Welcome
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Discovery Cove
Yes, it's worth it. That may be all you needed to hear. Don't worry, I will take a few cynical jabs at Sea World's lavish water experience, but we would definitely not mind coming back for a non-dolphin swim (for $100 less) in the future.
The park allows just 1000 guests on any given day. Knowing that, we reserved a Saturday in June of 2005, figuring that it would be a great use of a day that is usually unbearable in Central Florida (the parks worth visiting are usually packed on Saturdays).
The park opens from 9am to 5pm. There is now a new afternoon experience - which runs from 3pm until 9pm - but we did the conventional one. It was five of us (me, wife, daring 11-year-old son, timid 6 year-old son and my mother-in-law) and we had the option of paying $259 for a dolphin swim or $159 for Discovery Cove without the Flipper meet and greet. We all went with the pricier dolphin encounter.
We had read that if you wanted an early swim to arrive just as the reception area opened at 8am. It was a gray day (the park is open, rain or shine - though thunderstorms would interrupt the water activities) and we figured that hanging around for an hour just to get a morning swim with mammal (yes, dolphins are mammals, not fishes) wasn't worth it for us (and our wonderful yet dearly impatient kids). We arrived at 10am and were checked in right away. We had bought our tickets at AAA (saved us nearly $10 a ticket) and then paid an extra $30 to have Busch Gardens AND Sea World access for 14 days (the standard ticket comes with 7 days of access to either Busch Gardens in Tampa or Sea World across the street). We got our photos taken for a plastic id card fitted on a lanyard, booked for a 2:10pm swim, and were offered coffee or juice as we entered the park.
The employee to guest ratio is amazing. Maybe too amazing. I think in the short path to the locker area we were encountered by 4 different employees, each one asking to see our lanyard to make sure everything was in order. That did get in the way of soaking in the beautiful, tropical layout. Yes, the piped in rainforest sounds are corny but it is all about creating a relaxed mood and this is like no other hustle and bustle waterpark or theme park in the area.
They took an 8x10 portrait by a bridge on the way in. You pick it up on the way out, as it is complimentary. I didn't look too bad in the snapshot, so maybe it's complementary as well. You also get a snorkel mask, tube and sunscreen in a netted bag. You actually get to keep the tube at the end of the day. Nice! Gimme, gimme!
Ahhh, wetsuits. You are fitted for a wetsuit for the day. They have all sizes. You can opt for a vest instead but if you plan on snorkeling the fish pools are very chilly and the wetsuit helps. It also helps with your buoyancy if you aren't an adept swimmer. Make sure you put the suit on correctly - zipper in the back - because it is hard as heck to remove the suit later.
What to do? Well, you have a fresh water "lazy river" which circles the entire area. It's not your traditional lazy river. No inner tubes. You just drift along on your own. The highlight is the aviary, where waterfalls separate the netted areas with tropical birds. You are welcome to get off there (you can also walk into the aviary area) where employees will check your lanyards. Just kidding, they don't check 'em. They hand you bird food and nectar to feed the birds. Very nice.
The lazy river does have a large atoll area for the general pool experience. Then you have a pair an area where female stingrays - with their stingers removed - glide around the water. Yes, you can touch them. Slippery! If you are there at the right time in the morning you can even feed them. Ugly!
You also have an amazing snorkeling area. We have snorkeled quite a bit. Hawaii. Martinique. Puerto Rico. A dozen different Caribbean islands. Typhoon Lagoon. Even if Discovery Cove isn't exactly real it's an amazing collection of water life and it's plentiful. We could have spent hours just exploring that area alone as it is that vast and exotic.
Lunch? Rain started coming down so we figured we would beat the lunch crowd that were busy with their morning swims. We were there just after 11am when the push tray cafeteria was opening up. We didn't see a menu. We knew about the different choices from before but we basically winged it by eyeing what was already laid out. It's free. It's not all-you-can-eat but the servings were plentiful and, unlike the drab grub at Sea World Orlando, this stuff was actually pretty good. Yes, lunch is included. That also includes a beverage.
A little more exploring about and it was time to head out to the Starfish Cabana for a 5-minute introductory video on dolphins. We then headed off to the dolphin pods where we were broken up in even smaller groups. We were narrowed down to a group of 8 - a woman from England with her two daughters joined us - and we went into the nippy, shallow water (about 3 feet deep, with a ledge where the dolphins have deeper swimming room). Hutch was our guy. We waved at each other. He did some tricks. We felt him up all over. Poor guy, at least he got a kiss later. Then came the time to ride the dolphin. 3 at a time we would swim about 30 feet to the deep part of the dolphin pool and then Hutch would bring us back, one by one.
Yes, it was cool. $100 more cool? Some would say yes. Once. There were some people there who had done this several times before. I would have no problem paying $159 for the non-Dolphin package in the future (free lunch, Busch Gardens Tampa for a week - I'm there).
Then it got bothersome. Out of the water we went, savoring the moment, when everyone ushered us back to the cabana area. It was time to check out the various photograph and videotape options available of our swim. Yes, we were videotaped and photographed often. $60 for the video? $100 for a CD with a few of the digital snaps? I felt as if we were hoodwinked into a timeshare sales pitch. I'm sure we could have said no. Still, it was all so assembly-line mechanical. I fell for it! I bought a few things (which is why $100 more is an understatement if you go with the dolphin swim experience) and then we enjoyed the lazy river one last time before heading out. More Theme Park Reviews Nearest Hotels to the Park:
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