Mommy + Me Orlando Trip! Day 2

Because we stayed at a SeaWorld affiliated resort, we were lucky enough to get a free shuttle to and from SeaWorld, Aquatica and Discovery Cove.

We had an early animal encounter scheduled and knew that we needed to check in around 7:00 am. We were met by Sophia who was wonderful and checked us in and went over our activities for the day:

We had the following things booked for the day:

- Sting Ray Feeding (7:15am)

- Dolphin Swim with Celebration Package (10:10am)

- Private Cabana (Sand Dollar Area)

We waited in a small area that overlooked the lazy river portion of the park. We were met by Griffin who walked us through the park to get our wetsuits and swim gear. Because we had a Cabana, we were assigned a host to check in on us throughout the day. Our host was John, and he was wonderful! He snagged a plate of bacon for Cameron, who said it smelled wonderful and wasn't sure if he could wait to eat it until after the stingray feeding was over. We got into our suits and headed to the feeding. We went through a short instruction. Griffin fed some of the bigger rays first and then we moved to another area and fed smaller cownose rays.

After the feeding, John showed us our cabana. It was in the Sand Dollar Area which was by the Grand Reef. The Cabana had our name on a placard outside, had two loungers, a propane heater, four chairs, one table, a mini fridge with drinks, snacks, animal and fish friendly sunscreen, a locking cabinet, towels and snorkel gear.

We headed to the Laguna Grill for breakfast! There were lots of options and tons of seating. All items are served buffet style, and you can come and go as many times as you like. The only charge is for premium alcoholic beverages.

After Breakfast we headed over to the Grand Reef to do some snorkeling before meeting our group for our Dolphin Swim. The reef is so amazing and there are so many different varieties of fish and aquatic life there. John, our host came and collected us about 10:05am and walked us to our meeting site. We sat through a 7-minute instructional video and went over some rules with a trainer. We then broke into groups and walked to the Dolphin Lagoon.

Our trainer's name was Amber, and our Dolphins name was Stella. There were nine people in our group, and we all took turns taking photos and doing commands. We then went two by two to the side of the lagoon and did our swim. We held onto the dorsal and pectoral fins and one-by-one Stella took us across the lagoon. It was amazing to see the joy on everyone's face. Another add-on I did was a celebration package. This is typically used for gender reveals or proposals but can be used for anything. It is limited to one per swim group and the dolphin will swim over a custom buoy to one person in the group. Mine was for Cam and had his Schwooperhero nickname on it. He loved it and the dolphin loved playing with the buoy - batting it around before bringing it over to him. The dolphin swim is an add-on to park admission - but in my opinion - worth the splurge if you have never had a dolphin encounter before.

The total encounter was about an hour. We grabbed lunch after and decided to head to the lazy river. There are no fish in the river - but the water is heated to about 75/80 degrees. There are green noodles you can use to float as the depth ranges from 4' to 8'6". There are two waterfalls that have the aviary in the middle. So, you will float around with macaws and other exotic birds freely flying over. You will find otters and marmosets around the Lazy River Area. We went back and forth between snorkeling and the lazy river throughout the day.

There is a section of the snorkeling area that has sharks - don't worry they are separated by glass - but when you are snorkeling it looks like they are freely swimming with you.

We grabbed some souvenirs, got our photos downloaded to our photokey, showered, said goodbye to John and caught the last shuttle back to the hotel. It was an amazing day, and I cannot wait to go back.