Dolphins in Depth?

[jdbruce]

Anyone here ever booked this experience? I'm considering booking this during our next trip for my daughter's 15th birthday and was wondering what others experiences/opinions were. TIA.

 

[VAtink]

We really liked Dolphins in Depth when we did it! Although there was a lot more time "on land" than we expected. We did this years ago, I think in 2013, so things may have changed since then, but this is our experience: We started backstage where they did a safety spiel and then got into talking about the dolphins and conservation, this lasted maybe 30ish minutes. Then we went out to the public viewing area where they had a roped off an area right up against the glass for us and showed us some of the tricks they had trained the dolphins to do and talked a lot about the training. Finally we got wet-suited up and made our way to the top of the tank. There's a platform in there that is maybe 2 ft underwater we all got on, and were not allowed off of, so there is no actual swimming with the dolphins. Everyone got a turn to use some of the gestures to get the dolphins to do tricks (like waving at you, or splashing you), and at the end they let each of us come up and get a picture with the dolphin. They were very very strict on where you could touch the dolphin for the picture and how you should stand, so not like other dolphin experiences where you can swim with and touch them freely, but still resulted in a fantastic picture! Dolphins are very photogenic.

If you love animals and are ok with taking some time to learn about them, this is a great tour. If you're looking to swim with them and have a lot of interaction, then probably not for you.

 

[elgerber]

We really liked Dolphins in Depth when we did it! Although there was a lot more time "on land" than we expected. We did this years ago, I think in 2013, so things may have changed since then, but this is our experience: We started backstage where they did a safety spiel and then got into talking about the dolphins and conservation, this lasted maybe 30ish minutes. Then we went out to the public viewing area where they had a roped off an area right up against the glass for us and showed us some of the tricks they had trained the dolphins to do and talked a lot about the training. Finally we got wet-suited up and made our way to the top of the tank. There's a platform in there that is maybe 2 ft underwater we all got on, and were not allowed off of, so there is no actual swimming with the dolphins. Everyone got a turn to use some of the gestures to get the dolphins to do tricks (like waving at you, or splashing you), and at the end they let each of us come up and get a picture with the dolphin. They were very very strict on where you could touch the dolphin for the picture and how you should stand, so not like other dolphin experiences where you can swim with and touch them freely, but still resulted in a fantastic picture! Dolphins are very photogenic.

If you love animals and are ok with taking some time to learn about them, this is a great tour. If you're looking to swim with them and have a lot of interaction, then probably not for you.

That sounds like the same experience I had. But I did it 20 years ago.

 

[princess jasmine 76]

I gifted this experience to my son when he graduated high school 2 years ago. It was a bucket list of his to experience interaction with dolphins. The experience as he described to me (I didn't participate myself - he did it alone), sounds very much as the previous poster described so perhaps not much has changed. The in water experience with the dolphins was very structured. He said they make no guarantees that the dolphins will interact as they hope and plan, but his experience was flawless. I'm sure they have to have a disclaimer. Here is a picture from his experience.

 

[Maddykins06]

YES! My 14 year-old and I just did it in October. So fun! You learn a lot about how they care for the dolphins, about each dolphin, went backstage, and we stayed in the water for a while with them, got to pet them, hold them twice each.

We were given beach towels as souvenirs. My teen absolutely LOVED it!

 

[jdbruce]

Thank everyone! I think you've helped me decide to do this for her birthday.