02/05/2013: HOW MUCH FOR THIS DOLPHIN?
I cant believe that we had been here almost a week today! Where does the time disappear to in WDW?
We had an early start this morning and were up at 6:30am ready for our taxi at 7:15am from Hospitality House to Discovery Cove. After getting ready, we walked down to the front desk, as it would probably turn out quicker than waiting for a bus to take us all the way round the resort! As we walked down, it was still raining and grey we were disappointed but knew we had to suck it up and enjoy the day nonetheless! Besides, better to be out in the rain in Orlando than back at home, and wed be getting wet at Discovery Cove either way!
Tanya didnt want to do DC, so she spent the day at Universal with an old coworker. She had never been before and so was really looking forward it! They were both going to meet us at Ale House this evening.
We arrived at DC not long after 7.30am we pretty much were some of the first people there! We checked in, and I just stood in the reception area thinking how pretty it all was! Id been pretty much waiting for this day since I learned about being able to swim with Dolphins in Florida when I was a little girl it was a first for all of us! Check in was quick and painless, and we presented our IDs so that our passes could be labelled to allow us to get alcohol today. Well, well need something to warm us up! We also had our photos taken for our passes, but they were quite dark we had complaints about the darkness of the photos all day, but it wasnt our fault! Half the time, the servers questioned whether that pass was actually mine as they couldnt tell from the photo! We were given the first dolphin swim of the day, at 8:30am in the Sand Dollar Cove.
We tried to get our bearings before biting the bullet and getting sized up for wetsuits. I loved how the staff just looked at you, and were like youll take this size honey! Thats some skill! We dubiously took our newly acquired wetsuits and headed into the changing rooms to get changed! We were the only ones there, and so didnt feel too bad about the noises we were making struggling to get into these things
! The people at the changing rooms said they had to give us a small suit as it expands when in the water, but gee, this was something else! This was seriously tight I seriously broke out a sweat trying to get my arms in! Once in and zipped up with the help of both Emma and Jo, breathing was slightly restricted, but boy did these wetsuits give us a good silhouette. I might start taking to wearing these under dresses!
Seeing as it was cold out, we decided on getting the wetsuit for the initial dolphin swim, and then possibly change to a vest for the rest of the day. After squeezing ourselves in and learning how to walk in such a restricted garment we headed to get some breakfast. I couldnt possibly sit down and eat in this, so had the girls to upzip me for the time being. I was really impressed with the selection for breakfast. Lots of both hot and cold items to choose from. I had some Southwest scrambled eggs (which are apparently scrambled eggs with peppers and ham in lush!), breakfast potatoes and sausages. II hardly touched it though, due to a combination of the excitement and a tight wetsuit!
After breakfast, we made our way to the cabana, read the paperwork and signed our life away before watching the video. I was so psyched for this now!!! One of the trainers then arrived and gave us a bit of a talk. Before finishing she asked if any of us knew how to tell the age of a dolphin. No one said anything, and I hate those awkward silences after someones asked a question so I piped up, and jokingly said: cut it half and count the rings!. She seemed quite surprised and asked how did I know that
ummm, I didnt! Turns out I was close, and that to tell a dolphins age, you can count the rings if you cut their teeth! Whod have thunk it!?
We were now led off by our trainer to join our group we were all from the UK apart from a newly wed American couple. We were a really good group, so excited, even this early in the morning, and everyone was so nice!! The water was slightly nippy, and the floor slippery and rocky but we soon got used to it. In the mean time however, I was walking wobbly and all over the place, and the trainer joked that I had been on the margaritas already! The second person in the same week who thought I had been drinking hahahahaha!
We got in our line, and had great fun with the our first dolphin Kyla who was 5 years old. It was great stroking her and watching her do all her tricks and sounds she was really playful! At one point, she came out with a raspberry noise, and it just really tickled me for some reason! I was weak, and crying with laughter our two trainers were creased! They said it was nice to have such a bubbly group first thing in the morning and was part of the reasons why they really loved their jobs! Soon it was time to switch over dolphins but not before our obligatory kissing picture! We then said goodbye to Kyla, and in the mean time, we got some time to start asking our trainers lots of questions our trainers today were Gina and Deirdra. In my opinion, we really lucked out, as they were superb! Very friendly, and up for a laugh couldnt ask for better!
Soon after, another dolphin joined us now we were with Tyler who was a 15 year old male and much bigger than Kyla! Tyler would be the dolphin who would be pulling us back to shore at the end of the session! As soon as he joined us however, he swam straight back off! Gina explained that Tyler was the dominant male in the group and at the moment, he was probably more interested in the girls! He was probably off making his dates for later! He soon joined us again though and we rewarded him with some fish. We had a nice little lesson about the dolphins with Tyler and the trainers learning about their teeth marks, their fins and how their tails are like their fingerprints. These creatures are magnificent! I have always been intrigued and in love with marine life and the sea, and all this was just perfect for me! I couldnt believe I was now standing here with a dolphin swimming rings around me, pretending he was a shark! This would have been one of my ideal jobs! I was so jealous of everyone here!
It was now time for our dolphin swim and I was the last person in the group to get to do it! I couldnt even begin to explain my excitement at that point!! I really didnt know what to expect, but was told to hold onto the fins and relax before I knew it, I was being pulled along!! It was just so calm! I take it back; I no longer want to have the RnR to shoot me into work each morning, I want a dolphin to pull me in instead! One of my photos from the swim was hilarious Gina said it was probably the biggest smile she was going to see all day! Emma and Jo were creased
they said the dolphin and I were pulling the exact same face! I was reminded about this photo for the rest of the holiday, and the girls had great pleasure pulling the Bethan Dolphin Face on random rides! We also got to have some extra interaction with Tyler considering he swam off at the start, so that as a nice way to finish things, before they all decided to absolutely drench us with their tails!
After the swim, we all got out and spoke to Gina for a while, asking her lots of questions. Our group ended up talking for ages it was really nice! We especially had a lengthy discussion about dolphin sperm and uteruses and artificial insemination considering my background, and my interest in the obstetrics and gynaecology specialty, I found this particularly interesting
. They explained that in February this year, they had their first artificial insemination baby dolphin born! What I found particularly interesting was about how they collected dolphin urine samples (thats not a sentence Id ever thought Id hear myself say!). Theyve actually trained the dolphins to pee on cue when they tap twice on the dolphins genitals can we train humans to do this?! We also had a laugh asking about the difference between the dolphins here in captivity and those in the wild Gina told us if they were to add a single live fish into the dolphin pool here, the dolphins would probably be petrified! But theyd eventually figure out that they could eat it
Finally, we had a discussion about how to enter into that type of career, before saying our goodbyes
.
We were freezing and very wet after the dolphin encounter so decided to head to the Oasis to warm up the water in there was lovely and really did the trick! We took one of the pool noodles each and made our way into the avery! This was great, but we just made a conscious effort to try and avoid the bits of water which the birds were pooing in
! It was also a good opportunity to try out the underwater digital camera which my friend had lent to me.
After a full loop, we got out to grab a towel, a coffee and a snack another cinammon sugar pretzel, hurrah!
Soon 11am hit and that meant bar service began! Not that we had been waiting or anything! We grabbed a few beers and some seats at the dolphin coves to watch some other guests interactions. Our trainer Gina saw us and came over to have a little chat before making us promise wed have a beer for her. We finished our drinks and then headed back to the Oasis to see the marmosets and otters. The otters were so cute and funny and we watched them playing and climbing all over each other.
Continued in the next post...