Orlando Eye... or I-Drive Live.. or I-Walk... or, whatever they wanna call it (NOW OPEN!)

(uh, part 3, now as an open attraction?)

I-Drive 360

Home of the Orlando Eye, Madame Tussauds Orlando, and SEA LIFE Orlando.

As well as a handful of shops and restaurants 

After years of delay and being under construction... I-Drive 360 is now open for business and the Orlando Eye observation wheel is finally taking riders.

Woo, The Orlando Eye!
a 400 foot tall, Intamin built Observation Wheel on I-Drive in Orlando, Florida.

The I-Drive 360 complex, with the Eye, Sea Life, and Madam Tussauds.

On the inside is a little food court area as well as ticket booths for all 3 attractions.
And now for the first part of our three part adventure....

The Orlando Eye!

Before riding the wheel itself, you have to watch this horribly awkward CGI 3D film about some girls dream / fantasy of riding the wheel... and also ending up in space... or something. I hated it, the audio was so high it made my ears hurt.....

Once the suffering was over, you walk outside and are greeted by the wheel itself, woo... the wheel.

One of the cars on the wheel... Despite the lack of riders, the operators still forced 10 or so of us in a single car.... letting every 4 or 5 cars cycle empty.

Uh, and away we go!

And... approaching the top, 400 feet over I-Drive.
Now I've ridden the London Eye, as well as the giant wheels in Atlanta, GA and Niagara Falls, ON... Of the 4, I'd say Orlando's is the most pointless of them... Its not a bad wheel, I'm just not sure why it was built. Maybe if it were downtown, at Lake Eola or something....? (but you'd have a harder time getting the tourists out that way....) That being said, you can see things from the wheel.. and more than just a bunch of run-down motels along I-Drive built in the 70's.
Rant aside... Here's some of what you can see.

Downtown Orlando!

Magical Midway, with its StarFlyer, Sling Shot, and S&S Tower.

Islands of Adventure and some of Universal Studios
(Eww, Rockit!)

peaking out between the West Gate Resort is part of Wet'nWild.
Well, until next year.

Fun Spot America! In all its wonderful glory.

Even parts of Aquatica can be seen.

And of course SeaWorld.
Mmm, Kraken!
(this view, also changing soon!)

And if you try hard... or have a good zoom... you can see parts of the Walt Disney World resort.
(woo?)
And for the non-amusement related things....

Lockheed Martin is basically across the street from the wheel....

OCCC!
The Orange County Convention Center, home of IAAPA when it visits Orlando.

General I-Drive.... stuff.....
(like that China Buffet I can't get enough of!)

And lots of unused / open land...

But most importantly... this horse.
yay?
Um.. now for the second part?
(although we did this before the wheel.... I think the wheel is the more important aspect of the development)

SeaLife Orlando

SeaLife also starts off with a 3D film, in a dome above the entry way, surrounded by a '360*' fish tank. In here, the audio was so low none of us really had any idea what was going on... and just kinda wanted to get out and see the animals....

Once inside, there are several fish tanks along the way with different kinds of animals as well as semi-interactive displays, some built 'within' the tanks themselves.  But since we missed out on what the film was about, we didn't really pay attention to them elsewhere.

Some of the tanks have photo spot type access points.
Jeff was pretending to be amused.

Fish, and stuff.

One of the tunnel tubes inside the aquarium.

Shark buddies.
(Blacktip Reef Shark)

Eels <3

And little Sea Horses!!!

Uh, fish tank....

Green Moray Eel, hey

Cownose Ray
(moo?)

DISCO JELLIES!

There is also a small touch tank at the end...
Uh, no thanks, I'll just look with my eyes.
Once you reach the end you can exit back into the food court area or go down a hallway and take another lap of the aquarium. We did a second lap just to make sure we didn't miss anything.

Another one of the tunnel tubes, this is the neat "360" tube.
It's the only of its kind in Florida.

Also, there was this little kid net climb / slide tower thing.. Kinda hidden away behind the touch tank.
Uh, yeah.. SeaLife. I've now been to four of them? Orlando, London, Alton Towers, and Mall of Americas. yay

And now... for the third, and least interesting (to me) attraction at the complex..

The Madame Tussauds Wax Museum
(how extremely awkward)
The whole place is pretty strange... this was my first time venturing inside one of these Wax Museums... But I'd seen a few in passing. Pretty much you walk inside and do a 'self guided' tour past wax sculptures of people either famous or historical or whatever and there might be a sign saying who it is... or something. I don't know... The whole thing  just made me feel kinda uncomfortable. 

The first one you encounter is Ponce de León, the man who 'discovered' Florida.

Abraham Lincoln was next... Jeff was trying to have a conversation with him.. But Mr. Lincoln wasn't having it.

Propaganda!
Uh, I mean... Uncle Sam?

Also, I was hanging out on the moon with Neil Armstrong
(who was somehow able to stand on the moon without his helmet on!)

Good ol' Uncle Walt...
I'm not sure why... but I found Mr. Disney to be one of the more creepy looking sculpture.

Giving my home boy Dr. King a high five!
(Sorry)
Also, it was kinda sad walking past and hearing a group of people ask "who the hell is that?"

Albert Einstein was not amused to be here....

Beyoncé, but Jeff was pretty sure it was Shakira.
Beyonkira?
(it was in fact, Beyoncé)
Um.. yeah... Things are about to go downhill fast from here.. So I'm sorry in advance.

I absolutely had to grab myself while screaming "OW!" next to Michael Jackson
(I also love how they have props for people to use in their photos)

Also had to twerk up on Rihanna
(while singing Birthday Cake)

Telling Oprah she needs to calm her ass down and that EVERYONE doesn't need a cuckoo clock!

Also, for some reason Shrek was here?

As was Marilyn Monroe

And for some reason... Jeff was on display? We weren't sure what was supposed to be in this room.. it was just empty with a box seat.

Rawr? The Jurassic Park display would have been better with a wax-Dino...
and not just a screen printed wall.

So yeah... I-Drive Live.. or I-Walk... or I Drive 360... Or The Orlando Eye... whatever name they wanna use this week vs next week vs 2 weeks ago... Who knows! Its pretty neat and maybe the tourists will eat it up.. but I really doubt it ever gets a busy in here as they wanted / hoped. Maybe once they open their "420 foot" StarFlyer, I'll come back and visit.

Also, whats up with this horrible exit way? Long blank hallways to and from your car doesn't really scream "fun".
????

Uh, woo, Orlando!