I booked the dolphin encounter directly through Blue Lagoon to save money on our recent Wonder cruise. I know I had some questions about it before we left, so I thought I'd post detailed information on exactly how it all worked.
1) Book here: http://www.dolphinencounters.com/index.html
They charge $85 per adult vs. the $113.50 Disney charges. Blue Lagoon doesn't offer a discounted rate for children, Disney charges $88.50. Therefore, after taxi fare you don't save anything on children's admission. You will be charged at the time of booking, but you can cancel up to 24 hours ahead of time. After taxi fares, each adult saves about $25 apiece. Dolphin Encounters will mail you a confirmation letter that you MUST bring to check-in.
2) Allow about 45 minutes to get from the ship to the check-in point. The water taxis don't leave until they're full, so you can end up waiting a bit.
3) Packing list for encounter--confirmation letter, towels from Deck 9, waterproof camera if you want to take your own pictures, cash for taxi and some sort of payment method for pictures, and a change of clothes if you want to get out of your bathing suit after the encounter (we didn't, and were perfectly dry by the time we left).
4) When you leave the ship there is only one way out into Nassau, and that's through a building. Immediately when you walk into the building you will see people with signs offering water taxis to Paradise Island/Atlantis. We paid $3 person. DO NOT buy round-trip tickets. Dolphin Encounters will return you to Nassau on the return trip.
5) After you buy your tickets, you have to go through this shopping area. When you finally get to exit the building, immediately go to the right. Keep walking until you get to the waterfront. You'll see the water taxis right there. As I mentioned earlier, they won't leave until they're full so be prepared to wait if you get onto an empty boat.
6) When you get off at Paradise Island, you'll notice that you're underneath a bridge. The check-in point for the dolphin encounter is actually between this bridge and another one that is close by. Walk up the hill and there will be a big road to your right. You need to cross this road and then walk a short distance until you see a sign pointing you down the hill for the dolphin encounter check in. Keep following the signs and you'll come right to the check-in point. Just show them your confirmation letter and they will give you your tickets very quickly and point you to the nearby docking area.
7) I didn't have a watch on, but I'd guess the boat ride to Blue Lagoon was about 20 minutes. They have a spacious boat and it was an enjoyable ride. We passed alot of gorgeous oceanside mansions.
8) When we arrived, they directed us to an open-air seating area with benches. They did a short orientation where they told us a bit about the dolphins and told us where we could and couldn't touch the dolphins. From there we proceeded to the encounter area.
9) The lockers they provide are very small, but I was pleased to see that they were in direct sight of the encounter area so there is little chance of your belongings being tampered with. After stowing our bag, we were able to sit around the tank area and put our legs in. The dolphins are already really close at this point (and will splash anyone with a camera--wonder who taught them that
). I won't go into long details about the encounter itself, but it included getting kissed by the dolphin, hugging the dolphin, dancing with the dolphin, stroking it, and feeding it a fish. It was just incredible!
10) After the encounter, it took about 45 minutes until we saw our pictures. Unluckily for us, only one of our pictures came out. I was so disappointed! Fortunately that one picture came out great, but I definitely would have bought a package if I could have. I did complain about the lack of pictures so they gave me both pictures (they developed 2 of the same shot) for the price of one. That helped, but I still would have rather have had the other pictures. Luckily I did bring a waterproof camera along and I'm hoping I got a few decent shots on that. Here's a tip--if you see someone else close-by with a waterproof camera, offer to exchange cameras and take pictures of each other's parties. DH and I were simply too close together to get good pictures of each other.
11) The boat back to Nassau leaves 2 hours after your encounter time. Our encounter was at 2, and we went back at 4. On the return trip, the boat will first go to the Paradise Island dock, then will take you directly back to the Nassau dock. This made the return trip alot easier.
