We did it last summer, combined with the turtle farm across the street, although I think that part is no longer offered through
DCL.
We had a great time, but it did run a bit longer than advertised (without the turtles it will be about an hour shorter).
We picked the extreme swim, instead of “encounter” or “swim.” It allowed us to do all three parts. The first part was the “encounter.” We stood (a group of about 16 people) waste deep in water in a large cement tank and the dolphin came up to us 1 by one, it kissed us, we kissed it, we held hands with it, it talked to us. Then we went into a larger area with a beach (still an enclosed body of water though). We did the “swim” portion, which involved us swimming out the far end of the pond (two at a time; this was good as it gave you a chance to watch your family members do it), and the dolphin came up behind us, he put his fins out to us, and we grabbed on and he swam us back to the starting line. Then we did the “Extreme Swim” part. So we swam (again two at a time) out to the far side of the pond again, this time we were holding a boogie board. He came up behind us and put his nose on our feet and pushed us back to the start. He was able to move MUCH faster this time with us holding the boogie board under ourselves. It was amazing.
We ended up biting the bullet and paying for their pictures here. We knew we wouldn’t be allowed to take our own and we knew theirs would be EXPENSIVE, but we did it. $250 got us all the digital pictures for all four of us, plus one print, though I SWEAR the information on the form we signed said we were buying all the digital pictures plus one print PER PERSON. Lunch was not included but there was a place there to buy burgers and things.
Again, it was more like 5PM when we got back from this trip, so we just got on the ship to get ready for dinner.
