We did Trainer program at DC last week

[Duke.of.Omaha]

My wife, 9 yo daughter, and I did trainer for a day at Discovery Cove on 9/19/01. We spent the week at Disney World, but took a break on wednesday to try Discovery Cove as dolphins are my daughter's favorite animal. We were disappointed in a few aspects of our visit to DC and generally thought it to be overpriced. The instruction letter we received upon making reservations says sandals or water shoes are required to be worn at all times while in the park. Upon arriving, our first guide advised we needed either water shoes or sandals that strap securely around the ankle, such as TEVAs. The guide stopped at the gift shop where we were required to purchase 3 sets of water shoes at $15 each. Subsequently, we discovered that nearly no one is wearing shoes or sandals in the park except for staff. I mentioned this to a staff member at the end of the day who replied that the shoes are required by law. Discovery Cove does provide a swim vest, goggles, and a snorkel tube(you get to keep the snorkel tube) for their guests. I feel that they should also provide shoes, if they are going to require them, included in the package. We paid $1200 (including roundtrip taxi) for three people and getting charged another $45 for shoes that are not necessary proved extremely irritating. Aside from the shoe issue, everything went fairly well. The trainers are all well informed and very personable. They go out of their way to make your experience at Discovery Cove very pleasant and memorable. The rest of the staff is minimum wage caliber and not particularly well trained or motivated. The lunch provided with the package was quite good with a good range of selections to pick from. The trainer for a day package includes the usual dolphin encounter plus about another hour with the dolphins. You also interact with sloths and the birds in the aviary and feed some barracuda, sharks, and stingrays. We had one trainer who stayed with us the entire day named Nicole who was extremely pleasant and friendly. There were three other people who were participating in the trainer for a day program with us. DC advertises the program is limited to 4 a day, but apparently they didn't feel 6 was a problem. In any case, the other three were very good company, but it does detract a little from the time each person has to interact with the animals and training staff. We bought one 5x7 photo of each of us and the video. The video proved to be the best value I think. I had been watching the videographer during the dolphin interaction and thought he had done an excellent job of capturing the most interesting moments. The video justified my faith in his efforts. Discovery Cove also provides 27 exposure underwater throwaway cameras for each participant in the trainer for a day program. I thought this was a very nice touch. Speaking for our family, we are not likely to return to Discovery Cove. It is too overpriced to include in our annual visit to Orlando, but we are still quite glad that we tried it once. The trainers are really terrific and deserve all the credit for any success Discovery Cove may enjoy. We all had a very good time and, except for the few disappointments mentioned above, would not hesitate to recommend the experience to anyone who has a burning desire to play with the dolphins.