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Old 20 Feb 11, 03:54 PM  
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Day 20 - Discovery Cove

Now we were into our final weekend and mum and dad had booked for the four of us to go to Discovery Cove. Carl and I had been on our trip in 2006, but we were very much looking forward to going back.
We wanted to be there early to get an early dolphin swim, so we got up just after 6 and got ready the few things that we needed to take with us. We left at 7am and had gone a short way when mum realised she had forgotten to bring any ID so we went back for that! In the end we arrived at 7.35 and were able to check in pretty much straight away. We were allocated a 9.25 dolphin swim and mum decided to rent one of the cabanas for the day so we had somewhere shaded, and a base to go back to. When we found our cabana we realised it was a distance to most of the activities so we persuaded mum to let us push her in one of the big sand buggy type wheelchairs, although she didn’t enjoy this! We walked (wheeled) around to get our bearings, and then went and ate a good breakfast.
We were shown to our cabana, which was lovely, with towels all laid out and a massive cooler filled with drinks and ice. There were 4 chairs around a table, as well as 2 loungers, and there were fresh flowers to decorate. There was also supposed to be someone who checked on our needs, although we rarely saw them, which was a little bit annoying.
Once we had arranged everything at the cabana and applied the dolphin friendly suncream we were ready for our swim. First we saw the video and had the talk about health and safety before being put into groups. Last time Carl and I went we had little Yoshi for our dolphin – this time it was 10 foot long Capricorn, and we remembered seeing him do some amazing jumps on our last trip! We all enjoyed the experience, even my dad, who did the shallow swim as he doesn’t really swim very well.











After we had finished with the dolphins we went straight to the stingray snorkelling pool. I was much better at this than last time – before I kept panicking and that would let lots of water in, but now I was able to stay more relaxed and enjoyed the experience more! We took some underwater photos but we are getting those developed on our next trip, as it is cheaper than developing them at home. Also we didn’t quite finish up one of the cameras.
Next stop was the lazy river where we floated around quite gently, and even managed to keep dad under control for most of the time. We stopped in the aviary for quite some time and had fun feeding the birds. We got dad to go through the steps and doorways before the waterfall, though, as it proved difficult getting him through those!









By this point it was time for lunch, which I was really looking forward to. I had pasta primavera, as did mum and dad, but Carl opted for breaded chicken and fries with a hot dog on the side! For dessert I had a little pot of strawberries and a slice of red velvet cake, which was delicious. In some ways it tasted like cherry bakewells, which are one of my favourite cakes. After lunch we spent an hour relaxing back at the cabana to let our food go down, although Carl got bored after half an hour and disappeared for a swim. When he came back we went together and snorkelled again, before going to the stingray touching pool to feed the rays.



At this point it was 3pm so we decided to go and look at the photos as they would be available. We had already decided to buy a package which included some prints, key rings, and a disc. At this time we were able to choose the photos fro the prints and key rings, but we would have to come back later to get the CD made as our most recent photos hadn’t made it onto the system yet. As it wasn’t going to be too long until we could do this, we decided to go and get ready to leave, as we had decided to go to evening EMH at Animal Kingdom. I really enjoyed using the gorgeous smelling Crabtree and Evelyn products that they provide in the showers and came out feeling refreshed. The last thing to do was to refill our snacks and drinks for on the way home, and do some shopping. Mum and dad were planning to stay a bit longer and then get a taxi back, still, so Carl and I picked up the photos and CD and headed off to Animal Kingdom at about 4.50pm, having spent the best part of 9 hours at Discovery Cove!
When we arrived at the gates to Animal Kingdom we found we were just about the only people driving in, as everyone else was heading out. We went straight through the gate and were able to park very close to the entrance. Once inside the park we checked the wait times board and saw that Expedition Everest had a wait time of only 10 minutes so we got in the standby line and waited less than 5.
As we knew we had plenty of time, we strolled up to the Maharajah Jungle Trek and waited patiently for the tigers. Tigers are my favourite animals, so I was more than prepared to wait, if we had to. We spent a good amount of time talking to the CM there, and she let us in on some secrets and put right some common misconceptions that people have. The info that she gave us meant our 20 minutes actually watching the tigers was even more enjoyable than normal, especially listening to some of the comments other guests were making.
After the Jungle Trek we found that Dinosaur had a wait time of 10 minutes, so again we got in the standby queue and found this wait was about right. I still got scared by this ride, as always! We decided to go to It’s Tough To Be a Bug next, and managed to walk in right as they were about to close the doors. Carl tried to make me sit right back in my chair, but I refused as I really don’t like the bit where you get “stung”, lol. By the time the show was over it was about 7.15pm so we decided it would be a good opportunity to go back to Everest again. It still said a 10 minute wait but going through the standby line this time it was a walk on! We could have walked straight back on again, but we decided to wait a little while longer and finally rode Everest for a third time at 7.45pm as the sun was setting in the sky, which was a great experience. We were pretty tired by this point, and as we had the car we were able to get back to our room nice and quickly, where we watched TV and had a couple of beers for an early night. We’re really looking forward to doing evening EMH at Animal Kingdom again, as we felt we got so much done with practically no waiting.
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Old 20 Feb 11, 04:00 PM  
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Kim
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Great update Jen... love the photos

Amy and Rich got us the KTTKT as a present the day after the wedding.

Boy was I tired when we got to the utilidors I sat on a bench and fell asleep. DH had to wake me up

Kim
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Old 20 Feb 11, 04:08 PM  
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Originally Posted by Kim View Post
Great update Jen... love the photos

Amy and Rich got us the KTTKT as a present the day after the wedding.

Boy was I tired when we got to the utilidors I sat on a bench and fell asleep. DH had to wake me up

Kim
Lol! I always find it really easy to fall asleep at Discovery Cove as it is so relaxing! We wanted to book Magic of the Steam Trains for my mum and dad but it wasn't available while we were out there (I think it may have had something to do with being not long after that monorail accident?).
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Old 20 Feb 11, 08:19 PM  
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Brill update Jeni. I have been working out dates and we were actually in Magic Kingdom the same day as you when you did your Keys tour! It was our last full day before heading home.

I've actually been back through your entire report again cos I enjoyed it so much the first time. Just one problem now though - I seem to be leaning towards SBP instead of YCG which I thought I had set my heart on! Oh the decisions. There just seem to be soooo many more photo ops at SBP and Randy takes the most amazing pics there. hmmmmm x
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Old 20 Feb 11, 08:59 PM  
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Originally Posted by Pinkgirl View Post
Brill update Jeni. I have been working out dates and we were actually in Magic Kingdom the same day as you when you did your Keys tour! It was our last full day before heading home.
How spooky!

I've actually been back through your entire report again cos I enjoyed it so much the first time. Just one problem now though - I seem to be leaning towards SBP instead of YCG which I thought I had set my heart on! Oh the decisions. There just seem to be soooo many more photo ops at SBP and Randy takes the most amazing pics there. hmmmmm x
For us it was between the two, and we chose SBP because we loved the idea of looking out over the water. With Randy I have also seen so many different style photos that he has taken in that area
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Old 5 Jun 11, 10:01 PM  
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Wow, I can't believe I still haven't finished this, lol! Only two more days to go, will have to find time to do them in the next couple of weeks
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Old 5 Jun 11, 10:01 PM  
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This thread has been automatically closed as it has not been posted on in 365 days.
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