How many Dolphins and people are in the pool during the dolphin swim?

[JoeCathyAngelina]

How many Dolphins and people are in the pool during the dolphin swim?

Thanks,
Joe

 

[floridianer]

3 Dolphin Cabanas with 4 Parties á 8 persons ....

each group one dolphin (normally... Sometimes they change the dolphin if they wish so)

This makes it 12 Dolphins, 96 humans in all 3 cabanas.

 

[Gina-Gina-Bo-Bina]

How many Dolphins and people are in the pool during the dolphin swim?

Thanks,
Joe

3 Dolphin Cabanas with 4 Parties á 8 persons ....

each group one dolphin (normally... Sometimes they change the dolphin if they wish so)

This makes it 12 Dolphins, 96 humans in all 3 cabanas.

In the cabanas, its basically a meeting place with a DC staffer where you watch a short video and then the larger group gets split up for the swim.

The pools themselves are quite large. We were in a group of 8 (our family of 3 then a family of 5). The next closest group was not far away but not "close" either....far enough that the trainers had to shout to each other when they needed to communicate, but close enough that we could easily watch their dolphin do the jumps, etc. as well.

We started out with female dolphin for the first portion of the dolphin experience. She did the kissing pictures and the formal family shots. For the swim portion, they switched out to a much larger male dolphin ("Rascal"), and my guess is that the female may have had a harder time with the swim for my 6' 4", 275 pound husband. Rascal was also....well......true to his name. A bit of a rambuncious boy . He probably would not have been as patient with the kissing & formal pics as the female. It was kind of neat to see the differences (personality and physical) between the two dolphins, and the different approach that the trainer had to take in dealing with each.

 

[chiamarie]

3 Dolphin Cabanas with 4 Parties á 8 persons ....

each group one dolphin (normally... Sometimes they change the dolphin if they wish so)

This makes it 12 Dolphins, 96 humans in all 3 cabanas.

There are several pools that the dolphins are located in; and Discovery Cove its self has around 30 dolphins, not 12. And I think very rarely are all 3 pools doing DIPS at the same time, it's usually staggered, so that the animals are getting a break.

But as for your swim, you will usually get 1-2 dolphins and will be in a group no larger than 8. But there will be multiple DIP's going on in the pool at once (the way the pp explained).

 

[LockShockBarrel]

They can change dolphins at your experience if the dolphin isn't interested in doing the behavoirs or if they aren't yet trained to do something. We had Calypso at first and I believe they told us she was about 5 and still learning, so for our swims CJ came over.

 

[pixeegrl]

We are going in August but not doing the dolphin swim....are we able to view the dolpin interaction from beach side anywhere?

 

[TomD]

We are going in August but not doing the dolphin swim....are we able to view the dolpin interaction from beach side anywhere?

Yes you will be able to view the interactions from the beach.

 

[Violet Crayon]

Like others have broken down, there are four "pods" out in the lagoon during an interaction with 8-9 guests. So, roughly 32-36 guests will be in the water. Each pod also has 2 trainers (unless there is a trainee or guest who needs assistance), and a photographer and videographer. For humans total there will be about 48-52 bodies in the water. Each pod has a dolphin and for most interactions there will be 4 in the water, but when there are young dolphins who are beginning to learn the ropes they might have them at a pod and an experienced dolphin hanging out with a trainer for a switch. A lot of the pools do a switch and have a set of dolphins do shallow behaviors (kisses and family photos) and a set that enjoys doing the ride portion so your chances of meeting two different dolphins are fairly high, but not guaranteed. Overall Discovery Cove has 3 lagoons with their own social pods. There are about 44dolphins, and no dolphin does more than 3hours of interaction time in a day, and rarely get close to that mark anyway.

 

[floridianer]

There are several pools that the dolphins are located in; and Discovery Cove its self has around 30 dolphins, not 12. And I think very rarely are all 3 pools doing DIPS at the same time, it's usually staggered, so that the animals are getting a break.

But as for your swim, you will usually get 1-2 dolphins and will be in a group no larger than 8. But there will be multiple DIP's going on in the pool at once (the way the pp explained).

I know that there is a "private pool" for the dolphins in the back area of the park.
12 of them are "out" for tricks and work.

3 pools with 4 groups of 8 people plus 2 trainers and videoman. 44 in one pool. So this makes 132people plus 12 dolphins in the 3 pools