Discovery Cove is a theme park with a difference, one such difference being that it is limited to 1000 visitors per day, this comes as a welcome relief when you consider Sea World has a 38000 limit, and the parks are certainly getting to their limit this week. The second difference and one the kids love is once inside everything is included, drinks food etc. This combination makes for a relaxing day in itself, no hassle and no queues…But the real reason for going to Discovery Cover is to swim with Dolphins, Rays and a whole variety of other fish.
We set out even earlier leaving the villa around 07:30 arriving just before 8:00, on check-in we got told when are Dolphin swim would take place, in our case 8:40 so not much time to wait. So we quickly got our masks etc and wet suits..and we were ready.
For the swim we were put in a group with four other people, each taking it in turns to touch, swim and even kiss the dolphin. Joseph wasn’t keen on that..and unless his kissing skills improve he has no chance with the ladies. Ems was on cloud nine she couldn’t get over how soft and cute the dolphins was.
The best bit was the ride…you were taken out about 15 metres into the deep part of the pool, and were given a ride back by holding on to the fin of the dolphin.
The Dolphin experience lasted just over 30 minutes, after that it was a quick breakfast and off to swim and touch the rays..Whilst the dolphin encounter was pretty well controlled in what you could do, the other parts of the park you got to interact with the animals as much as you like.
In addition to the pool with the rays there is a large heated fresh water pool, connected to a slow moving stream that runs around the whole park, taking you through some beautiful gardens and a bird avery which you can also interact with various birds. The kids had a lot of fun here having various parrots land on them to be fed.
The other main pool was a sea water pool which you could swim with a variety of fish including more rays… Julie’s underwater camera worked brilliantly allowing us to capture stills and movies whilst we cruised around the pool.
Whilst Discovery Cove isn’t cheap it was without doubt the best day I’ve had on holiday…It was both relaxing and invigorating. Well worth a trip..We left the park 17:30 as it closed. We were all exhausted and ready for an early bed.
