Third Time's A Charm - Day Six - Discovery Cove

Guest · 16 Oct 10, 04:33 PM

Today was the day between our two birthdays and as we had both wanted to go to Discovery Cove on our birthdays, but couldn’t afford to go twice, we opted to go on the day between our birthdays and upgrade to trainer for a day!

We had the ‘luxury’ of a lie in, by a lie in I mean 06:45… We had showered, dressed and were outside of Discovery Cove by 07:50, when we checked in (there was a line, which I have to admit we weren’t expecting) we were given our special trainer for a day lanyards, which were yellow instead of blue and instructed to wait for our trainer to arrive.

Our trainer was called Jaclyn, but we were to call her Jax, apologised for the delay in getting to us, but she was asked by her boss to take a blood sample from a two year old dolphin for tests as she was on her way out of the staff areas – apparently she was the only one the dolphin would allow to take its blood! After we all introduced ourselves – there was a couple from France and a couple from Kentucky who were on the first day of their Honeymoon – we were given a tour of all of the normal areas that you get to see before stopping off at the breakfast buffet; I forgot to write down what we had but I seem to remember muffins, juice and fruit!

We were then taken down to the South Lockers, and given our vests or wetsuits before we were taken back to where the trainers prepare the food for the animals and keep the dolphin’s toys (which are basically what any child would play with!) and were also shown the board that the trainers see what time they will be in the pools and which dolphins they will be with when they’re in the pools! From this, we saw that we would be swimming with Capricorn!

We followed Jax through to the back pools which you can’t see from the beach, which is where they weigh the dolphins and can keep them in their pods when they’re not swimming with us mere mortals.

We were told what we would be doing for the rest of the day whilst we waited for some small animals for interaction with them, we got to meet a macaw, a MASSIVE five year old turtle and a three ringed armadillo.

Next up was a twenty minute break in which mum and I snorkelled around the reef and got a quick drink from one of what seemed like hundreds of drink stands around the place! We both had sierra mist and then headed over to the cabana for the training video for our regular twenty minute swim with the dolphins, Jax brought us all some bottles of water which we had during the information session.

The session was supposed to be a regular twenty minute swim, but ended up being more like thirty as there were a couple of celebrations! As previously mentioned, there was a couple in our group who were on their honeymoon – the husband had organised a buoy that said ‘On Our Honeymoon’ and again, as previously mentioned, yesterday was mum’s birthday and I had been making a few trans-Atlantic phone calls organising mum’s birthday buoy!

Lunch was the next item on the agenda, and we both had a bacon cheese burger and fries followed by cake – I had the red velvet cake, and mum had the carrot cake – both of our respective cakes were delicious! And we would have both had more had anyone else gone for seconds! We had a quick break and whilst the other two couples went off for a walk, we stayed and talked to Jax, and she gave us her facebook details before we met back up with the other four and went off to see the nursing sharks and the rays.

According to mum the sharks felt like sandpaper and the rays smooth but slimey! I wasn’t going anywhere near either of them! I tried with the rays, but too many of them came over to me too quickly so I was out of there very quickly!

We had another break, so mum went for a lay down in the sun, and I went for a swim… stupidly Jax said that it takes an average swimmer twelve minutes to get around the river thing, and I used to swim a lot and was given an opportunity to swim competitively with Poole Dolphins, so I had a point to prove! I did it in eight minutes and forty seven seconds!

It was back to the South Lockers after fifty minutes to meet back with everyone for our final dolphin interaction – normally you have to choose between either a two foot push or a belly pull, but luckily because there was such a small group of us, we got to do BOTH! The foot push we had both done before in the Bahama’s after our first trip to the magic in 1996 but it was amazing all the same!

For the belly pull, Capricorn turned over and we had to take hold of his left fin with our right hand. He then rolled a little more and we were told to take hold of his right fin with the left hand and then he kicked off and we were pulled right to the beach. We were then re-acquainted with CJ who we swam with during our 2006 trip! It was then that we noticed that there were a lot of people stood on the beach watching our special interaction with these wonderful creatures, all too soon the interaction was over, and so was our day so we went back to the lockers to have collect our belongings and our goodies.

Whilst mum went into the photo collection area to collect our free welcome picture, Jax took me to the medical centre as the life jacket that you had to wear for the special interaction was slightly too big for me and had caused some chafing on the inside of my arm which was rather painful! It was whilst in the medical centre that the nurse pointed out that I had some rather bad sunburn!

We were supposed to be going to the Downtown Disney DIBB meet at Margaritaville, but as I mentioned I had bad sunburn and we were both tired, so we decided to give it a miss and head back to the hotel for dinner at Mara… sorry!

High: Dolphins
Low: Leaving!

macdonald88 · 16 Oct 10, 05:31 PM

Awww what a wonderfull day to spend your birthday. Discovery Cove is amazing, i bet your mum was chuffed with the buoy.

Helen0705 · 16 Oct 10, 06:05 PM

What a fab way to celebrate your birthdays !

Ilovesnowwhite · 16 Oct 10, 07:10 PM

A birthday neither of you will forget, such special memories

xx

Guest · 16 Oct 10, 07:37 PM

Its great reading about my holiday again!

Originally Posted by macdonald88

Awww what a wonderfull day to spend your birthday. Discovery Cove is amazing, i bet your mum was chuffed with the buoy.

