“Discovering dolphins at Discovery Cove…”

If there’s one thing I hate doing on holiday it is setting an alarm. The only alarms we have set over the past five months were pretty much to ensure we managed to catch our flights. Waking up at an ungodly hour on the Monday was treacherous. Why? I can’t even recall the time the alarm went off but it was so we could get breakfast and head to discovery cove to get one of the first dolphin swims.We didn’t need to stop for breakfast as it was included as part of our all you can eat and all you can drink deal we had for the day at Discovery Cove. It was pretty random bumping into a sloth as we walked through to get tea and breakfast. The staff there were so incredibly helpful and so friendly! The customer service in America really is so much better than home. Sorry!! After we checked in, we were told our dolphin swim would be at 10:20, so that gave us enough time to have a hearty breakfast and a lap or two round the lazy river!The lazy river was more like a ‘you have to put a little bit of effort into it’ river. It didn’t feel as if you were being dragged round by the current. Not the first time at least. From the lazy river, it was on to our dolphin swim, pod 3b at 10.20am. We had the ‘initiation’ where they show you videos etc of conservation and interactions and then we were taken to the water. I have had the privilege of swimming with dolphins before in Mexico at the hotel I stayed in, and it was more intimate and you had more time with the dolphin than we did at Discovery Cove. Which surprised me as it’s what they’re renowned for at Discovery Cove. We had a group of eight people, us five and then a family of three. They did the usual photographs with the ‘prettier’ of the two dolphins, Natalie, then we had the veteran, Lester, for the actual swim. Holding on tight to his fins, we shot off for a brief swim with him. Dolphins are just majestic animals. So elegant and gracious with such a wide array of sounds generated from their blowholes!

After our half hour in the water, we were able to snorkel around the man made reef full of rays, some big, some bloody huge!! There were sharks and a vast variety of fish too!How can I describe Discovery Cove? It’s somewhere that you can eat and drink, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages all day until you’ve had enough. It’s somewhere where humans meet wildlife in a man-made way but you don’t feel the scares or depths of the ocean.The beaches, despite being man-made were picturesque and that was the way throughout the whole vicinity. There were drinks and snack stations planted throughout the cove.Even the coves plastered across the cove were totally safe for man, woman or child by the fact you had to wear your horrifically sexy vest in every waterway. From the dolphin swim to the lazy river to ever part of water that moved except for a couple of waves, rest assured you had to wear your jacket. Some opted for the full on, entirely sexy wetsuit whereas us, we went for the more socially delightful life vests as they were advertised. The cove in itself was lovely. The waters were warm, the Reef full of sea life and the dolphins, as usual, playful and mischievous. The food was devine for an all-you-can-eat and the Coca Cola and the water were just as pleasant!! By 330pm, as we began to wind down, the park was pretty much empty. That meant that souvenirs needed to be bought and packed away and then it’d be on to the villa for more cards and nibbles!!!