Discovery Cove

After arriving in Orlando we decided to go to discovery cove although it was a bit expensive almost $200 per person. It was well worth the money . The basic fee is $129 and that includes your meals and access to all beaches and pools everywhere in the park as well as towels,mask and snorkel. For an extra $50 dollars we added the sea venture package consisting of an underwater experience with a special helmet that weighs 70 pounds and that allows you to walk in the bottom of the water among the fishes. I'm glad we did it was an amazing experience, the closest to scuba diving you can do without taking a course. One of the things to experience was something called the lazy river. It consists of an artificial river that has a slight current that lets you drift effortlessly while relaxing the water is warm and clear. As you meanders down the river with the trees on the sides after crossing a water fall you get to pass through an aviary full of tropical birds complete with a rosate spoonbill which is a bird that I've been trying to photograph quite a while. As I said you can drift on top of the river are you can snorkel at your way up on the River with your heads in the water and looking at all of the interesting sites like replicas of cannons or Mayan ruins.

Crystal clear water



The entrance to the lazy river

We were lucky and the weather was very nice the sun came out and we really enjoyed the day. Another interesting part of the park is a large saltwater pool that is filled with tropical fishes and there's a lot of manta rays in there and all kinds of other fishes. It is complete with artificial reefs and the water is crystal clear allowing for perfect photography I had brought with me my Canon D10 which is good for 30 feet underwater and since we were snorkeling it was good enough, you don't go below 5 feet so the pictures I took came out very nice. The stingrays swims around you they will even push you over if you're in the way, you might look under you when one is just passing by. You can actually touch them that is an incredible experience of being so close with nature.


The salt water bassin



What a sight!

At 1:30 we had our sea venture experience, it starts with the briefing in which to explain the dangers, some of them are similar to scuba such as not no flying for 24 hours and the need for pressure equalization to protect your ears and the importance of not coming up too fast to prevent an expansion accident. The communicating signs are explained and finally also like in scuba the make you sign a release. We were a small group doing that experience, actually we were six customers and there was three divers with us one that was acting as a guide and two of them for security purposes. The helmet weighs 70 pounds therefore it's easy to be in a perfect neutrally buoyant state and to walk on the bottom. However it's a bit like walking on the moon your gravity is affected even a small leap will carry you a long way and the smallest jump will make you go very high.

Hope not :)

Hey.. Look behind you !!

So the walk with the guide was quite interesting, a lot of interaction with the sealife is possible also photo ops are numerous and the time is given to look around and take pictures. The guide will even take some with your camera, they also give a camera to anybody that does not have one and you can take all the pictures you want. By the time you exit the water there are some monitors setup and you can view your pictures, if you like them you can purchase them all on a cd for 30$.

Here's the Rosate Spoonbill



The star of the show :)



So we spent the whole day there, arriving at eight in the morning and leaving at five in the afternoon. We had breakfast, we had lunch, with drinks and snacks we enjoyed ourselves in the lazy river and the saltwater reef. The sea venture experience was amazing, it was well worth the money and I would recommend it to everybody. On a final note you absolutely need a reservation and they only take a limited amount of guess each day, also included in the price yo get n Orlando Seaworld ticket o a Tampa Bush Garden ticket.

Once again a good deal.