Discovery Cove is AMAZING!

[scrappinmom]

CJ is a common/Bottlenose dolphin hybrid your lucky to have swam with him he's also the "star" of the Discovery cove commercial..

As you rightly say, CJ's mum Jenny is an Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin.
His dad is a Common Dolphin. I was lucky enough to see wild Common
Dolphins near Catalina Island on one of our trips to Southern
California. They are much darker than Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins
(depending on how the light reflects off them they almost look steel
blue) and have a very distinct stripe.

If you can afford to do the Beluga programme, I would definitely
recommend it. I did the Marine Mammal Keeper Experience at Seaworld
Orlando twice and as part of this I had the chance to interact with
Belugas. This is truly amazing.

dolphingirl47

Thank you! I'm printing out both of your replies...so I can add them to our scrapbook (when I get that far!).

Both of my girls have asked for prints of CJ & them...for their lockers, one wants a mousepad, the other wants a frame on her desk. You know, this was their 7th and 8th trip to disney & they've only asked for pictures of them & their favorite characters maybe once or twice....but they are STILL talking about DC, to their friends, their teachers, everyone that will listen. I'm so glad I decided to do it. I know it's expensive, and i did think about it for a long time...but it was so worth it.

I hope everyone that's going soon has an amazing time as well

 

[chimo2u]

To swim with the dolphins has always been a dream of mine We are headed back to the World Sept. 1-12 and I am seriously considering adding a day to DC for my family. It will break up the 10 disney days a little, and I will be able to do a swim with the dolphins like I have always dreamed. My husband would do the normal day without the dolphin swim, and I think both my boys want to try the dolphin swim (they are 13 and 17). I am curious as it says transportation is provided if you book a all inclusive day? How would you suggest we get to DC from Disney World? as we have no car. We will be staying at AKL resort.
Any advice you could give would be wonderful. It is expensive, but it is also the last trip most likely to Florida, so probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this!
Marie

 

[jmurphy625]

Scrappinmom, can you tell me what package you had? My son is 10 and not a strong swimmer (and never been snorkeling)--but he's my animal lover. Do they have lifevests?

Can you explain how it works? Did you buy tixs for a specific day? or time?

I'm worried about them spending the such a long day out in the sun (end of June) What do you do while you're waiting for your swim time? How long were you able to stay in the pool?

Thanks so much

 

[scrappinmom]

To I am curious as it says transportation is provided if you book a all inclusive day? How would you suggest we get to DC from Disney World? as we have no car. We will be staying at AKL resort.
Any advice you could give would be wonderful. It is expensive, but it is also the last trip most likely to Florida, so probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to do this!
Marie

Marie - I too thought "gosh that's a whole lotta money"...but seriously it is worth every cent! I n ever would have believed it if we didn't experience it. I'm not sure about the transportation part, as we had a car.

Scrappinmom, can you tell me what package you had? My son is 10 and not a strong swimmer (and never been snorkeling)--but he's my animal lover. Do they have lifevests?

Can you explain how it works? Did you buy tixs for a specific day? or time?

I'm worried about them spending the such a long day out in the sun (end of June) What do you do while you're waiting for your swim time? How long were you able to stay in the pool?

Thanks so much

We did the dolphin swim package for all of us. My girls are both good swimmers, it's ME that's not. & I was a little intimidated by the pools...especially the salt water one. BUT it was so amazing, that I just threw on a life vest & did it...yes I was a tad bit embarrased to have on a life vest...but was thrilled to not have missed anything. Your son will be fine, I would stay with him though....there are tons of staff & lifeguards around & I felt perfectly safe....While we were waiting for our swim time, we swam in the freshwater pool/river/aviary, did the stingray lagoon, swam in the "reef" pool, and had lunch/snacks. It was March for us, so sun wasn't a problem...although I have Lupus, so I'm really not supposed to be in the sun...so I was very consciouis of that. There are umbrellas to sit under which is what I did. The aviary is mostly shaded so you could easily spend an hour there. We really didn't have very much out of the water time...my girls loved the reef pool and the stingray pool and we spent a great deal of time there. I would suggest getting your kids a water camera...my kids took some amazing underwater pics..& that kept them in the water a lot more as well.

