Discovery Cove

[Fman1530]

My family just visited Discovery Cove while in Disney. My son's Mother-in-law had wanted to swim with the dolphins. This is the best deal in town. The family had a great day.

 

[bbeagle]

I agree. Discovery Cove is the only place kids can swim with dolphins as young as age 6. Anywhere else you go it's 8, 10, 12....

Discovery Cove is such a great 'break day' in the middle of our vacation. It's an all-inclusive resort for a day. Lazy river swimming, walking with Flamingos, feeding birds while they land on your shoulders, head, etc. swimming with dolphins or snorkeling with fish. Or just lying out under a cabana enjoying the unlimited food and drink (including alcoholic) that's included.

I'm surprised it's not as well known. It's a great deal.

 

[MamaMermaid]

We love DC!!

 

[Fman1530]

It was a great place if you want to swim with the dolphins. My family has some great pictures.

 

[zavandor]

It was a great place if you want to swim with the dolphins. My family has some great pictures.

I treasure mine too, but a warning for who has never been: the pictures for the dolphin experience are very expensive. I don't know how much they are now, but I remember to be quite shocked. And you cannot bring a camera with you (dangerous for the dolphin) so if you want a close up picture of the experience (you do) then you have to pay. Budget for it!

 

[CAPSLOCK]

And you cannot bring a camera with you (dangerous for the dolphin) so if you want a close up picture of the experience (you do) then you have to pay.

You can bring a camera onto the beach, just not into the dolphin lagoon. A good camera, preferably with a telephoto lens, will get good or decent pictures. This does require splitting up your group though, so it's not ideal for all families.

 

[Fman1530]

I agree with you. The pictures do come out really good.

 

[Capt_BJ]

their picture are very good. you can see one of their photog's in the water with a group here




We've been twice, several year apart and both times the complete picture package was $$$$ but we're suckers and bought it. I'm not sure if TODAY you can buy individual pictures versus the 'whole deal'

you can see distance to 'the beach' here ..... I have the towel on my head. NOTE that if I had a camera I'd get shots of the back of folks heads . . . <if they were aware I had a camera they might be able to turn around but the 'pose' is lost . .

 

[HopperFan]

I've been maybe 6 times, the last time being last February and only ONCE did we do the Dolphin Swim. The Day Resort Package is just as enjoyable especially if you get a good deal. Parking, Breakfast, Lunch, Snacks, Drinks (some alcohol), birds, animals, towels, snorkle gear (keep snorkle), life jackets and noodles, great locker rooms with showers, locker, snorkling, lazy river, "resort pool" ... day away in paradise without doing any of the add ons is still a great day!

 

[jeff_h]

We've been there 8-10 times, last time was a couple months ago, DW loves it.

A quick tip from experience - we had a reservation in Nov 2016 for a Monday and it was unseasonably cold and windy, like upper 40s F which is not really conducive to walking around in swimsuits. We showed up for our reservation and said geez it's super cold, they said yeah not the best day for swimsuits but DC offers one free date change so how about another day later in the week? So they changed the reservation to that Friday when it was 78-80F and we went to MK on Monday instead (tougher these days with needing dated reservations, of course) and enjoyed DC on Friday.

So if you plan a date, try to make it maybe 3rd or 4th day of your vacation to give your feet a break during middle of vacation, but also to have some leeway in there to reschedule for a few days later if the weather doesn't cooperate. It may not work out, but good idea to have the days planned to allow for the reschedule if needed.