Discovery Cove

On our first full day in Orlando, we visited Discovery Cove.  This was my favorite day of the vacation.  Discovery Cove is not your ordinary "theme" park, it is an all-inclusive experience.  When I say all-inclusive, I mean it.  Everything is included- parking, food and drink, locker rental, wetsuits, snorkeling gear, towels, and even sunscreen.  They cap the number of guests that can visit each day, so it's not crowded and you don't feel rushed.  It was such a relaxing day.  

We arrived early for check-in and then proceeded to breakfast.  We were in the first group for the dolphin swim, so after breakfast we went to get a locker and change into our wetsuits.  The dolphin swim was amazing and will be getting its own post.

There are two major swimming areas other than the dolphin lagoon- one is a salt water area and the other is a freshwater area.  After our dolphin swim, we went to the salt water "Grand Reef" to snorkel with the sea creatures.  The Grand reef is a huge artificial reef filled with fish.  Some places were pretty shallow, while others were quite deep (up to 12 feet).  Brian said that it was like swimming in a huge fish tank, and he was right.  Our kids have never been snorkeling before, and this was a great place for them to learn.  They had a little trouble catching on at first, so we took the equipment to the other side of the park and practiced in the freshwater pools (so if they got water in their mouth it wouldn't be quite as bad).  Once they got it, we came back to the reef and they were snorkeling all over the place.  This was probably our favorite part of the park, and we spent the most time here.

The freshwater side of the park was also pretty cool.  There were no fish in the water here- it was more like a large pool and a huge lazy river.  The lazy river was the best one that I've ever been in.  It kept changing depth, so there were some places where you had to swim.  It also had a cave, numerous waterfalls, and it went through the aviary at one point.  There were no floats for the lazy river, but you could bring life jackets and pool noodles if you wanted them.  

We were among the first to arrive at Discovery Cove and left within an hour of closing.  We had a full, fun day.  I would highly recommend a day at Discovery Cove to anyone.