Mini Trip Report - Aquatica, Sea World, and Discovery Code

DisPhanatic

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 28, 2014
Good morning,

I returned from a 9 day trip to Orlando on May 13th. I've been chronicling my trip over in the Universal trip report thread but it was suggested I copy over my days at AQ, SW, and DC. I'm not done yet but here is my review of Aquatica from Sunday May 7. Hope you enjoy! If you are interested in the longer trip report, you can find it here:

https://www.disboards.com/threads/a-may-2017-ptr-our-first-non-disney-adventure.3599204/


Sunday May 7 – Aquatica

Today was our Aquatica day and our chance to catch up with the D Family. It was a little emotional because the dad is very close with DH who wasn’t with us. However, the kids were excited so we forged ahead. We had booked 2 cabanas for what was supposed to be 8 of us thinking that the guys could visit while we chased down the kids. Aunt P, Aunt R, and Uncle C were staying behind. They slept in and had a late lunch at NBS sports with a local friend. Lesson learned though – they were planning to hit the parks in the evening and they closed early that day. In the week we were there, the parks closed at 6 on Fridays for grad nights and there was a private event that Sunday evening. Make sure you check park hours!



Back to the water park, I had very low expectations for the day but my kids love the water. I’ve never been to the Disney water parks but I’ve been to many others – including their sister property Sesame Place in PA - and this was, by far, the cleanest I have even seen. There were two attendants in the restrooms mopping and keeping it tidy. There were misters that kept the sidewalks cool for your feet and the service was just awesome.

We left the hotel at 8 since I didn’t know where I was going. It was on the early side and we arrived at 8:21 which meant we had to sit until the parking lot opened. Ha! I had printed out the parking pass I purchased for $30 on the Discovery Cove website, the cabana rental papers, and our tickets from the DC link. When we got to the front gate, I ran over to the ticket booth while the kids held our spot (I was where I could see them). I verified that the tickets were in fact tickets and asked if she could help me with the cabana. On my reservation, it said to go to Guest Services in the park but I was hoping for good luck. She checked us in, put our 3 wristbands on, and told us we could get the other wristbands from the cabana staff since D family was running late. This worked out so well since I didn’t have to wait in a longer line inside. We were ready to go.

When the gates opened, they took our pictures, scanned our tickets (but returned them so we could use them for the rest of the week), and we were on our way. Nope – wait. There was still a rope by Loggerhead Lane holding us until exactly 9 am. We headed over to Cabanas 30 and 31 which are just over the bridge across from the Banana Beach Buffet. This wasn’t a super quiet location but it worked really well for us. It was easy for the kids to find us, we were right at the bridge so the kids could call out when they swam by, and it was very close to the restrooms. We had 24 bottles of water for the 7 of us, 8 towels, and plenty of chairs. The lockers were so convenient too.

I cannot say enough about how great this day was. It was a cooler morning and not very crowded until the afternoon when the lines did build up. The cabanas were not all booked though. Here’s what we accomplished: Dolphin Plunge, Loggerhead Lane, Tassie’s Twisters, Walhalla Wave, HooRoo Run, and then the kids jumped back into Loggerhead Lane while I went to meet the D Family. Once we all met up, the kids were stuck on repeat in Loggerhead Lane and Roa’s Rapids. They were having a blast and we let them go but, in hindsight, we missed out on the shorter lines for the slides. We did do Taumata Racer twice, Omaka Rocks, and Whanau Way with no lines but later in the day it was just too long to wait. The kids didn’t care though because they hung out in Roa’s Rapids, Cutback Cove, and Walkabout Waters so they didn’t feel like they were missing out.

We ate lunch at the Banana Beach buffet since it was right there and it was better than I expected. We took our time and visited over our meals so it was perfect for what we needed. They had pizza, hot dogs, sausage and peppers, a nacho bar, meatballs, salads, fresh fruit, and all sorts of desserts. At around 2 pm, DS1 started complaining that he was majorly chafed and his boy parts were not doing so well. My kids typically keep their liners in their swimsuits and don’t wear underwear although DS2 does sometimes. So, we improvised. I stopped in the little gift shop across from Walkabout Waters and asked if they had scissors and a dressing room. DS1 and I headed in and cut out the liner from his suit. He was much more comfortable for the last two hours but even DS2 was hurting a little by the time we were done.

