SeaWorld & Dolphin's question......

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

We will be at SeaWorld on December 8th. My daughter (7) loves dolphins. My husband wants to pay the big bucks to let her & I go in the water & swim with the dolphins. I think that that she is too young & it would be too cold to get in the water.

I am told that you wear wet suits, so its not that bad - what are your thoughts?

I also heard that we can have another 1 on 1 session to feed, pet & train a dolphin for around $40. Or just buy a tray of fish to feed if they come to you.

Thoughts?? Who has done any of these? What is worth it? How cold will it be in December to get in the water? HELP!!!!!!!!!!

 

[noryglory]

I can't answer the coldness of the water deal, but my friend's twin girls who were about seven at the time swam with the dolphins and they LOVED it. If she isn't scared of being that close to them (my 7 yo son would be terrified, LOL) then she would probably be plenty old enough.

You do wear wetsuits.

Feeding the dolphins is crowded and not that interesting, IMO. That's the general public event. If you want it to be special you have to sign up for the other stuff.

 

[jmet]

Hi there,
I can't help you with the swimming with the dolphin part, but our family just did the dolphin "encounter" when we were at Sea World in late Sept. It was myself, my DH and DS's 9 and 15. The cost was $40.00 pp and our family plus 2 others were a "group" - it is 6 people max. to a group. If you have anyone in your party not participating they take them to a viewing area where they can watch/take pictures from across the lagoon (this is where the park photogs are stationed too).

Anyway, the group meets with a trainer who gives a little talk, asks/answers questions etc. and then brings a dolphin over to interact with you. The group is shown hand signals and is able to participate in having the dolphin do some behaviors. The group also feeds/pets them as rewards and the park photographer snaps pics along the way. It was a very fun experiance for us and was definately one of the highlights of our trip to CA (the other was Dine w/Shamu)!!
I thought too about having DS9/DH do the dolphin swim as he has asked to do this many times, but in the end I decided to save that for another time as I think there are some really cool dolphin swim opportunites that might be even better. Plus I knew this would be enough to satisfy DS's wish for up close and personal look at the dolphins. I thought it would get me out of having to buy all those trays of fish to feed the dolphins with the masses too, but since we kept it as a surprise and didn't do it till the 2nd day there we ended up doing both after all - but that was all right. He loved every minute of it and so did the rest of us!

Hope that helps some - sorry to be so long winded!
Jamie

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

Thanks for the responses - I really appreciate them. Now noryglory you didn't think the "feeding the dolphins" was all that interesting, but jmet - how do you like it? My daughter (7) has never had any encounter what so ever with a dolphin, so I think that if this was all we did, she would just be elated, but if she doesn't get much time w/them, maybe not.

Thoughts??

 

[jmet]

Well, to tell the truth our whole family loves feeding the dolphins! I admit though that it can get pretty expensive and it really IS crowded. We try to get there pretty early to get a good spot. We have one person wait in line to get the trays of fish and the rest of us hold our spot along the wall. We like to be all the way over to one side where no one can stand next to us on that side, seems a little less crowded to us that way. That worked out really good for us too because it turned out they had a trainer stationed right there and she was very willing to talk with us and answer questions

I don't know how your DD would react, but for my DS9 it was great. He really enjoyed the whole experience. There are so many of them and they all swim right up to you to get fed, so even though it's not for a very long time frame he thought it was pretty exciting and he was thrilled just to get to touch one. I think it's something you have to try at least once for yourself. Like I said, we love it - but then again we are easily pleased !

Good luck - hope you have an awesome time!
Jamie

 

[bumbershoot]

You're talking San Diego right (since this is the CA forum, lol). As my brother, who lives there, constantly reminds me, with few exceptions, it's about 75 degrees all year long. Not all that wintery, according to my cold-hating brother and SIL.

I looked online and it just says participants have to be 44 inches and over 6.

I know that for me, that would have been incredible. Does she want to swim with the dolphins?

The $40 dollar thing ($36 for your daughter) is:

SeaWorld San Diego Animal Spotlight Tour

Meet some of the most popular residents of SeaWorld San Diego on this informative and interactive one-hour tour. Get up close and personal with amazing bottlenose dolphins and feed other incredible animals such as moray eels and endangered sea turtles. Be sure to stop by the Reservation Center inside the Main Gate to confirm your reservation.

I don't know if this url will work, but if it does, this shows you the tours including the above quoted info.

This includes the swimming experience.

Sorry if you already saw those; when you wrote that you had *heard* that such a thing existed, it made me think you hadn't seen those pages.

 

[PrincessAbby'sMom]

No, don't be sorry - that is exactly what I want to hear. This will be our 1st trip to a Sea World & to California too...so I only know what I read.

She want's anything to do with a dolphin, I know she would love to swim with one - I just didn't know about how cold the water would be & the weather as to if she would wimp out because it was too cold, etc.

And I didn't know if just being able to feed one would satisfy her or would she want more. Again this is the 1st time to SeaWorld, so what she doesn't know - she won't miss!

Any more opinions welcome - I want to hear it all!

24 more days until SeaWorld!

 

[Zoemakes5]

Do you go to Orlando at all? The reason I'm asking is that if I were going to spend the money to do one of those experiences, I'd probably go to the one in Orlando, if I had plans to make it there.

Everyone I've heard who's done the Dolphin encounters (any of them) have loved them.

As for the feeding the dolphins. When we went with the whole family in April, we were unable to get in to the dolphins. We were on "nana and papa" time while we were there, and had a tough time fitting everything in. But, after we moved to San Diego area, we had friends come out to visit. They had two boys close to my boys ages (10 & 14). Honestly, the feeding the dolphins was the highlight to the day for all four boys. The oldest was the most tentative, but got in to it towards the end. I think my DD would have loved it, but I can never tell exactly how brave she's going to be. We did get lots of dolphin interaction, and we, too, were down on the end.

Oh about the weather. While the highs are in the 70's, the lows are in the 50's. And, down at the beach, there can be a pretty strong breeze and/or marine layer (think beach fog, if you're unfamiliar with it). I would do everything I could to schedule whatever you're going to do for mid day. Both for comfort level in the temperature and ability to get good pictures. Bring layers to wear for the day too. It was always amusing to us when family would come and visit us (we recently came from MN, but I grew up in So. Cal.) and think they weren't ever going to need anything warmer than shorts and tshirts. Inevitably, they needed warmer for the mornings and evenings. And, one time we went to DLR for x-mas and had stocking hats and gloves! No kidding.

 

[Zoemakes5]

Oh, I'm an annual pass member at Sea World, and just got a flyer in the mail about Santa being there and lots of holiday lights. So, it will probably be beautiful. Of note, Happy Harbor (the big kids playground) is closed until spring.