Discovery Cove for $69........ YES !!!

[Syndrome]

Just some money saving info for those wanting to go to Discovery cove in 2011, and save a bunch.
In planning for our 4th trip to DC ,this fall, I stumbled across a great money saving tip. It saves our family $250. in the first visit !!!
This tip may have been posted before, but I havent seen it yet so.........
All you have to do is have at least one adult person in your party sign up for a Seaworld Annual Passport. The cheapest option is the $109.99 1 year passport. You can even use the EZ-Pay option for $9.16 per month X 12. There are a lot of benifits that go with the Passport, but one of the best is a promotion they are running that allows Passport members to get DC tickets for approx 1/2 price. Its $69. for a non-dolphin package, and $169. for the Whole package incl. the dolphin swim. Great deal ! We may even go twice during the same week of our vacation ! The DC cost for our family of 5 is $345 (non-dolphin) !!!

Here is the blurb from DC about the promotion ...............



Special 2011 Pass member rate for Discovery Cove!
Please note: Member must be present and show your annual pass at time of check in to receive rate.

$169: Dolphin Swim Day Resort Package
$69: Day Resort Package

Your Dolphin Swim Day Resort Package includes:
-A reserved 30-minute dolphin interaction*
-Snorkeling with thousands of rays and tropical fish plus hand feeding exotic birds in a free-flight aviary
-Continental breakfast, freshly prepared lunch and unlimited snacks, drinks and select alcoholic beverages Lockers, sunscreen, snorkel gear, changing facilities plus all day self parking at Discovery Cove.
*Packages are available with and without the Dolphin Swim Experience. Offer valid for 1 Year, 2 Year and Platinum Pass members and up to 6 guests. Limited availability. Not valid with any other promotions or offers. Pricing is for one-day admission to Discovery Cove. Reservation does not include admission to SeaWorld, Busch Gardens or Aquatica.




There is a special promotion code you have to enter after you get your Seaworld annual passport, and you MUST show your passport at DC check in to get this rate. I am hesitant to list the promo code in the thread, but if you want it, PM me. Not all dates are included in the promo, but most are. You dont really need the promo code to know that with the exception of the end of August, ALL dates up untill 2012 are included. Even the holiday periods.

Our family saved $250. in the first visit including buying one Seaworld Annual Pass. Now we may even go twice in one week !!!
Its such a nice break from the hectic Disney days, our family has a bad habit of doing DC, every vist to orlando now, because we like it so much, and this discount really helps!

Good luck to anyone who can use this discount, hope it helps.

Later,
Syndrome

 

[Latel]

That sounds like it might be worth looking into. Although with only 2 of us going, we wont be saving as much as a family would.
Just a question, do you know, if I was to get a Seaworld annual pass for myself and then get us both the $69 DC tickets, would the other person still be able to go into Seaworld for free during the following 2 weeks?

 

[budbeerlady]

That sounds like it might be worth looking into. Although with only 2 of us going, we wont be saving as much as a family would.
Just a question, do you know, if I was to get a Seaworld annual pass for myself and then get us both the $69 DC tickets, would the other person still be able to go into Seaworld for free during the following 2 weeks?

No, if you use the annual pass discount you do not get the sea world free pass. You can use your annual pass to get a 20% discount on his ticket at Sea World. With the 3 of us it isn't much of a savings to also buy the addition Sea World visit.

 

[Syndrome]

Ditto on that...........if you use this deal for DC, you wont be getting any other admissions for any other parks. Works for us, as we are not planning on anything else besides Disney and DC this trip.

Also, another tip on this deal. If you are buying your annual seaworld passport to get this deal, it must be active before you get to DC, a voucher wont work, it must be an active passport.
If you order online DO NOT opt for the e-ticket voucher, instead pay the $8.00 shipping option, and they will mail you your active passport (with your name on it) overnight. The bad thing is the 1 year clock starts ticking once they ship it.
I do not feel like wasting time going to Seaworld just to validate a voucher before DC. Now we can go directly to DC without wasting time at Seaworld.

HTH,
Syndrome

 

[peacefrogdog]

Great tip - was thinking of booking a DC trip in October.
If I order the annual pass and have it shipped to me, soon (say by early Sept 1) - can I then order the DC tickets for the rest of my family online in order to get in for the dates we want? I'm hoping to get a reasonable time for the Dolphin swim.

 

[dthogue]

Thanks for posting this - I just purchased an annual pass, having it shipped - we have always wanted to do Discovery Cove - hope to go in November before our Dream cruise.

 

[Syndrome]

Great tip - was thinking of booking a DC trip in October.
If I order the annual pass and have it shipped to me, soon (say by early Sept 1) - can I then order the DC tickets for the rest of my family online in order to get in for the dates we want? I'm hoping to get a reasonable time for the Dolphin swim.

You can sign-up/order your DC tickets before you buy the Seaworld Passport, you just need the Passport before you show up at DC for the day.
If I remember, when you reserve your day at DC, has no bearing on when your dolphin swim is, that is assigned the morning when you check in at DC.

Thanks for posting this - I just purchased an annual pass, having it shipped - we have always wanted to do Discovery Cove - hope to go in November before our Dream cruise.

Central PA ? Me Too !


If you guys want to book DC before you get you Seaworld passport in hand, just PM me for the promotion code.

Later,
Syndrome

 

[kathy884]

What a great deal! Thanks for posting this. I didn't know that they sometimes run DC deals for SeaWorld passholders. The last time I called (about two years ago --March 2010) to ask if they had any deals for SeaWorld passholders to DC), all they would do for our popular spring break week is give $25 off the retail price, and we didn't do DC on this trip.

This deal expires before we'll be going, but I'll have to keep a lookout just in case a nice deal shows up for March 18-23 2012. We have the two year annual SeaWrold passports, will probably be up in Orlando over DS's spring break, and DS would like to visit Discovery cove (just non dolphin package). (Not so sure they will have any great promotions going, however, for our popular spring break week.)

Did you as a passholder get an email or something in the regular mail about this? I know I've received promotions in the past from SeaWorld, but don't remember seeing this. It could even be that I deleted it or threw it away with no visit planned to Orlando at that time and no plans to visit Discovery Cove any time in the near future.

It's been years since we've been to Discovery Cove (between seven and eight years ago since we last went) -- DS, though did a partial day there like 12-5 with the junior high seaworld camp two years ago and the high school seaworld camp this summer.

One other question, though. I thought that they required someone in your party to book a Dolphin swim?? If you are doing all non-dolphin packages though, it sounds like that's not the case. If a swim was required that would be a deal breaker for us, as we just aren't that impressed with this portion of it and wouldn't want to pay the $100 extra (been there, done that, bought the T-shirt, not interested, have done several other better dolphin swims at other places). Do you know what the policy is? Does the policy vary from season to season -- maybe for popular weeks they require it??

I should, I'm guessing probably just give SeaWorld a call, but would love to hear from anyone if you know the answers to these questions.


*******************
Update: Here is the mousesaver website link for this and any other promotions they know about for Discovery Cove

http://www.mousesavers.com/discoverycove.html

I'm thinking if we can do non Dolphin in March for $100 pp or less I'll do it. Otherwise, we'll probably just go to Aquatica instead. (Regular retail Discovery Cove non-dolphine pp is $129 - $169), so this will be iffy for us unless there is a nice promotion.