Trip Report Discovery Cove, SeaWorld and other stuff.

So we went to Orlando in September and while there we purchased SeaWorld annual passes. It was one of our mostly relaxation type trips. My wife had some vacation time left she needed to use or lose so we went back in October.
SeaWorld annual pass holders get a significant discount to Discovery Cove and since it is something we have talked about doing for a long time we decided to go ahead and spend a day there.
It was fantastic...better than we imagined. I hope this mostly non-Disney trip report is OK here and trust the mods will remove it if not.
So we went the week of Oct. 15-22 and the weather was fantastic. We stayed at a place called Marriott Grande Vista off of International Drive near SeaWorld. It is a beautiful property and we enjoyed it a lot. We went to SeaWorld several times, went to Discovery Cove and went over to WDW and went resort hopping too.
I will start out with Discovery Cove, the highlight of the trip. Here is the lobby:

Discovery Cove.jpg
 
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MinnieM123

MinnieM123

Premium Member
Wow! This is fun!! Haven't been to Sea World in about 18 years (never been to Discovery Cove). These photos are wonderful and show how nice the place is. I'm glad that you and your wife get to visit different places down in the Orlando area, and then show the rest of us what we're missing! :joyfull:

By the way, I also highly recommend water shoes. I bought mine about 10 years ago and always wear them at the Disney water parks--especially Blizzard Beach, because the pavement gets insanely hot. At least at Typhoon Lagoon there seems to be more water sprayers along the pathways.
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
MinnieM123 said:
Wow! This is fun!! Haven't been to Sea World in about 18 years (never been to Discovery Cove). These photos are wonderful and show how nice the place is. I'm glad that you and your wife get to visit different places down in the Orlando area, and then show the rest of us what we're missing! :joyfull:

By the way, I also highly recommend water shoes. I bought mine about 10 years ago and always wear them at the Disney water parks--especially Blizzard Beach, because the pavement gets insanely hot. At least at Typhoon Lagoon there seems to be more water sprayers along the pathways.
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Thank you. Yeah, we have fun and do things our way. The water shoes were an excellent idea, and really came in handy at DC.
 
Figgy1

Figgy1

Premium Member
epcotisbest said:
Our first foray into the water was at the lazy river (appropriate for me huh?). We bought water shoes at the outlets over on International Drive the day before and are very glad we did. I highly recommend them.

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Thank you for the tag! I wish my had bought a pair of the water shoes before we went on our trip! He wound up getting a pair on our first water park day. They were on my shopping list but he kept putting off getting a pair:cautious::mad::banghead::banghead::banghead::greedy::greedy::greedy::greedy:
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After a long time enjoying all the sea life, snorkeling with rays and watching sharks through a glass wall (it is like you are in the water with them, but they are on the other side of glass) we got out, dried off and headed to lunch. I forgot to mention, they have prescription lens masks if you need them. That was handy and made underwater viewing that much more pleasant. And, you get to keep your snorkel.
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Lunch was enjoyable as well. Not gourmet food by any measure, but good for what you get. And again, there are lots of choices and you can go through the line as many times as you want. I had pulled pork, a club sandwich, some tasty coleslaw and chocolate cake. Because I had way too many carbs and too much sugar at breakfast, for lunch I had the pulled pork without the bread, sandwich ingredients without the bread, only a few of the fries and even though I should not have, did eat most of the cake. I'll count carbs again tomorrow.

Discovery Cove27.jpg
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
After recharging with a nice lunch, we took another float around the lazy river and this time we wandered over to watch the marmosets and then to the otter habitat too. They were fun to watch, but we left the camera in the locker for this go around. Then we went back over to the lounge chairs to enjoy a little while at our little shady spot. I did not fall asleep, but it would have been easy to. Too easy, so we hopped back up and headed back to The Grand Reef. In the afternoon, during the feeding of the rays, you can get right in the water and watch it up close. That was fun.

Discovery Cove31.jpg
 
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epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Another thing included in your day at Discovery Cove is unlimited snacks and drinks. They had these areas set up with frozen drink machines that are self serve and they had four different flavors of Icees. Enjoyed that but no telling how much sugar, so I only tried a couple of small sips. They had white cherry flavor, as well as pineapple, banana, and pina colada. They also had coke products and offered beer as well. I don't drink, but it was obvious that those who do enjoyed being able to just walk up and get a beer (with ID of course). Also self serve were racks of several different kinds of potato chips, bags of peanuts, rice crispy treats, cookies and baked pretzels. Again, just get what you want. The soft pretzels were good and the bags of potato chips were nice to go with a fountain serving of diet Coke. I did not think to get a photo of the snack kiosks, but there were several there so you were never far away from a snack.
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Later in the afternoon I walked back over and decided to try a burger, and it was good. Again I had it without the bun as an afternoon snack. While we were sitting there a couple came over and set their plate down beside us and I was amazed. I kept waiting for other people to come join them, but it was just those two. When they set their tray down and went back for more drinks, I discretely snapped a pic. I am betting two people did not finish all of this.

lunch.jpg
 
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SSH

SSH

Well-Known Member
Enjoying your TR so much. We were there on Oct 17th - probably right before or after you guys visited? My DH and I LOVED DC...we're from FL and have done the parks for many years, but hadn't been to SW for a decade and it our first time at Discovery Cove. It was wonderful! (Although the reef seemed more crowded to me than the pic above. And the water was COLD...for me anyway.) I wimped out with a full wetsuit :)

I am enjoying reliving our trip through your review! Amazing pictures. Next time I'm getting a cheap waterproof camera - my camera controls wouldn't work well thru the waterproof case, so didn't get to take too many pics. The water shoes saved us - we already had them from previous cruise snorkeling trips.

