A bachelorette party wasn’t really on my radar. I thought maybe a girls’ night of Disney movies and Wonder Woman, but with a budget as tight as we have, it just didn’t seem like a good idea. Then Lacey asked if I wanted one, and I was hopeful we could keep it small and fairly cheap.
Small? No. Relatively inexpensive? Yes!
So, I thought back to the girls’ night, and I thought about going to Painting with a Twist because I’ve always wanted to try that. Then the SeaWorld passholder newsletter landed in my inbox with 30% off at Discovery Cove.
Light bulb!
We could probably do a night of movies and food for $15 to $20 each. Once we paid for the painting class, the alcohol, and going to dinner afterwards, we’d probably spend about $60 each. Or we could get a full day of fun with food and alcohol included at Discovery Cove for about $115 each.
Well, that’s sort of a no brainer, isn’t it?
Eventually we decided to make it a co-ed Bachelor/Bachelorette day, because our work schedules prevent Jay and I from spending enough time together as it is. We also wound up adding an escape room afterwards, to top off the day.
If you’re not familiar with Discovery Cove, it’s an all-inclusive day resort in Orlando owned by SeaWorld. They have different packages, including one where you get a thirty-minute interactive swim in the water with a dolphin! We just did the day resort package which includes food, unlimited beer and wine, snorkeling in the Grand Reef, and the lazy river. They also have an upgraded drink package that includes cocktails and a wider beer and wine selection for an additional $42 after taxes.
We had a total of eight people, five girls and three guys: Jay, me, Lacey, Melanie, Morgan, Tess, Patrick and Scott. I was hopeful my older brother, Robby, could be there, but the timing just didn’t work out. Melanie, Morgan, Patrick, and I spent the extra $42 for the upgraded drinks. I’ve never done it before, but I figured if there was ever a day to splurge, this was it. (For the record, I offered to get it for Jay and he said no.)
Discovery Cove opens at 7:15 am for check-in, and I told everyone to meet there at 7:30 am so we’d have plenty of time for breakfast before the water ways opened at 9:00 am. It’s free parking, but still a couple of us decided to carpool.
The forecast was calling for a cold and rainy day, but of course we didn’t know that when we made our reservations two months in advance. I was relieved when I woke up and the temperature was in the low seventies already. The cold front had been delayed!
Check-in was a breeze, and it was the least crowded I have ever seen Discovery Cove. We think the forecast must have caused people to change their plans. We didn’t have that option since trying to get eight people to get the same day off is already difficult enough, so we had the place mostly to ourselves.
Well, not really, but I didn’t get kicked by anyone I didn’t know, which is an improvement!
Two days before, I had realized I didn’t have anything bride/groom for Jay and me, and my realization came too late to Amazon Prime anything! I had mentioned this to Melanie, and she said she’d take care of it. She made a little white flower that said “Bride” and a black bowtie that said “Groom” for Jay to clip onto our lanyards. We just couldn’t take them in the water.
I didn’t notice until later she even put a hidden Mickey on “Bride”!
We went to drop our stuff in the lockers near the lazy river, and made our way over to Laguna Grill for breakfast. Discovery Cove is somewhat of a buffet, but not really? You grab a tray and make your way down the line, telling the team members what you want. They load your plate up with the hot items and hand it to you, then the fruits, pastries, and drinks are self-service.
I asked for a “mountain” of French toast sticks, and that is exactly what I got, along with some potatoes and bacon. I LOVE French toast sticks.
In the past, when I’ve been at Discovery Cove, there has been someone serving wine at the end of the breakfast line. We usually get the chardonnay and pour it in the orange juice to make our own mimosas. Today we couldn’t find anyone, so I just stuck to soda.
There was actually a table for eight right as we walked outside, and we settled in… just before the rain started. It was a steady drizzle, and it took a lot of scooting and shuffling, but we managed to get all of us under the giant umbrella. Morgan, Scott and I were getting rain down our backs, but it wasn’t enough to be concerning.
By the time we were done eating, the rain had stopped!
We started making our way back to the lockers to drop our stuff off and get our wetsuits, but I had the brilliant idea to stop for a selfie. Trying to get a selfie with eight people isn’t the easiest thing to do… Thankfully a Discovery Cove team member noticed our struggles and offered to take one for us!
