I saw a decent deal for FL Resident’s for Discovery Cove. I paid $149 for a day at Discovery Cove and then I get unlimited access to SeaWorld and Aquatica until January 31, 2015. I have never been to any of the parks.
Discovery Cove is operated by SeaWorld. It really looks like a resort. It has 3 to 4 main sections. There is an area to swim with the dolphins. That was extra, so I did not. I took some pictures though. There is an area to snorkel. In a section of that area you can pay extra to walk with a dive helmet on which I did not do. There is a monkey and otter area where you float by the animals. There is a river that goes through an aviary.
I snorkeled. Snorkeling is not my favorite thing, but it was neat to see hundreds of fish. At one point, 6 stingrays swam by me. I spoke to a lifeguard and she said that they are semi-clipped (de-stinged?). They can’t hurt anyone. I said that they were unfairly given a bad reputation when the Australian Steve Irwin died. She agreed and said it takes a lot to aggravate them. The coral reef was neat to see too. I saw some sharks, but they were behind a glass wall. It was neat, but I wouldn’t want to be under water my entire life. I really don’t want to ever scuba dive.
I did not see any monkeys. I did see some otters and some birds. The river was tough as it varied from 8 ft to 2 ft in depth. I thought I was a strong swimmer until I got to the 8 feet portion. I nearly found myself a life vest. I did obtain a noodle.
The park is not overly large. I think the best thing about the park is everything is included. All meals, snacks, lockers,parking, and wetsuits are included in the price. I still wouldn’t want to pay that much if I didn’t get to go to Sea World and Aquatica, but I did have 2 meals, 1 package of goldfish crackers, 2 pretzels, 2 packages of trail mix, 3 Dasani waters, 2 decaf coffees, and multiple slushies (even Fanta Banana).
Although the park had some neat concepts like swimming in an aviary and swimming by otters, I wouldn’t recommend this over Disney World. Typhoon Lagoon’s lazy river is better. The “Grand Reef” was not so much better than Typhoon Lagoon’s Shark Reef to pay $100 to $300 more to go to Discovery Cove, but you can’t swim with dolphins at Disney and also Discovery Cove only allows like 1,000 people in a day. It seemed that mostly foreigners and FL residents were there.