Discovering Discovery Cove

Yesterday, I finally was able to get my chance to visit the talk of the town; Discovery Cove. I made reservations as soon as I knew when I was able to go and I was counting the days ever since. I was psyched when the day finally came and my girlfriend was three times as excited since she was going to be the one swimming with the dolphin. As soon as we got inside the main entrance, we were very impressed. We were greeted by the staff and everyone was very professional. They took a picture ID of us both at check-in and told my girlfriend her dolphin swim appointment and then we were in.

If you ever heard that all you need to bring in Discovery Cove is just your bathing suit, they were not kidding. All the food is payed for including breakfast, dinner and the snacks as well. The snack huts are all over the park and they just hand over chips, pretzels, juice, soda, and beer for no cost at all. When I first came inside the park I went straight to breakfast, after being stopped to take a complimentary picture of course. Believe me when I say that I was eating like a fiend. The eggs and bacon I had was delicious and the coffee and great pastries were mighty fine. I didn't even have to clean my breakfast aftermath because the staff just picks up your trays for you and cleans up everything right away.

The scenery in Discovery Cove was extremely impressive. They had all sorts of different plants located throughout the area including some giant bamboo sticks that I thought were pretty neat. They even had a beach replica which was a great place to be if you need to catch some sun. They even had a cool lazy river if you want to enjoy a nice ride inside a nice warm water. This lazy river is unique though. You don't use tubes in this lazy river. You just go straight in and you can dive in as much as you please. The water can go as high as 8 feet though so they provide life vests for anyone who can't swim well. There is no need to fear drowning though since there are lifeguards practically everywhere.

We also had the chance to see a nifty Aviary filled with all sorts of exotic birds. The first bird we saw made me laugh out loud though. It looked like a big round chicken and it walked liked it just learned how to walk. We were given some bird food to feed the various birds in the Aviary and my girlfriend even used meal worms to feed the birds. She had a lot of birds all over her because those birds sure loved their meal worms. She even had a huge blue bird on her arm for a while and many Mohawk birds had her surrounded. We also had photos taken of us as well and my girlfriend loved them.

After the Aviary we decided to see why a lot of people were inside the coral reef. Once in the coral reef i saw loads of fish every. I didn't see any rays at first and felt kinda nervous about even seeing one to begin with. Then, out of no where, a gigantic ray swims right below me and and saw him from his head all the way to the tip of his stinger. After seeing that ray I was searching for more and found so many of them everywhere. It was crazy and I never wanted to leave the coral reef after that. My girlfriend enjoyed the school of fishes that were swimming right by her and wished she bought an underwater camera. She kept saying she saw fishes from Finding Nemo. We soon realized it was time for my girlfriend's dolphin swim appointment and headed straight to the dolphin area.

We were first briefed by a dolphin trainer at some secluded area of the do's and don'ts while being with the dolphins. After the briefing, we headed to where the dolphins are playing and had a random dolphin chosen to the group. I watched my girlfriend interact with the dolphin and she couldn't stop smiling. She was very excited and wasn't nervous one bit to be so close to the dolphin. Me being still young and hungry all the time, I guess you can say I 'ditched' my girlfriend to eat dinner while she was doing the dolphin swim. I felt guilty at first but once I saw the delicious food they had waiting in the cafeteria, my guilt faded away. I went through the line twice and I chose both the salmon and the pasta. The salmon was the greatest thing to hit my taste buds. It had such great flavor and I was sad when it disappeared from my plate. After dinner, I ran as quickly as possible to the dolphin area and I came just in time. It was the end of the dolphin interaction and the dolphins were doing crazy flips and twirls and a huge goodbye splash. The trainers even let me take a picture with my girlfriend and dolphin together and I even had to kiss my dolphin (which felt kind of weird).

I soon became tired after eating too much and decided it was time to leave paradise. My girlfriend was happy on our way home and she definitely would like to go back very soon. It was an experience that I too would like to revisit again.