Visiting Discovery Cove was a Christmas present for the whole family. With prices around $259 plus tax per person it is an expensive day out for a family of five. However, we had an amazing time and with some of the add-ons, it turned out to be quite good value.
Included in your ticket are seven consecutive days entry to either to Busch Gardens or Sea World. For $30 extra per person you can upgrade to have entry to both parks for fourteen consecutive days.
The other upgrade that we included, although this was done by phone, (as I did not see it on their website), was valet parking. For an extra $30 charge per party you get valet parking at Discovery Cove and free priority parking at the other parks. With parking now $8 at Sea World & Busch Gardens we may only have saved a couple of dollars after visiting each park twice, but the fact that you were directed to the parking spaces right by the entrance was wonderful!
I would advise you to get to Discovery Cove early to check-in as it takes a few minutes to be issued with your pass and to book your time with the dolphins. We chose a late morning dolphin swim as we wanted to visit the aviary first as morning is feeding time for the birds.
In the aviary the staff give you little pots of food and the birds happily perch on you to eat their breakfast a wonderful photo opportunity. Later on you can swim through the aviary down the lazy river.
Our swim with the dolphin was lovely, although on the down side, with eight people to one dolphin it was not as hands-on as I would have liked and when he pulled me through the water holding his fin, I would have liked to have gone a bit faster!
All in all it was a very positive experience and I would highly recommend it. The cost of photos taken of you was rather on the expensive side and we chose to swim in two groups so we could video each other. They do however position the groups with their backs to the shore so you don’t get the best photos.
The coral reef was simply amazing. Swimming with shoals of brightly coloured fish and huge stingrays is something I will never forget. The sharks were safely behind glass, but you could dive down to see them.
We were made to feel very special all day and with just a thousand people in the park each day it never felt crowded.
Lunch and soft drinks were included in the package and it was actually very good.
The tickets to Busch Gardens and Sea World can be used before you visit Discovery Cove. Sea World even has a special entrance for you!