Special Family Holiday Day 8

[spencem]

Sunday, August 23rd Discovery Cove

Please see the index for a full cast list.

Up early this morning for our visit to Discovery Cove, everyone was going except HBSS who had decided it was an expense too far and was going to spend the day in Aquatica before joining us later.

We had booked for today for two main reasons, it was the halfway point of the holiday and most people would have a much needed relaxing day, but also the main parks are normally busy on a weekend and Discovery Cove has a 1000 guests per day limit.

We managed to get all nine of us into the parking lot for 8:40 which was not bad. The first thing we noticed was how much busier it was than our last visit on President's Day in February 07, with a queue to check-in that had not been there before.



As we joined the queue, I noticed that the family in front of us was the same father and daughter pair we had stood behind for 3 hours yesterday in the Rocket queue, altogether now "Its a small world after all..."

While we waited one of the animal trainers came out with a little furry thing for us to all look at. She commented that she needed to keep away from the bushes as these animals make good jumpers, my brother's reply of "I should think you need quite a few of them" was met with a blank stare from the trainer, a hard look from his daughter and a laugh from other Brits around.

We were soon checked in and allocated a swim time of 2:30. The first order of the day was breakfast before getting our gear and lockers. Breakfast was good, especially for free, a large selection of pastries as well as fruit and cereals. Once fed we were directed over the beach between the dolphin and resort pools to the lockers over there to get our swim vests and snorkel bags, then it was off to find 9 seats together. These we got around by the middle dolphin pool which was fine with us.

It was noticeably busier inside the park as well today, even more so when DS and I got to the reef pool.


Here it was a case of try and find a space and not get bumped while watching the fish. It was quieter the far side of the 'wreck' and I think the crowd was just a case of everyone deciding to start in the same place.

I took many many underwater photos and managed to lose sight of DS while doing so, no matter he found his own way around. I'll spare you most of the pictures.


Having been bumped a few times and all photo'ed out for now I took a swim around the river to the aviary where I met this little chap.


Back in the river to complete the circuit and then over to our seats via a snack bar for a drink. After a bit of sitting around we decided on an early lunch, I had been in the reef longer than I thought. Lunch was excellent as before, I had the salmon which was being cooked on the grill almost to order and was very nice indeed. I forget what everyone had, but do remember that my nephew took advantage and had more than one trip down the counter.

After we had had our lunch it was time to give the rays theirs, I went over to the ray pool with the Colchesters arriving just at the end of the talk and in time to be given a handful of small squid and instructions on how to hold them out for the rays.


We had a lot of fun both feeding and trying to get decent pictures of each other doing it, my brother having a waterproof camera as well. That's him in the background trying to get his wife.

The rays are very gentle, gliding up to you and over your hand to suck the squid from it. They have no teeth so the worst you can get is a hard suck. My niece was still too frightened to have a go, but the way she kept saying she wanted to before shying away squealing at the last moment soon wound my brother up. To diffuse a family row I offered to take the kids into the aviary where she could try feeding birds instead.

We had so much fun feeding the birds that my nephew forgot to hold his face in a super cool neutral expression a few times.


I got myself a (free) cup of food as well and soon had a visitor.


As you walk between the three interconnected aviaries the food changes, in the last one the trainer was feeding some birds dead mice as they are a type of vulture. Guests only get cups of fruit or seed, despite my nephew's begging. The birds in here were not as hungry as the smaller ones, but could still be tempted down from the trees with patience.


When we walked back from the birds the reef pool had calmed down quite a bit.


There was some sitting about to be done now before our dolphin swim, or relaxing as some of you call it, which I can manage for a few minutes before getting bored. The time soon passed and we headed into our cabana only to find our friends from the Rocket queue who accused me of stalking them.:laughing: They asked where we were going tomorrow and when we told them Magic Kingdom they laughed and said that was their plan as well, although we never saw them.


Part 2 below

[spencem]

There being 8 of us we had a dolphin to ourselves which was excellent. Our dolphins were Yoshe and Dexter, Dexter was particularly affectionate trying to lay on me at one point. I think DS and DW enjoyed their dolphin swim more this time than last with it being warmer and not being anxious about what was happening.

After the swim we looked at the photos and decided to buy just the CD, which between us all was not as exorbitant as usual.


