Dolphins, Coasters, Disney…OH MY!!!

Thursday

The reason we are on this journey is for today, Discovery Cove. If you didn’t know Discovery Cove, it is part of Sea World Parks. The tickets aren’t cheap but when you get 14 days of unlimited access to Sea World and Aquatica with Discovery Cove it’s more reasonable. Just build in the days to visit these places a few times. Also, at Discovery Cove you get unlimited food and drink all day. Alcohol is separate. There are a few ways to get discounts too, either through your work, Undercover Tourist, and they offer discounts by emails too.

We went early, we wanted to enjoy breakfast and get an early swim time with our Dolphins. The breakfast included eggs, potatoes, sausage, blueberry & Chocolate chip muffins, French toast sticks, cinnamon rolls, and fruit. Also, coffee, juices, and soda drinks. They also had milk and chocolate milk. When we first got there after check in there was a worker with a sloth. This was so awesome she gave us some facts and the kids could touch her back and ask questions. They found it awesome to meet this animal.

They also had a gluten free menu after you talked to the chef about what your allergies are. They had blueberry muffins, English muffins, bagel, they could cook potatoes, and eggs for you in a special area. Also, you could have any of the fruit. I was surprised at the great selection. I loved the English muffin with strawberry jelly. The muffins were so large that me and my daughter shared one and then saved the other one for later as a snack. You get hungry swimming all day.

I will say the lunch selection for gluten free and normal was also impressive. I didn’t believe they would have so many items. On the normal side they had chocolate cake, carrot cake, and cheesecake. Chris, had the salmon and rice, it was decent a little dry but good flavor. Braden had mac and cheese it must have been good because the birds tried to eat it before he did. We only found tables for large groups on the left side of the building when facing it. There was also great shade which was nice for a break.

For Gluten Free they had chocolate chip cookies, and brownies. These were the best brownies EVER!! I ate two. We have had the chocolate chip cookies before and they are really good, but seriously best chocolate brownie ever. I am a brownie fan in general though. We had a gluten free hamburger and fries with a Gluten Free bun, as always, the buns are so thick with most gluten free they covered the food to not taste it. The hamburger itself was good for a theme park. The fries were hot and had good taste.

At the snack shacks, they had slushies, warm pretzels, ice cream, warm cookies, later in the day, chips, and Rice Krispy treats. The pina colada slushies were amazing and the kids love having something they normally can’t have. I also loved I could have water or soda any part of the day. Now enough about food, about what you can see. I had some pictures of the food, but seams electronics weren’t my friend and I didn’t get them.

We loved the dolphin swim; it was a little rough for us since my grandparents and Chris have a hard time with footing and grandpa couldn’t bring his hearing aids. I am not sure if there was a place to address this beforehand. But I wish they would have asked before the swim about any difficulties anyone had. We met our dolphin Prim who is about the age of a toddler, gave her a kiss, and got to pet her. These were really awesome pictures and a dolphin didn’t feel like a fish like I thought it would.

Then Thelma is the one who gave us our rides. The nice thing is you can do a shallow end ride or deep end, which I don’t feel is easy to find on the website. I had found this information when calling to book tickets. My grandma had way more fun then she thought she would.

I loved our pictures and would totally recommend the package. I bought the package before heading to the park and that saved me $10. Every little bit helps. What I didn’t know there was two picture frames, an instant picture sent to my phone, a CD, and 8 photos printed that day in my package. The frames are awesome real frames not cardboard. If you ever wanted to swim with a dolphin, I totally recommend doing it through Discovery Cove.

At the beginning of your day, you get a card to wear all day. It states if you’re over 21, has your dolphin swim on it, the time, and where you are to meet. This made it helpful. Everyone has to wear either a wet suit or vest. We all opted for the vest, they do a great job of looking at you and guessing your size. It will feel snug at first but it does loosen during the day with the water. Also if you start having issues go talk to them they will either change the size or offer a wet suit. These are included in the cost of admission.

When its your time to meet for the swim you go over to your meeting area, check in, sign paper work, and then wait for others in your pod that have the same swim time. Since we were such a large group we only had 1 other with us, but the groups can be as large as 10. They answered questions did a quick video and off to the water you go. They show you some things about a dolphin and then everyone gets to kiss and pet the dolphin. Then its time for your ride.

The other things you can do at Discovery Cove is a lazy river…this river is LOOONG. You sometimes wonder if its ever going to end. It’s also just relaxing if you just chill and don’t swim it. You start going under this small cave, then you go under a small waterfall, which actually puts you in the aviary, so you can see birds, then you go through another waterfall to leave the aviary, then you go under a bridge, and see some waterfalls entering. The only warning I have is to watch the colors that are on the bottom of river it lets you know when the depth changes, orange for shallow and blue for deep.

We went over to see the otters. Its in a more relaxing area of the park, connected to a part of water that has seats for grown ups to just sit and relax and talk.

We then went to the other side of the park where there is a salt water pool and swam with sting rays and tropical fish. There was also a little an area with Plexiglas to see sharks and eels. This was really scary at first but got easier not to just breathe in the snorkel but to swim with these giant stingrays swimming near your feet. Note you can take cameras to this area of the park so get an underwater camera, case for your phone, or a GoPro. Just not in the dolphin area.

