worth booking discovery c. now?

[grannyed]

what time does it finish - do you leave when you're ready and what is the latest time you can stay.

have checked available days for our holiday on the booking site and it is only available on the last 2 days.....and on the first of those days we have a dinner reservation.....would we be too tired to do both.

also we probably would not be able to take advantage of the seaworld entry....we need to make a decision quickly

anyone also know how much - if any interaction is allowed with dolphins at seaworld or anywhere else eg can you stroke and or touch them ?

 

[Miffy2003]

Hi grannyed,

I can help with your last question

There is a Dolphin area at Seaworld and yes you can pat / stroke them. I can only describe my own experience, but the dolphins were reticent to come to the side at all and when they did my DDs literally got their hands ready and the dolphins swam off again.

The other thing I would say is that because this is a very popular part of the park, there were quite a lot of people there. This meant that we were not comfortable to stand there for ages waiting for the dolphins to swim back - it didn't seem fair to the others waiting.

I have never done DC so I can't comment on that in comparison to the SW Dolphin Experience.

Claire - thank you I will look forward to reading those tomorrow

 

[Frances999]

what time does it finish - do you leave when you're ready and what is the latest time you can stay.

have checked available days for our holiday on the booking site and it is only available on the last 2 days.....and on the first of those days we have a dinner reservation.....would we be too tired to do both.

also we probably would not be able to take advantage of the seaworld entry....we need to make a decision quickly

You leave whenever you like, up to closing time of course (which I think is around 5pm/5.30pm).

Keep checking availability. I found there was nothing available until about 30 days before when lots popped up as people started cancelling before the penalties kicked-in. As for the SeaWorld admission, if you cannot make it 7 days before or after, I found it didn't really matter. I just asked for an extension at Guest Services and they gave us all a one day ticket (this was about 10 days after our DC swim).

As for the dolphin petting area at SeaWorld, I can't stand it. The last time we went to this area of the park (a few years back now) people were throwing fish right at the dolphins faces and I felt sick just being there. Some people were literally trying to grab the dolphins for the sake of a photo.

 

[Travelbug12]

I think discovery cove while terribly expensive was a one of a kind experience. What made it special was first this high quality of the dolphin encounter (I have done several others) and the fact that the dolphins really seem close to their trainers and happy. There was a clossness I haven't seen other places. The other wonderful and unique aspect was the hours you can spend snorkeling in pools filled with fish and stingrays. While not as natural as true snorkeling it was terific and we spent most of our day continuously swimming. Next is the terrific bird avery where the birds sit on your arms and you hand feed them. Briefly the day is checking in and free pictures. Then you change into your personal wetsuite and usually relax and or snorkel until your dolphin encounter. They serve a terrific lunch included in your admission. By the way I agree with the above posters, the dolphin cove at sea world really doesn't allow any real interaction with the dolphins, they are too smart and probably obused by the crowds to let you touch them.