Dolphin excursion or not?

[4dysarts]

I was just wondering if anyone has done the Dolphin encounter at Nassau. Was it worth the money? I have an 8 & 9 year old, and we are going on the 3 day cruise in July. This is something that they both say they would like to do. Also are you crunched for time on getting back to the ship after the excursion? Are there lockers to store a change of clothes and your personal belongings? What would you recommend on bringing with you to do the Dolphin excursion? We are just thinking about the waist deep water, not the swim with Dolphins. Thanks

 

[alwayslisad]

I was just wondering if anyone has done the Dolphin encounter at Nassau. Was it worth the money? I have an 8 & 9 year old, and we are going on the 3 day cruise in July. This is something that they both say they would like to do. Also are you crunched for time on getting back to the ship after the excursion? Are there lockers to store a change of clothes and your personal belongings? What would you recommend on bringing with you to do the Dolphin excursion? We are just thinking about the waist deep water, not the swim with Dolphins. Thanks

We did the dolphin encounter during our Land and Sea - we did the tank with Andy and about 10 other people. DH and DD and I were goofing off with "ANDY" the dolphin and the instructor loved it - so she had a blast goofing with us and Andy. Our tape makes us ROAR everytime we watch it. We did it at Dolphins Encounters at Blue Lagoon. It was a tad expensive - but I LOVED IT - LOVED It and LOVED it - !!!!!

Sorry to answer questions - yes there are lockers to put your stuff in - and you have time - we did -

 

[chasbos]

My girls 13, 11, 9, & 6 absolutely loved the Dolphin Encounter last month - it was a real highlight! There are 2 ferries that go back to Nassau, one at 2 p.m. and the other at 4 p.m. We had our encounter, bought the pictures, ate lunch, played in the sand and water and headed back on the 2 p.m. ferry. We did not feel rushed at all.

Go for it - it is GREAT"

 

[4dysarts]

Thank you all for your input, greatly appreciated.

 

[tawasdave]

We did the encounter on the 04/04/04 Wonder 4 day...and it was great!!!..I was with my my DD 12 and DS 15...Thye do have small lockers to put your clothes in (they are free) but very small...they do offer wet suits to wear...and wear them..the encounter is under a canopy and it can be cool..You get in a square enclosure with many others...you take turns doing the encounter about 8 at a time...it is nearly impossible to get any good pictures unless you buy theirs...or the video they offered...I was determined to not buy the vidoes. but when the dolphin strated picking on my son...well I had too...Couple things...after the encounter if you want pics or video, tell them...then go get lunch(lunch included with the price)..then go back and get pics or video...we waited over an hour for video..then got in line for lunch...big mistake...you would think doing this every day lunch would be down to a science...but we waited in line over an hour just to get to eat...the people waiting on you wanted to fight more than wait on people....The first boat back leaves at 3 I believe..on the way back it stops at Atlantis..so if you are planning to do that...you can get off the boat there and save a taxi cab....but realize that most of the stores close at 5 or 5:30..so if you want souveniors..very little time to do that...hope that helps

 

[daisy2000]

Can this excursion be booked in advance of our cruise? We are going on the 4 day Wonder cruise over New Year's.

 

[chasbos]

You can book 90 days before your cruise.

 

[UGAFan0829]

We also did the Dolphin Encounter on the 1/13 Wonder, and we loved it. Would highly recommend it. There were kids there on our excursion, and they seemed to love it. I think your children would be at great ages for it. There are lockers there, like someone else mentioned, but they're not that big. We really didn't find a need to take anything else, except for a towel and maybe a waterproof camera. Like another poster has said, it was a little expensive compared to the other excursions that were offered, but to us it was well worth it!

 

[tawasdave]

I thought it was 60 days...but I could be wrong...

 

[Hanover]

We did the excursion on 3/14 on our 4 day Wonder trip. Our two boys (3 and 7) absolutely loved it. When we got home and everyone asked them about their trip (we'd been at the parks a week too) that was one of the first things they talked about. My husband and I did the dolphin excursion in Cozumel last November and we both liked the one in the Blue Lagoon 100% better. It was really nice to be able to use their wet suits too since the water was rather chilly. I really couldn't recommend it more.

