By Matthias Carpenter
Photo by Joseph Stalin on Unsplash
Orlando is an exciting place. With all varieties of activities and amusement parks at every corner, thereʼs a little bit of something for everyone. However, unless you have a lot of vacation time—and really deep pockets—youʼll never get to experience all that the area has to offer. The unfortunate fact is that youʼll need to choose which sights to see and which to skip out on.
When it comes to experiencing sea life, there are two very popular places to visit: SeaWorld and Discovery Cove. They are right across the street from each other, but where should you go? After a recent visit to both parks, I will lay them side by side and give you my own advice and opinions.
Thrills
Unsurprisingly, SeaWorld is the clear winner here. Discovery Cove makes no attempt to provide any sort of thrill ride. So if thatʼs what youʼre looking for, then SeaWorld is the place for you. Curved rails of roller coaster track tower all over the park like the tentacles of a gigantic sea monster.
I have a confession to make: When I visited SeaWorld, as soon as I tottered away from Icebreaker (the easiest roller coaster) after my first ride, I decided it was more fun to watch a roller coaster than to be on one. So I canʼt evaluate any of the other roller coasters from my personal experience. However, my nine-year-old sister rode just about every roller coaster in the park, and she has given me a detailed account of each one.
There are some more conventional roller coasters at SeaWorld, such as Kraken, Mako, or Penguin Trek; but there are also some rather unique rides. For example, in Manta, you are strapped underneath the coaster in a prone position to simulate the underwater flight of a ray. The track twists through some impressive maneuvers, including an inverted loop. Just thinking about it makes me shiver. I sort of doubt that real live manta rays ever pull that many gʼs. In another ride, Pipeline, you are harnessed in a standing position on top of a “surfboard” and launched through a series of high banked turns and loops. As you ride, the harness moves up and down, sometimes lifting your feet off the board. It didnʼt work that way for my sister, though. I donʼt think her feet touched the floor the whole time.
Advantage: SeaWorld
Crowds
During my visit, SeaWorld was nowhere near maximum capacity. Still, there were so many people there that I (as an introvert) was crawling in my skin. Maybe some people like bumping elbows with strangers at every turn, but I could have done without at least half of them. Iʼm guessing the feeling was mutual. Often the lines for some of the roller coasters were more than an hour long. If you think about it, the situation was quite ludicrous. Youʼre paying exorbitant amounts of your hard-earned money to go stand in the hot Florida sun for an hour and a half waiting to go on a ride that lasts two minutes. At that rate, how many roller coasters can you ride in one day? Not many. The park may be fun, but crowds of that size can spoil just about anything.
Discovery Cove, on the other hand, greatly limits the number of people who can be in the park at a given time. While I still would have preferred to have it to myself, it was far better than SeaWorld. There was quite a bit of room for people to spread out, giving it a secluded and peaceful feeling. I never bumped elbows with anyone, and I always had more than a comfortable amount of personal space around me. Also, I never felt like I was “competing” with other vacationers like I did at SeaWorld. The entire experience was very relaxing.
Advantage: Discovery Cove
Food
At SeaWorld, you must pay for your food separately from the admission cost. No outside food or drink is allowed. There are multiple “deals” you can get for eating options, like an all-day dining pass ($60), which gets you one meal at almost any park restaurant every ninety minutes. Of course, it almost goes without saying that these deals are designed to get as much money out of you as possible. The significant perk of this system is that you can choose which of the many restaurants scattered throughout the park to eat from. No matter what cuisine you prefer, youʼre more than likely to find something you enjoy there. I liked Voyagerʼs Smokehouse the best. We ordered ribs, brisket, and smoked chicken (which is literally everything they offer on the menu). It was good, but the quality of the food and the serving size were not matched proportionally to the price in my opinion.
What I hated most about the dining arrangement at SeaWorld was the lines. Similar to the roller coasters, the lines for dining in many of the restaurants were almost an hour long. After that long wait, I was given a medium-sized portion that took me only ten or fifteen minutes to eat.
Conversely, Discovery Cove includes an all-day all-you-can-eat buffet in the admission cost. There is perhaps not quite as much variety in the cuisine; but they have many solid entrées, so there still should be something for everyone. The food is high quality and very delicious. For lunch, I had a burger. It was tender and juicy and flavorful—just thinking about it makes my mouth water. The most important perk of the eating arrangement at Discovery Cove is that there is essentially no line. Itʼs beautiful. You just walk up to the buffet, grab what you want, go eat it, and then youʼre back to enjoying your stay.
