Monday 28th May – Memorial Day
Discovery Cove
We had booked this day at Discovery Cove because we knew all the parks would be heaving today and this park never gets over busy because they only allow a fixed number, I think it’s a 1000 to enter each day
We were up at 5.30am, after a coffee and a banana we were out running by 6am, this, we decided is a much better time to run, much cooler, we ran about 4 miles, such great fun seeing the sun coming up and squirrels running along side us.
After a shower, more coffee along with toasted English Muffins we are ready to go, the traffic is very light and we arrive at Discovery Cove at 8.30am, we stand in line for no more than 10 minutes before we are booked in. I have really pushed the boat out and booked an Ultimate Cabana Package.
We are not disappointed, our guide show us to our Cabana on the Grand Reef and it’s in a brilliant spot, all our goodies are on the table for us and our guide pops back to stock the fridge and hamper with drinks and snacks!
We decide to head for breakfast which we enjoy in the sunshine, the hunger from running hits hard and despite the eggs been a little over cooked I wolf them down along with more coffee and muffins
Suitably full a lie down in the sun is in order for half an hour, I am ecstatically happy after a little while we put on our wet suit jackets and snorkels and go for a swim with the rays and fish.
At some point during this time of happiness, the tail end of Tropical Storm Beryl decided to visit and ruin our day. We were all told to get out of the water, and sure enough the rain came. Michael and I made ourselves comfy in the cabana with a drink of water and some trail mix (never heard of this stuff before, but I loved it)
It was kind of cool looking at the empty reef and the rain from the Cabana, all this was about to change though, our guide came to escort us to another area because this was now a ‘CODE PURPLE’ which means there is lightening and the Cabana isn’t safe because it contains metal. We gather a few things and off we go.
We thought we were going to some special area, but we were very wrong, we were asked to sit in the locker room with a lot of other very miffed and shivery guests.
We stayed there for around 35 minutes until the storm passed, it was pretty bad with pounding rain and winds.
We were allowed back to the Cabana and in the water again, when ...
CODE PURPLE Arghhhh! So back in the locker room for a lengthy 45 mins whilst the rain poured and the wind blew
We were allowed back but after a while it was clear that the rain wasn’t going away, we swam and snorkelled for a while, visited the aviary which was a delight
Eventually we called it a day around 3.30pm – Discovery Cove was beautiful the weather ruined it
After returning to the villa, we shower and dress ready to walk the mile or so to Appleby’s at Berry Town Centre, the weather is a bit damp but we carry on regardless. The food there was a little disappointing and the service was hit and miss, we decided there wouldn’t be a second visit.
After a pleasant stroll back to the villa we enjoyed a beer around the pool watched a bit of TV in bed and were both fast asleep by 10pm