Discovery Cove: A 1st look into our SnapTacular Florida Vacation

I've been dying to get these pictures up, for a while now.  But since I've switched to this new iMac computer I've had

a lot of rearranging, and installing, and a lot of new "things" to get used to.  That's my story, and by golly, I'm sticking to it.  :)  So... I'm here now, and excited to post these "first glimpse" pictures of our incredibly awesome Florida trip.  Or, as I like to think of it, "our incredibly warm reprieve from the sub-zero temperatures of the Great Northeast". =:D What... that wasn't too much, was it?   In all actuality, it was really quite warm here in Maine, so the Northeast lucked out when we were down South.  The entire time we were gone every single day was 80 degrees or higher down in Florida.  Up here in Maine the weather was in the 40's through the 60's, which was nice because it gave the dogs plenty of time to hang out in the outdoors. 

So, I'm gonna take a quick peek at my photos and decide which ones I want to post for y'all.  Ok, here's the first one I chose.  It's a picture of all of us eating lunch outside the main restaurant at Sea World's Discovery Cove.  What a fantastic set-up they had for everyone!  Seriously, it was well worth the $300+ per

person to be treated as wonderfully as we were.  The day starts out with checking in, getting pictures, individualized identity cards and lanyards (as you can see each of us sporting around our necks) and taking a quick jaunt through the grounds to our lockers.  This set-up right here, in the picture, is all of us sitting down to a late lunch/early dinner.  All meals are completely taken care of at Discovery Cove as a part of the admittance fee.  I wondered what, exactly, that meant as I ordered the tickets, and no matter how many times they told me or how many different times I read it, it just wasn't going to register as well as it did when I saw it with my own eyes.  Let me lay this question to rest right now.  When the website says all food and snacks are covered in the entrance fee, what does that mean, exactly?  (Because when I'm on vacation, pal, I like t'eat!)  Let me tell you what that means.  Well, wait, let me tell you what that doesn't mean, lol. It doesn't mean you get little bags of peanuts, like on airplanes, for example.  It means you can walk up to any concession in the establishment and pick from a wide variety of full sized "free" snacks.  There's no paying $3.50 for a snack sized bag of chips like you would at a theme park.  There won't sell you a bottle of water for $4.00 that you could buy at any store for $1.04.  No, if you're hungry... for pete's sake, go get'ch'self somethin' t'eat!  Yay.  =:D 

It was suggested that we arrive at Discovery Cove very early on our visiting day.  If we got there early enough we

could get our ID's made up ahead of the late-comers, get our lockers and be on our way.  We were also told to skip breakfast at home because breakfast was a "done-deal" at the park, so "come hungry".  Sweet, like I said, it's my vacation... I like to chow down when I'm on vacation.  Breakfast was good, but heck, folks, lunch was super-duper! And, after all that swimming it's a good thing, too!  Check it out, I got the lobster salad (vegetarian dishes were scant, I eat fish, so... I got that) and my husband (he's taking the picture) got the Salmon.  I had "a little bit of this... and... a little bit of that...."  =:D  And it was gooooooooood.  Yummy!

Oh, I just took another look at the picture.  It reminded me that there's this "open bottle" policy at the theme parks that the "Busch Entertainment Corporation" owns.  Our experiences on this trip to Florida brought us to Sea World, Sea World's Discovery Cove, and Busch Gardens in Tampa.  At any one of these places you can walk around with open containers of the beer they ... give away for free.  Was that weird that I just said that?  I don't drink beer, it tastes too funky for me.  But my husband will have a beer every now and then, and apparently "a free beer tastes better"...?  Anyway, as you can see in our dinner picture, my brother David is about to enjoy an "ice cold Bud Light" and my husband is about to wear a froth mustache compliments of his free Michelob ... something or other, beer.   Beer... I don't get... "Beer".   It smells yucky, and tastes bad.  (No offense to beer drinkers! lol)  But... I guess I can understand why a free one would taste better than a not-so-free-one.

So, aside from the food, which was great... no cheap-ass concession stand garbage, that's for sure.  The park itself was... amazing.  Simply, amazing. You first enter the park through a small building inside of which you obtain your ID card and lanyard.  When you come out the other side you get a quick view of the "Tropical River".  It's a "Lazy River", or... however you say it.... it's constantly flowing around the outside of the entire park.  In a sort of medieval view, you could say it acts like a moat.  But it's way cleaner and warmer ;) and there's a current.  I don't think moats, medievally speaking, had currents.  ;) Ok, so anyway, the day we arrived there was a thick, almost "rain forest" type of mist rising off the water out in the cove and on the lazy river.  It was really quite an eye-capturing moment. I mean, come on, it was our first time there, and we'd just come from temperatures that were, literally, dancing around the 20 degree mark.  Seeing, and feeling, that the air was cool but the water within the park was warm enough to actually cause a foggy mist to rise off the top made it feel a little bit like a Spa... or, like I said earlier, like a warm... rain forest.  I've been to a rain forest in Puerto Rico.  If any of you have been to a rain forest before then you'll know what I mean when I say the air was thick.... warm... possibly even stuffy or stifling.  Here at Discovery Cove there was the warmth and the thickness, but there was room to roam.  Not so many trees to keep the stuffiness in.... it was very inviting.

The first thing we did when we got there was walk the long path all the way to the back of the park, straight to the

lockers.  We were told we'd want to consider getting our swim gear ASAP. Oh, I don't think I mentioned this before, but when you go to Discovery Cove you can bring your own swim gear, like wet suits and goggles and pertinent equipment like that (no SCUBA gear though) or you can just ... borrow theirs.  There were stations right next to the lockers and locker rooms that had a ton... hundreds, maybe even thousands, of wet suits in all the different sizes.  There were long body suits, short body suits, and simple vests.  We all went with the short body suits.  They fit "snug", but boy-oh-boy did they do the job.   I honestly think it would have been slightly less than impossible to sink any one of us in these suits.  Yes, even my husband, who may appear to be a bit more sinkable than the rest of us.  ;)   Included in your entry fee are goggles, snorkel, and a blue mesh bag to carry them in.  The goggles get returned at the end of the day, but the snorkel and bag are yours to keep, which was good because we also purchased 3 pair of water shoes and they were very wet when we left.

After we got ourselves "fit" in our wet suits we hit the water.  There are 4 distinctly different areas of Discovery

Cove.  There's the Tropical River, which is amazing. It's about 5 feet deep, give or take, in most areas, and the current is gentle enough that when you're in it you don't really notice it.  But when you get out of it, and then get back into it, you realize... "wow, there really is a current in this river!"  The Tropical River actually has 3 or 4 stops along the way, which you don't have to get out of the water for, but I'd certainly recommend it.  I'd also recommend purchasing a water proof camera before coming to Discovery Cove because you might find yourself in a situation where you wished you'd have brought one.  Trust me, when you get out of the water at one of these stops?  You might wish you had a waterproof camera.  Each stop along the Tropical River invites you to experience the interactive Aviaries.  Interactive Aviaries?  Yeah!  It's a total "hands-on" experience with birds of all different types, sizes, and colors.  It's ... amazing.  It's really amazing.  At one of our stops there were Peacocks, so large, sitting in trees that I thought they were fake, or something to make the scenery look more authentic.  It wasn't until one moved that I actually stifled a quick breath of fear, lol... I ain't nevah seen birds so big" ... so .... close to me before! lol...  They were huge!  No!  They were... ginormous!  They were awesome!

The Aviaries are tucked into little nooks along the way, and offer guests the rare experience of being to pet, hold, andfeed birds of many different types.  All I can say about these birds is... I had no idea birds had so much personality!   We fed the larger birds as they walked along the ground, and the smaller birds from wherever they landed. Either on our shoulders, or arms, or forearms, and even on our hands as we held the food bowls carefully and without moving.  Many of the birds didn't mind being petted, but the smaller ones... I think they were parakeets of some sort.... they did not, absolutely did not, like to be touched.  They were small, but had very big attitude!  If they

landed on you it was your duty to know, and understand, that you were lucky to have them as your guest.  They expected a meal and they expected it now. *giggle*

So we wound up stopping at all of these Aviaries, which, to tell you the truth, I was less-than-ambitious about until Isaw those big-ass Peacocks!  Mother of Pearl! Those were some large birds!   This is also a great place for me to tell you that Discovery Cove has photographer stations throughout the park.  There is a photographer at each of the Aviaries, another at a spot in the Tropical River (right near a water fall), another in the Sting Ray lagoon, and another one (or 3) in the dolphin lagoon.  They take video and photos of you during your day and at the end of the day you can purchase a photo package of both, or just one.  Whichever is your preference they will make available to you. 

For me, the best part of the adventure was really the lagoon.  I loved the dolphin interaction, too, though!  That was super duper awesome!  I dunno, maybe I liked that part better.  Or wait, maybe I liked the sting rays better!  No!  Oh

lol! I don't know which one I liked better!  It was all so awesome!   We made a promise that if we came back to Florida we'd have to try and get in to this park again.  The lagoon was amazing. It's a giant man-made coral reef filled with over 9,000 different types of tropical fish.  There's even a section in the center of the lagoon that houses Barracuda!  You can see the Barracuda through very thickly laden glass.   Very ... thickly... laden glass. And there's another section where you can see different kinds of Sharks through thick glass.  Make no mistake about it, you're under water completely and totally.  It's like you're swimming with them.  It can be really, quite unnerving!  But really, still, quite amazing!

