Discovery Cove and Seaworld Questions

[Kim in PA]

Hello,
We have reservations for Discovery Cove for June 17th. Our family is me - Kim 47, DH Greg 43, Kaitlyn 12, Jessica 12, and Ashley 7. Our youngest daughter, Ashley, has a number of special needs including spina bifida (walks without assistance) and PDD-NOS (autism spectrum) and all three of our girls love animals.

I am posting most of this message on the Seaworld board, but I also wanted to post here so I could include some questions about accessibility. I am interested in hearing from anyone who has visited Discovery Cove and or Seaworld with a special needs child.

First, I am not sure how big these parks are or what the terrain is like to decide if we should take a stroller for Ashley. We would never attempt WDW without one, but I have never been to Discovery Cove or Seaworld to know the layout. Ashley loves water! We have a pool at home. She doesn't know how to swim, but is a fish in her swim vest. Everyone at Discovery Cove needs to wear a life vest, so she will be fine there. Can anyone tell me about the restrooms at either of these parks? Do they have companion restrooms or another place where I could cath Ashley? I usually cath her when she is laying down, because it is too hard to do on the potty. Also, I don't want someone walking in and seeing me cath her, not so much for privacy issues, but more they might think I was touching her innappropriately if they don't know what I am doing.

We get 6 free days at Seaworld with the purchase of the Discovery Cove reservation, but we do not have an extra day to visit Seaworld, and we will not have a car. So I was wondering / hoping it is possible to just do a few exhibits and a show or two at Seaworld the same evening as Discovery Cove.

I know everyone says how relaxing Discovery Cove is after WDW, but do you think we would be too tired to go over to Seaworld after DC? We are not looking for rides, but would like to see Shamu and maybe the penguins and pearl divers. Is this possible? I would hate to not get to see a little of Seaworld since we have free tickets. Does anyone know what the lines are like for the Seaworld attractions or shows? Would they let me use a stroller for Ashley while waiting in line?

What would be your "must see" shows / exhibits if you only had a few hours at Seaworld? Breakfast, lunch and snacks are included in the Discovery Cove package, but we would be on our own for Dinner. Is there an inexpensive place to eat at Seaworld? I hate to spend more money on food outside of WDW since we are on the Deluxe DDP. We may just snack at SW and then get pizza in the room with dining credits when we get back to our hotel.

If we would do this, is there a place at Seaworld with lockers that we could store our swimwear from DC? Is there a shuttle between the two parks?

Can anyone share their experience taking a taxi to DC from WDW? We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside. I know about the Lynx bus, but that is not practical with our youngest with or without the stroller.

Thank you so much for your help!

 

[SueM in MN]

We have not been at SeaWorld in a number of years, so I can't share much.
If you go to the disABILITIES FAQs thread, you will find links to the accessibility information from the SeaWorld and Discovery Cove websites. That will be a start for you.

 

[livndisney]

Hello,
We have reservations for Discovery Cove for June 17th. Our family is me - Kim 47, DH Greg 43, Kaitlyn 12, Jessica 12, and Ashley 7. Our youngest daughter, Ashley, has a number of special needs including spina bifida (walks without assistance) and PDD-NOS (autism spectrum) and all three of our girls love animals.

I am posting most of this message on the Seaworld board, but I also wanted to post here so I could include some questions about accessibility. I am interested in hearing from anyone who has visited Discovery Cove and or Seaworld with a special needs child.

First, I am not sure how big these parks are or what the terrain is like to decide if we should take a stroller for Ashley. We would never attempt WDW without one, but I have never been to Discovery Cove or Seaworld to know the layout. Ashley loves water! We have a pool at home. She doesn't know how to swim, but is a fish in her swim vest. Everyone at Discovery Cove needs to wear a life vest, so she will be fine there. Can anyone tell me about the restrooms at either of these parks? Do they have companion restrooms or another place where I could cath Ashley? I usually cath her when she is laying down, because it is too hard to do on the potty. Also, I don't want someone walking in and seeing me cath her, not so much for privacy issues, but more they might think I was touching her innappropriately if they don't know what I am doing.

We get 6 free days at Seaworld with the purchase of the Discovery Cove reservation, but we do not have an extra day to visit Seaworld, and we will not have a car. So I was wondering / hoping it is possible to just do a few exhibits and a show or two at Seaworld the same evening as Discovery Cove.

I know everyone says how relaxing Discovery Cove is after WDW, but do you think we would be too tired to go over to Seaworld after DC? We are not looking for rides, but would like to see Shamu and maybe the penguins and pearl divers. Is this possible? I would hate to not get to see a little of Seaworld since we have free tickets. Does anyone know what the lines are like for the Seaworld attractions or shows? Would they let me use a stroller for Ashley while waiting in line?

