Blogging with Sarah today with Alan's usual annoying comments in red.
Today we woke up to our first full day in Orlando. Yes, it was raining and the humidity was 100%. Thankfully it wasn't too hot, probably around the high 20s.
We skipped the free breakfast in the hotel, even though it has been mentioned that it is pretty good, for the breakfast at Discovery Cove. I've been looking forward to this for a long time. Even the nasty weather and my sore foot were not going to stop me from enjoying this. Discovery Cove is a place to interact with dolphins, birds, fish and sting rays in an all-inclusive setting. Attendance is limited to 1,000 guests per day and is reservations only. I reckon there were probably no more than 300-400 people there today. It's very exclusive and extremely expensive, but it's a once in a lifetime thing so it's totally worth it.
We arrived at Discovery Cove at about 8am, after a short stop at the chemist for a bandage for my foot. We checked in at the main reception where they took our photo and gave us our individual ID cards for the day. We were also given our dolphin swim time of 10.50am. There was a staff member in the reception area holding a sloth. He was really cute and we gave him a pat. We joined an introductory tour and then made our way to breakfast. A pretty good spread and much better than we'd had anywhere else. Tables under umbrellas were a bit scarce so we joined a couple of ladies from Tampa. They gave us horror stories about alligators and from now on, we will avoid any pool of water bigger than the size of a puddle.
After breakfast we made our way to get our bag of goodies; wetsuit/vest, mask, snorkle, sunscreen and towels and placed our stuff in the provided lockers. Our first stop in the park was the coral reef. Alan being a wuss with water, decided not to join me. Well Sarah is much better insulated than me so I tend to feel the cold a lot more. However, it took only one second of me putting my head in the water and seeing all the fish, Alan was quickly in the water behind me. You can't tell from the shore that there are any fish in there and just how deep it gets. The stingrays are huge and I chose to keep a wide birth even though we had been assured that all their barbs had been removed. After spending about an hour feeling comfortable in this environment, we decided to give the ray pool a go. The stingrays in this area were a lot smaller and easier to touch, and that's what we did. They were so soft and slimy. We bought a waterproof camera which is how we got all our cool underwater photos.
We made our dolphin swim time with a few minutes to spare. You are not allowed to wear any jewellery except a waterproof watch, which we didn't have. It makes knowing the time a little difficult. We were broken up into groups of eight and off we went with a trainer into the dolphin pool. First we got to meet Astra, a 27 year old dominant female. She had come to them from Sea World. She's very lovely. Just ask Alan. He went in for the passionate kiss and then the big hug. You can see them in the photos. After a number of rubs of Astra she was replaced by 7 a year old whose name we can't remember. She was lovely too, quite a bit smaller but very fast. Her job was to give us our dolphin rides.
30 minutes went by really quickly and we had to bid our new dolphin friends goodbye. Our next stop, lunch. It was very yummy and there was almost too much to choose from. Sarah had grilled chicken with vegetables and ceasar salad and I had lobster salad. We both had lemon cake and fresh strawberries for dessert. The food was fantastic.
Once lunch was over, we went back to the coral reef and snorkled for about another hour or so. A quick stop in the stringray pool and we made our way to the resort pool. It is significantly warmer than the other pools and we knew once we had been in there and the tropical river which runs off it, we wouldn't be back in the other two areas. The pool has a large waterfall which was pretty painful if you let it fall on you. We hit the tropical river which was lovely. The water flow kept you moving until you did the lap back to the resort pool, which took about 20 minutes.
By this time we were total prunes and decided to call it a day, that was after Alan took a few packets of Oreo cookies. We wanted to get our money's worth for the day, which we certainly did. Anytime you want any food or drink you just go to the nearest snack bar and get it with no charge.
We returned to the hotel and showered before starting our mountain of washing. We then went to Walmart and bought some supplies for the fridge. Tonight we popped out and got some hamburgers from Chilli's and brought them back to the room.
That brings us to the end of today.
Trivia for the day: The majority of people at Discovery Cove today were from England. There was also one dork from Wollongong.
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