Wow... There really is a whole other world out there. Questions

[debbs0723]

Today I woke up and decided that I might just look and see what else there is to do in Orlando besides Disney and Universal. I can't believe I never even looked into Discovery Cove before. Below is what we had planned.

Universal and IOA-2 days
Disney-6 days

THEN.. I looked up Discovery cove. The reviews look great and my girls 7 and 10 are just dying to swim with the Dolphins. My 10 year old already wants to be a marine biologist so she would love it. However I have some questions. I really appreciate any input and I apologize ahead of time for being so wordy.

1.) We are going in Jan 2012. Have any of you been during this time? We are staying in a condo and be flexible with our days in case of a cold day that needs to be moved but is it just too risky to book this in January?

2.) What are general reviews of the place? Was it all great or did you just go for the Dolphins? Does it really not seem crowded?

3.) Looks like we will get to include a day at Sea world or Busch Gardens or Aquatica. Aquatica is not something we want. We live in Houston and have taken the girls to Sea world San Antonio although they do want to go again, but I'm wondering about Busch Gardens. It kind of looks like a fun day at Animal Kingdom and we were considering giving up the AK (been once before) anyway to make these days work. We do not have to give up our AK day either way but I was thinking either AK and Sea world or doing Busch gardens instead. Thoughts?

Now I truly understand why people choose to get condos and rental cars and explore what else is out there. I was tempted by the free dining at disney this year but now it is not even holding a candle to the flexibility we can have.

Thank you for any input I get on this.

Debbie

 

[canadianjovigirl]

We went in November so i cant help you with your January date but we loved the weather and it was warm enough for us to swim. Even i wore shorts and i am never hot so it had nothing to do with us being from Canada

We to stayed in a condo and did so much more than Disney, actually disney was only 7 days out of our 26 day Orlando holiday. I will say that Discovery Cove was the highlight for everyone as a family, it was a great day and we felt like we were in an all inclusive in the carribean. It was relaxing as you could do as much or as little as you wanted. For us it also filled our 2 youngests dream - snorking and swimming with the dolphins. All 6 of us really enjoyed the day and would go back just to do that. It did not seem crowded or busy anywhere to us at that time of year at any of the parks or attractions, but i was told that there was almost 200 people there that day and i would have guessed about 50. We bought the package that included the Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Seaworld admissions as well as the photo package so dividing the cost over 4 days for all of us did not seem as bad as the cost of one day just there for 6 of us. It really was a great experience and if you'd like to see pics, just let me know. Even the non-swimmers in our group had a great time!!

 

[debbs0723]

We went in November so i cant help you with your January date but we loved the weather and it was warm enough for us to swim. Even i wore shorts and i am never hot so it had nothing to do with us being from Canada

We to stayed in a condo and did so much more than Disney, actually disney was only 7 days out of our 26 day Orlando holiday. I will say that Discovery Cove was the highlight for everyone as a family, it was a great day and we felt like we were in an all inclusive in the carribean. It was relaxing as you could do as much or as little as you wanted. For us it also filled our 2 youngests dream - snorking and swimming with the dolphins. All 6 of us really enjoyed the day and would go back just to do that. It did not seem crowded or busy anywhere to us at that time of year at any of the parks or attractions, but i was told that there was almost 200 people there that day and i would have guessed about 50. We bought the package that included the Busch Gardens, Aquatica, Seaworld admissions as well as the photo package so dividing the cost over 4 days for all of us did not seem as bad as the cost of one day just there for 6 of us. It really was a great experience and if you'd like to see pics, just let me know. Even the non-swimmers in our group had a great time!!

Sure I'd love to see pictures. I wish we had that long. We only have 8 days to work with. Disney takes up at least 4 and universal studios will take up two. Not sure if we will do sea world or not. The kids might have to make a game time decision between Animal kingdom, a 2nd day at Magic Kingdom or sea world. We have been to Sea world San Antonio a few times.