That's all there is to it! Hopefully the detailed directions don't make it sound more complicated then it is. We honestly had no trouble finding anything. We also really liked doing the encounter in the afternoon (vs. the Disney sponsored encounter that is in the morning) because it gave us time to check out the Pirate museum in the morning and do a little shopping before it got too hot. If we were to do it again (which I would, in a heartbeat) I think I'd go to Paradise Island early and check out Atlantis. In my opinion, it was easily worth a little extra legwork to save $50 (for DH and myself). If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask! Here's the one picture that came out:
1) Book here: http://www.dolphinencounters.com/index.html
They charge $85 per adult vs. the $113.50 Disney charges. Blue Lagoon doesn't offer a discounted rate for children, Disney charges $88.50. Therefore, after taxi fare you don't save anything on children's admission. You will be charged at the time of booking, but you can cancel up to 24 hours ahead of time. After taxi fares, each adult saves about $25 apiece. Dolphin Encounters will mail you a confirmation letter that you MUST bring to check-in.
2) Allow about 45 minutes to get from the ship to the check-in point. The water taxis don't leave until they're full, so you can end up waiting a bit.
3) Packing list for encounter--confirmation letter, towels from Deck 9, waterproof camera if you want to take your own pictures, cash for taxi and some sort of payment method for pictures, and a change of clothes if you want to get out of your bathing suit after the encounter (we didn't, and were perfectly dry by the time we left).
4) When you leave the ship there is only one way out into Nassau, and that's through a building. Immediately when you walk into the building you will see people with signs offering water taxis to Paradise Island/Atlantis. We paid $3 person. DO NOT buy round-trip tickets. Dolphin Encounters will return you to Nassau on the return trip.
5) After you buy your tickets, you have to go through this shopping area. When you finally get to exit the building, immediately go to the right. Keep walking until you get to the waterfront. You'll see the water taxis right there. As I mentioned earlier, they won't leave until they're full so be prepared to wait if you get onto an empty boat.
6) When you get off at Paradise Island, you'll notice that you're underneath a bridge. The check-in point for the dolphin encounter is actually between this bridge and another one that is close by. Walk up the hill and there will be a big road to your right. You need to cross this road and then walk a short distance until you see a sign pointing you down the hill for the dolphin encounter check in. Keep following the signs and you'll come right to the check-in point. Just show them your confirmation letter and they will give you your tickets very quickly and point you to the nearby docking area.
7) I didn't have a watch on, but I'd guess the boat ride to Blue Lagoon was about 20 minutes. They have a spacious boat and it was an enjoyable ride. We passed alot of gorgeous oceanside mansions.
8) When we arrived, they directed us to an open-air seating area with benches. They did a short orientation where they told us a bit about the dolphins and told us where we could and couldn't touch the dolphins. From there we proceeded to the encounter area.
9) The lockers they provide are very small, but I was pleased to see that they were in direct sight of the encounter area so there is little chance of your belongings being tampered with. After stowing our bag, we were able to sit around the tank area and put our legs in. The dolphins are already really close at this point (and will splash anyone with a camera--wonder who taught them that
). I won't go into long details about the encounter itself, but it included getting kissed by the dolphin, hugging the dolphin, dancing with the dolphin, stroking it, and feeding it a fish. It was just incredible! 10) After the encounter, it took about 45 minutes until we saw our pictures. Unluckily for us, only one of our pictures came out. I was so disappointed! Fortunately that one picture came out great, but I definitely would have bought a package if I could have. I did complain about the lack of pictures so they gave me both pictures (they developed 2 of the same shot) for the price of one. That helped, but I still would have rather have had the other pictures. Luckily I did bring a waterproof camera along and I'm hoping I got a few decent shots on that. Here's a tip--if you see someone else close-by with a waterproof camera, offer to exchange cameras and take pictures of each other's parties. DH and I were simply too close together to get good pictures of each other.
11) The boat back to Nassau leaves 2 hours after your encounter time. Our encounter was at 2, and we went back at 4. On the return trip, the boat will first go to the Paradise Island dock, then will take you directly back to the Nassau dock. This made the return trip alot easier.
That's all there is to it! Hopefully the detailed directions don't make it sound more complicated then it is. We honestly had no trouble finding anything. We also really liked doing the encounter in the afternoon (vs. the Disney sponsored encounter that is in the morning) because it gave us time to check out the Pirate museum in the morning and do a little shopping before it got too hot. If we were to do it again (which I would, in a heartbeat) I think I'd go to Paradise Island early and check out Atlantis. In my opinion, it was easily worth a little extra legwork to save $50 (for DH and myself). If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask! Here's the one picture that came out:
