View Full Version : Swimming with the dolphins
orlandobabe
26-01-2003, 22:00
Where is the best place to look for the best priced ticket?
I've looked on OV and can't see it listed.
bellaepovera
26-01-2003, 22:02
I believe in Discovery Coves site.
OB
You can swim with dolphins at various locations in Florida and at Discovery Cove in Orlando. Where did you have in mind?
I'm not sure there are discount tickets to Discovery Cove but their website is http://www.discoverycove.com if that's any help.
There is that place down on Key Largo ( I think) where Eastenders Tamsin Outhwaite did it on the TV and that looked good. I have had good reports about Discovery Cove.but it is not cheap. Everyone I have asked has enjoyed the day and you do get a one week pass to Seaworld thrown in but you only get about half an hour actually with the dolphins and there are quite a lot of you in at once. Was speaking to the family who rented my one house whilst I was in the other in October and they had all done it and it had cost them about £2000 for the whole family. That is a lot of dust!!! When I asked was it worth it they said "well....."
steph_goodrum
26-01-2003, 23:14
Julie
As Michelle is the dolphin fanatic she was the only one of the 3 of us who did the dolphin interaction, at dolphin cove. it's about £99 for non-dolphin and £179 for the dolphin, the rest of the party still get to go snorkelling with the rays and sharks. The meal was really good, it's a buffet type thing but was really nicely presented and tasted great.
Although we didn't do the dolphin swim the trainer allowed us to have a family photo with CJ the dolphin (apparently this is the only one who will beach himself to have pictures taken.
For every 3 people in your party you must have 1 do the interaction. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'm not sure if the general public are allowed to the place where Tamsin Outhwaite swam as it is more like a therapy school so I'm not sure it is open generally.
orlandobabe
26-01-2003, 23:19
I think it was for the dicovery cove one and someone wanted to know where the best deal in tickets was to be found.
florida4sun
26-01-2003, 23:39
There are no discounts on Discovery Cove. Even if you buy your tickets away from the park. We can get them but iots more of a prestige thing as there is no profit. Book online at discoverycove.com
quote:Originally posted by orlandobabe
Where is the best place to look for the best priced ticket?
I've looked on OV and can't see it listed.
steph_goodrum
27-01-2003, 00:03
We found when we went the dates we were on holiday were fully booked already, even several months in advance but as we'd booked our flights through Virign Holidays decided to see if they could get tickets, which they could, as they buy in a certain allocation, so it's worth a try if your dates aren't available direct from DC.
florida4sun
27-01-2003, 01:02
Its gone up by quite a bit $229 for Dolphin swim or $129 without the Dolphin swim.
quote:Originally posted by steph_goodrum
Julie
As Michelle is the dolphin fanatic she was the only one of the 3 of us who did the dolphin interaction, at dolphin cove. it's about £99 for non-dolphin and £179 for the dolphin, the rest of the party still get to go snorkelling with the rays and sharks. The meal was really good, it's a buffet type thing but was really nicely presented and tasted great.
Although we didn't do the dolphin swim the trainer allowed us to have a family photo with CJ the dolphin (apparently this is the only one who will beach himself to have pictures taken.
For every 3 people in your party you must have 1 do the interaction. We thoroughly enjoyed it.
I'm not sure if the general public are allowed to the place where Tamsin Outhwaite swam as it is more like a therapy school so I'm not sure it is open generally.
Dear All,
We intend to do DC in March/April 2003 and as Martin says you cannot get a discount off the listed price on the DC website. I have looked into buying in the US in $ and UK in £ but things all come back to the same price!!
Has everyone who has visited DC had a positive experience? - I would be interested to get dome feedback from visitors as 1 or 2 of our party are not that fussed on the dolphin swim element so might not bother.
Biggus
steph_goodrum
27-01-2003, 01:50
"Its gone up by quite a bit $229 for Dolphin swim or $129 without the Dolphin swim."
The price I quoted was the Virgin holidays price Martin so if that is the cuurent website price it works out cheaper to get them direct at 1.5 the virgin price equates to $148.5 and 262.5
Biggus
We certainly all enjoyed the day and if your boys like snorkelling or want to try I'm sure they'd enjoy exploring the various pools, as everybody in the water has to wear a safety vest, even non-swimmers can enjoy it without feeling selfconscious they can't swim and can float round with the rest.