We were meeting friends from Maine back at the Hard Rock for dinner at 6 so we had to get going. We left at 4:15 and stopped for pretzels on the way out. DS1 had a cinnamon sugar pretzel which he raved over. It was a slow walk to the car with the boys complaining how much they hurt. That said, the boys declared that they would like to head back again while we were there if we had the time. They boys slept in the car on the short ride the we showered, powdered, and put on some Body Glide before meeting our friends in the lobby. The S Family hails from Maine – hubby used to work with my DH when we lived there and they have two boys around my sons ages.

We walked over to NBC sports for dinner. We shared the spinach artichoke dip and the cheese curds. The dip was okay but the cheese curds were amazing! I can’t remember what the kids had but the three adults had the lamb burger (a little dry), the chicken mac n cheese (two thumbs up), and the bbq combo which was brisket, ribs, and pulled pork. It was really tasty but I probably only ate half of it. The best part was the beer list – they make their own beers there and we sampled two flights. Just like at Cowfish, we had an awesome server.

We debated dessert but were just too full so we wandered around the City Walk and did some shopping before heading back to the hotel. We bid farewell to the S family who were flying home to Maine the next day and dropped into a sound slumber. The boys requested the following day (Monday) as a rest day. However, I reminded them that it was our last day with Aunt R, Aunt P, and Uncle C. Instead, we negotiated that Tuesday would be a rest day and we would move Sea World to Wednesday. They agreed!

I didn’t wear my FitBit since we were in the water all day. If I had to guess based on other days, we walked about 5 miles.
 
Our family loves Aquatica so much, we have been reluctant to try out any other water parks during our vacations! My DD12 is exactly the same as your kids - doesn't mind checking out the slides but spends the majority of her day in Roa’s Rapids, Cutback Cove, and Walkabout Waters. We also loved the Roa's Rapids cabana location...so central!

Definitely going over to check out the rest of your trip report! Thanks for sharing!
 
Wednesday May 10 SeaWorld

I hadn’t been to SeaWorld since I was a kid so I was curious to see how today would go. We ate breakfast in the room and headed out for SeaWorld at 8:15. We arrived and were parked at 8:35 – once again, our parking pass worked great. We just had to show our printed paper and they let us right through. We had our tickets ready from online (the same we used for Aquatica) and had no trouble at the metal detectors.

Here is where things got a little interesting. DS1 was not interested in Manta – he’s never done a superman style coaster and was hesitant to try. DS2 is not tall enough so the plan was to head back to Mako for our first ride. The map looked to me like we should head left and then continue sort of straight through the park. We were through security at 8:48 or so and headed this direction where we were first to the ropes at the flamingos. We had plenty of time to chat with the TM there as we waited. I asked about the direction I wanted to head for Mako to make sure I didn’t waste time wandering. She indicated I should go back the other way and should have headed right when we had a chance. Since we were first at the ropes, I figured we would just walk around Manta and boogie to Mako rather than turn around. She dropped the rope at 9 and we were off.

It was hot already and headed to 98 today. We walked at a good pace back toward Mako where we found another rope up. The TM there informed us that Mako didn’t begin running until 10 am. I was surprised since I had NEVER heard this before and the TM at the flamingos could have told us this. She knew we were heading this way and said nothing. Journey to Atlantis was also down. Ugh! We turned round and headed back to Antarctica. We passed a lot of people headed to Make and we made sure to tell them it wouldn’t open until 10 am. They were also caught off guard.

We made one wrong turn and ended up walking further than we had to on the way to the penguins. Honestly, I found the park confusing and I really wasn’t navigating well. We were through the ride pretty quickly – we weren’t super impressed with the ride itself (we did the more intense side) but enjoyed the animal exhibits at the end. We headed toward the Shark Encounter next before heading back to the rope at Mako. We waited about 10 minutes for the rope to drop and headed with a good crowd back to Mako. DS2 thought he would try this one but he wasn’t tall enough. He sat outside and waited while we rode twice – once with no wait and once we waited about 10 minutes for front row. We loved this ride! Very fun and just intense enough. It didn’t shake my head up too much so I came off feeling good.

We checked out the Sea Lion habitat and then caught the Clyde and Seamore Show at 11 am. These guys don’t joke around – the splash zone is really a splash zone. Be prepared to get drenched! DS1 and I were hot so we sat up higher in the shaded seats. DS2 was also hot but, to him, this meant it was time to get wet. He sat way down front below our seats so we could keep an eye on him. The show was cute – we laughed – and DS2 got his wish to get soaked. He said he felt much better.