 

[8timesblessed]

My kids want to do that this year and I thought I would let you know if you buy an annual pass for one adult in your group for $109 you can get up to 6 tickets at Discovery Cove for alot less. $169 to swim with dolphins and $69 to not swim but it doesn't include the ticket to bushe gardens or sea world. You would need to do that seperately but for my family it was worth the saving to buy seperate tickets. Not sure if it would be for you or not? Just try looking around the internet for savings codes.

 

[debbs0723]

My kids want to do that this year and I thought I would let you know if you buy an annual pass for one adult in your group for $109 you can get up to 6 tickets at Discovery Cove for alot less. $169 to swim with dolphins and $69 to not swim but it doesn't include the ticket to bushe gardens or sea world. You would need to do that seperately but for my family it was worth the saving to buy seperate tickets. Not sure if it would be for you or not? Just try looking around the internet for savings codes.

thank you for the info. Tix are 199 during that time so I,would only come out even at 169 each. I will look around before I buy though.

Thanks,
Debbie

 

[8timesblessed]

We are going in October so our prices were $259 and $149 so it was a big saving for me, especially with 8 kids.

 

[debbs0723]

That is a huge savings. I wish it would save us money because I'm just not dying to go to sea world, Aquatica and don't want to drive to Busch gardens.

Debbie

 

[SmallWorld71]

We've been to Disney, Universal, SeaWorld, BG (years ago), and DC. Discovery Cove is the hands down favorite of everyone in our family. If we could afford to go every year, we would. My kids were 14, 11 and 7 when we went and they will all tell you it was one of the best days they have ever had. I will add that all of them are good swimmers and very comfortable in the water and that we went in August so I don't know how it would be in January. I know the weather in Orlando can vary widely in January.

 

[canadianjovigirl]

some pictures as requested..........

The dolphin interaction:

 

[canadianjovigirl]

will post more tomorrow as photo bucket is not cooperating........

 

[debbs0723]

Those are great. I assume the photographer took those?

 

[SmallWorld71]

Here's a few more:

This bird loved DS so much that he stayed on his shoulder for about 15/20 minutes. DS was easily the tallest person there. Maybe the bird thought he was a tree! LOL

 

[canadianjovigirl]

The stingrays

the lazy river

the stingray pool

 

[canadianjovigirl]

The snorkling area

 

[LockShockBarrel]

I was actually there in January of this year so I'll try to field that question.

My suggestion to you is to book DC in the earlier part of your trip. If I understand things correctly, DC allows you one penalty free change of date (subject to availibilty). If you book earlier in your trip and there's bad weather, you'll have a chance to see the forecast and pick a better day OR you'll be able to see that the weather is going to get worse while you're there so better to "get it over with".

As far as the weather, a PP was right that the weather is very unpredicable in January, but when we went it was the start of the weather getting warmer for the rest of the week. We decided not to try to change our date because we didn't feel like trying to switch around dining at Disney. We took a cab from OKW at about 8am and it was quite chilly, we both had hoodies on. We looked awful in our welcome picture, no makeup, cold, and tired. We signed in and not many people were there yet so we ended up with an early dolphin swim time. We had breakfast and went to get our wetsuits..we both got the 'short' suits, they hit you at about your knees and elbows. Neither of us was willing to try to get into the full suits but I figured we'd freeze in just the vests. We got changed and kind of meandered around. We stuck our foot into the coral reef and it was freezing, but the sting ray pool wasn't so bad so we went in there first. The rays weren't having us so we decided to sit in the regular pool (which is heated) until it was time to head over to the dolphin pools. By this time the sun was out and warming everything up so the rest of the day wasn't nearly as bad as the early morning. The dolphin pool was chilly but you get used to it, then we tried the coral reef again and they had warmed up a lot so we did that next, then the other stingray pool and finally they were interested in us. We finished out the day in the big heated pool but by this point there was a breeze and any part of us out of the water was cold. It was never cold enough for us to say "this was a bad idea" and I think the temp was in the mid 60's- low 70's through the day.