Dolphin excursion question.

[PRINCESS VIJA]

What do you actually get to do at the dolphin excursion? Do you get to do hand signals and have the dolphin do "tricks". Do you get a pic with the dolphin? how up close and personal do you get?

 

[goofymama]

I'm not sure if you are going Eastern or Western ... but we did this last year in Cozumel. You walk out on an underwater walkway in a Dolphin "holding pin" with a group of about 15 people and a dolphin trainer. You stand on this plantform thingy the whole time. The trainer tells you all about the dolphin, gets it to do tricks for the group and brings it by each person several times so you can see it and touch it up close. They also have a photographer that takes 2 or 3 different pictures with each person in the group with the dolphin (eg. holding the dophins fins, dolphin giving you a kiss on the cheek, etc...).

Although the holding pin area and underwater platform are less than glamorous, I found the experience to be very amazing. We had a great trainer with a great personality and she and the dolphin certainly had a connection which made for a great experience.

I hope this helps.

 

[Jandreas]

We have done both - Nassau & Cozumel. I would recommend the Nassau Dolphin Encounters hands down. The facilty at Blue Lagoon Island is beautiful and very well kept, the water is many shades of blue. Cozumel's facility's were less then clean (I won't say anymore on that subject).
As for the encounter itself...in Nassau the actual area of the encounter is covered in a canopy. The platform that you stand on is not very deep (water was up to the waist on my 6 year old). There is no need to wear a life jacket. First they take each individual family into the water (the others are sitting around a rectangular frame (kinda looks like a mini pool). The famlity has their picture taken with the dolphin kissing one of the family members. After all of the families go through this process they take groups of 10 to stand on the platforn (again the others sit around the frame and watch). During this time the dolphins vistis each individual for a kiss (picture taken), dance(picture taken), feeding a small fish, touching his teeth and rubbing his back & tummy - all the while the trainer is talking about the dolphin behavior. He also does tricks - swimming on his back fins, jumping etc.
For the encounter in Cozumel...the groups (15-20) are led into the water on a platform. You must wear a life preserver and the water comes up to the upper chest of an adult. My husband had to hold our daughter as she was not tall enough to stand on the platform. Additionally the life vests make you very bouyant, it is difficult to stand still on the platform. You get to rub the dolphins tummy and back, give hime a kiss(picture taken), hold his fins. The dolphin also does tricks - swimming on his back fins, jumping etc.
Both are an incedible experience to visit with these fruendly creatures but the Nassau encounter really stands out as being exceptional.
FYI - we did the Cozumel encounter in 2004 and just returned from Nassau last week.
Have fun!

 

[TooPure4u]

I also did the dolphin swim in Cozumel. I did all of the above except I paid a little extra to swim on the dolphins belly. I had to swim out into the water and put my arm out a certain way and the dolphin comes around you and you grab onto his fins and he swims in with you on his belly. It was the most amazing thing I have ever done. I am a dolphin lover so it was a dream of mine. I bought the pictures....kissing, shaking and riding in on his belly as well as a video they tape while you are doing it. Was worth every penny and more.

 

[PRINCESS VIJA]

Thanks for the responses.

TooPure4u , How did you get to do the belly riding at cozumel? Where did you pay extra? How mcuh extra?

 

[TooPure4u]

I booked directly through the dolphin discovery site. Go to
dolphin discovery . com but take out the spaces. It wont allow me to put the web address properly. It was wonderful. There is one package higher than the one I got. It is the Royal Swim where two dolphins will pick you up by your feet and push you through the water/air, plus do all that I did. It looked awesome but made me a little nervous so I booked the package where you ride on the dolphins belly. The pricing isnt that much different so pay one of the higher priced ones, even if there is a chance you might get scared and not do it. You will regret it if you dont. The video was 35.00 and the pictures were I think, 40.00 for 4 of them.

I booked through that site and when we docked, I walked down to where the taxi's are. There are a ton of people from the ships catching these taxi's and there is NOTHING to be worried about with them. Costs about 12.00 for a family of 3 or 4. I had a dolphin time of 3pm so when we got off the ship at 11am, we went to Paradise Beach for a few hours and taxi'd over to Chankanaab for the excursion. Chankanaab doesnt have a beach, but rather a little lagoon. I wanted the beach experience also.

Enjoy