Back to the Tropics, Day II

(contd.)

Day II

Discovery Cove

Sunrise over the lake behind the condo.  As usual, I was the only one up at the time to appreciate this.

The condo's pool, which we spent plenty of time at last time we were here.  Had we rolled into town earlier the night before, we definitely would have headed down that way.

Some more interior shots of this trip's condo (unlike last time, where I captured the whole thing all at once, this time I did so in spurts - so here's a few more for ya.)

The girls' bathroom

Their bunk set up this year (they switched from last time, so Alayna now has the bottom bunk.)

Again, same washing machine/dryer combo from the last condo, with the same magical, accordion-style door that completely silences the loud-as-hell appliances.  Seriously don't understand how that works.

It was going to be HOT down here over the course of the next three days - mid-90s with 100% humidity - but fortunately we would be frequenting water parks those days, so we weren't too concerned about it.

Abby, already suited up, enjoys the sunrise.

The old lady, enjoying some sweaty coffee (it was already nearly unbearable being out here.)

I didn't use my usual 'tech command center' as much as in previous years - the chair you see in front of my laptop had a busted leg, and I wasn't about to be held accountable for breaking it further.  Plus, we were a lot busier this time around and had less down time at the condo (which you'll see in the subsequent posts.)

Around 7am, we headed out to the elevators.  Discovery Cove opens at 7:30am, and they say you should definitely get there right when it opens - not so much because of crowd sizes (which I'll talk about in a sec), but instead so you can maximize the amount of time you spend in the resort.

A short drive later (it was right down I-4, close to where Sea World and Aquatica are, which we'll be hitting up the next two days), we pulled into Discovery Cove.

The check-in line wasn't too bad - we probably stood in line about 10-15 minutes - but that's why they say to roll in a little early in order to cut down on your check-in time.  This park is pricey:  between $175 - $325 per person, depending on if you buy the $80 Dolphin Encounter, $60 Park Hopper (for unlimited access to Sea World and Aquatica) or the $30 Free Parking for ALL Parks add-ons.

Inside the check-in counter.  I bought the absolute most-basic admission ticket I could buy - I wasn't doing the Dolphin Encounter, which I'll talk about later - but adding the park-hopper option so we could do Aquatica and Sea World the next two days.  The girls had the same as me, but added the Dolphin Encounter to theirs, and Kris had the same as the girls but added the Free Parking to hers (we only needed it for one person, but that small $30 add-on saved us $90 in parking.)

Upon checking in, we were given photo ID lanyards that we had to wear at all times, which had a plastic name tag with our picture and a barcode on it:  this was for admission into the other parks, admission to the Dolphin Encounter (for my roommates), the free parking perk, and - for Kris and I - being able to buy unlimited alcoholic drinks wherever we wanted (which I'll talk about in a sec.)  Once we were given these (and a couple maps) we began walking into the park. . .

It was about a quarter-mile walk through winding paths that looked like this before you go to the park (I'm assuming to keep the wildlife separated from the noise of the roads and parking lot.)

Outside the restaurant - and elsewhere throughout the resort - they have parrots and other exotic birds just hanging out like this. No handlers anywhere.

We got to the restaurant and there was practically no line to speak of, which would be the case throughout most of the day.  While the park is pricey, you're definitely getting what you pay for:  you get unlimited food and drinks (yes, including alcohol), they limit the size of the crowds to a meager 1,500 people, which means you never wait in line, there's no crowding in any of the areas, and you consequently feel as if you have they entire resort to yourself.

The restaurant is more or less a buffet, where you choose one of five or six entrees, then can pick up as many side or alternative dishes as you want.  But if you were still hungry after gorging on all of this food, you could hop right back in line and get seconds, free of charge.  Or, if you wanted to wait an hour and digest a bit first, you could hop in line again then.  Meals that would later cost our family $80 - $120 in Sea World or Disney were absolutely free, and we ate better too.

Breakfast time.  Kris and I already had our morning coffees, so we just had ice water.

Shamu makes an appearance, if only to remind you that you're at one of his parks.

After breakfast, we were led to a cabana where we were fitted for wetsuits and/or wet vests (Abby opted for the first, while the rest of us went with the vests.)  They provide these free of charge, but require them for swimming in the various water temperatures found in the many different pool areas throughout the park, as well as swimming with wildlife, coral, etc.  You could tuck your photo ID lanyard right into your vest, though, to prevent it from floating around everywhere and getting lost, which was handy.  After getting our wet-stuff and stowing our clothing and phones, etc. into lockers (again, free of charge), we headed over the the exotic bird sanctuary, which we heard you should definitely do first thing in the morning while the birds are super active.

