Swimming with the Dolphins

[Amirah]

How deep is the water when swimming with the dolphins are Discovery Cove? My daughter wants to swim with them but she's not that good of a swimmer.

[steph_goodrum]

It's fairly deep where they take you for your 1 to 1 Amirah but you can keep your flotation vest on if you wish, my daughter even though she is a confident swimmer preferred to keep hers on as she doesn't like treading water for too long.

[Ruth]

You are stood on a shelf for all but the tow so there is no need to worry. The floatation vest will give added confidence but my 6 and 8 year old daughters did their swim wthout one.

[Amirah]

My daughter is 8 years old but I still don't feel comfortable letting her go out there alone. My husband and I have no desire to go out there with the dolphins and it's because we do not know how to swim (pathetic I know, we plan to learn this summer). I know there is a package that I read on the site where you can exclude the one on one. Is it still worth it to go to Discovery Cove without the one one one?

[Ruth]

In my opinion there is no point in going to Discovery Cove unless one of you is doing the swim, you may as well stick to Seaworld. The trainers will look after her for you, you have nothing to fear, and you cannot sink wearing a life vest. The rules were always that at least one person has to book to do the dolphin swim. I was not aware that the rules had changed as they only take 1000 guests per day, and they wouldn't want to fill up with non-swimmers. You could book to do the swim then not turn up for it I suppose. I would suggest it would be better for you to postpone your visit until your daughter is confident in the water and you feel happier about it

[ianandsue]

Yes you have to be quite a strong swimmer, we were bobbing about all over the place! We actually enjoyed the coral reef and swimming with the stingray afterwards just as much as the dolphin experience.

[steph_goodrum]

Amirah
If neither you or your husband swim I would say perhaps leave it till next year when maybe you both will and your daughter will be more confident. It is a very expensive day out just to sit beside the water all day. Obviously most of the activities are water based so it really woudl be stretching the budget especially if you are not confident to let your daughter go off because where the reefs are with the rays etc you would not be able to walk round with her you must get in the water.

[Amirah]

OK so this place is too advance for us. And you guys are right, I wouldn't want to waste money when we can go somewhere else and have a ball. Thanks for the advice guys.

[craig_emptage]

Hi

I'm going to Orlando this coming October and I know that my girlfriend really loves dolphins so I am thinking that maybe she would like to do the dolphin swim at discovery cove. The thing is that she also really really hates sharks and there is no way on this earth I could ever get her into a pool with sharks in. From looking at the dc website I have seen that there is a shark bit too, so I was just wanting to know if all of the lagoons are seperate and could she choose to miss out the shark bit?

Also are there any other places that just dolphin encounters?, even if it was just in shallow water?

Thanks

Craig

[Bigblue33]

Hey Craig! I've just booked up for D/Cove for July. I did'nt notice the shark bit on the DC website![:0]
I don't think that you or your g/friend will be in any danger from the sharks as, although it would probably cut down on the cost of shark food it might put other people off going to DC if they thought they would be fish bait! [msnwink]

Don.