- Joined
- Jul 13, 2005
CAST
Me Joh (31) Slightly neurotic (DH would say very), VERY impatient and extremely over-excitable
DH Gary (37) Pretty laid back, a bit of a Peter Pan, mad about Tigger!
Day 12 Sat 18th Sep
Wow! Wow! Wow! What a fantastic day!!!
We got up about 6, showered and got our stuff together for our day at Discovery Cove. Having recovered from yesterdays disappointments, I am now all excited at the thought of a Day in Paradise. We catch the trolley down to SeaWorld and use the courtesy phone to call DC for our pick-up. A lady arrives in a posh black jeep-thing (Im not a car expert), within 10 minutes, to collect us and another couple. She drops us at the entrance to DC, where we join the small queue of people waiting to Check in. Another lady is walking up and down the queue, offering free coffee and OJ, which we accept gratefully its gonna be a scorcher today. After having our bags searched, we proceed to the reception area where we give our names, have our photos taken and receive our passes with our dolphin swim time 12:30. Then we are taken on a quick, guided tour, stopping just long enough to have a photo taken. Tour over, we collect our wet suit jackets, snorkels and small tube of sun cream (have to use the DC stuff as, apparently, normal sun cream is not good for the dolphins and other wildlife).
We store our bags in a locker, change into our swimsuits and make our way over to the Coral Reef. Having never snorkelled before, I get a few mouthfuls of water before I finally get the hang of it. We spend a while swimming around, just looking at the fish, then we decide to try out the Tropical River. This is great you just sort of float round a lovely warm stream very relaxing. Having got all the way round, we decide to go and have a look at a couple of the shops and buy a waterproof camera. DH had his CC swiped when we arrived so we didnt have to carry any cash around with us this may have been a mistake as we dont feel like were actually spending money now. Having completed our purchases (well, we had to buy something for DS), we slowly walk round to the Dolphin Lagoon to watch some of the dolphins in action. DH decides, though, he doesnt want to see too much of what happens here as he feels it may take the edge off our experience later and I agree so we visit the Ray Lagoon, armed with our camera. This is quite amazing; standing waist-deep in the water with massive Manta Rays gliding gracefully round you. They swim at quite a speed, too, but never bump into each other or the people.
We decide to have an early lunch as we didnt have breakfast this morning. Lunch was included with our tickets and is a help-yourself affair, with quite a varied choice (not buffet style just one portion of whatever you want). Dessert is also included, plus a choice of soft drinks. After lunch, we sunbathe for a while and then go for another float round the Tropical River before heading off to the Cabana for the start of our Dolphin Experience.
For those who havent done it, I wont give too much detail here as I dont want to spoil it for anyone. We were given a short briefing and a list of dos and donts. There were 8 people in our group and we went into the water with our allocated trainer (she trained the dolphins, not us!) The water is quite cold and takes a bit of getting used to. We were in the water for about 40 minutes, during which time we interacted fully with two different dolphins (one young one called Coral and an older one called Capricorn). It was absolutely fantastic the most amazing experience I have ever had in my life. I really thought we would just get in the water, feel a dolphin, watch a dolphin, then get back out but it was so much more than that. True, it is very expensive but I would recommend it to anyone.
After our dolphin swim, we were taken back to the Cabana where we were given the opportunity to purchase several photo packages, videos and various key rings, etc. We purchased a disk with 5 photos of our interaction and a video with the whole of our experience, plus some highlights of Discovery Cove. Quite expensive think the whole lot was about $150 but they were definitely worth it the photos with the dolphins are THE BEST pictures we have from the whole of our trip.
By this time it was almost 2 and we were invited to enjoy the rest of our stay. A couple more relaxing hours spent swimming, snorkelling and walking round the aviary and then we were ready (somewhat reluctantly) to leave. We showered, dressed and collected our disk, video and complimentary photo (taken when we arrived) and were dropped back to SeaWorld to get the trolley back to our hotel.
After a lie down and a change of clothes, we left the hotel and wandered down I-Drive. We had decided to eat at Tony Romas tonight and, being a Saturday night, thought we ought to get there fairly early to have a chance of getting a table. As it was such a lovely evening, we walked down (which took about 20 minutes) and arrived about 7. The receptionist informed us that we would have to wait about 30 minutes for a table, but we were invited to have a drink at the bar so we did. We were seated by 7:30. DH had the ribs and I had steak but I dont remember what we had for dessert (although you can rest assured, we DID have dessert!) Full up and still on a high from our wonderful day, we walked slowly back to the hotel for a bit of telly and relaxation before another early night (seem to be getting plenty of these on our holiday!)
