Discovery Cove Day Trip Report About This Page:

[wdwlovers]

This is taken from my trip back in 2002 when we visited DC.

Aug 23, 2002
Today was our day at Discovery Cove! This is my anniversary gift from DH since it has been one of my dreams to swim with dolphins. This was supposed to be a surprise, but DH forgot to tell me not to look at the credit card statement (I do the bills) a while back and I found out about his plans. Oops! DC opened at 9am today and we arrived a bit after 9am. There was a bag check as you entered the building and then we were directed to a desk to check in. Our pictures were taken for our ID badges and then were on our way into the park. We were put into a group with a guide who talked to us about the park and led us in. They also take a complimentary photo as you walk into the park. Got in line for our snorkels and masks. I also got a wetsuit. DH decided to go with a vest. We found ourselves some lounge chairs to park our stuff and make our home base.

We decided to try out snorkeling right away since our dolphin encounter was scheduled for 11:20am. DC has a lagoon with non-salt water that we tried out first. I have never been snorkeling before and I had a hard time getting used to it. My snorkel kept filling with water and I thought I was doing something wrong. Turns out something is wrong with the snorkel, it was leaking at the closed end. Went and traded it in for a new one. The new one worked great! Toodled around in the water for a while and decided to walk over to the coral reef lagoon and try it. I soon became a fish like those I was swimming with. I loved this! I could have done this all day! There are tropical fish swimming about along with dozens of manta rays. They also have sharks and barracuda in a tank within the lagoon. It looks like a sunken ship from above, but it's actually tanks for the sharks and barracudas.

About 10:30ish we decided to go back to the chairs and get ready for our dolphin swim. I had to use the ladies room also; I can't believe how hard it is to get a wetsuit off your body while it is wet. It was an interesting bathroom break! We were the first ones to show up for the swim. Once everyone got there, we watched a short video about dolphins and then a trainer gave us more information. We were split into pods and our group had 8 people in it. Walked over to the lagoon where the dolphins are and got in the water. This was such an awesome experience! The dolphin we were partnered with was Roxie. We all got to touch her and kiss her. Then Jason and I got to go into deeper water with a trainer and Roxie.

We did a couple tricks with her and she pulled us into shore one by one. There were two other families in our pod and each of us got to have our private encounter. They have people taking pictures and video that you can purchase. The time in the water with Roxie went by really fast and before I knew it we were being asked to leave the water and go back to our cabana. There we got to see our pictures and select which ones we wanted to purchase. Of course we had to buy pictures and the video! Spent a pretty penny doing so too! We bought 4 5x7s and the video; our total was $146.23. I know that is a lot, but we wanted to make sure we had pictures and a video to help us remember. Our stomachs were grumbling so we decided to have lunch. I got a chicken finger meal with French fries, a salad, fruit punch, and Oreo cheesecake. DH got a bacon cheeseburger, potato salad, soda, and chocolate pudding with whipped cream and a cherry. The food was delicious! They had a quite a few different meals to choose from and there is something for everyone!

After we stuffed our faces, we thought we better sit for a while and not go snorkeling right away. We headed over to the photo place to pick up our pictures and video. This was about 1:15pm. Our video wasn't done yet and neither was our complimentary photo. They told us about 20 more minutes. We figured we'd just come back later for them. That lasted about 15 minutes before we were back in the coral reef lagoon. I cannot express how much I enjoyed this day. It was absolutely perfect! DC also has a bird aviary and we took the lazy river to get there. It's pretty cool; you have to go under a waterfall to get there. There were some cool birds that would eat out of your hands and we got our picture taken with them. We were both getting pretty tired, but decided to make one last swim through the lagoon. Afterwards, went back to the photo shop and our video was done, but our complimentary photo was not. The lady said about 15 more minutes. So we walked through the shop next door. Bought a couple postcards, a shot glass, a polo for DH, and a t-shirt for me. Went back to the photo place. Still wasn't done. We ended up waiting 45 minutes for the photo. This is the only complaint I have about Discovery Cove. I will be writing them about our photo experience to let them know how unhappy we were. You figure for as much money as you spend to come there, they could get their stuff together! After getting our picture (finally), we made our way out the car and back to the resort.

Photos in next posts.

[wdwlovers]

Taken from our lounge chairs.

Jason in the chlorine pool

Snorkeling photos:




This is fun!



More in next post....

[wdwlovers]

ANd more photos.....





Jason near the barracuda tank

Taken in the bird aviary

Our lunch

I'm working on getting our dolphin pics up too.

[chezp]

Thanks for sharing your day at Discovery Cove with us - it's brought back some fond memories and is preparing me for our trip in December!

[lauren-roxy]

Thanks so much for sharing Denise!! I really want to do this sometime!! Great photos!!

[Colexis Mom]

What a great time you had Denise