This was the stop for what used to be our favourite restaurant, Salt Island Fish Market and Chop House. Unfortunately they have gone under a number of years ago and the restaurant had stood empty since. I had heard that a new restaurant was due to open there and Taverna Yamas had actually opened in November. This is where we were headed. It was advertised as a Mediterranean restaurant, but the food was all Greek. It was a little surreal. When Salt Island closed, they had obviously left all the fixtures and fittings behind and Taverna Yamas took the premises over just as they were. It was a bit sad to see the familiar surroundings but having a different restaurant there. I was also not sure if the décor works for this kind of restaurant. The food however was delightful and the service was very attentive, which may have something to do with how few people were in the restaurant. I had every intention to have a cocktail that evening, but in the end it did not appeal. I think I had got quite dehydrated and was also quite tired so I went with a Fruit Punch. Graham had a glass of Rose Wine and we both had some water. Graham had decided to order a Caesar Salad to start his meal and this was huge. It would easily have fed a family of four. We decided to share this and it was delicious. They also brought out some Hummus with warm Pita Bread for us to share. Now, I am an absolute Hummus snob. Having been Dubai so often and having tasted proper, freshly-made Hummus, I have little tolerance for the Hummus you can buy in supermarkets or that most restaurants serve. This however was amazing. Graham had the Ottoman Lamb Shank with White Bean Purée for his main course and I went with the Pastitsio, which was layered Macaroni with seasoned Minced Beef, Béchamel and Tomato Sauce. We both enjoyed everything we tried. The food was fresh and delicious. I wish them the best of luck and hope that they are still there the next time we come to Orlando.
Once we finished our meal, we headed out to the trolley stop. We just saw this pulling up once we stepped out on the so we took a little jog. Fortunately there were plenty of people getting off and one and we managed to catch the trolley. Once we got to the hotel, we were both ready for our bed. We got ready for bed and then called it a day.
the ride kept breaking down though and it was freezing in there! 