There is public swimming at that place in the keys, Steph. It is at www.dolphinworld.org. They do one, two, three and four day workshops.The one day is $200 but looks like it might be more in depth than Discovery Cove.
I think they all elected to do the dolphin swim at Discovery Cove in that party I mentioned. That was their choice. A couple of them were supposed to be spectators but upgraded on the day so as not to feel left out. One lady could not swim and would not go into the deep water and she said they were very good with her and brought the dolphin to her, but it was really pretty much a waste of money for her. They said they did enjoy it but were not sure whether they would spend that sort of money again for what it was. They were exagerating at £2000 for the ten of them, I have just worked out, but at the rate it was then you are looking at over £1500.
steph_goodrum
27-01-2003, 02:49
Thanks Julie might be worth us looking at that one for another time we go.
Here's a link to all the swim with dolphins sites in Florida http://www.swimmingwithdolphins.co.uk/florida.htm so anyone interested can check them all out.
I have swum with dolphins at 3 different places on the Keys, Dolphins Plus (Key largo), Theatre of the Sea (Marathon?) and The Dolphin Research Centre (Key Largo). I have also done Discovery Cove. They all offer totally different dolpjhin experiences and I enjoyed all 4 for totally different reasons. I can get discounted Discovery Cove tickets for UK residents, but have not checked if these still offer value for money with the current exchange rate compared with booking direct.
HI Biggus
my 2 children and myself done the dolphin swim at discovery cove and yes it was very good the swim lasted 30 minutes but we spent nearly all day in the park my 6 year old just loved the stingray pool and was in it for ages there is lots to do and you can make a day of it
we did not have a spectator with us so we bought the pictures they took for us but if you have 1 member not doing the swim they are allowed to take pictures and video the swim (someone i am sure will tell us if this has changed ) hope you all enjoy your day as much as we did :D
Just want to say that when I visited Sea World in December, you could book Discovery Cove at a discounted rate at their DC info desk. Unfortunately I'm not sure what the discount is.
I know it's not dolphins but a friend of mine swam with the Manatees in Crystal River for around $20 (1/2 day) and said it was fabulous!
Patty,
Thanks for that - I have to say that swimming with manatees for me would be a stunning (if not a little scary - they do not get their nickname sea cow for nothing - they are huge!) When we last went to Sea World the manatees were one of the most impressive things for me. Being a big guy myself (6'4" and 20+ stone hence the nickname) my brother thought that I should paint myself a light blue/grey, tie my legs together swim round and pretend to be one. Every time I got into the pool at our villa afterwards he would yell "Quick call Sea World one of their manatees has escaped!!" Sometimes he can be evil;)
Having spoken to everyone in our party of 5 I think that we will ALL do the swim, nobody wants to be left out of a what should be wonderful experience.
I can't wait to go - less than 8 weeks and counting...[^]
Biggus
Ruth, what happened to the shark swimming expedition you were planning as we never heard anything else on it???
Glad you reminded me, I must email Sea World again as it had not started the last time I enquired. I must say I have been distracted with changes to the day job, schools etc etc
honeybee
28-01-2003, 02:43
HI we did the interact with the dolphins at hawkscay in the keys, fantastic and very reasonable. As with swin with the manatees, cost us nothing there. We stayed 2 nights at the Howard Johnson at Key Largo it has it's own private beach and first a mother came up with its calf, then in the end their were 4 manatees and they were letting childrens swim on their backs. Apparently they are always their and very friends. It was great experience all for free.
honeybee
HB,
Just out of interest what did you pay for your two nights in Key Largo. We looked into taking a third week off in the Keys but the accomodation costs were prohibitive. Maybe next year we will do something different than the parks and spend time away from Mickey and chums!!
