I was on the March 6th Magic and had an awesome time on this excursion! I would recommend it! It is expensive, but we thought of it as a once in a lifetime opportunity, then it doesn't seem so bad! And only about 60 people on the whole ship get to go, so you are special!
When you meet on the ship Tuesday morning, they give you a wrist band. They use the color of your wrist band to divide you in groups when you get there. Our group went to the beach first, and it was beautiful! It's like your own private beach. (which kind of spoils you!) Then at lunch we went up to the buffet. It was pretty good. Hamburgers, fries, some kind of meat that I did't eat(it could have been goat--I didn't ask), and some pasta salads. That's all I can remember right now. They had water and some kind of fruit juice to drink. I didn't ask if they had anything else. We had brought room service sandwiches with us, just in case, but we didn't eat them.
After lunch we walked around to the main area. First we swam with the stingrays. It was kind of freaky! I got in and waded with them, but I never got up the courage to dive down and feed them. Now I wish I would have!
Next we had hermit crab races, which was funny! Mine never won! Then we went into the gift shop where they have a couple of parrots. We got to hold them. Then we went back outside and our guide got out a turtle. (or tortoise--not sure) The kids held them, I didn't.
Finally it was our time with the dolphins. We got on our life vest, goggles, and water shoes. (they have plenty of water shoes if you don't bring any) We stayed with the same dolphin the whole time. (probably about 45 minutes) His name was Al. Get ready for some cold water! They have a shallow part where you get in. Then it drops off! Just jump in and get it over with. Once you do, your ok. The pool area is pretty big. There are 3 groups with 3 different dolphins going at the same time. (one instructor and then 5 people in our group--3 of us and a father and his son--his wife and daughter were in another group) You go to different parts of the pool to do different things with the dolphins.
First, we did a high five with Al. (he used his nose) They have a photographer there to take some pictures, since you can't take a camera in the pool with the dolphins. We also got to race Al. (he won) We threw a ball across the pool and he would swim and throw it back to us. We got to rub and pet him alot. We also got to kiss him, which wasn't as gross as I thought it was going to be. (they took a pict. of that, too!) And feeding them their treat of fish was really cool. That's all I can remember right now! We didn't get to hold on to them or anything like that, because they haven't trained them to do that there.
One thing I would do next time would be to bring my video camera. I wasn't sure if it would be safe in my beach bag, but I think it would have been. (it was only Disney people there) I would have liked to get video of people swimming with the dolphins. All 3 of us did the swim, but if someone in your group was just doing the observation, they could have taken some great picts. I did take an underwater camera for the beach and the stingray part, and I even had my 35 mm camera with me. I just left it in my bag. I did get some good picts. of the dolphins just swimming around and popping their heads out of the water looking at us!
They do take pictures of you that you can purchase. My friend's daughter's turned out great! She got them on a cd along with some pictures of just the dolphins. I think she paid about $30 for the cd. Then if you added another persons picts. to the same cd it was higher. I didn't care for any of my pictures. After being at the beach and in the water all day, my hair was a mess. (Plus goggles on top of your head. I think next time I would take them off for the picture!
Hope I helped!
Teresa
