Chemical Sensitivity, Arthritis & Dolphin Swim???s

[Who'syourMickey]

I heard Epcot has swimming with dolphins. Then discovery cove has swimming with dolphins. Then we are comparing that to taking the back tour of Seaworld instead. I want to present facts to her to help her make the final decision on what she wants to do.

My daughter's dream on her wish trip is to swim with dolphins, but if we do this, she will have to wear goggles and we have to be hyperdiligent to keep all water out of her eyes (for ex: if she takes her goggles off and on). The docs say to be really careful in water so as not to chance her catching some water borne eye infection on top of her other eye troubles. Plus she does have active arthritis in her wrists, knees, and ankles. What challenges would we have with these choices? Is there some little smaller tour with dolphins somewhere maybe in natural water? That would be an option. I say this because the wish trip will cover the wish child and the sibs but dh and I would pay our way to discovery cove if she chooses to go that route.

My husband has chemical sensitivity. If we were to choose a park he would do better in (while he is confident he can do theme parks because he is recovered with his MCS greatly....he really thinks seaworld and discovery cove might make him sick). I was wondering if anyone knows how to pick the best park or situation that will meet everyones needs. My daughter would want her Daddy to be a part of at least watching her swim with the dolphins. And what would Grandma do? She will be in an ECV, scooter. My son with Aspergers already said, he's staying in the hotel room and playing video games on Dolphin Day, which is fine, I totally get that he doesn't do dolphins.

Shelly

 

[Cheshire Figment]

I checked the Disney site and the minimum age for the Dolphins in Depth program is 13. As Disney considers Guest Safety its highest priority I do not think they would waive this minimum age even for a MAW Guest.

I also searched www.discoverycove.com and was unable to find any age restrictions and tried to call but their reservations center was closed.

 

[Who'syourMickey]

AH, I checked the discovery cove website and the minimum age is six!

 

[Who'syourMickey]

I was able to call discovery cove. Chlorine is my biggest concern for my husbands chemical sensitivities. The water in Sea World and Discovery cove is salt water for the animals. The only chlorinated water in the Discovery cove park is the resort pool and the float pool that goes all around. The snorkel area, the stingray area, and the dolphin areas are all natural salt waters. My mom who needs knee surgery is going to go and be a part of it that day as much as she can do. My dd chose to swim with the dolphins. I think the whole thing is going to be beautiful. The first thing I wanted to do when we found out our daughter had a vision threatening eye disease is show her every beautiful thing in this world. Discovery Cove will be amazing for that.

I was able to contact one of her eye doctors who said the whole thing would be fine for her eyes if we were really careful with the goggles.

They will make an exception for her to use the special fragrance and corn free sunscreen. They said their rules about everyone using their sunscreen was for the animals and so that oils in suntan products would not gum up their filters. They also said that the rules were created so that there could be exceptions to the rules without any problems. How about that!

We can talk to the chef about our child's food allergies when we make reservations and 45 min before she is ready to eat lunch, let the chef know what she would like and they will cook in a clean separate pan just for her. They are even sending me a sample of the Panama Jack sunscreen used in the park in the mail so I can research the ingredients and see if she will react to it.