Beaches like this line the different water attractions found throughout the park, which is small enough that you can walk from one end to another in about five minutes.

Coming back through the restaurant area, where we ate breakfast.

Crossing over a bridge from the restaurant dining area to the bird sanctuary.

Across the way, there was a zero-entry wading pool that featured a grotto, that was actually the start of one of the park's lazy rivers.

Upon arriving at the bird sanctuary, we had to thoroughly wash and sanitize our hands before entering.

About to see some motherf***ing birds. . .

As is the usual with other bird sanctuaries we - and I'm sure you - have seen in the past, the entire thing was enclosed with a protective screen to keep these various exotic birds from escaping, and to keep out predators like hawks and what-not.

The decor of this place - in this case crumbling ruins - is on par with Disney, for sure.  I pay close attention to these little details, and Discovery Cove is leaps and bounds above the other Sea World parks and Universal parks.  I'd also put this above the Disney water parks I've been to.

Abby makes a friend.

They give you the food to feed the birds, free as usual.

Exiting one area of the sanctuary (where there were larger birds, like the ones shown previously), into a more parrot-y sort of enclosure.  These catacombs were pretty cool to walk through.

Yes, that's my kid wearing an Oberon hat on a family vacation (we're those parents), and yes that's a bird on her head.

If you hold up your arm and/or hand, birds will fly right down to you and you can then feed them from your cup.

The Internet was definitely right:  doing the bird thing first was the way to go, since most folks head straight for the water and the birds are most active first thing in the morning when they haven't been fed yet by tourists.  We had birds all over the damn place.

I couldn't look more uncomfortable, I had them all over me.

The Cannonball and whatever-the-hell this is.

Some species were more timid than others, and wouldn't come down from their branch, so you had to hold up your food cup to them.

Cockatiels (or at least the one up there is.)

After awhile in the bird sanctuary, the birds stopped flying down for food - they were full already - so we were glad we hit it up when we did.  That being done, we decided to finally get into the water, and figured we'd hit up the nearby freshwater oasis first.  They had scheduled Kris and the girls' Dolphin Encounter for 10:30am, so we had some time to kill.

Breaking out the GoPro for its maiden voyage. . .

As you're about to see throughout the rest of this blog post - and one or two others - this was hands-down one of the best purchases I made for this trip.  So many videos and pics I wouldn't have otherwise been able to capture on this trip.

This area we're in here is the freshwater oasis, which is more or less a large, shallow pool you can float around in and check out monkeys, birds, and other small wildlife.  Not much of a current, so you can go at your own pace.

I forget what type of under-the-bridge animal enclosure this was, but whatever hell they were, we didn't see much of 'em.  There were some fish, though.

Old people selfie.  It took me a bit before I realized you could toggle back-and-forth between image capture and video capture with the simple click of a button. . . opposed to having to pull over to dry land and pop the camera out of the waterproof casing in order to manually do it via the camera's touchscreen.

More of the freshwater oasis.

Another selfie, testing out the camera once I had figured the stupid thing out.

Exiting the freshwater oasis, heading over to the Dolphin Encounter staging area. . .

Kris and the girls had signed up for this - not me, I didn't want anything to do with swimming with dolphins in the water - and had to report to a briefing room prior to getting in the water with the dolphins.  I meant to take a picture of them, but accidentally had it on video instead, so this is what you get.  I waited on the beach near the dolphin pool for them, for something like a half an hour, before the dolphin trainers informed Kris' group that the dolphin they were going to be swimming with that morning was feeling too 'randy,' if you will, and that they'd have to report back later that afternoon in order to swim with it.  Frickin' fish.

So, in order to kill some time before lunch - we were all still pretty full from the all-you-can-eat breakfast - we decided to head back over to the other side of the park and hit up the Lazy River (I love me a lazy river, folks.)

Don't pay any attention to the timestamps on these videos, either - I didn't have the camera set to the correct date/time at this point.  Because I'm stupid.

This waterfall right here broke my sunglasses that I've had for like three years - I would end up having to replace them with an over-priced pair from a gift shop at the park later in the day.

Floating down through the previously-described exotic bird enclosure. . .

This motherf***ing bird just tried to kill me.  Kris was very supportive.

Another waterfall.

Some of those weird stacked-rock thingies you sometimes come across in the Upper Peninsula.

Abby tries her hand at the GoPro (and, contrary to what I'm telling her here, we did end up taking it to Animal Kingdom for a couple of the rides. . .)