What would be your "must see" shows / exhibits if you only had a few hours at Seaworld? Breakfast, lunch and snacks are included in the Discovery Cove package, but we would be on our own for Dinner. Is there an inexpensive place to eat at Seaworld? I hate to spend more money on food outside of WDW since we are on the Deluxe DDP. We may just snack at SW and then get pizza in the room with dining credits when we get back to our hotel.

If we would do this, is there a place at Seaworld with lockers that we could store our swimwear from DC? Is there a shuttle between the two parks?

Can anyone share their experience taking a taxi to DC from WDW? We are staying at Port Orleans Riverside. I know about the Lynx bus, but that is not practical with our youngest with or without the stroller.

Thank you so much for your help!

Kim,

Seaworld has a really nice First Aid station near the kids area. They have curtained areas and a treatment room. SW also has a GAC, just stop in at Guest Services when you enter the park. SW does have lockers at the entrance. Several companies have car service between WDW and DC/SW. Mears or Tiffany town cars are ones I have used in the past.

 

[bookwormde]

The shows sort of depend on what you are looking for. The Shamu show is truly a spectacular production and the dolphins are great. But if you are looking for a good laugh for the kids or yourself, then go to the sea lion pirate show, not overly produced and people seemed to have a hard time walking when leaving from all the laughing they did before and during the show. I am usually not a “slapstick” person but the animals carry off so well that you cannot help but laugh (way to hard).

Let us know your experience at discovery cove, I am planning on going but will wait a couple of year until the kids are older they now are DS 8 (aspergers) and DS 5 nt. With that level of investment for 1 day I want to make sure they are ready.

bookwormde

 

[dolphingirl47]

I would definitely recommend a stroller for Seaworld, but for Discovery Cove it would be worse than useless as pretty much everywhere there is sand. They do have beach wheelchairs on a first come first served basis.

dolphingirl47

 

[aurora23]

I have never been to Discovery Cove with a child, but I may be able to answer at least some of your questions. Discovery Cove is a much smaller and intimate feeling park than any of the Disney Parks. I do not know what your daughter's stamina for walking is, but as the previous poster stated it is mostly sand so I don't know how much help a stroller would be. We took a cab from Caribbean Beach and it was really easy to do. We called a cab and they came right to our hotel, on the way out of Discovery Cove it was easy to call one as well. It was a bit pricey (I don't remember how much) but it was nice not having to take the bus. I am pretty sure that there is transportation from Discovery Cove to Seaworld, but we did not use it. I believe there were cabs waiting outside of Seaworld so that we didn't have to call there.


I have been to Seaworld on a seperate trip. I can't answer the questions about the stroller as I have never been with someone who needed one. The lines at Sea World were fairly reasonable, except for the Kraken...Atlantis was being refurbished while we were there. We went in January though so Disney did not have long lines either. Shamu was pretty good, and the sea lion show I enjoyed (very corny, but fun). I really enjoyed the penguins, but then they are my favorite animal. For full disclosure I should point out that I did not want to go to Seaworld, although I did enjoy it in the end.

They set up the shows so that it is almost impossible to see all of them in one day, so with only part of a day if you are interested in one or more of the shows you will really have to plan in advance. The prices for food are in line with Disney. They have "nice" restauraunts like Disney that you can make reservations for and then they have a couple of food stands that have chicken fingers, etc. These are generally overpriced, but then Disney is too.

There are definitely lockers and I believe that they are cheaper than Disney. Again it has been a little while since I was last there and things may have changed. You should probably look at some official sources. If your children are animal lovers they will probably like both. One of my best experiences at Disney was at Discovery Cove and they do a great job of making you feel welcome. Enjoy your vacation!

 

[SandrainNC]

We went to Discovery Cove and SeaWorld in 2004. I really enjoyed Discovery Cove, however, I really think Ryan (who has Down syndrome) would have liked it more if he would have been older. He was almost 4 at the time. I know your children or older, so that won't be a problem for you. He couldn't do the dolphin swim and the rest is pretty much just swimming. They did allow us to take him out in the water with the dolphin for a family picture after DH's dolphin swim. It was very expensive for him to just swim in a pool. He didn't like the cold water where the fish was, so he mostly just swam in the "pool" that goes through the bird area. I'm glad we went, but we won't go back until the kids are a lot older. I remember seeing a child in a beach wheelchair while we were there also. The park is small, so Ryan had no trouble walking.

At SeaWorld we needed a stroller for him. One of his favorite things was watching the dolphins swim beneath the water (at the dolphin petting area). We had to drag him out of there. The dolphins seemed to be playing with him and it was just too cute. They have added an area with children's ride since we were there, so no experience in that area. Ryan really enjoyed watching shamu.

Sandra