Biggus
honeybee
28-01-2003, 20:55
If I am rights about £80 per night per room. Hawkscay was about £100 per night per room, which were excellant size and facilities on site were great for the kids.
honeybee
Honeybee, is Hawscay on Grassy Key? We stayed at a little place called White sands Inn on Grassy Key (small key just before Marathon)
It was very good staying there as it only took about an hour to get to Key West, which we visited one of the days. We were only there for 3 nights, which was not enough. I would love to go again and visit the Dolphin Research Center on Marathon ( www.dolphins.org )
as last time our son was only just 4 so not old enough to swim with the Dolphins. Not sure of the costs now, but 3 years ago it was only $60 to stand in the water while the Dolphins come up to you and $110 for Dolphin Encounter, a 2 1/2 hour educational program which includes a 20 minutes swim with the Dolphins. I thought that compared to Discovery Cove this was a very good rate:)
honeybee
29-01-2003, 01:05
Hi our children did the interact with the dolphins on the side of the water it cost approx $40, Hawkscay is on Duck Key right in the middle of the keys.
regards
honeybee
kkevingo
14-02-2003, 18:33
i just booked discovery cove ticket bit pricey but swimming with dolphins will be a once in a lifetime thing for us. we got 7 day tickets for sea world free when we recieved the tickets
kkevingo,
When are you going to DC? I booked our swim this week (everyone is doing the interaction) for the 29th March:D as you say it isn't cheap - but I am not aware of too many places you can swim with dolphins in the Bedfordshire area so it is worth the cost (I hope). All of the feedback from everyone on here has been good so we took the plunge and did it!!
Roll on March 22nd!!
kkevingo
15-02-2003, 02:20
biggus
we are booked in for 25 march
if i see u b4 u go ill let u know all the info
when u travelling, we are going thursday march 20 from manchester
kkevingo,
We fly out Sat 22nd from Heathrow - you'll have a two day headstart on all the fun!!:D
Can't wait......less than 5 weeks to go.
kkevingo
17-02-2003, 17:36
hi biggus
yes less than 5 weeks to go and as its my first time out there im really looking forward to it(i think im more excited than the kids).
yo never kno we might bump into each other in which case ill buy u a drink
have a nice one
kevin
Well, you've seen the TV ad for Disney where the kids get up and dressed at 4 am and creep into their parents bedroom and find them already dressed too and waiting to go... Now you know they didn't make it up! ;)
kkevingo,
Given the scale of things out there the chances of us "bumping into each other" would be slimmer than Victoria Beckham!! You will see this when you get there.....this will be our second visit and the scale and enorminty of area is mind boggling - when you read people posting about the 'car being king' over there and that nobody walks anywhere you think that it can't be true.......
I can't wait - these last few weeks seem to be taking forever (especially after all the planning).
Hope you and the family have a fantastic time.......which parks are you doing apart from DC?
kkevingo
17-02-2003, 21:38
my wife as already said that blott----we will be sitting on edge of bed cases packed ready to go , while kids are still asleep lol.
biggus, i think we got the usual first timers tickets IE 5 day hopper for disney and 3 day universal, if im not too exhausted id also like to see Nasa but havnt got tickets for NASA yet as leaving options open, as i seem to be the only one who wants to go there.(bit of bribery might be called for)
kevin
kkevingo,
What do you mean WILL BE packed and ready to go - you mean to say that you aren't already???? My bags have been packed for WEEKS!! (well in my mind anyway!!) I even have a countdown timer screensaver on my PC at work and the guys here are sick of hearing of x days y hours z minutes until I go to Florida!!:D:D:D
When my family went to Orlando in October they bumped into friends from school at Blizzard Beach. It was 2 families, one who'd wanted to book our villa and another family who persuaded them to go to a hotel instead! They were the only reason my home was free for my boys to stay there. The Mum was shocked but their son said 'We knew Peter was in Orlando so why are you surprised to see him!'
On a visit to Florida I bumped into a friend in Wal-Mart. I knew she was going at the same time, but never ever thought we would meet. Perhaps Orlando is a smaller place after all:D
In this ever shrinking world that we live I guess that this is bound to happen occaisionally - but the likelyhood is miniscule.....all I remember is that the Orlando/Kissimmee area seemed HUGE!![:0]:D:D
Why don't you and kkevingo arrange a date and time and meet up for a coffee, drink or something? You could be our first guest 'meet' and take a photo to post on here to show us what a good time you both had!
kkevingo
21-02-2003, 22:54
good idea blott, there could be a new section of the site where pics are shown, and comments made on holiday experiences etc.
cant wait to get out there, and as with biggus my friends and work mates are fed up hearing me talk about florida.
4 weeks to go and counting.