RocketBoy and Darknite took straight to the water and explored all areas of the reef, pretty much, right away.  I stuck with my mom and got used to wearing a mask over my face. lol... not something I was all too eager to do, but I was very much wanting to get to the deeper parts of the reef so I could take a look at the different kinds of fish.  They were so colorful, and came in so many shapes and sizes.  I don't think I have the words to give the experience the color it deserves... y'know?  That's just from my perspective though, because I've never gone snorkeling in the wild, yet.  My brother has, but not me... not yet.  (And I stress "yet")

The Dolphin experience, itself, costs a bit more than the general Discovery Cove package.  I think it adds something like $100 to the basic cost.  When you sign up for the basic package you are guaranteed everything but the ability to get into the lagoon with the dolphins.   If you get the Dolphin Experience you most likely will be asked a general time frame for when you'll want to swim with them.  It's first-come-first-serve, and the dolphins are at their freshest, and most playful times, earlier in the morning.  Our Dolphin experience was scheduled right around lunch-time.  None of us could figure out why this was, lol, but that's when it was scheduled.  Having 5 adults, all with the ability to make decisions such as "when do you want your dolphin swim time to be" kind of leaves room for things like this to happen.  Regardless, the experience was wonderful.

 

I have to tell you that the dolphins seemed to be treated quite well.  Apparently, if the dolphins don't want to do what they're trained to do? They don't have to do it.  Everything they do is on a voluntary basis.  So if they don't want to play?  They don't, and they aren't made to, or forced to, or coerced to.  If they don't want to do a trick?  They don't do that, either.  These animals are... much larger in person than they look on the movie screen, or the television screen.  They are powerful beings with very boisterous personalities.  They might be "playing" and having fun, but I'll be the

first to tell ya, I wouldn't want to be in their way if their tail is moving, or they're making a quick turn!  "Powerful" doesn't even really give it full justice.  They're magnificent animals... with razor sharp teeth, lol.  They're fluent, and poetic in every move they make in the water, but their strength and force can be enormous.  

Our Dolphin Interaction Experience went off very well.  We had two little boys in our group who were not with their parents, but they handled themselves quite well.  My mom wasn't sure if she wanted to take a ride with the dolphin assigned to our group, given that the water in the lagoon is much, much, deeper than it appears to be anywhere else in the park, but since she expressed this personal reservation the trainers set her up in a shallow area where she could touch the ground, and the dolphin towed her from there.  It was great!   Every person got to interact personally with the  dolphin assigned to our group.  We were  taught some physical facts and attributes of dolphin anatomy, and some of the trainer psychology applied in teaching the dolphins "tricks".  We also learned of the different laws associated with marine animals and aquatic wildlife, which was very fascinating.  Did you know that there has been a law in effect, since the 1970's, which bans such activities as interacting with dolphins in the wild?  This means that all of the dolphins at Discovery Cove are either original from

before the time that law was passed, or were bred right there in Orlando from parents who reside at either Sea World or Discovery Cove.  Another fascinating little fact about dolphins, and the way they interact with each other, is that the the female dolphins "run the roost".  The male dolphins play very roughly with each other, especially when they're trying to get the attention of a hot-chick-dolphin.  And when dolphins want to get their point across that they are being annoyed by someone in their pod, they scratch the annoying little bugger with their teeth.... sometimes very deeply, and very hard!  This leaves lots of streaking scratch marks over their bodies.  It's because of this that you can pretty much tell "who gets on who's nerves", lol.  :)  It's just the way they do things!  Hence... why it's probably best if "free swim with the dolphins" is kept to a very closely supervised "minimum", lol.  30 thrilling and exhilarating minutes, well worth the $100 bucks, at least once. 

Back home in Maine it was a whopping 50, or so, degrees while in Orlando, at Discovery Cove, it was a warm and balmy 80+.  We were hot! We were outside and swimming.  And we were happy!  It's not all that often that you can get your whole family together and have everyone happy at the same time, but this... this was definitely one of those times and places.  It was amazing.  (I keep using that word, "amazing", I can't help it! It was!)

When the end of the day had arrived we were sorry to have to say good-bye, but "if we hurry we can still make it to Sea World", lol. ;)  So we gathered up our belongings, hit the guest shops on the way out, and poured over some pictures that were taken while we were having our different interactive experiences.   The photos are a wonderful testament to the good time we all shared together at Discovery Cove.