What time to arrive at DC?

[mog]

I know it says the park opens at 9am and check in starts at 8am, but realistically when should we plan to arrive? We have a large group that we will want to arrange good dolphin swim times for and try to be together for that. So I'm assuming we want to be there early, but I don't want to be sitting in the parking lot before the employees even get there either!

 

[vernon]

In your situation, I'd suggest trying to get there for about 7.45. If you spend 10 minutes in the parking lot it's no big deal and if you have a large group it makes sense to be among the first in.

 

[Lorix2]

Great question mog, I was wondering too...

So do you think they (DC) already know which times they will book a large group and families or is it really first come first serve for times?

We'll be a party of 8 in April.

 

[mog]

When I called the other day to ask about it, she said it would be assigned at check-in even with the large group. She did offer to link our reservations, though. She said if they were linked then whoever got there first could make the dolphin swim time arrangements for the whole "linked" group instead of each group making them separately as they arrived. If your group of 8 is on separate reservations you might want to call and have them linked, too - that way they know you are all together!

 

[Lorix2]

thanks Mog, good advice...I think I will make the ressie of 8 as one reservation now that I know a group is up to 8 people.

Have a great time

 

[vernon]

One thing I would say with larger groups, that it's not a bad idea to consider splitting the group/times so that one group can take photos and watch the other group as they enjoy their swim. Particularly with kids it's great to watch the enjoyment and pleasure they get from the experience. IMHO it's almost as good as enjoying the experience yourself . I believe they usually limit each group to 8 people so in Mog's case they are likely to split you anyway, if not you run the risk of each individuals time being shortened slightly to accommodate a slightly larger group. Maybe one group in the morning and one after lunch spreads out the excitement over the day and gives a little more to do in terms of activities. With the cost of the photographs from DC if one of the party has a really good zoom/telephoto lens on a camera you could get a lot more photos of the experience, by having two groups at spread out times, than you would otherwise have done at DC's prices.

 

[mog]

Thanks for the idea - that is kind of what I was thinking. In addition to having younger children that we can take turns watching, we can take pictures of each other during the dolphin swim. Of course, I'll probably still be a sucker and buy all the professional pictures, too!!

 

[highlander447]

We arrived at 7.45am and there was a Q even then