Discovery Cove for non-swimmer

[UKDEB]

My brother and s-i-l are keen to do this and want us to do it with them. I can't swim, so my dilemma is, do I go along, but skip the Dolphin swim, or is the set-up such that it's OK for non-swimmers?

And what about the Coral Reef. Brother and s-i-l have done the Great Barrier Reef and said that they were given floats so that they could stay on top of the water and just dip their heads in. Is this an option at DC?

 

[Claire L]

Debs,
I found that the jackets we were given to wear made me feel very bouyant, especially when swimming in the salty water. The coral reef lagoon is quite large and has a good area where you don't need to swim just put your head underwater at about chest height and you can see all the fish out in the deeper area plus they do come into very shallow depths and swim past your feet!! One thing you need to be able to do confidently on the dolphin swim is be able to tread water for a short while as they take a pair at a time out of the group of 8 to 10 people into deeper water for interaction with the dolphin who then pulls you back to shore. Most of the interaction is in water about waist deep so you still get up close to the dolphin. If you get there and decide you don't want to go into dep water tell them and they may be able to assist you in another way. If not then just being able to touch and interact with the dolphin is such an experience.
Hope this was of some help.
Claire

 

[mike230652]

UKDeb

You can enjoy DC just as much if you can't swim, it won't affect you in the slightest.

Because of the buoyancy within the wet-suits you DEFINITELY do NOT have to be able to swim , and you don't need to tread water during the dolphin encounter...even during the deep part of the encounter. the suits keep you afloat with ease.

My DW cannot swim a single stroke...nor can she float......she's the proverbial housebrick where water is concerned, but had absolutely no problems at DC, and this included the actual dolphin encounter in 16 feet of water.

Our two kids are average swimmers.... neither had ever snorkelled but both were snorkelling like good 'uns after 5 minutes. .....so you shouldn't have any problems wuth that side of it either ( other than putting your face in the water, which I hate anyway !! ).

Please don't be put off DC because you can't swim, it simply doesn't matter!!

 

[WDWfan uk]

Hi Debbie
DH is not a confident swimmer and chose to opt out of the dolphin encounter. Although he could easily have taken part, he just felt that his preoccupation with the water may affect his enjoyment so he was on video duty instead!

He joined in with everything else, as well as the wetsuit jacket keeping him buoyant, he was also given a buonancy aid ........ LOL, he was almost out of the water when he wore them both but he wore both where the water was deep.

None of us had snorkelled before, but there were "Cast Members" available who told us how to wear the mask etc and we were all snorkelling in no time!

 

[Mazzy]

I'd say just be wary when you are in the Lazy River. It's very deep in places, and if you aren't snorkelling then it's hard to know how deep the water is and whether you can stand up or not. I can swim, but don't like putting my head underwater, and really didn't find the Lazy River very relaxing (which I thought it would be) as I like to know how deep the water is when I'm swimming. There are also rocks at the sides and these jut out under the water quite a way - a couple of times I tried to stand up and banged my leg on the side of a rock under the water.

Don't let this put you off though, I did enjoy it, just wish I had known about the varying depths before I got in!

 

[peewakio]

I totally agree with Mazzy about the lazy river as you dont know the depth of the water in some places whereas in the stingray lagoon (fantastic experience if you've not swam with tropical fish and stigrays before) you can see that varies in depth.