Discovery Cove Dolphin Swim vs Non-Swim: Which Package to Book

What both packages include

Discovery Cove is an all-inclusive day resort rather than a theme park, and it caps how many guests it admits each day. Both of the packages below include the same core day:

• Snorkelling among tropical fish and rays at The Grand Reef
• The Wind-Away River, a tropical lazy river running through the resort
• The Explorer's Aviary and its free-flight exotic birds
• White-sand beaches with loungers and umbrellas
• All food and drink for the whole day, including alcoholic and soft drinks
• All equipment: towels, wetsuit, snorkel gear, sunscreen and lockers
• Up to 14 days of unlimited admission to SeaWorld Orlando and Aquatica around your visit date

That last point is the one people miss. A Discovery Cove booking is not only a day out, it also carries two weeks of SeaWorld and Aquatica admission, which is why it compares better against a multi park ticket than the headline price suggests.

The only difference: the Dolphin Swim Experience

The package with dolphin interaction adds a guided session in the Dolphin Lagoon, including the dorsal-fin ride. The standard day resort package is the same day without it. Nothing else changes between the two.

There is a minimum age for the dolphin swim, so families with very young children often take the standard package and spend the time at the reef instead. Discovery Cove publishes the current requirements on the official Discovery Cove site.

Which should you book?

If the dolphin swim is the reason Discovery Cove is on your list at all, book it. It is the thing people remember from the day, and it cannot be added on arrival: the sessions are scheduled in advance against a strict daily guest cap, so turning up and asking is not an option.

If you are going for the reef, the river and a genuinely restful day between park days, the standard package delivers all of that and the dolphin lagoon is still there to watch from the beach. Plenty of families book the standard day deliberately, not as the budget option.

Three situations point clearly at the non-swim package. Families with children below the minimum age for the Dolphin Swim Experience, where paying for a swim half the group cannot join makes little sense. Groups where only one or two people actually want to swim with a dolphin, since the packages are bought per person and the rest of the day is identical either way. And anyone nervous in open water: the reef, the river and the aviary are the bulk of the day and none of them require the swim.

The variants worth knowing about

Both packages on this page carry up to 14 days of SeaWorld Orlando and Aquatica admission around your visit date. We also sell Discovery Cove only versions of both, without that admission, at a lower price.

The choice between them is genuinely simple: if you were going to visit SeaWorld or Aquatica anyway, the standard packages are the better buy, because the bundled admission costs less than a separate SeaWorld ticket would. If Discovery Cove is a one off day in a trip built entirely around Disney and Universal, and you have no intention of visiting either of the other two parks, the Discovery Cove only version removes something you would not use.

There is also an Ultimate package tier, which builds on the day resort package. Discovery Cove tickets and packages explained covers the full range and what each tier adds, with live prices for all of them.

What the day is actually like

It helps to know that Discovery Cove does not work like a theme park, because that changes how you plan it. There are no queues in the theme park sense, no ride reservations, and a capped number of guests on site, so the pace is closer to a beach club than to a park day. Most people arrive for opening, eat at least twice, and stay until late afternoon.

Because everything is included once you are through the gate, there is very little to spend money on during the day, which is unusual in Orlando and worth factoring into a budget comparison. The wetsuit or vest, snorkel gear, towels, lockers and sunscreen are provided, so the packing list is shorter than for a water park. Note that Discovery Cove asks guests to use the sunscreen it supplies, to protect the animals and the reef.

One practical point in favour of booking the day early in your holiday rather than late: if the SeaWorld and Aquatica admission is included, it runs for up to 14 days around your visit date, so a Discovery Cove day near the start of a fortnight gives you the widest window to use it.

Does either package include SeaWorld?

Both do. Each package carries up to 14 days of unlimited admission to SeaWorld Orlando and Aquatica around your Discovery Cove date, which is why a Discovery Cove day often replaces a separate SeaWorld ticket rather than sitting alongside one. If SeaWorld and Aquatica are already on your list, a large part of the cost is accounted for before you count the day at Discovery Cove itself. The range is set out in SeaWorld Orlando tickets.

Planning it around your park days

Discovery Cove works best as a recovery day in the middle of a park-heavy fortnight rather than as another early start. If you are building a two week itinerary around Disney and Universal as well, what Orlando tickets cost a family of four covers the wider budget and our live Orlando wait times show which days the theme parks are busiest, which is usually the best day to be somewhere quiet.

Book early

Discovery Cove limits daily admissions, which is what keeps it quiet, and it is the reason dates sell out further ahead than any other Orlando attraction we sell. If your trip is built around a specific day here, book it before the rest of the holiday. You can see live availability and pricing on the Discovery Cove tickets page.