Are the dolphin/penquin tours worth it?

[habg1]

We're going to be visiting WDW for 10 nights at Christmas.

We want to go to Seaworld for 2 days; I just bought our tickets online tonight.

The dolphin or penquin tours sound interesting and fun for our 2 daughters (9 & 11yrs. old).

My question is: For those that have done one or both of these tours, is the time/money worth it? Do these tours do things that we can do w/o paying money?

Any opinions are welcome.

Thank you in advance.

 

[dtm316]

I've done the tour that includes the penguins and I really did think it was good value for money as it included a meal at dine with shamu (which included alcohol), you got preferred seating to 2 shows and front of line for the 3 rides (this was before manta) as well as water during the shows and free feed for the dolphins and sea lions. I think if you broke all the elements down and what you would pay seperately for these (lunch, water, dolphin feed etc) then it really works out well

 

[habg1]

This is the same tour that costs like $40.00 a person?right?

So, if you broke it down, I'm probably going to spend that much anyway? So, why not get a tour out of it?

 

[dtm316]

This one cost around $90 I think, just checking now ...... it's changed from last year, but it is very similar to the VIP tour which is around $100 - $120

 

[pixiedancr]

We did the dolphin tour in March of this year. It was 50 dollars per person. We LOVED it!! You spend time touring backstage at the dolphin whale show. Your guide will explain some of the show to you and then you go to the behind behind the scenes area...this is where they keep the dolphins and manatees that might be going thru rehibilitation or there is a nursery set up back there. When we were back there they were doing a behaviour study on a few dolphins and we were not go even look at them because they were training them to respond to only certain behaviours. They told us that us looking at them was giving them positive response to a behaviour they were trying to discourage. Then it's on to the dolphin feeding. You get to spend twenty mins with a trainer feeding the dolphins. Each group has two dolphins and you along with your trainer and a bucket of fish(no small trays but a huge bucket with big fish) train the dolphins to do different tasks. They have someone acrossed the cove taking pictures. It was really cool and we have AMAZING pictures of us each doing the nose touch with the dolphins. We walked away with a CD with around 75 pictures(the CD is a 50 dollar additional purchase).

My dh didn't know how he would feel about the whole trip to Seaworld it was more for me but when asked about his trip it's one thing he always talks about. The kids LOVED it!!! They are always looking at the pictures. Honestly with how much time we got to spend with the dolphins and how much we got to feed them it was way more cost affective then what you get when you just feed them at the regular dolphin feeding. Plus I noticed when we were in feeding the dolphins quite a few people talking to our tour guide asking how they could have this experience.

We didn't do the penguin spotlight but from talking to people that have it sounds like their experience was VERY simular to our own.

Hope I helped some. We did love it VERY much and if your little girls are at all into animals I think they would like either tour.

Lisa

 

[habg1]

Thanks! Thats exactly the positive response, feedback, I was looking for. So, this was the highlight of your day at seaworld it seems.

Now, my only problem is I want to book it, but it's too far in advance to know what we are going to do from day to day. The majority of our vacation will be at WDW.

If I let it go until the week of our vacation, do you think there will be any spots open? It's Christmas week.