Discovery Cove

Discovery Cove Logo

I had set the alarm last night just in case – it was set for 7. I woke to the sound of the alarm, and soon everyone was up, and very very excited.

We jump in the car and drive up to Discovery Cove, which is not too far away. As Anita stops the car we give her the envelope. She is surprised, and not overly happy that she is doing it on her own, thinking that she will miss out on the kids.

Discovery Cove Map

We get to the entrance, and are directed to a customer service representative, who takes all our details, finds the booking, takes our pictures to put on our cards, and we also give all the cards the ability to spend money. It is linked to my credit card! Could this be a mistake I think to myself with Lauren, Andy and Stef able to buy absolutely anything that they want.

We have a family picture taken, which we will receive free of charge when we leave the park later.

The crew @ Discovery Cove

We have to wait for Anita's trainer – and after a short wait, Carmen arrives, and we wait for a little longer while a few of her other guests turn up. Carmen tells us we can hang out with Anita for a while, have breakfast etc together, and go on the first part of the day, which is a trip into the Aviary. We then have to leave Anita, Carmen, and the rest of the team, but we will see each other as our dolphin swim is at the same time, 10.20. We go with them to the aviary, and the leave the others to get on with their day – well at last until 10.20!

We find a base for ourselves with five sun-loungers, and get our water jackets, snorkels and masks. The kids go off to explore, and I sit and begin to read my book. I also go and grab them some towels. They arrive back in time for our dolphin swim, so we head off to the cabana where we will get to swim.

Unfortunately even though we are in the same place as Anita, we are swimming in two groups!

    

Everyone with respective dolphins

Anita’s dolphin is called Capricorn, and only has about 7 teeth left. If a dolphin looses teeth they are not replaced. Fortunately they swallow their fish whole – good job because obviously he cannot chew! Another interesting fact about him - he was in the film Jaws 3 - (though probably not as a shark!).

We have CJ, who is a hybrid of a common and a bottlenose dolphin. They also thought he was sterile, and because he is not a dominant male, very unlikely ever to have a calf! Recently they had a calf born, and as they didn’t know who the father was – they ran some DNA tests – and guess who was the father – yes CJ. He must have sneaked in, and mated the cheeky little devil. Carmen was very pleased for him!

We do the usual things with the dolphin, stroking him, feeling his skin, getting him to jump, and other wonderful things. When we are asked about the swim, even I say I’d like to – but am not a very good swimmer. Our trainer says when we get out into the deep water I can put my hands on her shoulders – but not to push down!

Well I manage to swim out, and almost push her under – until a little pair of hands grabs me from behind! It’s Lauren – and she helps me too – just as she said she would. CJ comes out and I grab on – and then I swimming with him! Felt so great, and I felt very safe, until we stopped – and then of course I panicked because I couldn’t put my feet down! Managed to swim a little further – and felt the rock – well actually I smacked my knee on it before I saw it but hey! Back to land and relief! The kids do it so easily, and Stef’s face is a real picture – I guess that Andy and Lauren are used to it!

    

Gordon and Anita plus dolphins!

Again we have to separate, with Anita going off with her group, and we go back to our chairs – but have to meet up again for lunch. The kids do some more swimming, and soon lunchtime arrives, and what a lunch! Fantastic food, which is included in the price for the day – even the beer is free!

Again we separate, but have to get back together at 2.40 for Anita’s second swim with the dolphins! Soon we are there, and she is back in the water, and has to lie on her front, and two dolphins come up behind her and she gets a foot push – lifting her out of the water. It was great watching, but over very quickly. It was a touch unfortunate for Anita that the dolphins managed to bruise her feet – but then again they are very strong! We have to go off, and Anita gets her “Trainer for the day stuff” – a great bag, and t-shirt!

The whole crew with dolphin

She can now spend the rest of the day with us – so she and the kids go off for another swim, and I head back to the bar. They had a new beer I had not seen before – Mickelob Amber, which is a cross between larger and bitter. Very nice too I might add – so much so, that I’ll buy some, from a supermarket, for the apartment just so that Andrew can try it.

Far too quickly it is time to begin to get ready to leave – showers for all, everything provided, a really nice shampoo and separate conditioner.

We arrive at the photo place to get our freebie picture, and look at the pictures, and videos of the day. I was not looking forward to this – last time it had worked out very expensive, to buy the DVD, and get the pictures on disc, and two printed. This time we could have all three DVDs, a CD with all the pictures on it, and six photographs blown up to 12 by 8, all for less than $200. We decide on the pictures, and they are printed, the DVDs created, and we have finished at Discovery Cove.

As we head back to the car everyone says how good a day its been, although Anita would have preferred to have had someone with her, during the “backstage” part of the day! Looking back in hindsight, what I should have done is booked Lauren in as well, after all we had paid for Stef – so Andrew wouldn’t have lost anything really!

Dennys

As we head towards home, we go to Denny’s for dinner. It is easy, and everyone will eat something, or drink one of the shakes at least – lol.

Back to the apartment feeling very full and quite tired. Bed is calling us – well Stef is asleep in the car before we have gone any distance! Wake her up when we arrive, but within minutes she is in bed and asleep. Doesn’t take too long and we all follow to our respective beds!