Kim and I flew into Orlando and her parents picked us up. After dealing with some lost baggage issues (note: US Airways was terrible in dealing with recovering our lost baggage, which happened multiple times to multiple pieces of luggage, all of it on the last leg), we went to Discovery Cove to spend a day swimming with dolphins and other sea life. This was an unexpected surprise from Kim’s parents even though Kim claims she told me we’d be doing it. It was a nice surprise either way.
Matt, Kim and Dexter the dolphin
First thing in the morning Kim and I got into an eight person to group to meet our dolphin friend Dexter. He was a three year old male dolphin and we got to learn some hand signals, give him a kiss and ride him by holding onto his front flipper and dorsal fin. Our time in the water with him was probably 40 minutes and was a blast. We learned a lot about dolphins both through the encounter and then later asking the trainers questions. Did you know dolphins get all their water from the blood of fish they eat since they don’t drink salt water? Cool, eh?
Another really cool part was feeding the sting rays. There was a pool about three feet deep full of sting rays, with their barbs removed of course, that swam around with all the people. We got handfuls of fish and got to feed the string rays, being careful not to let them mistake our thumbs for the fish. In a larger pool we got a mask and snorkel and swam with huge manta and eagle rays among a bunch of other fish. Through an underwater window we could see sharks and barracuda swimming too. We also spent some time in the aviary feeding birds.
Overall it was a great experience. I didn’t expect as much considering it’s owned by Anheuser Busch and is a bunch of animals in captivity. It was all very clean and the animals seemed well treated and got plenty of variety with Seaworld next door. The food was all included and wasn’t anything special, but they did have some decent vegetarian dishes and even were willing to accommodate vegan options.
The next day we went to Busch Gardens near Tampa since it was included with the admission to Discovery Cove. We went on 5 different roller coasters including one with a 90 degree drop. We also did a few water rides and Kim and I got drenched, which was just fine since it was plenty warm out. The park was themed like it was Africa with different sections representing different countries. They also had a bunch of African animals like elephants and rhinos. By the end of two full days of amusement parks we were pretty worn out and happy.