theDIBB - What are you wearing to the Airport

Discovery Cove DAY 12 – Wednesday 15th September 2010

Orlando Villa

Weather 93 Degrees HOT Again :spin:

BREAKING NEWS STORY : A Trooper had shot 9 bullets at a man in an SUV who allegedly stole two egg and bacon sandwiches – seems like a proportional and measured response!

We both had a great night’s sleep I woke up at 7am Michael had already ben up one hour, I was sooooo giddy today we are going to Discovery Cove for the very first time and I can’t wait. We got a great deal through a tip on The Dibb, £215 for both of us through an AmEx deal including 14 days entry to Seaworld

We have our usual breakfast by the pool, it’s such a treat and I love it! In the blink of an eye we are arriving at Discovery Cove, it’s 8.30am check in is smooth and easy, we are gently passed from person to person directing us and giving us useful information.

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We are allocated lockers, wetsuits, snorkels and masks also our free sun lotion that is the stuff of legend! We are shown where our Dolphin Experience will be and where to meet for a briefing before. We are to meet at Starfish at 11am

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We quickly find two sun beds near to Starfish looking over the Dolphin Pool, now comes the fun bit, applying the Panama Jack sun lotion, the lotion is ‘fish’ friendly and is the only substance you are allowed to use. Luckily I had read warnings on The Dibb that advised extreme caution when applying lol. How can I describe the process ... um ... er ... it’s like spreading cold butter on a frozen turkey lol. My advice rub small amounts in between your palms and then pat, not rub, it onto your skin. We did get offered extra at no charge later in the day as well.

I was debating if I should take my camera with us or not, I took it in the end and I was pleased I did, the park is beautiful.

We took a stroll to the restaurant area where we enjoyed some water, a coffee and a muffin which we begrudgingly shared with some birds, that shook us down like an organised gang! We were left in doubt we were on their turf, and the muffin was the going rate to be left alone lol!

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We continued our stroll round the park taking in the beauty and tranquillity before returning to our sun loungers to soak up the rays and read, for me this means staying in the shade mostly. I was reading the penultimate Sookie Stackhouse novel (True Blood) and thoroughly enjoyed it. Our swim was only 40 minutes away and I was in bliss, reading, snoozing .

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To quote Bjork ‘it’s so peaceful and then ... ’’ suddenly the unmistakable twang of a Liverpool accent started yelling at a brood of offspring ‘’Shane you little b*****’ ‘Kyle put that down’ I looked up expecting to see the ‘said’ Kyle dragging a Dolphin out of the water by the tail. Thankfully this delightful lady and children kept on walking and settled in a place far enough away that we didn’t hear them again all day.

Time for our Dolphin Swim, we put on our DC Vests and head for our pep talk of do’s and dont’s we sign a waiver, the usual if the Dolphin bites your head off it’s not our fault but we will provide a carrier bag for your husband to take your head home in, have a nice day! - OK well maybe it didn’t say anything like that, but basically it said, if anything bad happens it’s your own silly fault.

We were soon in the water meeting our gorgeous Dolphin, Jenny, she was 34 years old and a great grandmother, we loved our time with her it felt very special to be allowed to interact with these beautiful and intelligent creatures.

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After our swim we headed for an early lunch on the whole I thought the food was good, a large selection to suit even the fussiest of eaters. I had salmon, it was a little dry but the choices of veg and salad were plentiful and I was soon full.

After a short nap we went snorkelling in the Lagoon, once you get over the shock of how cold the water is, it’s fine I couldn’t quite believe the size of the rays we were sharing the water with, they were HUGE. I was just getting over that shock when I saw the sharks, I was almost hyperventilating because I didn’t realise they were behind glass, I had a bit of a ‘moment’!

The ray pool is quite an experience too, the rays are much smaller in here and they swim towards you, just a great experience.

We spent the rest of the day swimming and sunbathing, we had showers and left at 5pm. We had an amazing day, I’m so glad we choose to do this and I would recommend it to anyone to go there, I know I will be heading back it was great value for money.

We decided to finish off the Premium Outlets we’d not got round all the stores we wanted to visit the last time, to make this quicker, we split up Scooby Doo style and ran round the stores in a supermarket sweep kinda style meeting up after one hour. It was mega busy, I’d never seen it like that before, but then again we had never been at that time of day. It was predominantly full of South American parties and my goodness on the whole they were incredibly RUDE, barging and pushing. The lines were so big in some of the outlets that I didn’t even bother :(

We left the madness at 8pm and visited a Longhorns Steakhouse, I have never been to one before and we weren’t disappointed, we split a ribeye and a loaded potato it was just the right amount of food for two of us.

Heading back to the villa we got caught up in the traffic on the I4 following an accident we arrived home just before 10pm, had the compulsory beer around the pool before heading off to bed by 10:30pm

What a great day!