To dolphin swim oh the questions...

[dprincessmom]

We visited a local marine park this past weekend with our Girl Scout troop. During that visit, my daughter mentioned that she would like to swim with the dolphins. So I guess my question is, was DC the first time you or your children ever swam with the dolphins? Trying to decide if we should go ahead and book the small local park or wait and have the excitement of DC.

I was thinking that would be a huge year end incentive for the girls next year and if we put it out there at the beginning of the year, then the older girls might have more of an incentive to sell cookies/save their money for the trip, etc. Not to mention we would get Aquatica and Sea World as part of the tickets so much more to do.

 

[dolphinrescuegirl]

I have personally done swim with dolphin programs at a lot of different facilities here in Florida and abroad. Discovery Cove was the worst swim program I have ever experienced! My husband agreed and we won't be back yet we love the SeaWorld family. I personally would do the swim program at your local aquarium.

 

[canadiankim]

Each to their own but I would say that the day we had at DC including the dolphin swim was one of the best days we had on our last trip to Florida (2012). DH and I had already done a swim at another facility years ago so we had a comparison and we thought that DC did it very well. We were a group of 9 and each person felt that they had a truly wonderful experience. If the pictures were anything to go by you can see the total joy on all our faces as we as a group and individually did our 'thing'.

I would do some more research, check out some you tube videos and make a decision as to if DC meets what you need as a group. It is an expensive day but when you think of the whole package it isn't too bad!

We are heading back to Florida in August this year and the only place me DD 13 & DS 15 asked to go was back to DC so we are all booked and can't wait.

 

[kathy884]

I have personally done swim with dolphin programs at a lot of different facilities here in Florida and abroad. Discovery Cove was the worst swim program I have ever experienced! My husband agreed and we won't be back yet we love the SeaWorld family. I personally would do the swim program at your local aquarium.

I have to agree with the poster above, except for the part about doing the swim at your local aquarium. Only do that if you are not planning on Discovery Cove. I've done dolphin swims at four different places, and the Discovery Cove one (dolphin swim part) is lame compared to others. I totally and completely agree with dolphinrescuregirl on that. It is a beautiful park/facility and a great day though. So I would not discourage going to Discovery Cove, but make sure that you haven't done another dolphin swim first if you do that part of it. Everyone I've seen do it that has not done a dolphin swim elsewhere seems to really love it. SeaWorld has a great package that with Discovery Cove includes Aquatica and SeaWorld, and I've always thought that would make an awesome family get-a-way.

 

[disney2014plan]

Just out of curiosity - what is lame about it at DC? Do other parks do something differently, or is there more time?

 

[kathy884]

"Just out of curiosity -- what is lame about it at DC? DO other parks do something differently or is there more time?"

Just my humble opinion of course:

Discovery Cove is an absolutely beautiful park and a wonderful day. Let me say too that everyone in my group thought the dolphin experience was fantastic and one of the best experiences of their lives except for me and my husband. The dolphin swim is very short and very staged. // You really (and that's probably good for the dolphins) don't have a whole lot of alone time with just the dolphin -- the trainer is always right there telling you where to place your hand and what to do. And the distance you are pulled is quite short. // We're been to places with just you and the dolphin. You jump into the ocean in a 20 feet deep large coastal pen and no one else is in the water and the time with the dolphin is considerably longer and your swim is three times as long (mom and pop Key West place -- probably not even open any more. DH and I didn't meet till I was 22, but both of us did family trips to this place when we were kids and even have old home movies. Really cool stuff here.). We've been to places where you get to go underwater with the dolphin too on your swim, and it's not just a short surface pull (Vallarta Adventures Puerto Vallarta, Mexico -- It's called their extreme dolphin swim). Maybe we're jaded, but the Discovery Cove experience after those felt more like a photo shoot.

Most experiences we've seen are fairly similar to Discovery Cove (surface pulls -- typical experience in the Caribbean) but these tend to be not as supervised and a little longer. The two in the paragraph above were our favorites and the most different from Discovery Cove. DH and I too are a bit in the been there, done that, bought the T-shirt camp and usually these days skip these kinds of things ourselves, but pay for DS to do it if he'd like to go if we are somewhere where the opportunity arises.

My best guess not knowing the details of the local option for OP is that that one will probably be very similar to Discovery Cove, but have more dolphin time and a longer swim, but that due to the beautiful setting, Discovery Cove would be a more satisfying day overall. And if you have never done a dolphin swim elsewhere the dolphin swim part at Discovery Cove will be quite satisfying and feel pretty amazing too based on the reaction of other people young and old who were in our swim group.

SeaWorld from what I can see appears to take the best care of their dolphins and provide the most enrichment activities for them of any of the places we've been (the best of the best). They also have trainers around more than any other place making sure dolphins are handled properly and not stressed out by guests. The downside for the guest who has been elsewhere is an experience that feels a bit staged.