Day 7…our final full day. Check out is tomorrow morning at 1000. I’m NOT looking forward to that….and an afternoon of flying!
We started our journey off today at 0745. Remember how we rescheduled Aquatica for today? We weren’t going to miss it. After a quick shower by us both, we headed over to Flapjack Jonny’s for breakfast. We walked in and the place….was empty. Not a good sign. The interior was amazing and they had like ten waiters/waitresses just WAITING for customers. Our waiter said it was a really slow day. We both had our breakfast and it was actually pretty good. They had one of the better cinnamon rolls I’ve had in a LONG time. As we were leaving, more people started showing up which I was happy about for the staff. It’s now approximately 1000 and we drove directly to Aquatica. As soon as we got onto the road, there was immediately a line to turn into the park. It took us an HOUR to park and you HAVE to pay $30. We walked into the park and checked in with our etickets. We purchased the “Quick Que” option to bypass lines on most of the “good” rides. When we went through the front gate, I asked where to get the quick que passes and kept getting pointed to different directions. We finally found customer service. We, again waited in ANOTHER LINE for roughly 30 minutes before finally getting our wrist bands. From there, we headed to the lockers to store our stuff and found that it was $30 to rent one!! Begrudgingly, we bought one. We walked to the automatically assigned locker only to find it malfunctioned and couldn’t be opened with the code. It basically kept flashing “loading” and never would let us in. Talk about a waste! Luckily, someone was leaving and let us have their locker for the day. FINALLY, after 2-2.5 hours…we were able to actually hit the water park. We started out in the lazy river to cool down and then we went to a rapids river they had. The rapids river is AMAZING. You put on a life jacket and it sends you flying around this hybrid between a lazy river and a whitewater rapids type feeling. We cooled off and then went on a few of the water slides. Thankfully we had the Quick Que option because the lines for most attractions were at least an hour long. Not a lot of people had the Quick Que so that was great. It allowed us to walk right past everyone else to the top. I will admit, I felt kind of bad doing it because everyone had been waiting in line for so long and we got a lot of dirty looks, but it made the day better because we weren’t stuck in line. Aquatica was PACKED beyond belief. Between the 4th holiday, it being a weekend, and the feel like temps being 110F here… EVERYONE was here to try cooling down. Even in the lazy river and rapid river you were shoulder to shoulder with people. After doing an hour or so of riding, we decided to cash in on the free lunch included with the tickets. We got to one of several on site eating spots to be met with…..another line. It was just like being at high school. You literally got a tray and picked up your food that you wanted. You could choose between a Burger, chicken strips, or a salad. Then you slid your tray down further for a drink. We sat in line for a half hour and finally got the free dinner. Once we got to the checkout, they scanned our etickets and there was no free meal found. Remember when I changed tickets the other day to today? For whatever reason, even though it was included, the customer service person never added it on there even though the receipt shows it. Beyond frustrated, I just said we’ll pay the $66 food bill (for the TWO burgers and a fountain drink). Luckily the counter worker saw that we were supposed to have the free meal and gave it to us. The food quality…sucked. I didn’t get any pictures because we locked all of our stuff in the lockers and anytime we weren’t on rides, we were waiting in a long line. Although the rides we did go on were fun, I won’t ever come back to Aquatica. In the future, I’ll have to do a better job of finding water parks that aren’t so touristy. After waiting in lines for so long and dealing with all of the people, we both were pretty tired and decided to call it a day.
We got back to the room around 430p and both crashed in bed for our afternoon nap 😂. Around 630p we awoke from our slumber and felt pretty lazy and decided to get UberEATS again for some Flipper’s pizza. After the weird Italian pizza last night, I wanted to try another place. I got a large cheese pizza with bread sticks and Ky got a calzone. While waiting for the delivery driver, I ran to the 7-11 that’s basically across the street for some signature blue slushies for our drinks. The food came really quick and Flipper’s was a dynamite choice! The cheese pizza tasted amazing but the bread sticks? Those were the BEST bread sticks I’ve EVER had in my whole life!!! I’m definitely going to hit them and the pizza up in the middle of the night! Kyley’s calzone was HUGEEEE! She did a build your own calzone and she really enjoyed it! I do have to admit that both of us were feeling pretty lazy and we had dinner in bed 😂. After dinner, we watched some TV. Toy Story 2 came on and we half watched that while catching up on our social medias. After a little bit, I decided I wanted a little dessert. We found a nice little ice cream place down the street named Ginther’s. I got a bowl of blue goo soft serve and Ky got a mocha cappuccino swirl cone. We headed back to the room and are heading off to bed. Check out time is 1000 sharp so we’ll have to get up early and pack up all of our stuff. We have to be at the airport by 1400 to drop off the rental car. If all goes well, we’ll be back at MSP around 1915 tomorrow. If we time it right, we might be able to catch the Shell Lake fireworks as we drive into town!
These last seven days have been truly amazing. I honestly can say that of all the traveling I have done in my life, this has been the best trip I’ve ever taken in my whole life. I was able to truly relax and not worry about things. I was able to spend it with the most beautiful, thoughtful, and sweetest girl I’ve ever met in my whole life. It was so nice that I could bring Kyley with because she deserved a nice vacation as she’s been so helpful in my life…beyond what a normal dating couple would be. We started dating when I was “normal”. She stood by my side after I was diagnosed with cancer…even after I told her she could walk away from the entire relationship and I wouldn’t hold it against her. She picked me up and took care of me after surgery, has taken care of me weekend after weekend after my chemo sessions where I’m still sick and puking, has been there for every piece of good and bad news from the doctors…the list goes on. She’s seen me at the very lowest emotional points in my life. She’s seen me break down. She….is absolutely perfect and this vacation has not only been perfect for me, but perfect for such a well deserving STRONG woman like her.
Someday, somehow, I will repay EVERYONE for what you’ve all done (and continue to do) for me and Ky. I can’t even begin to thank you all and my words will never be enough. I will never forget this for as long as I live. Thank you again and again all…you have given me such a huge smile that can never be taken away ❤️
