A Weekend of Aquatic Fun!

We spent a fun-filled weekend in Orlando, Florida recently. The highlights of our trip included swimming with dolphins, snorkeling, watching the amazing shows at Sea World, and of course enjoying that wonderful sunny Florida weather!

Quick Tips:

If you go to Discovery Cove, you choose between a 7 consecutive day pass to either Sea World or Busch Gardens. We chose Sea World because it is right next door to Discovery Cove. Busch Gardens is in Tampa, about 1 hour away.

Best Way To Get Around:

It is best to have a rental car for flexibility. The shuttles run on very limited hours and can be inconvenient, or force you to cut your day short.

The Holiday Inn - Nikki Bird is a fantastic budget hotel to stay at, and is very close to Orlando's main attractions.The hotel was very clean and offers a variety of rooms, some are kids suites and have bunk beds or other extra amenities. The hotel is quite large and offers an extensive amount of things to do, if you are staying in for the evening or if it is a rainy day. There are three pools (one heated), an outdoor Jacuzzi, and a toddler wading pool. There is also a restaurant, arcade, and gift shop on premises. They offer free Wi-Fi in all rooms so bring your laptop if you need to look up directions or information on attractions. The TVs have On-Demand and Games that you can watch/play in your room for a small additional charge.They do shuttles to Disney World, however we did not use this service.I will definitely stay here again on my next visit.

Discovery Cove is an amazing adventure. It is really the type of thing that you do only once for the experience, since it is so expensive, but it was well worth the cost.

Highlights of Discovery Cove include feeding the birds in the aviary (watch out though, my husband got bit by one!); snorkeling; swimming in the tropical lagoon/lazy river which has pretty waterfalls; lounging on the gorgeous white sand "beach"; and of course the main attraction, swimming with a dolphin!

Discovery Cove is all-inclusive, and you have continental breakfast, a big delicious restaurant lunch with dessert, and unlimited snacks and drinks all day. There is also no additional fee for the use of wetsuits, and they provide disposable snorkeling masks and goggles. Lockers are also free to use for the day.

I would recommend Discovery Cove to anyone who is a good swimmer. They have life vests, but the water is very, very deep which can be scary if you can't swim. Some areas were 15-plus feet deep!

The dolphin swim is 30 minutes long; you pet the dolphins, kiss them, watch them do tricks, and ride along with them as you hold onto its fin and it pulls you along. They have photographers who take your photos and you may purchase them afterwards.

The snorkeling was also incredible, there are tons of fish, rays, and you can even see barracudas and sharks (those are behind glass, but the regular fish aren't!).

Pleasure Island at Downtown Disney is amazing! You can choose to pay for admission to one club—the cost was $10 at the time we went—or you can get an unlimited club pass for the evening for $22.

The unlimited club pass was definitely worth it to see what fits your style, and it was also great to be able to go to the comedy clubs when we needed a break from dancing.

My favorite was "8 Trax," a disco and '80s music club that plays videos of the songs. They also do the YMCA every night at midnight—so it was fun, and not embarrassing to be cheesy.

The "Comedy Warehouse" is a fantastic improv comedy club. I am not normally a stand-up comedy kind of gal, but I was laughing so hard my sides hurt.

I did not care for the Adventurer's Club very much, it is supposed to be a comedy club too but was not as funny.

Other clubs included:

1. Rock & Roll Beach Club—They have live bands here sometimes
2. Motion—Top 40 dance club
3. Mannequins—Techno/Electronic Music, this club has a spinning floor
4. BET Soundstage—Rap/R&B Music

Most are 18-and-over and some are 21-and-over on certain nights, so check the website for details. They are very strict on fake ids and underage drinking, we saw several people get busted there, so don't try it!

All of the clubs have specialty drinks that you can buy, but I did not try them.

Parking is free, and the hours are 8pm to 2pm. They have shuttles if you are staying in a WDW resort property.