| The most exciting day of our trip was our second day in Orlando. We had reservations at Discovery Cove for our very own Dolphin Encounter. Discovery Cove is part of the Sea World amusement parks and lets guests have personal experiences with some of the animals they feature at the Sea World parks. The park features a man made reef, river, aviary, a tropical beach setting, and of course, the dolphin lagoon. The price of admission is pretty expensive but includes access to all areas of the park, a very good lunch, and your own personal dolphin experience. Be forewarned though, Discovery Cove is more concerned with the comfort of its animals than its guests...the water temperature in the dolphin lagoon and the reef is kept at a nice cool 55 degrees. Luckily, they supply you with wet suit tops and the temperature that day was around 95 so it did not take long to warm up. |
| Discovery Cove |
| We arrived just as the park was opening at 7 AM. We were scheduled to meet our dolphin at 7:50. I was not looking forward to getting in that cold water so early in the day, but it proved to be worth it. This is the view of the park as you leave the guest receiving building and enter the main part of the park. |
| Alex and John meet CJ |
| People: Alex Beckman, CJ the Dolphin, John Prebula Jr |
| And here is our dolphin, CJ! CJ is a mix between a Common Dolphin and an Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphin. He looks different from a normal Bottlenose because his beak is shorter, and he is much smaller. CJ only weighed about 300 pounds, a regular Bottlenose usually weighs between 600 and 700 pounds. CJ was very friendly and seemed as happy to meet us as we were to meet him. |
| CJ tows Alex to shore |
| People: Alex Beckman, John Prebula Jr, CJ the Dolphin |
| After CJ showed us some of his abilities, he gave Alex a ride back to shore. Alex originally wanted to major in Marine Biology so this was by far her favorite part of the trip. It also resulted in her considering another change in majors but then I reminded her about the Biology part of Marine Biology, and that she was one semester away from graduation (she has since graduated from the U of Md with a degree in Early Childhood Education). |
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