When I say everything is included at Discovery Cove, I mean everything. All you need is a photo ID and your swim suit. The lockers are free, the towels are free, and they even have free animal safe sunscreen! They also provide wetsuits and vests to go over your swim suit. The only downside is you have to wear them while you’re in the water. So, no one would really see the white bikini I bought just for all things swimming and wedding related.
They have a short sleeve wetsuit, a long sleeve wetsuit, and a sleeveless vest. Well, of course Miss-I-Hate-Sleeves picked the vest. So did Jay, Morgan, Tess, and Patrick. Scott and Lacey both went for the short sleeve option, and Melanie went for the long sleeve.
After getting our wetsuits, we tried to go to the bar for our first round of drinks, where we found a dismaying sign: “Service from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm”. HMPH.
Instead we made our way to the lazy river, or as Jay calls it, “The Not Lazy River”. Technically it’s called “Wind-Away River”. It doesn’t have the same strong current you find in lazy rivers in water parks, so there’s more swimming than floating. What’s cool about this lazy river though is it goes through the aviary! You pass through a waterfall and then you’re surrounded by birds. Before we could pass through the waterfall for the exit though, there was a life guard holding people. I guess that part of the river wasn’t open yet, so they asked us to sit tight for a few minutes. No problem! We sat and chilled even after they started letting people go, so we could have space between us and everyone else.
This worked a little better than we planned. We came through the waterfall and Scott realized he had lost his glasses in the water, and we couldn’t leave until we found them. Jay, Patrick, and Lacey started diving and looking for them. Melanie didn’t want to risk losing a contact, and I am useless without a mask. Then it hit me, we could use the snorkel equipment to find the glasses!
I told everyone to stay put and I swum through the river as fast as I could, which wasn’t very fast. I am probably the quickest on land, but definitely not in the water. I also forgot the snorkel gear was on the opposite end of the park, but I made it there and back with six snorkel sets in hand, only to find out they found them already.
Well, it was still a smart idea, and now we could snorkel in the lazy river too!
Before going to Discovery Cove for the first time, the only time I’d ever been snorkeling before was in Hawaii when I was thirteen. I think I had one in a pool when I was a kid, but I feel like that doesn’t count. Somehow, I always end up inhaling water when I didn’t mean to. So, I took the snorkel off the mask and just started swimming with the mask. It worked soooooooooooo much better than using the snorkel for me, and I found stuff I’d never seen in the lazy river before. There’s a canon! Like a pirate canon! Who knew?
We finished our first lap and we decided to head over to the Grand Reef for snorkeling. I had a feeling most of the group hadn’t had much experience snorkeling, and I wanted them to get a trial run before anyone spent the money to rent snorkeling equipment on Castaway Cay. Someone, and I’m not certain who, pointed out snorkeling before alcohol was probably a safer idea, so hitting it before the bar was open seemed our best bet.
I don’t know why watching my friends try to figure out snorkeling was so funny, but I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Melanie stayed on the beach to take photos. Jay took off and I was right behind him, lifting my head every so often to breathe since I wasn’t using the snorkel. I stopped and looked behind me, we had completely left everyone in the dust. Jay couldn’t hear me to stop so I just waited. It took a minute but everyone got going and they followed us into the deeper water.
We took them up to the glass that separated the shark area, and we could see the people using the SeaVenture helmets on the other side. Jay named off all the types of sharks for everyone and then we put our masks back on to swim to the back of the reef. We made our way around over the coral, and it was about then I lost Jay. I guess he realized the bar was open and he took off like a shot, because the next time I saw him, he was standing in the sand with a lime beer in his hand. I took everyone all the way across the reef again to see the SeaVenture helmets up close, and then we made our way back to the beach.
The bar by the Grand Reef isn’t a full-service bar. They only had wine on tap with the bottled beers, so some of us were able to get drinks, but I waited until we got back to the main bar by the dolphin pools. I didn’t see a menu so I just asked for whatever of the signature cocktails had vodka in it. They handed me a rainbow drink which was awesome, but I was sad it didn’t have the cute little dolphin cup. I also wasn’t crazy about the taste. I figured out later this was the Aloha Sunrise, and it did have vodka, but it was mostly rum. No wonder I didn’t like it.