Advantage: Discovery Cove
Sea Life Experience
Both SeaWorld and Discovery Cove offer unique opportunities to experience sea life, but both approach this in very different ways.
SeaWorld has giant aquarium stadiums where they put on impressive shows with their aquatic mammals. I was most excited about seeing the orcas, but they turned out to be a little bit disappointing. Although the orca show was impressive simply from their shear size, the orcas were slow and clumsy—and sometimes hard to see, just because the tank was so deep. The sea lion show was better in my opinion. It was hilarious and very entertaining. Thatʼs probably because it involved otters, which are significantly cuter than orcas. But best of all was the dolphin show. Just like the sea lion show, it was liberally sprinkled with humor. The dolphins performed impressive feats of agility and coordinated swimming. The dolphinsʼ playfulness and their familiar interactions with their trainers made them delightful to watch.
Photo by Darren Tolley on Unsplash
In every show at SeaWorld, there is a clearly marked “splash zone” in the stadiums. Pay attention to the signage—if you are in the splash zone, you are likely to get wet! Depending on where you sit, this might mean a light sprinkling of saltwater, or it might mean that you will be soaked to the skin. Because it was late November, my family and I decided to sit farther up in the bleachers. I did see some experienced park visitors down in the splash zone don ponchos.
Discovery Cove does not offer the spectacular shows of SeaWorld, but they do provide a much more memorable experience, at least in my opinion. First, they have a saltwater reef with all kinds of fish in it. Unfortunately, you are not allowed to swim underwater in it, but you are allowed to snorkel it to your heartʼs content after putting on a USCG approved life jacket. This was a very polarizing activity for my family. Some people loved the up-close encounters with exotic sea life. Others expressed extreme concern over being “attacked” by stingrays that were bigger than them. (I think the rays were amused.) I personally did not get to experience the reef because I was taking some of my younger siblings around the lazy river, which was also quite fun.
Second, and most important, is the chance to swim with a dolphin. You have to pay extra to have this opportunity, but it is well worth it. For me it was definitely the highlight of my trip to both parks. If SeaWorldʼs dolphin show was interesting to watch, then this was thrilling. Getting to touch a dolphin, interact with it, and have it tow me around is something that I will never forget. The water in the dolphin pond might be cold for some, but they provide wetsuits for all guests to use. There is only one thing I did not like about the dolphin swim: They do not allow you to take pictures of yourself with the dolphin. Instead they have a professional photographer do the job. Then they make you pay through the nose if you want to be able to access those pictures. (By “through the nose” I mean about $270.)
Advantage: Discovery Cove
Prices
This is one you are going to have to figure out for yourself. The prices for both attractions continually fluctuate with demand, so keep an eye on them and make your best judgment. We got a package deal that gave us entrance into SeaWorld, Discovery Cove, Aquatica, and Busch Gardens. (We paid $1,420 for seven people, including several children.) If you are wanting to see multiple attractions, then something like this will probably get you the most bang for your buck. Watch out, though. They can be very sneaky. When we were down in Orlando, some friends of ours were undecided about whether to visit Discovery Cove or not. Then, they saw that it was running a Black Friday deal. They immediately jumped on it, assuming that they wouldnʼt see the prices get any cheaper. Little did they know that the “Black Friday deal” had nearly doubled the prices from the day before.
Advantage: It depends
Letʼs Recap
SeaWorld and Discovery Cove might both be ocean themed, and they might be a stoneʼs throw apart, but they are fundamentally quite different. If I was given the choice again, and if money wasnʼt an issue, I would definitely go to Discovery Cove over SeaWorld. The up-close encounter with a dolphin was much more memorable than SeaWorldʼs shows that were staged in front of hundreds of people. But depending on what youʼre looking for, you might opt to go to SeaWorld. If you want a typical amusement park with thrills and confectioneries plus the wildlife shows thrown in, then SeaWorld is probably the place for you. If you want a more relaxing adventure with unforgettable sea life encounters, then Discovery Cove is definitely what youʼre looking for.
Wherever you choose to go, I will warn you that no one at Orlando is your friend. They all just want your money.
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