 

[poconoboatniks]

We booked the Dolphin swim directly from Blue Lagoon. This was our second time swimming with dolphins. We did the dolphin swim in St. Martin/Anguilla last year. Blue Lagoon wins hands down. The 1st time our ds 6 at the time was a bit nervous and warmed up to the dolphin about 10 minutes before getting out of the water. This time ds, now 7, loved every moment. We all did the toe push (lay flat in the water and dolphin comes up behind you and pushes your feet in the water) You kindda look like Kate Winslet in Titanic. It's a once in a lifetime experience. Do IT! Just watch your departure times back. We were booked in the 4:00 swim and just made it back in time for departure. The ferry driver will bring you back to the dock near the Wonder if you let him know. Dh gave him a little extra tip.

DO IT! You won't regret it.

Poconoboatniks

 

[chasbos]

Disney has changed to 90 days out. We booked out excusions in October for our January cruise.

We also loved the Dolphin Encounter - a couple of our kids would have loved to do the swim but the other 2 were too young! Saves something for next time! It was a great family experience.

 

[Shana Rayce]

Did any of you spend any "beach time" before or after your dolphin encounter? We were hoping to do both.
Thanks!

 

[chasbos]

We had a few hours of beach time after the encounter but could have had more. We took the 2 pm ferry back when there was still a 4 p.m. one.

 

[Mommy Poppins]

Does anyone know what the age requirements are for the Blue Lagoon dolphin encounter?

 

[hogie1]

Do they have a website to get more info/rates? I'm thinking of doing this for my wife as she's been asking me for years to swim with the dolphins. One other question, and forgive me as I'm hardly an animal activist or anything, but they do treat the dolphins well? Just curious.... Thx

 

[chasbos]

I think you had to be 3 to do the excursion. But I could be wrong and it is 5. My youngest was 6.

The Dolphins seemed very happy to be doing what they are doing and as they are briefing and seating you in the water the dolphins are just swimming around in the large enclosed area.

They have another section also where the swim is and it was the same - the dolphins are free to swim in the large enclosed area. They even had some new babies while we were there in January. And I cannot remember the exact ages but some of the Dolphins were quite old (over 10).

 

[Shana Rayce]

What time was your dolphin experience? Did you do the swim or encounter? I'm getting from the posts that I should try to get an earlier time for this...then we can spend some time on the beach.

 

[Hanover]

I believe we had to meet in one of the lounges at 9:15 to get our "stickers" for the excursion. We only did the dolphin encounter, booked before the cruise began. From what I understand, this is one of the excursions that fills the quickest. I heard people on the cruise saying they had tried to book it after boarding and couldn't get in. Then again, I was told you could book directly through the Blue Lagoon. I'm not sure of their web-site address, but was told they have one. I did see that the "swim" was $165.00. My sister was going to "upgrade" her excursion from the encoutner to the swim, but decided against it because the time they could get her in was too late for her (She wanted to go to Atlantis after our encounter).
After we showed our tickets/waivers, ID's, and got our sticker, we had to wait maybe 5 minutes in the lounge. A guide came and got as us a group to leave the ship and walk to the ferry. This was maybe a 10 minute walk. The ferry took about 40 minutes to get to the Blue Lagoon. You can return on a 2PM or 4PM ferry. Our return ferry stoped on the way back closer to Atlantis before returning to the port closest to our ship.
The excursion is for ages 3+. Our youngest son was 3 and enjoyed it tremendously.
I just looked up the web site in my Passpoarter's field Guide:
It is www.dolphinswims.com;(242) 363-1003.
The blue lagoon also has a "beach day" excursion that is $38.00/adult
$23/child. This web site is www.bluelagoonisland.com (242) 363-3333.
If you book the latter, and decide to do the dolphin encounter/swim, I'd certainly check to see if they'd put those costs towards the encounter/swim. They were more than willing to let my sister upgrade from the encounter to the swim without a problem or loss of money.

 

[chasbos]

Hanover just answered for me - thanks. While we were getting our low down on the dolphins they asked around to see if anyone wanted to upgrade to teh swim because they had 8 spots open. The swim was the same time as our encounter and ended about the same time.

Also - they put about 16 of you into a group together and our family of 6 got to go first while everyone watched and then we got to leave. This did give us a lot more time on the beach and allowed us to leave on the 2 pm ferry. If you are in the last group to go in the water with the dolphin you may be pushing it for the 2 pm but there is always the 4 pm. We never sailed out of Nassau until 11 pm so time was never a factor in our day.