Left to right, HB, me, DN, DB at the back and Angelmouse, DS, DN and Dsis-in-law at the front with either Yoshe or Dexter I forget.

After a quick lay down to get over the shock of paying more for a CD than a camera DB and I went back in the reef pool. DB and DNephew go diving for real and so have their own masks which they had brought with them to Florida. DNephew lent me his, after prompting from his dad, and the difference was amazing. The masks they give you are ok, but the one I had on now was so much clearer and didn't fog up at all. I could actually see the screen on my camera now and so got more pictures of fish.


These ones are behind some glass under the water.


By the time we came out and had a coffee it was nearly 5 o'clock and the heavens opened.


As you can see there were still dolphin swims happening, but I think these were the Trainer for a Day people as they seemed to do more than normal. It could have just been they felt sorry for them having to do their interaction in the rain.

Everyone was sheltering under the umbrellas which I thought was a bit odd since we were all still in swimming gear. After watching the storm for a while I walked back to the lockers and showers to get changed. People looked at me as if I was the mad one walking along in the warm rain in a scratch top and swimming shorts.

By the time we were all changed the sun had come out and it was time to go. A big tip here is to pick your photos up before the end of the day and not stand in the huge queue as I did.

There was some debate on where to go next, DW wanted to go to MK, the Colchesters were heading over the road to Seaworld and HB was off shopping. We were set to go to MK when HBSS, now returned from a great day at Aquatica, reminded me it was closing at 9 tonight. It being 6:30 now we would have been no sooner in the park than it would have been time to go home, so we joined the Colchesters in Seaworld.

We ignored the numpty parking us and drove around the end of a row to get to the disabled parking right outside the entrance and waited for my brother, and waited. In a while my Nephew appeared asking had we seen his dad? It turns out there had been a huge row in their car over ignoring the parking numpty with my niece getting hysterical that they were all going to get shot or go to jail forever at least. As he recounted the story the other three appeared looking very stony-faced. DNephew decided to hang out with his uncle for the rest of the night.

First order once in via the surprisingly large queue for 6:40 was Manta. DW got brave here and decided to have a go. We waited a few minutes extra and rode in the front, DW loved it so much we had a second go.


The boys and I then had a go on Kraken, DW for some reason sitting it out, though normally it is one of her favourites.

The others were planning on seeing Sea Lions Tonight, in fact it was why they had come into the park, so we headed over to see if things had calmed down and also to watch this excellent show. Things were a little happier, but they were planning on leaving straight afterwards for an early night. DW was also tired so I came up with a plan where she would take the Colchesters home in the Tardis while I stayed on with the boys and drove the Pimp Mobil home. This is what we did and I enjoyed emptying my brother's fuel tank while testing to see if anything other than a loud noise happens when you floor it, the answer is no by the way.

Sea Lions Tonight was hilarious although the mime's act was spoiled by a constant stream of people asking to have their photo taken with him. The animals reacted a little differently in this performance as I suspect they do in every one. The sight of the walrus doing sit-ups had me in stitches, mainly because it reminded me of myself trying to do the same.

After the show we said our goodbyes and went into Voyager's for some ribs before heading over the Kraken to try the front row at night. We took a speed walk through the penguin exhibit on the way so that my Nephew could tell his mum I had educated him. We shouldn't have bothered because as we got to the front of Kraken's very short queue it broke down. The staff seemed confused as to what was happening but in the end told us that a camera was down and without being able to see all of the track they could not open the ride. They also said that as cameras come under the facilities department and not ride maintenance it was unlikely to reopen tonight.

There was nothing else for it, we would have to re-ride Manta a couple of times including the very back row which is much more intense than the front. I wanted to see the fireworks from by the Spice Mill having watched the other night from the stadium. As we walked that way we were directed by a line of staff onto the path back to the stadium so we watched from the path next to the lake. It was a little odd watching from alongside the show, more like the view I normally get working a firework display for me than being a punter, but it did mean we were the first out of the gate and out of the car park onto the I4 home with no waiting.

[Juliemack]

nice relaxing day! - the jumper quip had me in stitches...boom boom

[mossyflossy]

what a good day!

[Guest]

I love, love, love DC.

Sounds as though you all had a fantastic day.

[Guest]

what a good day!

[summersun]

great day