A Family Tradition: my daughter’s 10-year-old trip

My wife and I have a family tradition of taking our children on a trip when they turn 10, by themselves without any siblings. It’s our way of celebrating a decade of their life. We try to do something memorable for each child with a focus on stuff they are interested in. This makes the planning exciting for the children and the anticipation is a big part of the experience. We talk about where they want to go and what they want to do for 6 months to a year prior to going. We’ve made a lot of fun memories together.

This year my youngest child, my only daughter, turns 10. That means it’s our last 10-year-old trip. She spent a lot of time deciding where to go before finally settling on Florida. Her brothers helped by sharing stories about their trips: number two son went to Discovery Cove and Seaworld, and number three son went to Islands of Adventure/Universal Studios. The tipping point was my daughter’s love of everything Harry Potter. The first time she read about The Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure that was it. She also loves animals; she’s talked about being a marine biologist when she grows up. With six days to fill up we decided to include a visit to Discovery Cove so she could swim with dolphins too.

That gave us four different parks to visit from Monday through Saturday: Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios, Discovery Cove and Seaworld (Seaworld passes are typically included when you purchase admission to Discovery Cove).

When I started this blog I thought I’d be able to give you some highlights from our trip with a couple funny stories sprinkled in for good measure. The problem is my wife and daughter and I kept remembering fun stuff. So I kept on writing till it turned into quite a behemoth. Rather than force an elephant down your throat I’ve sliced it up into daily, bite-sized, chunks that I hope are easier to consume. Since I’m a blogger neophyte feel free to comment if you have tips on how I can format it better. I’ve included day one below. I’ll post the rest of our week once I polish each piece.

Discovery Cove – Monday (day 1)

We went to Discovery Cove on Memorial Day because daily attendance is limited; we thought the other parks would be more crowded on a holiday. After we checked in we ate a nice breakfast then headed over to the Sand Dollar cabana, near the west end of Dolphin Lagoon – our dolphin swim was scheduled for 8:50 am, first thing.

We were assigned to a group of eight, my daughter and I plus six others. My wife stayed on shore to record the event. After filling out some waivers, and listening to a short lecture about what we could expect, we headed over to Dolphin Lagoon. Once in the water a trainer whistled and Akai swam right up to us. The trainer had him swim close so each person could give him a rub. We learned hand signals that told Akai to swim by splashing us with his flippers. We also heard the different sounds Akai could make with his blowhole. One at a time each person was led away from the group for some alone time with Akai. We were instructed to put our hands together and gently place them under Akai’s chin and give him a kiss on the nose. After the kiss we wrapped our arms around his middle and gave him a hug while he posed for a picture raising his head and tail out of the water at the same time. The moment was brief and unfortunately we weren’t quick enough to capture it with our camera, but we’ll remember it for sure. Akai was a real ham.

We were having fun up to this point but they saved the best part for last. My daughter and I swam out about 20 yards where Akai met us and one at a time he towed us back to the group standing in the shallows. We held onto Akai with one hand on his dorsal fin and the other hand on his flipper. My daughter was nervous at first, mostly about treading water. But she only had to do it for a minute. When it was all over she was glad she did it. Before our dolphin swim time was complete all the dolphins in Dolphin Lagoon had a chance to show off, right in front of us. They jumped high into the air, some did flips – a couple flipped at the same time.

After our swim with Akai we headed over to the Tropical Reef – the saltwater swimming area. We waded into the shallow stingray section where we played with some small stingrays. There was even one tiny pup only a few weeks old; “So cute,” said the girls. This area is small so it doesn’t take long to see it all. There is a larger area adjacent to the stingray pool that is deeper. There are lots of tropical fish, way bigger stingrays, plus barracuda and sharks in that section. Before you get too alarmed the dangerous fish are safely contained in glass enclosures. Still it’s fun to swim underwater and be face to face with a ‘cuda or a shark, and feel comfortable at the same time. My daughter wanted to try her hand at snorkeling so that’s where we went. For a soon-to-be-ten-year-old she did great. I think she swallowed less than a gallon of saltwater, well below the recommended daily limit.

The rest of our day was pretty low key. We made a couple of visits to the Explorers Aviary feeding and trying to identify exotic birds; that was high on my list of favorites for the day. We traversed the Wind-Away River multiple times, it’s a freshwater river encircling the main swimming areas. Hanging out on the white-sand beach near Serenity Bay the soothing sounds of the waterfalls almost lulled me to sleep; I never seemed to have quite enough time to fall completely asleep. We snorkeled a couple more times in the Tropical Reef too.

Having the food included as part of the admission price to Discovery Cove was a definite plus. The breakfast was good, and the lunch was even better. There were also plenty of snacks; my favorite was the dolphin shaped pretzel.

It started to rain about 5:00 pm, but since the park closes at 5:30 pm we just packed up and left. I wish we could have stayed later, but I guess Akai and his friends need to rest sometime.

Next: Day 2