DISCOVERY COVE - several questions

[1derfultigger]

We have a 13 year old and a 9 year old and are heading down to Orlando in mid-July. My wife wants to treat the kids to the Dolphin experience at DC one day. I know very little about it but I've briefly looked at the website.

I see that it's $279 a day for the dolphin experience and $179 for the non-dolphin experience. Can I take that to mean that, if either of us wants to enter the park with the kids, even just to watch them, it's $179? That seems to be obvious but I wanted to check.

I also see they offer a 10% discount for booking 60 days in advance. Is the best/cheapest/only place to get tickets from the website or calling or is there a discount source?

Is the entire day all-inclusive at those prices? I understand pictures or videos may be extra but are the basics included such as meals, lockers, etc?

 

[DVCLiz]

Yep, $179 just to walk through the door. You will have a wonderful time, though!!! The price includes all equipment needed to swim and snorkel - you will have to wear either a wetsuit or a swim vest, and they are provided. The price includes all snacks and meals - I think breakfast and lunch are included, not dinner. The dolphin swim is so much fun!! But I did it once, so this year I am paying for my daughters to do it, and I'll just watch them. I love the snorkel pool, the ray pool, and the lazy river. The pool is wonderful - it's just a beautiful, totally relaxing place. Not crowded at all, since they limit the number of guests each day to 1000. You should call soon for reservations - it fills up pretty fast, I think.

 

[We_love_DisneyWorld]

We just got back from Discovery Cove (went April 30th). Except for the local fire trucks noise it felt like a tropical paradise. We all loved it and did the dolphin experience. The Dolphin swim is very structured and goes by very quick. We did buy the pictures and the DVD. There is a sound track over the audio on the DVD (so you don't hear anyone talk.) I can't say enough wonderful things about our experience. We went on a Sunday there was only 750 people there that day and by the afternoon the crowd thinned even more. We arrived at 8:30a and were immediately greeted and shown to the sign in desk. All our pictures were taken for our ID badges. Our “dolphin appt time” was set for 9:15a. That was a perfect time. We got our bag filled with mask, snorkel (which you keep) and sunscreen (marine safe very hard to apply! And leaves you with white pasty look.) We also go our swim vest. Very few people were wearing wet suits. Most just the vests. Ate breakfast (They had an ok selection of muffins, Danish, fruit soda’s coffee fruit juices) It was certainly better than the pop tart breakfast we would have had. The Video they make you watch is cheesy and tells you nothing about the experience. More like a long commercial. They say you can take a mask in the water but I would not do it again. We have all these beautiful pictures of the family and we have the goofy mask parked on our heads. The mask is for the lazy river and the coral reef. The dolphin time is quick and you do get to touch the dolphin and learn some cool things. The swim is so short. Of course we all wish for a longer ride! Then we had the rest of the day to explore and relax. The lazy river is so amazing. Floating along gently. The attention to details is very nice. We swam/snorkeled through it many times that day. The kids 11 & 8 loved it and the setting is so safe they were like pro’s in no time. The coral reef was also really cool and we went around in it 2-3 times. The first time is a little intimidating cuz some to the fish come really close. But the kids adjusted just fine. My son wanted to touch the large manta ray at the bottom of the tank but could not dive nearly deep enough. My DD 11 spent over an hour at the sting ray tank, she talked with the discovery cove employees. They were very friendly and answered all her questions…and there were a lot! Lunch was terrific. The kids could get the chicken strips and fries and DH got a bacon cheese burger. I got the Pesto salad and it was terrific. The roasted potatoes and the steamed fresh veggie’s were perfect (I asked for extra veggie’s and I could have gone back for more!)
The desserts were extremely good. They also have snack shacks around the place so you can grab a salted pretzel or bags of chips, sodas, beer or frozen cherry slushes. The CD/DVD experience was low key but is done right after the swim. We looked at it like this…We would spend at least $100.00 on getting a professional photographer to take our family portrait. We got great pictures and the jpg images for all of them. The Christmas card picture has already been picked out! As a family we loved our day. And Even after a week riding all the roller coasters at Disney the kids still say that discovery cove was the best part of the vacation. DD wants everyone to know that they had amazing fresh strawberries. The Cove closes at 5pm. We went over to sea world (no parking attendants after 5p so parking was free and very close. You get a 7 day admission to sea world with your discovery cove ticket. The bathrooms were incredibly clean and well maintained. They have shampoo; conditioner and body wash dispensers in every stall. We will be going back for sure.

 

[barbmouse]

THANKS SO MUCH for the awesome review. We are planning a trip for July as well. DD and Ds have always wanted to swim with the dolphins and I think this is an experience they won't soon forget.

 

[rosiejo]

Wow thanks for that great review - we're heading over to DC for our first time in a fortnight - it's good to have an idea of timings/food/what to bring etc.

Thanks

 

[We_love_DisneyWorld]

They give you an ID card for the day. There are photographers all over the park and thoughout the day if you want them to take your picture you simply ask (or wait till your turn) then after the pictures are taken and they will take as many as you want I guess, we have kids so it was usaully just 1 or 2 each time then they take a picture of your ID to save all the pictures to a file with your last name. During the dolphin swim they took a bunch with a couple of each person in our group doing the following: Kissing the dolphin, family photo (or individual) with dolphin posing with you and swimming with the dolphin and one of the dolphin jumping in the air. The dolphin swim pictures totalled 42 on our cd. (They are JPEG's in a high resolution and lower resolution format). And then what ever pictures you have them take everywhere else in the park. We got the CD and the Video and it was about $150.00. Expensive but as we look at it, We were going to get family portraits done by a professional photographer and the rate for it back home would be about that cost and you don't get the originals. We already have our christmas card picture and a few other great family shots! We also got a 10% discount on our park tickets (look on Mousesavers.com) so that worked out to be what we got back as a refund to our credit card when I called after we bought the tickets and asked for a discount.

They suggest that you go earlier in the day to get your pictures and cd's and all before the end of the day, I guess there is normally a crowd at the end of the day. Me and the kids played while DH went and took care of business at about 2:30p..But I guess that all depends on when your dolphin swim time is. One thing to watch out for, if you buy the CD is to check that all the pictures are on the CD. My DH checked and the 1st Cd they burned did not have the rest of the park pictures included, just the donphin ones. As soon as DH said soemthing they corrected it, just a sugestion.

 

[Lorix2]

We did the dolphin swim in April 2005 and we all still talk about this park as a whole, it was the highlight of our trip. Worth every penny.

I was afraid to snorkel and my DH nudged me in inch by inch and I have to say I found myself giggling underwater, holding my knees to my chest for fear of anything biting or touching me. I floated like that for at least 10 minutes and slowly relaxed my legs down...then you couldn't get me out of the snorkeling pool, I was everywhere and stayed in there the longest out of all 8 of us that went together. My teeth were chattering, but I didn't care, I was just having the time of my life trying to go down deeper, but those darn vests only allow you to go so far.

We have wonderful memories of this day and the pictures to remind us, I hope you will too.