After the lazy river, the kids had worked up enough of an appetite to finally hit up the restaurant for some lunch.  As you can see here, we give zero f***s about too much dessert when we're vacationing.

(The Cannonball wanted a pic of her burger.)

After lunch, with time to kill before we had to do the Dolphin Encounter, we decided to head over to the Grand Reef in order to try our hand at snorkeling.

(I apologize for the quality of some of this video - it's extremely difficult to remain underwater while you're snorkeling in a floatation vest.)

As painful as stepping on coral can be, it's pretty badass swimming around so many rays.

More rays.  These dudes are 100% unintimidated by humans.

(I don't know what type of fish these are. . .)

Making friends.

Alayna and Kris

Abby and some extraordinarily handsome guy.

Abby tries her damnedest to pet a manta ray. . .

This is a pretty cool spot in the park - snorkeling isn't my favorite (it gets tiring after awhile), but it's pretty cool to swim up close and personal with all these fish.  Due to the low crowd size, it's never overly-crowded, and the decor is awesome.

The Cannonball

The Houghs, Snorkel Edition.

We ran into this leviathan a few times, hanging out along the bottom of the water.  He was about six or seven feet in length, which can be a little terrifying when it passes right underneath you.

One more family picture, per Mom's request.

In the afternoon, at long last, it was finally time for the Dolphin Encounter.  Kris and the girls went to their usual briefing in a cabana beforehand, then headed out into the frigid waters with their group.  They keep these things far away from the beach so that other people on shore can't take pictures and you're forced to buy the park's 'official' pictures instead (three 5 x 7's ended up costing us $100, it's a f***ing shakedown, and honestly the only negative thing I have to say about the park.)

I had to use my GoPro for this because I lost my phone for a couple hours int he afternoon - fortunately it was turned in to the front desk/check-in area and when I called it the employees told me where I could pick it up.  No idea where I lost it, or during what part of the day it got away from me.

Not much to see from this far away, unfortunately, but they were out there for at least 45 minutes.  They stood about while the trainer had the dolphin do tricks, then they got to pet the dolphin a bunch, then they brought out the professional photographer who talk a shitload of pictures of people with the dolphin.  If I can get our scanner working again I'll share those pics at some point in the near future - they turned out really awesome.

By the time the dolphin thing was over and done with, the girls wanted to hit up the lazy river again.  This time we entered from the aforementioned grotto. . .

Spooky caves

Abby on a cliff.

The girls like doing this with their hair so it looks like their wearing a Washington-ish powdered wig.

I could do this all day. . .

Not a genuine archaeological artifact, but still. . .

After the lazy river, we decided to get some drinks - booze for Kris and I, more non-alcoholic daiquiris for the girls - and lounge about in the freshwater oasis for a spell.  The unlimited snacks and drinks amenity was a HUGE hit for the girls - they grabbed slurpees and pops and pretzels and cookies and chips every time they passed by a food/beverage cabana. 

Photos courtesy of the Cannonball.

I killed a sixer of these Bud Light Limes (my official vacation beer) throughout the course of the day, but due to the heat you couldn't even tell.  What was crazy was that one of these would cost me $11.25 at Sea World later in the week, but I was able to drink six for free at this park.

Abby's Little Mermaid impression.

Abby's take on the colonial wig.

The park closes at 5pm, and we stayed in the water until they began shutting down the pools.  After getting our things from our lockers, we hit up a merch store on our way back towards the front entrance (where Abby bought a big manta ray statue as a souvenir.)

Back at the Blue Heron Resort, checking out the skyline from the elevator landing on our floor.

You can see the Epcot ball (Spaceship Earth) off to the right, as well as the Swan resort and a few other notable landmarks.

Back at the condo, Alayna catches up on her social media nonsense on the veranda.

Kris took the girls down to the pool for some more swimming once we got back, and after getting this pic I went down to join them.

This one wasn't feeling the water anymore that day.

Abby, alone and 'bored' in the pool.

Kris made friends with a very nice woman that was tending bar in the resort's Tiki Bar, and since we're usually generous tippers and had been tipping her well all evening, the bartender whipped us up these giant 'free samples' of a specialty drink that they serve at the resort (which tasted like juice but was basically straight-booze.)  It pays to be nice to people, folks.

Behold the Glorious (sunburned) Feet.

Sunburned parents.  Around 9pm we took the girls back upstairs and everyone crashed - we have another day of hot sun and chlorine water ahead of us tomorrow, bright and early.  Stay tuned. . .

- Brian