Discovery Cove's Paradise Nights Is Bookable for 2027, Starting Five Weeks Earlier, Costing $5 More, and With Twice as Many Sloth Slots a Night
Discovery Cove's 2027 calendar has one big entry on it, and it is a much longer season than the one that wrapped in August.
Paradise Nights, the park's after-hours dinner show, is now bookable for 2027 on select nights from Friday, April 30 through Saturday, August 7. This year's run went June 5 to August 8, on select Friday and Saturday nights. That moves opening night roughly five weeks earlier and stretches the window from about nine weeks to about fourteen.
The Paradise Nights show, staged in the open-air dining pavilion. Photo: Discovery Cove
Five dollars more, both tiers
Discovery Cove's own booking widget lists 2027 prices as starting at $122.00 for adults (ages 10 and up), $58.00 for children (ages 3 to 9) and free for infants (ages 0 to 2).
Attractions Magazine reported the 2026 prices as starting at $117 adult and $53 child, with infants free. So both paid tiers are up by exactly $5 at the entry price. Pricing includes an 18% gratuity.
The sloth add-on costs more and takes more people
The more interesting change is the Paradise Nights Sloth Encounter, the premium add-on Discovery Cove introduced for the 2026 revival.
It is now $69.00 per guest, up from the $59 per guest Attractions Magazine reported for 2026. But the scarcity eased at the same time. Discovery Cove's 2027 page says "Only 20 per night!" where Attractions Magazine reported that "Only 10 guests per night can book it" this year.
The add-on costs about 17% more but takes twice as many people a night. If you tried to book this one in 2026 and could not, your odds for next year are better.
A sloth encounter at Discovery Cove. This is a daytime photo; the Paradise Nights version runs in the evening. Photo: Discovery Cove
The conditions are strict. The add-on cannot be bought on its own, so a Paradise Nights dinner reservation has to come first. Nobody under 6 may take part, and a child between 6 and 12 needs an adult in the encounter alongside them, not simply waiting nearby. It also pulls your arrival forward: sloth guests have to clear check-in by 6:00 p.m., half an hour before general check-in even opens. Cameras are allowed.
Check-in at 6:30, and no happy hour listed
The published 2027 itinerary is short: check in between 6:30 and 7:00 p.m. at Discovery Cove's Reception Center, then dinner and the performance from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Guests who already spent the day in the park are handled separately, and still check in at the Guest Services desk near the main gift shop from 5:30 p.m.
That 6:30 p.m. start is not new. Discovery Cove opened the 2026 season at 6:00 p.m.: the event page archived on June 5, opening night, ran check-in from 6:00 to 6:30 p.m., handed 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. to a happy hour at Serenity Bay and the Blue Bamboo bar, then filled 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. with dinner and the show, and WKMG reported the same 6 p.m. opening. By the July 19 capture, partway through the run, the page had been rewritten so that check-in and happy hour shared one 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. slot, with the fine print reading that check-in is at 6:30 p.m., followed by happy hour until 7:00 p.m. and then dinner and the show. So 2027 keeps the later check-in Discovery Cove settled on partway through 2026. Attractions Magazine's preview put Reception Center check-in at 5:30 p.m. and happy hour at roughly 6:00 to 6:30 p.m., a half hour early at every step, and it said it was reconstructing the evening partly from the 2018 version of the event.
Neither the Serenity Bay happy hour nor the Blue Bamboo Bar appears anywhere in the 2027 itinerary. The welcome drink survives in a different form: Discovery Cove now says your evening "starts with a welcome cocktail (or mocktail) as you stroll the lush pathway and meet some of the extraordinary animals that call Discovery Cove home," before the night continues at Laguna Grill.
Fire performers at Paradise Nights. The show is still built in four acts themed Earth, Air, Water and Fire. Photo: Discovery Cove
What carries over, and what does not
Discovery Cove describes the show itself in the same words it used last year. Both years sell the performance as four acts built on the elements Earth, Air, Water and Fire, and both use the same phrase for it: "a sensory journey brought to life through music, movement, and performance." WKMG, previewing the event two days before it opened in June 2026, reported from a Discovery Cove news release that those acts included aerialists and closed on a fire knife finale.
Parking is still thrown in, the welcome cocktail or mocktail is still in the package, and the buffet is still all-you-care-to-enjoy. The bar is the part that moved. Discovery Cove's 2026 inclusions bullet read "Non-alcoholic beverages, plus beer and wine for guests 21+"; the 2027 bullet reads "Complimentary cocktails, beer and wine (for guests 21+) and non-alcoholic beverages," and the FAQ now promises "complimentary beer, wine and a full array of premium liquors throughout the evening." A year ago that same FAQ told anyone who wanted premium spirits to buy them separately or buy a Paradise Nights Premium Drink Package. That upsell has vanished from the 2027 pages, and the blurb describing the evening now promises an endless buffet "and unlimited bar service," a phrase it did not carry in 2026.
A Discovery Cove promotional photo of a buffet service. The venue is not identifiable in the frame, and the daylight suggests a daytime seating rather than Paradise Nights. Photo: Discovery Cove
Two things worth setting expectations on before you book. The waterways stay closed during the event, so there is no swimming or snorkeling, and there is no dolphin encounter. Asked "Will we see the dolphins?", Discovery Cove's FAQ answers plainly: "No, our animals need their rest, in the evening they will be enjoying down-time."
If you hold a pass: Pass members at SeaWorld, Aquatica and Busch Gardens can now take 15% off, booked through the Pass Member portal, and the FAQ cautions that only so many discounted pass member reservations exist per event date, on select nights. That discount looks new. Asked the same question during the 2026 season, Discovery Cove's FAQ said pass members and Florida residents did not receive discounted Paradise Nights admission, citing "limited capacity and demand of this brand-new summer experience." It applies to this separately ticketed evening, not to Discovery Cove daytime admission.
One sign the 2027 listing has not had a full refresh: the hero video on the event page is still the 2026 clip, filed as paradise-nights-website-video-2026_17sec_v2.mp4.
Sources
- Discovery Cove, Paradise Nights
- Discovery Cove, Paradise Nights Tickets & Upgrades
- Discovery Cove, Paradise Nights Frequently Asked Questions
- Attractions Magazine, Paradise Nights at Discovery Cove returns with dinner, entertainment, and new sloth encounter
- WKMG News 6, Paradise Nights at Discovery Cove brings live shows, animal encounters to summer evenings
- Discovery Cove, Paradise Nights, archived June 5, 2026
- Discovery Cove, Paradise Nights, archived July 19, 2026
- Discovery Cove, Paradise Nights Frequently Asked Questions, archived June 5, 2026
Image credits: All photos by Discovery Cove. They are promotional images from the 2026 season, reused on the 2027 event pages. No photography of the 2027 run exists yet, since it does not begin until April 30.