The lazy river was also great - we didn't go until closer to end of day. It was hilarious. I thought it would be this little winding stream like Aquatica or other water parks. Figured we'd get in, get out in a few min at the end. But it kept going...and going...and going. We couldn't believe it. Next time, I'm doing that earlier.

You were so smart to get there as early as you did...we got there around 7:30, but lingered too long enjoying breakfast. :D
Another "next time" resolution - get out and explore everything early on like you did while everyone else is eating.

I initially booked this as a personal splurge and a quick getaway to hold me over until our Dec WDW trip - didn't want to deal with traipsing around hot Uni and WDW parks and all the crowds from HHN, F&W, etc. But honestly, we had a better time this trip than going to WDW. It was so fun, so relaxing. I didn't have any expectations beforehand and I think that helps a lot.

Did you guys visit SW on a weekend? They had a wonderful trick and treating event, with lots of candy stations and character meet and greets and all the little kids dressed adorably in costumes. Loved that they encouraged all the adults to trick or treat too. (I have no shame. Had a blast and got some yummy candy:hungry::hungry::hungry:) And whaddya know - zero hard ticket cost. All included. :jawdrop:)

We're not SW passholders - we just did the DC Florida pass which included SW. But I'm seriously thinking about an SW pass for the first time. The exhibits were great and I really had a wonderful time at all the SW parks.

Sorry to ramble on...looking forward to the rest of your TR :):)
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
As the day began to wind down, people started leaving early. Now, I am one to stay all day, so we did not even think about heading out until 5:30 p.m. as we wanted our full day at the wonderful place. Here is one of the lagoon areas that we had practically to ourselves later in the day:

Discovery Cove33.jpg
 
epcotisbest

epcotisbest

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
SSH said:
Enjoying your TR so much. We were there on Oct 17th - probably right before or after you guys visited? My DH and I LOVED DC...we're from FL and have done the parks for many years, but hadn't been to SW for a decade and it our first time at Discovery Cove. It was wonderful! (Although the reef seemed more crowded to me than the pic above. And the water was COLD...for me anyway.) I wimped out with a full wetsuit :)

I am enjoying reliving our trip through your review! Amazing pictures. Next time I'm getting a cheap waterproof camera - my camera controls wouldn't work well thru the waterproof case, so didn't get to take too many pics. The water shoes saved us - we already had them from previous cruise snorkeling trips.

The lazy river was also great - we didn't go until closer to end of day. It was hilarious. I thought it would be this little winding stream like Aquatica or other water parks. Figured we'd get in, get out in a few min at the end. But it kept going...and going...and going. We couldn't believe it. Next time, I'm doing that earlier.

You were so smart to get there as early as you did...we got there around 7:30, but lingered too long enjoying breakfast. :D
Another "next time" resolution - get out and explore everything early on like you did while everyone else is eating.

I initially booked this as a personal splurge and a quick getaway to hold me over until our Dec WDW trip - didn't want to deal with traipsing around hot Uni and WDW parks and all the crowds from HHN, F&W, etc. But honestly, we had a better time this trip than going to WDW. It was so fun, so relaxing. I didn't have any expectations beforehand and I think that helps a lot.

Did you guys visit SW on a weekend? They had a wonderful trick and treating event, with lots of candy stations and character meet and greets and all the little kids dressed adorably in costumes. Loved that they encouraged all the adults to trick or treat too. (I have no shame. Had a blast and got some yummy candy:hungry::hungry::hungry:) And whaddya know - zero hard ticket cost. All included. :jawdrop:)

We're not SW passholders - we just did the DC Florida pass which included SW. But I'm seriously thinking about an SW pass for the first time. The exhibits were great and I really had a wonderful time at all the SW parks.

Sorry to ramble on...looking forward to the rest of your TR :):)
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Thanks for sharing. We went on the 19th, figuring mid-week would be a good time to go, so we missed you by a couple of days. We really enjoyed it a lot. As for The Grand Reef, it was not very crowded on Wednesday.
Yes, the lazy river was long and winding. It was also surprising when all of a sudden it got very deep. We enjoyed that a lot.
We did go to SeaWorld on Sunday the 16th, and yes we collected lots of candy. I like that there was nothing scary at all in their halloween displays or costumes. The whimsical characters and cute kids made it a fun time for us, a couple of old fogies who don't really care for halloween. All the bubble machines were fun too. There was a nice mixture of candy being handed out and I got all kinds of stuff I could not eat, but did bring it home and handed it out here.
We actually went to SW several times during the week too. Staying just down the road, we would go over in the morning and stay a few hours then head out, or go over in the afternoon and stay till closing. Nice being able to come and go like that.
I will be posting some SW pics later in this TR. Hope you will come back for that. Thanks for reading along.
 
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