Dolphin Swim in Nassau

[D L and K's Mom]

Has anyone been to the Dolphin Swim in Nassau?? I am curious how they handle wheelchairs and special need children in particular. We really would love to take my son to swim with the dolphins. David has a great swim suit that has floats built right in , when he wears it he can swim around the pool on his own. I called the Dolphin Swim place but the person I talked to was not much help. I would really like to hear from someone who has been there if at all possible before I spend all that money. Can you take wheelchairs right down to the water? Do they time your swim and if they do how strict are they with the time limits?? I know David will love it once he gets used to the water and the other people but, I fear that our time may be all used up. Was the bus and the boat that take you there easily handicapped accessable? Do you get your money back if the weather is stormy etc? I am going to call back tomorrow and hope that someone can answer a few of these questions, but as I said before I would love to hear from someone who has been there. I really trust everyones opinion here. Thank you in advance.

 

[ElaineM43]

Have you found out anything yet? I can give you a little info on this as DH and I did this a couple years ago. There are actually 2 different features down there. One is to actually swim with the dolphins and the other is called an encounter.

The encounter was the one we did as this was enough for our first experience doing this and it can be overwhelming, especially for children. As much loved as the dolphins are, picture a 400lb mammal coming at you when you are a child. Add to that the teeth they have and it can be an intimidating experience.

The encounter is done in an enclosed area where the dolphin comes up to you while you are standing in waist high water. There are several people in the water with you but he/she makes a personal encounter with each one individually. You get to feed them a small fish, rub their belly, give them a hug and "dance" with them. They will whistle and "chirp" at you and the keepers take pictures of the whole thing to sell at the end of the encounter.

The enclosure area shouldn't be a problem to get down to with a wheelchair but the swim area is a regular beach. Getting on and off the boat is a bit dicey in a wheelchair but the crew can lift it on and off if it's not too heavy.

One word of caution here is that the children have to be a certain age/and or height and I can't remember what it was at the time.

Hope this helped.

Elaine
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