Since I used this forum for all of my planning, I thought I'd post some things about our trip in case it could help others. We did a 5 day trip to Tampa and Orlando last week; overall had a great time.
DC - fabulous place and well worth the cost. I payed $199pp for the dolphin interaction and combine that with the food, the service, and everything else there and I think we got our monies worth. We got there at 8:15 and got a 11:10 dolphin time (which was a great time to go.) We had plenty of time beforehand to snorkel and swim, and then after, we went right to lunch. Food is great, the activities are great - I was really happy with it.
SW - we enjoyed it here, but it was only a one day park for us. The weather wasn't good on the day we went; it had rained until about 8am, which I guess scared people away. We left our hotel (MGV) at 8:50, and were the only car driving into the parking gates. We were joking that it was like the scene from that Vacation movie with Chevy Chase - "Sorry folks, the parks closed - the Moose out there should have told you". We saw some cars already there once we parked, but it was really empty. The good news was that everything was wide open - the roller coasters were walk ons, the shows had plenty of seats even 10 minutes before show time so we got to do everything we wanted easily. And it ended up only drizzling for most of the afternoon. Dolphin show was excellent.
Overall, the trip went really well, even though our weather was a bit disappointing. I would definitely recommend DC, and SW is worth visiting also, if only for Manta and the Dolphin show. If anyone has any questions, just let me know. And thanks for all of the hints, advice and stories that are posted on this board!
DC - fabulous place and well worth the cost. I payed $199pp for the dolphin interaction and combine that with the food, the service, and everything else there and I think we got our monies worth. We got there at 8:15 and got a 11:10 dolphin time (which was a great time to go.) We had plenty of time beforehand to snorkel and swim, and then after, we went right to lunch. Food is great, the activities are great - I was really happy with it.
SW - we enjoyed it here, but it was only a one day park for us. The weather wasn't good on the day we went; it had rained until about 8am, which I guess scared people away. We left our hotel (MGV) at 8:50, and were the only car driving into the parking gates. We were joking that it was like the scene from that Vacation movie with Chevy Chase - "Sorry folks, the parks closed - the Moose out there should have told you". We saw some cars already there once we parked, but it was really empty. The good news was that everything was wide open - the roller coasters were walk ons, the shows had plenty of seats even 10 minutes before show time so we got to do everything we wanted easily. And it ended up only drizzling for most of the afternoon. Dolphin show was excellent.
Overall, the trip went really well, even though our weather was a bit disappointing. I would definitely recommend DC, and SW is worth visiting also, if only for Manta and the Dolphin show. If anyone has any questions, just let me know. And thanks for all of the hints, advice and stories that are posted on this board!
Glad you had a good time 
