dolphins and a dumb question

[bhillier]

I 've been reading the posts about swimming with the dolphins and am very excited to take my family in May 05. I've read and understand that dolphins are social and friendly with people.

It seems like an amazeing experience. One that we would all be lucky to have. I just worry (quite a bit) that someone will get hurt.... because the dolphins are huge, powerful animals.


My dumb question.......has anyone seen or heard of an experience with the dolphins where they were aggresive with a tourist?

My daughter is 5, and son 10 they are learning to swim. If they don't want to go out to the middle for a tow back in by a dolphin then can they skip that part?

Is it possible that if they do the tow they can fall off of a flipper?


I know lots of worries.......sorry......I'm hopeing your experiences will help to ease my mind.

thanks ,
laurie

 

[goldcupmom]

DD and I talked at length most of the day with our 3 trainers (we did TFAD). All the trainers are first aid, life guard, scuba and cpr certified. If your kids don't want to to the tow, they won't make them. You do have to hold on to the dorsal and pectoral(?) fins, one in each hand, but not a death grip. In our group there was a young girl - I'd guess about 7 w/o parent - mom did park, but not interaction. She was small enough that trainers had to lift her to pet dolphin as she couldn't touch in that water - about 4' deep at most. She did fine on the tow.

We were told that if the dolphins seem to not want to do the work at the beginning of the day, they switch them out. They also switch them twice thru the day. Males in the morning, females early afternoon and males again late afternoon. They have 54 dolphins at the park, most of which do the interactions.

We were told they have never had an animal caused accident.

HTH

 

[bhillier]

Thanks for the post. I guess it must seem like a weird question. It's just that the dolphins are so powerful. I don't want any accidents with my kids. I also don't want my kids to miss out on a wonderful oppertunity because of my fears. any way thanks again for the post.

 

[goldcupmom]

Not dumb. I have the same fears. The dolphin we had for out first encounter was the largest in the park 10' long over 600 lbs. Could have done a lot of damage if he had wanted to.

I must say that the animals all seemed to actually ENJOY what they did.

 

[crazy_for_the_dis]

When we were there, the minimum age to do the Dolphin interaction was 6. Maybe that has changed though, but I would look into it.

 

[snookhams]

The minimum age for dolphin swim is 6, DS who had a fear of water (which can be explained more in my post "Dolphin swims and splashes". loved the experience, although a little clingy due to temp of water - its very cold - but he did the ride and talks about it still nearly 2 years later. I did have a rather nasty bruise on my shin afterwards, caused when i had my ride back, my legs (which are rather long) got swept under the dolphin and his tail caught my shin as he was swimming a total accident, but I was fine in a couple of days.

 

[highlander447]

I am an adult non swimmer and did dolphin swim but declined the tow as I was not sure of that part but i still enjoyed the rest of the interaction