Discovery Cove Revisited
We had looked at visiting Discovery Cove for quite a few years, but to be honest, the cost had always put us off as there were five of us, this included my eldest sons girlfriend. When my eldest son reached around twenty, he decided that he didn’t want to come so that left just three of us which made a visit to Discovery Cove infinitely more affordable. We bit the bullet and bought the tickets from Orlando Villa. com.
Discover Cove is very different to other parks in Florida, in as much as you go there almost by appointment, they only allow a certain number of visitors, and you are there for the day. It very quickly becomes obvious to you that although the tickets are expensive, they are in fact very good value for money, but more of that later.
The day finally came when we were to attend the park, it entailed an early start and although we were early, there was still a queue waiting at the entrance. All guests are booked in through the entrance hall and pictures are taken for your Identity badges, you are then sent through to the inner part of the park, a keepsake picture is taken and you are informed of which group you are in and where to attend your “safety talk and pick up your wet suits and buoyancy jackets. You are also given a time when it is your opportunity to “swim with the dolphins”.
There is lots of activities to carry on with whilst you are awaiting your swim with the dolphins, memorable to us was feeding the rays, this is where all sizes of manta rays, stingrays etc swim amongst your legs and take food from your hand, makes you feel very close to nature, there is also the snorkelling pool where you could be snorkelling in the Carribean, the size and array of fish swimming around you in this pool is fantastic and again, there are some very large rays here.
Perhaps now it’s time for a bite to eat, all in the price of the ticket and quite a sizeable spread, something for everyone whether it be burger and chips for the kids or salad for the weight watchers, excellent.
Finally, it comes to your turn to “swim with the dolphins”, several separate groups of around six people are taken into the dolphin pool with a trainer and a dolphin is called to each group, the dolphin is then sent through various activities by the trainer in order to make the group understand the physiology of the animals and then one by one you swim with the dolphins, this consists of the dolphin towing you a distance at a fair speed from a point back to your group. When all in the group have had their swim, all of the groups dolphins are sent away and the day culminates with the dolphins joining together underwater and breaching as one in the pool.
Altogether then, a fantastic day and well worth the money.
We had looked at visiting Discovery Cove for quite a few years, but to be honest, the cost had always put us off as there were five of us, this included my eldest sons girlfriend. When my eldest son reached around twenty, he decided that he didn’t want to come so that left just three of us which made a visit to Discovery Cove infinitely more affordable. We bit the bullet and bought the tickets from Orlando Villa. com.
Discover Cove is very different to other parks in Florida, in as much as you go there almost by appointment, they only allow a certain number of visitors, and you are there for the day. It very quickly becomes obvious to you that although the tickets are expensive, they are in fact very good value for money, but more of that later.
The day finally came when we were to attend the park, it entailed an early start and although we were early, there was still a queue waiting at the entrance. All guests are booked in through the entrance hall and pictures are taken for your Identity badges, you are then sent through to the inner part of the park, a keepsake picture is taken and you are informed of which group you are in and where to attend your “safety talk and pick up your wet suits and buoyancy jackets. You are also given a time when it is your opportunity to “swim with the dolphins”.
There is lots of activities to carry on with whilst you are awaiting your swim with the dolphins, memorable to us was feeding the rays, this is where all sizes of manta rays, stingrays etc swim amongst your legs and take food from your hand, makes you feel very close to nature, there is also the snorkelling pool where you could be snorkelling in the Carribean, the size and array of fish swimming around you in this pool is fantastic and again, there are some very large rays here.
Perhaps now it’s time for a bite to eat, all in the price of the ticket and quite a sizeable spread, something for everyone whether it be burger and chips for the kids or salad for the weight watchers, excellent.
Finally, it comes to your turn to “swim with the dolphins”, several separate groups of around six people are taken into the dolphin pool with a trainer and a dolphin is called to each group, the dolphin is then sent through various activities by the trainer in order to make the group understand the physiology of the animals and then one by one you swim with the dolphins, this consists of the dolphin towing you a distance at a fair speed from a point back to your group. When all in the group have had their swim, all of the groups dolphins are sent away and the day culminates with the dolphins joining together underwater and breaching as one in the pool.
Altogether then, a fantastic day and well worth the money.