Discovery Cove - Tips

[radamson]

Anyone got any tips?

I have just booked Discovery Cove for our trip in May. This will be our first time at DC and I am very excited (I have booked it as a birthday surprise for DH).

I have a few queries/questions for those of you who have been

1) Is there a best time of the day to take your dolphin swim?

2) I will be a non swimmer - can you easily take your own pictures of your family doing the dolphim swim or are they too far away (i.e. seaworld want you to buy their photos!!)

I was just wondering if there is anything that could make our day even better. Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers
Becky

 

[SimonY]

Went to Discovery Cove last November. The advice in Brit's Guide is good - the dolphin swim is assigned on a first come first served basis so if you get there reasonably early you get an earlier swim. As it is a high point of the day those who are swimming will inevitably be excited beforehand and they'll just really be waiting for the swim.

DW and I did the swim together - we considered doing separate ones so that we could photograph each other. I think we did the right thing though as sharing the experience was fantastic. To take pictures you can get pretty close on the beach to the swimmers but the photo angle would be poor (from their backs). Some groups are near curves in the shore that would enable you to get some better pictures, it would just depend which group you end up in. Yes, of course they want you to buy their pictures and/or video and they're pretty good at taking them as well.

As an aside do you actually need to be a swimmer to go in the water with the dolphins? We had wet suit jackets on and just in those I couldn't go under water if I tried. There are also full wet suits and buoyancy aids/jackets as well. There's only one part of the 'swim' where you're much more than waist deep anyway - when you swim out the to dolphin and it tows you back - and you don't have to do that part. Just being with the dolphins is unforgettable - worth a thought.

One piece of advice is to buy a underwater (disposable) camera before you go in. While you can't use them for the dolphin part there are plenty of other photo opportunities and the ones on sale in there are quite expensive. You can get them in places like Walmart or get one before you go.

 

[Danauk]

I would reccomend getting there early to get a good swim time and also second getting an underwater camera.

 

[MsPennieLane]

Hiya, we went to DC in January. You are definitely allocated your swim on arrival, you have no choice regarding the times really. Also, a waterproof camera is a great idea, we took some lovely photos. I don't think you'll be able to get close enough to take any pictures of your family - when we went, the family members from one party who weren't doing the swim were told they weren't allowed to take pictures - I guess that's because they like you to purchase their photographs. Hope this helps.

Anz

 

[kateave]

hi
your swim with the dolphin will depend on its character! we had a very laid back dolphin who was happy to let us stroke him and pet him but the dophin in the other bay was a show off and spent time jumping and splashing that group so... IMHO your experience depends on what your dophin is like!! but saying that it was something we wouldn't have missed for the world.

oh and don't buy the video it only has your group on it for about 5mins out the 20mins !!!!!! waste of money!IMHO

cheers Kate

 

[Ware Bears]

Sorry, have to disagree about the video!!!

We've just done DC on April 7th. Had a FANTASTIC day!!! We've just sat and watched our video while we had our tea tonight and the first 20 mins is about the DC park in general then we've got 20 mins of our group. We were a group of 8, us 5 and another family of 3. Obviously, the other family (if they bought the video) would be saying "it's all of them!" but as there are 5 of us, it IS nearly all of us! I thought it would be only a 5 minute tag on the end of the tape so when we watched it for the first time tonight I timed it from when our dolphin swim bit started and the filming of us is over 20 mins.

You do not get the chance to preview the tape like you do the photos, but we thought "what the!!! it's a once in a lifetime!" and I think the video has been worth every penny (cent!!!)LOL

So....the more people of your family/friends in your dolphin swim group the better the video will be!!!

Elaine

 

[silverka2002]

I treated DD to the dolphin swim on April 5th this year. She was in a group of 8, 1 family of 3, 1 family of 4 and her. I was worried she'd be a bit left out seeing as she was on her own but if anything the trainers made more of a fuss of her because she was alone.
There were 4 groups of 8 in the water at the same time and DD's group was nearest the shore so we were able to be very close to them. My DP and I are actually in most of the video lol (well our bottom halves anyway)
I spent £126 on the video, a 5x7 photo, 2 keyrings and a CD.rom with the pics on. Alot of money I know but it was a once in a lifetime trip.

 

[lynne1307]

Hi, good sound advice about DC, does anyone know the opening hours for June?
Also, do you need to take anything apart from your cossie to change into? and the underwater camera?



thanks
L

 

[silverka2002]

Originally posted by lynne1307
Also, do you need to take anything apart from your cossie to change into? and the underwater camera?

thanks
L

Your credit card!!

suntan cream is provided, they use an eco friendly one.

 

[SidB]

We've just done DC and loved it. My mum bought swim tickets for my wife and daughters, and non-swim ones for herself and me. I don't think the time of the swim makes a great deal of difference. It depends on the position of your group as to how good your own pictures will be. We hit lucky and I was able to shoot from just in front, and to the side. Any other group and I might have needed a better zoom lense. As I've got a digital camera with a massive memory card, I was able to take loads of pic's with a high resolution. We also bought a CD with 15 of the best shots, and they were very profesional. Well worth the $150. You can take them to Walmart and got really nice big prints for less that $4 each. Much cheaper than buying 15 from DC.

The video is a little amateursh in my opinion, but the girls both loved watching it. I guess that if you wanted to you could download it to a PC and edit out the other family. Personally I wouldn't bother. Watching the effect the experience had on the other 2 kids in the group was pretty good too. Was it worth $60 ? Yes to us it was. Would I buy prints and keyrings ? No, too expensive, buy the CD.

There's loads more to do, including almost drowning in my case. My beard allowed water to slowly leak into the mask which made me panic. The lifeguard was excellent though, very calm and reassuring. Even though I can't swim, I enjoyed snorkelling with the fishes and rays.

 

[TICKNTHIN]

We did DC on Sat 10th April, and it was wonderful. They do push their photo's etc, and the time spent choosing on the Apple Mac was painful. Although one of their staff did help, which speeded things up considerably. We also took photo's and video off the beach, our video was as good if not better than theirs, but you cannot match their photo's, as your groups backs are usually towards you for the precious instant that you really want to capture. Note that they assign copyright to you, so as we were 2 families together we bought one of everything, photo CD and video, and copied them at home - it worked a treat. In fact it was a DC employee who suggested it to us !!
As for underwater shots I bought a Polaroid camera from Argos for £4.99, theirs was $17ish on the day, I cannot comment on the quality yet as it's being developed.

 

[MsPennieLane]

Hi again - re underwater cameras, we bought one in Walmart for $3.99 and the pictures it took were excellent. It was an Agfa camera. When we checked Asda before we left, their underwater cameras were about £6 so if you can, wait until you get to Florida and have fun in Walmart Hope this helps.

Anz

 

[Muppet]

I would agree the underwater cameras are cheaper in Walmart.