Swimming with dolphins

[Jennifer L.]

Is tgere a good place to swim with dolphins as we cruise the Western Carribbean?  We are going on a July 2019 MSC Seaside cruise.  It can be a tour that is from tge ship or not.  I just want a great exoerience with a reliable place.  Thanks

[sparks1093]

We enjoyed Dolphinaris in Cozumel if that's on your itinerary. We arranged the excursion through the cruise line (Carnival) and the excursion included unlimited drinks and a buffet. A brief review is in my review of CCL Glory in my signature. You can find Dolphinaris on line if MSC doesn't offer the excursion.

[Jennifer L.]

Thank you for the information.  I will look into it.

[Jennifer L.]

It is in our itinerary.

[colhutch]

If you can swim with them on a planned excursion chances are they are captive, irrespective of how big the 'pool' is. You can swim with free, wild dolphins in the Azores or Madeira.

[Kate P.C]

We did it in Cozumel too and we unlimited free drinks and buffet for the day. There was a pool with manatees too, and we got to feed them with lettuce. We enjoyed the dolphin experience a lot!

[donaldsc]

Check out this site among many others - https://us.whales.org/swimming-with-dolphins/

 

DON

[EDiamond22]

On 12/31/2018 at 5:38 AM, sparks1093 said:

We enjoyed Dolphinaris in Cozumel if that's on your itinerary. We arranged the excursion through the cruise line (Carnival) and the excursion included unlimited drinks and a buffet. A brief review is in my review of CCL Glory in my signature. You can find Dolphinaris on line if MSC doesn't offer the excursion.

we did this in cozumel last year aswell, highly recommend it! it was a blast and you do actually get to swim with them like they push you around and such, very good experience 🙂 
i will say don't book it just for the buffet though, less than impressive but good thing cruise ships usually have something to eat when you get back on 😉 

also another note, no personal cameras they take tons of pictures and they want to sell you them all at the end..they really do a good job with the pictures but they are not cheap. we did buy two though as a memento, hope you enjoy !! 

[hawkesbaynz]

On 8/21/2019 at 11:02 PM, colhutch said:

If you can swim with them on a planned excursion chances are they are captive, irrespective of how big the 'pool' is. You can swim with free, wild dolphins in the Azores or Madeira.

Captive dolphins have a 60% life expectancy of those in the wild. Often they will have been kidnapped from the wild. Dolphins would not choose to associate with humans. It is a cruel industry up there with dancing bears and organ grinders monkeys. This industry should be discouraged by cruise lines. As for SeaWorld!

[colhutch]

I didn't realise how prolific captive dolphins were in the Caribbean, it's barbaric and unnecessary and only perpetuated by tourists paying for the experience. Dolphins travel 100's of miles a day in the ocean in large family groups. It should be illegal to keep captive Whales and Dolphins full stop. I swam in Madeira, in the ocean and if the dolphins wanted to approach they could and if not they didn't, they did approach and were curious but they had free choice to swim off again unlike those captured. It's shameful.

[WAMarathoner]

On 9/3/2019 at 10:16 PM, donaldsc said:

Check out this site among many others - https://us...

 

DON

Don't bother.  It's an anti site, nothing helpful for those looking for the excursion.  

[Mommyof3sweetboys]

We did it in Grand Cayman. It was fun and the facility was clean, but it seemed pretty expensive for the limited time you got to spend with the dolphins. You were probably interacting with them no more than 5 minutes because there was a large group of people and you each took a turn. You were in the water for about 30 minutes, but you had to wait for each person to be pushed, pulled and have their photo taken given the dolphin a kiss. And they won't let you take pictures. You have to purchase the photo package in addition to the excursion if you want photos. I also found out the hard way to print all excursions you purchase beforehand and take the documents with you. I had purchased a dolphin swim and then you could walk across the street for the turtle farm. When we tried to go, they told us we didn't have the right wristband. I know for 100% certain that I booked the combo excursion. But they wouldn't budge since we had the band for only the dolphin excursion. When I went to guest services to see about getting my money back since we didn't get the excursion we paid for, she told me I was wrong and that I had only purchased the dolphin swim. Of course by that time, my excursion wasn't in my cruise planner anymore and I had no proof of what I had purchased. I would say that I am glad I went because swimming with the dolphins is one of those memories that I'm glad I have, but don't get your hopes too high for it to be amazing because they are captive animals and the companies get the tourists through as fast as possible!

[pacruise804]

On 1/17/2020 at 5:31 PM, WAMarathoner said:

Don't bother.  It's an anti site, nothing helpful for those looking for the excursion.  

 

It could be helpful for those who don't realize all that is involved in how the animals are treated and decide after being informed that it is or isn't something they still want to do.

[cb at sea]

If you go to Virginia Beach, dolphins swim freely and FREQUENTLY along the coast EVERY DAY.  We were once on a sailboat...a  2 seater, and the dolphins were keeping pace with us....looking at us, swimming under the boat...it was pretty damn cool!  You don't have to go too far afield...dolphins love coastal regions!