We were out of the show at 11:35 or so and wanted to catch the 12:15 One Ocean show so we headed out in that direction. The line for Wild Arctic ride was really long so we decided to grab a quick lunch at the place right next to Shamu. The kids had chicken nuggets and the turkey sandwich and I got the special of the day – fish sandwich which I found a bit ironic. The food was okay but they did have a lot of fresh fruit. We grabbed a big cup of strawberries as well. The line to order was very slow.

We were cutting it close and rushed over to the stadium at 12:10 with our strawberries in hand to munch later. We didn’t get the best seats but I don’t think there are any truly bad seats. All we cared about was the shade – it was hot! DS2 decided to pass on the splash zone. Good call! If he got fairly wet in the sea lion show, the visitors down low for this show were drenched! I don’t think there was a dry spot on them. My kids loved this show. They took pictures and videos and were in total awe of these beautiful animals. I don’t remember the show from when I was a kid but, based on what I read about the new conservation show, I didn’t anticipate seeing so many tricks and whales. It was a lot of action which the kids loved and I found a little sad. To see such gorgeous, graceful animals in captivity impacted me in a way I didn’t expect. I’m not a tree hugging, save the world kind of person so this was a surprise.

Shockingly, the kids said they were ready to go. I don’t know if it was the heat (so much of SW is outside with little relief from the heat) or knowing that DH was on his way but they were just meh on SeaWorld. We jumped into the short line at Wild Arctic and waited just 10 minutes or so to ride. We all thought this ride was not nearly as good as similar simulator rides at Disney or Universal. Again, we enjoyed the animal habitats on the way out. We walked across the bridge over the lake, checked out the manatees and dolphins, then fed the stingrays before heading out a little after 2.
 
Our family loves Aquatica so much, we have been reluctant to try out any other water parks during our vacations! My DD12 is exactly the same as your kids - doesn't mind checking out the slides but spends the majority of her day in Roa’s Rapids, Cutback Cove, and Walkabout Waters. We also loved the Roa's Rapids cabana location...so central!

Definitely going over to check out the rest of your trip report! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks for reading along! It's great to have options for slide lovers and swimmers alike. I enjoy the slides but I am just as happy to kick back. Either way, it was nice avoiding the lines!
 


Nice report. My kids are much older. But since we had a Platinum pass, we went to Busch Gardens Tampa one day. The day we planned to go a second day, the kids liked Aquadica so much, and the weather was nice, we ditched our plans to BGT, and had a second day in Aqudica instead. The first day, we stayed all day, and rented a cabana. That was awesome, as the brief rain in the afternoon cleared half of the people out, and our stuff was dry. Our cabana was next to the one entrance to Roa, so it was great for us, since my kids hang out in Roa for several laps around. Sorry to hear your little guys were sore in their swimming suits.

Yeah, SW when it's hot, is not as fun. My teens still enjoy the shows, and rides. By having the pass, we spend whole days and sometimes just a few hours in SW.

And I like some of the Aquadica slides, but not all. I let my teens do the racers. I like floating around in Roa quite a few times myself.
 
Friday May 12 Discovery Cove

We were all excited for our Discovery Cove day. My goal was to get out the door early so we could maximize our day at DC and we left the Hard Rock at 6:45 am. The drive was smooth and we arrived a few minutes after 7 and were the third group in line to check in. We waited outside until 7:15 when they opened the doors and let us into the lobby. We were directed to a check-in desk where we had pictures taken and were given our lanyards for the day. As desired, we were in the earliest dolphin swim and asked to be in the Starfish Cabana at 8:30. After stepping out of the lobby, a TM was there to give us a brief tour and lead us to breakfast.

We ate an enjoyable breakfast – I was surprised by the variety but don’t remember everything we had. We were done around 8 and started to walk the property to look for some seats in the shade. I asked the kids if they wanted our home base to be the lazy river or the grand reef and they picked grand reef. We found some great seats under some tree shade that we hoped would stay covered all day.

We got our locker and snorkeling gear when I remembered to ask about prescription goggles. I had brought 3 pairs of daily wear contacts for our trip and usually wear glasses. I used one pair for our Aquatica day and one for our water day at Universal. That left me one pair for Discovery Cove. Well, the left one tore when I was putting them in. Luckily, all my research paid off because I knew I could get prescription goggles. They directed me back to the gift shop at the front of the park and a few minutes, and one signature, later I was on my way with goggles I could see through!