Overall tons of fun, things I have never done before and it was a new first for all of us.

Now, Thursday night Chris and I had been holding in a surprise…We surprised Braden, Elizabeth, and Katelyn with Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom After Hours. I just couldn’t stand to go to Orlando and not do something Disney, I was so excited when they announced After Hours, it was a perfect way to honor a promise to Katelyn about taking her to the castle someday. They remember those promises from when they are three. 😊

With After Hours, you can get into Magic Kingdom at 7pm to enjoy rides and items that won’t be open when after hours start from 10p to 1am. Once 10p hits the park starts to empty and we enjoyed getting on rides with little to no wait.

We also got to enjoy our first Mickey Ice Cream. I had the normal Ice Cream bar, Braden and Chris had the Mickey Ice Cream Sandwich. We all enjoyed them also. I wish we would have had time to eat another one. You could also get popcorn but we were trying to get to every ride so we didn’t stop to eat any. We did enjoy the bottle soda and drinks to keep us going all night long.

We rode Seven Dwarf Mine Train, Ariel’s Grotto, Barn Stormer, Dumbo, all twice. Not only where the lines short the temperature was nice and cool being the evening. We also got to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Tiana, Rapunzel, and Ariel.

We had a great time after thanks to Sunny, a cast member who helped get my Photo Pass working. She was amazing and didn’t just tell me to go get in another line she walked me to every spot to get it fixed. I am so thankful for her and how she helped us. We didn’t get home till 2:30 since we stated in the park to get almost empty park pictures. WOW!

Plus, we hadn’t had time to get much pictures so thanks to the cast member whose name I didn’t get who took pictures at the end of the night with magic shots, you made my day when I got to review them the next day. This is the first picture of the day with Mickey and Minnie and the last picture of the day with the castle. Tired but still excited. This is also one of the newer magic shots.

Also, we rode Splash Mountain, which is a different type of log ride which includes a theme story throughout and few drops. My favorite part of Magic Kingdom and most of all the Disney rides is that they are made for the family so almost everyone can ride and it’s Pooh size friendly for majority of the rides unlike other parks. We tried to have the whole log do the HOME ALONE face….he also is the only person who didn’t get wet.

If you have ever wanted pictures of the castle with an awesome empty park, ride Seven Dwarf Mine Train and Space Mountain with no wait or just walking the ropes then this is a perfect way to do it. This would also be great if your in town for other things and want a taste of Disney but can’t do a whole day. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Friday

Even though we were at Magic Kingdom After Hours in the early mornings, we couldn’t derail from the first plan so at 7ish we headed to Sea World.

Sea World doesn’t have many rides if your either too short or too tall. They have 4 main rollercoasters, which actually scared me because Elizabeth rode on one rollercoaster then we get to another and they said she was too short to ride any of them in the park. This scared me as she already rode one and then I was so thankful she wasn’t hurt since we didn’t know. There roller coasters are definitely for thrill seekers. They aren’t very Pooh size friendly either. I do like that they have test seats for you to try at some of the rides to see if you’ll fit before standing in line forever to find you can’t.

They also have the little kid area but it says best for ages 6 and under so we didn’t visit the Sesame Street area to ride but the new theme looks good. We did Infinity Falls, this was the most crazy raft water ride we have ever been on. I also loved how the had handicap people ride, off to the side so it doesn’t slow down the whole ride. I can’t believe we rode on an elevator to drop us down a waterfall. It was an amazing ride. Its very different water tube ride then I have ever ridden when almost ever park has one. They also have Lost Atlantis which is a lot of like a log ride but also had more drops and a roller coaster part that I wasn’t expecting which made it lots of fun.

We really enjoyed the whale show and seeing them do their stuff. The dolphin show was really short, I didn’t feel like they did much. If I had to pay $100 for a day here, I am not sure I would do it with the short hours, rides being either for thrill seekers or smaller, not many for everyone in the family. Overall, it was a nice day, many animals to check out, a few shows, and rides that are great for thrill riders.

After Sea World, we surprised everyone with a private boat ride at Walt Disney World Resort to watch the fireworks and see the electric boat parade. It was a perfect gift experience instead of another thing. We did it as a family and I also knocked out Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and birthdays in one night.

They also gave us a few chips and treats and also gave us some soda cans and water. You can do this from multiple resorts. We left from the Contemporary Resort. I also loved that they included balloons and a banner in the price so its nice for any occasion. We loved learning history and seeing items you can’t normally see up close from the water.

This was an amazing way to watch the fireworks as you can relax get the music piped in and see the fireworks. We got to see the electric water parade from many sides.

How can you not smile at that octopus and the smiley faces in the sky?

We got macaroons and chocolates and we purchased the gluten free chocolate dessert. It was very rich and tasted great, it had white and dark chocolate sliver on it, with chocolate moose, a raspberry, blueberry, and blackberry. It was very yummy.

Did you know you don’t have to be staying at the resort or even on property to rent a boat or firework cruise.

Have you ever done any of the special ways to view fireworks? Cruise, Pirates and Pal, or a dessert viewing?

Don’t forget to read about the rest of the explorations. Next up, we’ll visit Beaches, Bourbon Street, Bridges…OH MY!