Dolphin Encounter ???

[magicland]

I'd like some info on the dolphin encounter in Nassau. In the description it says it's not a "swim." I know it's 4-5 hours long, so what do you do? I thought it would be up close and personal with the dolphins. Is it worth it? Thanks to anyone with any input.

[mouseketeer mom]

We did the Nassau dolphin encounter in May. It was very expensive, and we spent very little time with the dolphins. The 4-5 hours includes gathering the groups up, a meeting on the ship, transportation time, a little lesson type thing before you get in the water, and lots of time in the gift shop before taking the small boat back to the ship. You may be in the water about 30 mins with the dolphins at best. You're divided into small groups of about 20, and sit around on a platform in a penned water area. They bring the dolphin in (one) ours was named Stormy, and they do some tricks with him, then each family takes a picture with him by wading into waist deep water and kneeling and you choose one family member to get a kiss, its over in a blink..then each family takes a turn standing in waist deep water on a platform and each member gets to feed him a fish, kiss him, pet him, touch his teeth,etc..he moves on down the line from one person to the next for each trick. It was like a dolphin trick factory. They video tape the whole thing then everyone herds into the gift shop to buy the videos and family pictures. Then we waited about 1 hr for the boat to pick us back up. I'm glad we did it. The dolphin was beautiful, and it was a once in a lifetime. I would not do it again., it was expensive, a dolphin trick factory, really. I'm sure there are other places to have better dolphin encounters. It felt very "unDisney" like. It was a money trap, and you are just pushed on thru the tricks.

[dixielandings]

Well, I feel a little better about it being full before I had a che to book it for our May trip.

[disneygoofball]

We did the dolphin encounter on our honeymoon in September, and what the previous poster said was definitely all true. It's a tourist trap and completely overpriced. However, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for us. We live in San Diego and I've seen multiple dolphins while I've been out surfing - even gotten to within a few feet of them while they're playing in the waves - and I'm still really glad we paid the money in Nassau.

For one thing, EVERYTHING in Nassau is a tourist trap. There's not much you can do about it. We took our cameras with us and asked the people who were on the same platform as us (you take turns getting in the water with the dolphin) to take pictures, and then we did the same for them. If you'd like, I can show you some of the pictures, just pm me. It was especially fun to watch the little girl that was there with her parents interact with the dolphin. She wasn't my kid, but I had amost as much fun watching her joy as if she was my own.