The one bit of advice I can give you guys is to NOT plan to do something after your day at DC. I thought - Oh we'll go back change, maybe hit DTD. NOT - we were SOOOOO tired! We got a snack & basically vegged out in our room & were asleep before 9pm!

I hope you guys have great trips!

 

[czycropper]

Scrappinmom - from your name, I'm assuming you're a scrapper. Have you scrapbooked any of the pics from DC? I would to see some if you have.

I can't wait till we go in a month. It has been really hard not telling my DDs of the surprise trip to Florida and much harder not saying anything about DC

My eldest DD just asked me why she can't dance at the Memorial Day Tour of Somerville Bike Races near us which she does every year with her dance school - I just said we have plans and not to ask many questions Then this weekend my DH said that he was going to do our powder room and she just shot me this look "like what's going on" but didn't say a word!

 

[scrappinmom]

Scrappinmom - from your name, I'm assuming you're a scrapper. Have you scrapbooked any of the pics from DC? I would to see some if you have.

I can't wait till we go in a month. It has been really hard not telling my DDs of the surprise trip to Florida and much harder not saying anything about DC

My eldest DD just asked me why she can't dance at the Memorial Day Tour of Somerville Bike Races near us which she does every year with her dance school - I just said we have plans and not to ask many questions Then this weekend my DH said that he was going to do our powder room and she just shot me this look "like what's going on" but didn't say a word!

hahah - uh - no...haven't even printed them ! I can tell you though...that they do have a scrap kit there...it's the Creative Imaginations stuff...I don't remember the price...but I bought 2 of everything! I have 214 pics to scrap from our trip. I also saw all the DC scrapbook stuff online at scrapyourtrip.com, she has all the same stuff they had there. You are going to have an amazing time! It's a scrappers dream! I can't wait to scrap them...but I have wayy too many other things "in line" first...I was lucky last year and took a solo trip to DL (my first) and met a friend & got to go to Club33, I am just starting to work on those pages now....

 

[czycropper]

OH NO! I'm in big trouble if they have the scrapbooking stuff there to buy I have a lot of other things to do before I get to this upcoming trip but I'm the type that likes to buy the stuff. I still haven't finish our June 2008 Disney/Universal trip and we just got back from Williamsburg & Busch Gardens - I'm never caught up on vacation photos!

 

[hohoz]

The Shedd Aquarium here in Chicago is starting a new program to train with the Belugas this summer, oldest dd has already asked to do it for her bday. I was a little skeptical as it's $300+ but aftter Discovery Cove, I can't wait to sign her up!

What is going on at the Shedd? I live in Palos Hills and I am looking for something for DD8 to do for her 9th B-day. I was thinking of a long weekend to Discovery Cove or US/IOA in early December. We decided of not having a big party just going away just the 3 of us.

 

[Dolphina]

a lot of these programmes coming up these days! even in germany you can do something similar like that now!!

 

[mmmears]

Thank you so much for posting this review and the photos. It's really helped me make my decision to go to Discovery Cove!

 

[inkkognito]

How deep is the water for the dolphin swim? Can you stand throughout the whole experience, or do you ever go into water over your head?

 

[Dolphina]

the water is waist deep, as faw as I know. the only time you're not standing is when you swim with the dolphin!

 

[ToriPeanut]

I had a grea time at discovery cove too! i loved the idea of free food all day! and it was soo much fun swimming and going through the aviary!!

The wait for the dolphin swim was frustrating, but worth it. I recommend anyone to check it out

 

[cswtmom]

How deep is the water for the dolphin swim? Can you stand throughout the whole experience, or do you ever go into water over your head?

We went to Discovery Cove on April 22, 2009. You are in waist deep water most of the time but when you have the swim part with the dolphin you will be in the water that is over your head !!!. They do ask you if you can swim. My ds (23) did have to help his young sister (8 years old) still afloat for her swimming turn. You could also wear a life jacket if needed.
Discovery Cove is such a wonderful place , I wish I could live there .
Have a great time !!!

 

[DisneyFairytale]

Those are incredible photos. They gave me goosebumps. Thank you so much for sharing. I would love to plan to swim with dolphins if I could. I will definitely try it out when I fly down.