I spent the rest of the day ordered Tropical Lemonade, which is all vodka, and I was much happier.
Back over by the lazy river, there’s the Freshwater Oasis, where you can sit in the water with your drink. This is where we basically spent the rest of the day. We did make a couple trips to see the otters and the marmosets, and we made another lap around the lazy river at some point, but the vast majority of our day was just sitting in the water and hanging out. The only downside was having to get out for refills!
Lunch closes at 2:30 pm, so we headed over around 1:00 pm to give us plenty of time. It’s the same setup as breakfast, but with a lot more options. I got the Grilled Churrasco Steak, a huge helping of vegetables, a salad, and cheesecake.
We got two small tables next to each other instead of one big table like at breakfast, and this worked out great until my table went to the bathroom. We came back to find our trays, and my cheesecake, gone!
We looked at the other table, “How did you let this happen!?”
“We turned around and it was all gone!”
Tess and Morgan headed back in the line to get more dessert for our table. The others weren’t happy they had to wait on us to finish before they could get back in the water.
“Well, you should have protected our food better.”
Another round of drinks and we were back in the water.
I wound up giving my watch to Melanie so she could keep an eye on the time. We needed to be at the Escape Game Orlando at 6:30 pm. Some people were saying we should get out of the water around 4:15 pm, but I was determined to stay in the water as long as possible. So, Jay, Lacey, and Melanie went to shower sometime after four. Morgan, Tess, Patrick, Scott and I stayed in the water until it was starting to get dark. We headed to the changing rooms, and I looked at my phone for the first time since throwing it in the locker in the morning. The boys were much faster than us, and it was after six by the time we met everyone in reception.
To be fair, we also stopped in the gift shop so Tess could buy a hat and Morgan got me the stuffed otter I was eyeing.
I texted everyone the address for the Escape Game Orlando and off we went. Our game didn’t actually start until 6:50 pm, but I wanted to make sure we were on time. There were iPads in the lobby for everyone to check-in on and sign the liability waivers, and then we sat and waited.
Only about half of us had ever done an escape room before, and Jay couldn’t believe I had talked him into it. Turns out he’s not crazy about the idea of being locked in somewhere. Look at that, only a few months away from getting married and I’m still learning new things! He felt better about it once the host made it clear that the doors really weren’t locked, and you can exit anytime.
Our game was Mission: Mars. I had meant to wear my Doctor Who shirt, so I could make a “Don’t drink the water!” joke, but I couldn’t find it. We were a large enough group that we had the room to ourselves. I don’t remember what our host’s name was, but he was funny. He suggested yelling, “Houston, we have a problem!” whenever we needed assistance, instead of the usual, “We want a clue!”
I’m not going to spoil anything about the game, except that we tripped the self-destruct sequence, and we FULLY thought we would instantly lose, if we didn’t stop it. We did manage to stop it, but it turns out, you just lose two minutes if you don’t. Whoops.
We beat it with thirteen minutes to spare. Apparently, a lot of people beat it with less than one minute left, if they beat it at all.
The Escape Game Orlando gives you stickers if you beat it, and they even had special “Bachelor”/”Bachelorette” party stickers for Jay and me! I had no idea that was a thing!
We wound up walking over to BJ’s Brewhouse for dinner, because we didn’t want the night to end. It would have not been my first choice for dinner, but whatever that cookie thing Scott ordered for dessert was amazing.
I cannot even begin to put into words how perfect this day was. You know when they call something a “Core Memory Day” in Inside Out? This was one. Just a nice day of relaxing and hanging out with some of my favorite people, in one of the coolest spots in Orlando.
Cost: We caught a SeaWorld passholder special for $115 before taxes. Normal prices start around $180 for the Discovery Cove day resort.
Value: 10/10
Duration: Discovery Cove is a full day.
Add Ons: There are so many! The two main ones are the dolphin swim, where you get thirty minutes in the water with a dolphin, and the upgraded drink package for $42.