Yes Mum was really chuffed with her buoy! It was a lovely surprise! Reduced me too tears

Originally Posted by Ilovesnowwhite

A birthday neither of you will forget, such special memories

xx

It was a lovely birthday treat - I definitely won't be forgetting! It was a wonderful day - and the little extras were brilliant. Well worth the upgrade to Traner for a day!

MEZZA · 17 Oct 10, 08:22 AM

A lovely day

Discovery coves red velvet cake

16 Oct 10, 04:33 PM	#1
	16 Oct 10, 04:33 PM Guest Guest
Guest Guest	Third Time's A Charm - Day Six - Discovery Cove Today was the day between our two birthdays and as we had both wanted to go to Discovery Cove on our birthdays, but couldn’t afford to go twice, we opted to go on the day between our birthdays and upgrade to trainer for a day! We had the ‘luxury’ of a lie in, by a lie in I mean 06:45… We had showered, dressed and were outside of Discovery Cove by 07:50, when we checked in (there was a line, which I have to admit we weren’t expecting) we were given our special trainer for a day lanyards, which were yellow instead of blue and instructed to wait for our trainer to arrive. Our trainer was called Jaclyn, but we were to call her Jax, apologised for the delay in getting to us, but she was asked by her boss to take a blood sample from a two year old dolphin for tests as she was on her way out of the staff areas – apparently she was the only one the dolphin would allow to take its blood! After we all introduced ourselves – there was a couple from France and a couple from Kentucky who were on the first day of their Honeymoon – we were given a tour of all of the normal areas that you get to see before stopping off at the breakfast buffet; I forgot to write down what we had but I seem to remember muffins, juice and fruit! We were then taken down to the South Lockers, and given our vests or wetsuits before we were taken back to where the trainers prepare the food for the animals and keep the dolphin’s toys (which are basically what any child would play with!) and were also shown the board that the trainers see what time they will be in the pools and which dolphins they will be with when they’re in the pools! From this, we saw that we would be swimming with Capricorn! We followed Jax through to the back pools which you can’t see from the beach, which is where they weigh the dolphins and can keep them in their pods when they’re not swimming with us mere mortals. We were told what we would be doing for the rest of the day whilst we waited for some small animals for interaction with them, we got to meet a macaw, a MASSIVE five year old turtle and a three ringed armadillo. Next up was a twenty minute break in which mum and I snorkelled around the reef and got a quick drink from one of what seemed like hundreds of drink stands around the place! We both had sierra mist and then headed over to the cabana for the training video for our regular twenty minute swim with the dolphins, Jax brought us all some bottles of water which we had during the information session. The session was supposed to be a regular twenty minute swim, but ended up being more like thirty as there were a couple of celebrations! As previously mentioned, there was a couple in our group who were on their honeymoon – the husband had organised a buoy that said ‘On Our Honeymoon’ and again, as previously mentioned, yesterday was mum’s birthday and I had been making a few trans-Atlantic phone calls organising mum’s birthday buoy! Lunch was the next item on the agenda, and we both had a bacon cheese burger and fries followed by cake – I had the red velvet cake, and mum had the carrot cake – both of our respective cakes were delicious! And we would have both had more had anyone else gone for seconds! We had a quick break and whilst the other two couples went off for a walk, we stayed and talked to Jax, and she gave us her facebook details before we met back up with the other four and went off to see the nursing sharks and the rays. According to mum the sharks felt like sandpaper and the rays smooth but slimey! I wasn’t going anywhere near either of them! I tried with the rays, but too many of them came over to me too quickly so I was out of there very quickly! We had another break, so mum went for a lay down in the sun, and I went for a swim… stupidly Jax said that it takes an average swimmer twelve minutes to get around the river thing, and I used to swim a lot and was given an opportunity to swim competitively with Poole Dolphins, so I had a point to prove! I did it in eight minutes and forty seven seconds! It was back to the South Lockers after fifty minutes to meet back with everyone for our final dolphin interaction – normally you have to choose between either a two foot push or a belly pull, but luckily because there was such a small group of us, we got to do BOTH! The foot push we had both done before in the Bahama’s after our first trip to the magic in 1996 but it was amazing all the same! For the belly pull, Capricorn turned over and we had to take hold of his left fin with our right hand. He then rolled a little more and we were told to take hold of his right fin with the left hand and then he kicked off and we were pulled right to the beach. We were then re-acquainted with CJ who we swam with during our 2006 trip! It was then that we noticed that there were a lot of people stood on the beach watching our special interaction with these wonderful creatures, all too soon the interaction was over, and so was our day so we went back to the lockers to have collect our belongings and our goodies. Whilst mum went into the photo collection area to collect our free welcome picture, Jax took me to the medical centre as the life jacket that you had to wear for the special interaction was slightly too big for me and had caused some chafing on the inside of my arm which was rather painful! It was whilst in the medical centre that the nurse pointed out that I had some rather bad sunburn! We were supposed to be going to the Downtown Disney DIBB meet at Margaritaville, but as I mentioned I had bad sunburn and we were both tired, so we decided to give it a miss and head back to the hotel for dinner at Mara… sorry! High: Dolphins Low: Leaving! Edited at 03:33 PM.