Me Joh (31) Slightly neurotic (DH would say very), VERY impatient and extremely over-excitable
DH Gary (37) Pretty laid back, a bit of a Peter Pan, mad about Tigger!
Day 12 Sat 18th Sep
Wow! Wow! Wow! What a fantastic day!!!
We got up about 6, showered and got our stuff together for our day at Discovery Cove. Having recovered from yesterdays disappointments, I am now all excited at the thought of a Day in Paradise. We catch the trolley down to SeaWorld and use the courtesy phone to call DC for our pick-up. A lady arrives in a posh black jeep-thing (Im not a car expert), within 10 minutes, to collect us and another couple. She drops us at the entrance to DC, where we join the small queue of people waiting to Check in. Another lady is walking up and down the queue, offering free coffee and OJ, which we accept gratefully its gonna be a scorcher today. After having our bags searched, we proceed to the reception area where we give our names, have our photos taken and receive our passes with our dolphin swim time 12:30. Then we are taken on a quick, guided tour, stopping just long enough to have a photo taken. Tour over, we collect our wet suit jackets, snorkels and small tube of sun cream (have to use the DC stuff as, apparently, normal sun cream is not good for the dolphins and other wildlife).
We store our bags in a locker, change into our swimsuits and make our way over to the Coral Reef. Having never snorkelled before, I get a few mouthfuls of water before I finally get the hang of it. We spend a while swimming around, just looking at the fish, then we decide to try out the Tropical River. This is great you just sort of float round a lovely warm stream very relaxing. Having got all the way round, we decide to go and have a look at a couple of the shops and buy a waterproof camera. DH had his CC swiped when we arrived so we didnt have to carry any cash around with us this may have been a mistake as we dont feel like were actually spending money now. Having completed our purchases (well, we had to buy something for DS), we slowly walk round to the Dolphin Lagoon to watch some of the dolphins in action. DH decides, though, he doesnt want to see too much of what happens here as he feels it may take the edge off our experience later and I agree so we visit the Ray Lagoon, armed with our camera. This is quite amazing; standing waist-deep in the water with massive Manta Rays gliding gracefully round you. They swim at quite a speed, too, but never bump into each other or the people.
We decide to have an early lunch as we didnt have breakfast this morning. Lunch was included with our tickets and is a help-yourself affair, with quite a varied choice (not buffet style just one portion of whatever you want). Dessert is also included, plus a choice of soft drinks. After lunch, we sunbathe for a while and then go for another float round the Tropical River before heading off to the Cabana for the start of our Dolphin Experience.
For those who havent done it, I wont give too much detail here as I dont want to spoil it for anyone. We were given a short briefing and a list of dos and donts. There were 8 people in our group and we went into the water with our allocated trainer (she trained the dolphins, not us!) The water is quite cold and takes a bit of getting used to. We were in the water for about 40 minutes, during which time we interacted fully with two different dolphins (one young one called Coral and an older one called Capricorn). It was absolutely fantastic the most amazing experience I have ever had in my life. I really thought we would just get in the water, feel a dolphin, watch a dolphin, then get back out but it was so much more than that. True, it is very expensive but I would recommend it to anyone.
After our dolphin swim, we were taken back to the Cabana where we were given the opportunity to purchase several photo packages, videos and various key rings, etc. We purchased a disk with 5 photos of our interaction and a video with the whole of our experience, plus some highlights of Discovery Cove. Quite expensive think the whole lot was about $150 but they were definitely worth it the photos with the dolphins are THE BEST pictures we have from the whole of our trip.
By this time it was almost 2 and we were invited to enjoy the rest of our stay. A couple more relaxing hours spent swimming, snorkelling and walking round the aviary and then we were ready (somewhat reluctantly) to leave. We showered, dressed and collected our disk, video and complimentary photo (taken when we arrived) and were dropped back to SeaWorld to get the trolley back to our hotel.
After a lie down and a change of clothes, we left the hotel and wandered down I-Drive. We had decided to eat at Tony Romas tonight and, being a Saturday night, thought we ought to get there fairly early to have a chance of getting a table. As it was such a lovely evening, we walked down (which took about 20 minutes) and arrived about 7. The receptionist informed us that we would have to wait about 30 minutes for a table, but we were invited to have a drink at the bar so we did. We were seated by 7:30. DH had the ribs and I had steak but I dont remember what we had for dessert (although you can rest assured, we DID have dessert!) Full up and still on a high from our wonderful day, we walked slowly back to the hotel for a bit of telly and relaxation before another early night (seem to be getting plenty of these on our holiday!)
)
Why did no-one tell me?? 