We made our way to the Starfish cabana, completed some paperwork, watched a video, and got some brief instructions before being led down to the water. DH was not doing the dolphin swim so he sat on some rocks to take pictures which meant we didn’t purchase (or even look at) any of the photos they took of our group. We had a great time with the dolphins and my kids were in awe. We got to pet, feed, kiss, and swim with our dolphin over the 30 minutes we were in the water. My kids are both strong swimmers but DS2 was nervous about swimming out and treading water waiting for his turn. He opted for the shallow swim. DS1 and I were the second group to swim out. He got towed back toward shore first and then it was my turn. Wow! I was surprised at how much fun it was and how strong the dolphin was. Well, then DS2 saw it wasn’t such a big deal and asked if he could swim out. Our animal trainer replied of course and she swam with him out into the deeper water. In a few minutes, he was back beside us and was glad he went for it.

After our dolphin swim, we spent about an hour in the aviary hanging with the birds before heading back to Grand Reef. The kids tried snorkeling once in the Bahamas and it wasn’t very successful as the waves and the distance they had to swim made them anxious. Well, DS2 was a little hesitant here and made a point of confirming with one of the lifeguards that the stingrays couldn’t sting him. Once he got in the water though, he had a blast. Both kids (and I) thought this was the highlight of the day. We swam, and viewed, and swam some more. Around 11:30, we headed over for lunch.

Again, I was very impressed with the selections. Between my family, we sampled the Hawaiian Chicken, Pepper Beef, hot dogs, and pasta. The desserts were yummy and we enjoyed plenty of fresh strawberries. Throughout the afternoon, we enjoyed beer, tropical drinks, fruit infused water, cookies, pretzels, and more. We really felt pampered and like we were at a resort. The restrooms were clean and well appointed. Overall, the experience was top notch!

Throughout the afternoon, we did three loops around the lazy river and checked out the freshwater oasis and the animals before heading back to the Grand Reef for a solid 3 hours. We started cleaning up our area around 4:30 and didn’t head out of the park until a little after 5. We didn’t feel rushed at all and were happy we saved this day for last. The kids raved about Discovery Cove and cannot wait to return. I’m not sure we would do the dolphin swim again – as enjoyable as it was, it’s not an experience we need to repeat each time for the cost.

After showering and cleaning up at the hotel, we headed out for some fun at Margaritaville.
 
So happy to hear you enjoyed your day at DC. We like it as it's such a relaxing day, and the food is good, and all you care to enjoy. We tend to do a late, and not so big dinner after our day visit to DC.
It is expensive, but to see the joy and amazement in kids's faces when with the dolphins is something I always enjoy seeing.

Yay! Hope Margartaville is was good. My family enjoys that place, and when the kids were young, enjoyed the balloon makers and volcano erupting.
 


So happy to hear you enjoyed your day at DC. We like it as it's such a relaxing day, and the food is good, and all you care to enjoy. We tend to do a late, and not so big dinner after our day visit to DC.
It is expensive, but to see the joy and amazement in kids's faces when with the dolphins is something I always enjoy seeing.

Yay! Hope Margartaville is was good. My family enjoys that place, and when the kids were young, enjoyed the balloon makers and volcano erupting.

It truly was relaxing - not a care in the world. The kids were the best part of the dolphin interaction. I wouldn't have done it with just a group of adults but there is such an element of the unexpected.

Margaritaville did not disappoint! The food is not gourmet but we enjoy it and the kids love the atmosphere.
 
I've been to Aquatica and SeaWorld but not Discovery Cove. I really don't see the need to go there, considering I am not a marine biologist or dolphin enthusiast. But unless anyone really recommends Discovery Cove and can tell me how fun it is, then I will consider upgrading my platinum pass to include D.C.
 
I've been to Aquatica and SeaWorld but not Discovery Cove. I really don't see the need to go there, considering I am not a marine biologist or dolphin enthusiast. But unless anyone really recommends Discovery Cove and can tell me how fun it is, then I will consider upgrading my platinum pass to include D.C.

I will chime in to say Discovery Cove is AMAZING - as long as you are looking for a relaxing stress-free day...if you are looking for rides and excitement, it is not the place for you...
 
Another vote that Discovery Cove is AMAZING! We are going back this year and not doing the dolphin swim. DC is relaxing and completely stress-free. Play on the beach? Check! Relax in a hammock? Check!
Enjoy the lazy river? Check! Swim with fish and rays? Check! Visit the aviary and feed birds? Check! . . . . . . We have an extra day in Orlando this August before our Disney Cruise, and I asked the kids (16, 13 and 9) "What would you like to do on our open day?" I figured they'd vote to Magic Kingdom or Universal and Harry Potter. All three gave the same answer: CAN WE PLEASE GO BACK TO DISCOVERY COVE?
 

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