IceSkatingPrincess
Forever mourning the loss of SpectroMagic
- Joined
- Sep 14, 2013
- Messages
- 3,111
This week I was lucky enough to do the Dolphins Up Close tour at Seaworld. Here is my review.
As a heads up before you read my lengthy post for anyone wondering:
* You DO NOT get in the water with the dolphins at any time during the dolphins up close tour. If you want to get into the water, you need to go to Discovery Cove.
Okay, now everyone else can continue
You need to check in to the information desk just before the park gates at least 30 minutes prior to your scheduled tour time (you pick a time option when you make your reservation). Here, a staff member will give you some forms to sign, give you your tickets, and a map that tells you when and where to meet. They say to come 5 minutes prior, but you are probably better off being there earlier. Everyone in my group was 15 minutes early except one family. Take your bathroom break before tour time, it's long and there is a lot of water! The guide even insisted we all go and try. There were 15 of us total. This tour (at least my time slot) included a lot of small children. My husband and I and one other couple were the only adults-only group. You will meet at the dolphin nursery.
At the dolphin nursery, you will be escorted to the non public access side of the pool. Here you will meet about 5 trainers and learn about dolphin behaviors. You will then stay at least 4 feet away from the pool (so you don't distract or scare the dolphins) and you will watch a training session. After the training session, we got the opportunity to feed the dolphins. Note: This is NOT the same kind of dolphin feeding you get at the normal park feeding time. You do not touch the dolphin or place the fish in their mouth, you throw the fish out into the water, not at a dolphin. If you want to up close feed the dolphins, you should plan to do that also sometime during your stay (we did the next day).
After dolphin nursery, we were brought to dolphin cove where the normal dolphin feeding occurs. Our group were the only people let in the training area. Here, you are divided by your family group and assigned a trainer. They will go over some basic safety rules, and then you will assist in giving the dolphins commands to do behaviors. You do not feed the dolphins here. We got to signal for the dolphin to dance, jump, spin, and wave among a few other things. My favorite was giving rub downs, which is a fancy term for petting the dolphins. You can not touch the dolphin on the face or mouth, so sorry guys no kissing the dolphins. I asked.
After what was probably 20 or 30 minutes (guessing here) of time with our dolphin and trainer, our tour was over and we were brought to some sinks to wash our hands. Then, we were taken to the dolphin cove photo booth and given the opportunity to see and purchase our photos. Personally, the photo attendant I had was extremely pushy with trying me to buy prints and frames. When the photo CD is $50, I have no idea why I would be interested in a $20 6x8 or something along that line with a cardboard frame, but it was difficult to get her to take no for an answer. Against her strong suggestions, I purchased the $50 photo CD, which is what I decided I wanted before booking the tour. The photo CD includes all pictures taken of you by the photo team at Dolphin cove. Our CD had 36 Photos.
Overall, it was a nice and fun tour. I learned a lot about dolphins, and many signals that their trainers use. I think the price is probably a little high at $59 a person for an adult. It was a fun tour to do once, but I probably wouldn't do it again. If you are bringing children though, the little girls on our tour seemed to be having a ball!
Here is what I consider the best picture we got:
One tour I do REALLY recommend (and just did for a 2nd time this weekend!) is the beluga interaction program. I can't even explain how amazing it is!
(It was amazing, again, and I intend to do it a 3rd, 4th, etc time in the future)
link here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3188250
As a heads up before you read my lengthy post for anyone wondering:
* You DO NOT get in the water with the dolphins at any time during the dolphins up close tour. If you want to get into the water, you need to go to Discovery Cove.
Okay, now everyone else can continue
You need to check in to the information desk just before the park gates at least 30 minutes prior to your scheduled tour time (you pick a time option when you make your reservation). Here, a staff member will give you some forms to sign, give you your tickets, and a map that tells you when and where to meet. They say to come 5 minutes prior, but you are probably better off being there earlier. Everyone in my group was 15 minutes early except one family. Take your bathroom break before tour time, it's long and there is a lot of water! The guide even insisted we all go and try. There were 15 of us total. This tour (at least my time slot) included a lot of small children. My husband and I and one other couple were the only adults-only group. You will meet at the dolphin nursery.
At the dolphin nursery, you will be escorted to the non public access side of the pool. Here you will meet about 5 trainers and learn about dolphin behaviors. You will then stay at least 4 feet away from the pool (so you don't distract or scare the dolphins) and you will watch a training session. After the training session, we got the opportunity to feed the dolphins. Note: This is NOT the same kind of dolphin feeding you get at the normal park feeding time. You do not touch the dolphin or place the fish in their mouth, you throw the fish out into the water, not at a dolphin. If you want to up close feed the dolphins, you should plan to do that also sometime during your stay (we did the next day).
After dolphin nursery, we were brought to dolphin cove where the normal dolphin feeding occurs. Our group were the only people let in the training area. Here, you are divided by your family group and assigned a trainer. They will go over some basic safety rules, and then you will assist in giving the dolphins commands to do behaviors. You do not feed the dolphins here. We got to signal for the dolphin to dance, jump, spin, and wave among a few other things. My favorite was giving rub downs, which is a fancy term for petting the dolphins. You can not touch the dolphin on the face or mouth, so sorry guys no kissing the dolphins. I asked.
After what was probably 20 or 30 minutes (guessing here) of time with our dolphin and trainer, our tour was over and we were brought to some sinks to wash our hands. Then, we were taken to the dolphin cove photo booth and given the opportunity to see and purchase our photos. Personally, the photo attendant I had was extremely pushy with trying me to buy prints and frames. When the photo CD is $50, I have no idea why I would be interested in a $20 6x8 or something along that line with a cardboard frame, but it was difficult to get her to take no for an answer. Against her strong suggestions, I purchased the $50 photo CD, which is what I decided I wanted before booking the tour. The photo CD includes all pictures taken of you by the photo team at Dolphin cove. Our CD had 36 Photos.
Overall, it was a nice and fun tour. I learned a lot about dolphins, and many signals that their trainers use. I think the price is probably a little high at $59 a person for an adult. It was a fun tour to do once, but I probably wouldn't do it again. If you are bringing children though, the little girls on our tour seemed to be having a ball!
Here is what I consider the best picture we got:
One tour I do REALLY recommend (and just did for a 2nd time this weekend!) is the beluga interaction program. I can't even explain how amazing it is!
(It was amazing, again, and I intend to do it a 3rd, 4th, etc time in the future)
link here: http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3188250
Great picture! I really want to do this one day! 
