How soon in advance to buy DC tickets?

[peacefrogdog]

Hoping to surprise the kids with a DC visit (including a dolphin swim). Our dates are either Fri Oct 7th or Sat Oct 8th. I'm planning on purchasing a Sea World AP to save on the DC costs.

How soon in advance do I have to book? If possible I'd like to get a sense of the weather before purchasing tickets for a specific date but not sure if that is realistic. For example, would it be feasible to purchase tickets at the gate using the AP discounted rate?

 

[Batesl49]

I am planning my first trip for Dec. 2. I have been reading travel books by Fodors, Frommers, and Kelly Monaghan to better understand the ins and outs of this place. All say you must book your reservations months in advance because they only allow about 1,000 people in a day(compare this to the daily average of a disney theme park of 41,000 people). This is what I read, it helped me better understand why the advance reservations. It is always a trick when timing it with the weather. Good luck. Laurie

 

[kathy884]

My recommendation is to go ahead and book, but book it for early in your trip. If you have a rainy day (They want you to have a good experience), they will typically encourage you to pick a different day and fit you in (no charge). We once made the mistake of booking Discovery Cove for our last day (a rainy / yucky day after five wonderful days weather wise). They offered us several other days, but unfortunately we couldn't take advantage of this, as we had to fly home the next morning. I won't make this mistake again. Believe me -- to truly enjoy Discovery Cove you want a nice day. For March next year (a seven night / six day trip), we'll book Discovery Cove our second day, and that gives us three other days during the week we could move to if necessary (no set reservations we can't miss except for our MK day with the pre booked Keys to the Kingdom tour).

 

[Capt_BJ]

you can, and want to go to the DC web site and check the calender there. You will quickly see that dates can sell out far in advance. Many mid-week days in nov, Dec and Jan are already sold out . .

Just proceed as if ready to book and you will get the cal'