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Need Advice from Anyone Who Has Done a Dolphin Swim

selloutvixen

selloutvixen

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 28, 2003
72
0
Connecticut, USA
I’m in need of some guidance from anyone who has ever done a swim with dolphins. :D

I’m going to the Bahamas in February with my boyfriend, :p and we were looking into doing a dolphin swim. I found one particular company www.dolphinencounters.com that looks to be the best experience in Nassau (the only "public" island we're visiting, so it would be our only place to look for dolphin swims) we’d like. It is a little on the expensive side; 165.00 USD for about a 30 minute swim and boat ride to the encounter. (includes “dancing”, “hugging”, and a foot push)

Bottom line: Is it really worth it? It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I know it will be a lot of fun. We were looking to stick to a modest budget, but we might have to splurge for this if it’s really incredible. Has anyone dealt with a company in Nassau other than this one that's really great? Opinions?
 
what hotel are you staying at? often times they can point you in the right direction. there are tons of activities to do there, most of which can be planned "last minute". if this is a cruise you can still get a lot of recommendations from them too.
dolphin swim? i'd recommend it (if for nothing other than the pictures) and DEFINITELY go for a snorkel or a dive if you can pull it off. rent one of their underwater cameras too if possible, you'll thank yourself later. if you can only choose one or the other, you'll probably enjoy snorkeling more than a dolpin swim.

i'm excited for you - have fun! :)
 
I'm afraid I know nothing about Nassau but have been swimming with Dolphins in NZ and I'd say its defintely worth doing.Maybe even a life changing experience.I've also had them come play when Scuba diving and its the only time in my life I've used the word awesome,the youngish women I was diving with emerged screaming at the top of her lungs "thats way better than sex".Go for it moneys only money.:D :D
 
i'm from the Bahamas and its worth it. i've never been to the dolphin experience in nassau but the one on Grand Bahama Island is good....u will enjoy yourself....just dont drink, water might make u wizzy;)


Bless
 
I haven't done a dolphin swim but I don't imagine if I did I would ever look back and say, "well that was a waste of money". Even if you have to pay a bit more than you were hoping I wouldn't say it was money poorly spent. How many times was your cell phone bill $20 more than you expected, or your electricity bill? Not really memorable experiences (though electricity is nice) whereas $20->50 extra for swimming with dolphins would, in my opinion, be definitely worth it.

By the way, have you seen Open Water? :D
 
Peterkro said:
I'm afraid I know nothing about Nassau but have been swimming with Dolphins in NZ and I'd say its defintely worth doing.Maybe even a life changing experience.I've also had them come play when Scuba diving and its the only time in my life I've used the word awesome,the youngish women I was diving with emerged screaming at the top of her lungs "thats way better than sex".Go for it moneys only money.:D :D
Click to expand...

they're young, there's hope for their sex lives still. ;)
 
iBlue said:
what hotel are you staying at? often times they can point you in the right direction. there are tons of activities to do there, most of which can be planned "last minute". if this is a cruise you can still get a lot of recommendations from them too.
dolphin swim? i'd recommend it (if for nothing other than the pictures) and DEFINITELY go for a snorkel or a dive if you can pull it off. rent one of their underwater cameras too if possible, you'll thank yourself later. if you can only choose one or the other, you'll probably enjoy snorkeling more than a dolpin swim.

i'm excited for you - have fun! :)
Click to expand...

We're taking a Royal Caribbean 3-day cruise to Nassau and CocoCay. Just a little trip for our 3-year anniversary. The only dolphin activity through Royal Caribbean was an "encounter" where you just feed and "dance" with them. (for almost the same amount of money as the swim I found!) We want the foot push.

We can definitely do both. I already signed us up for snorkel rental in CocoCay. CocoCay is their own private "resort", so their activities are limited which is why we *need* to do the swim in Nassau. And yes! We have a underwater camera casing for my boyfriend's Canon that we've been looking for an excuse to use.

Thanks for the advice! :D
 
neocell said:
I haven't done a dolphin swim but I don't imagine if I did I would ever look back and say, "well that was a waste of money". Even if you have to pay a bit more than you were hoping I wouldn't say it was money poorly spent. How many times was your cell phone bill $20 more than you expected, or your electricity bill? Not really memorable experiences (though electricity is nice) whereas $20->50 extra for swimming with dolphins would, in my opinion, be definitely worth it.

By the way, have you seen Open Water? :D
Click to expand...

Thanks for putting that in perspective! Swimming with dolphins doesn't just happen everyday, unless you're Jacques Cousteau!

P.S I'm not Jacques Cousteau, by the way. I wish I was. That would rule.
 
selloutvixen said:
We're taking a Royal Caribbean 3-day cruise to Nassau and CocoCay. Just a little trip for our 3-year anniversary. The only dolphin activity through Royal Caribbean was an "encounter" where you just feed and "dance" with them. (for almost the same amount of money as the swim I found!) We want the foot push.

We can definitely do both. I already signed us up for snorkel rental in CocoCay. CocoCay is their own private "resort", so their activities are limited which is why we *need* to do the swim in Nassau. And yes! We have a underwater camera casing for my boyfriend's Canon that we've been looking for an excuse to use.

Thanks for the advice!
Click to expand...

Hope you have a ripp'n good time.
 
MongoTheGeek said:
Don't know... Dolphins are well endowed and extremely frisky.

I thought about doing when I went to the bahamas but that was the most popular shore excursion and was fully booked before I could get to the concierge.
Click to expand...

There was a guy here in Britain who was done for having sex with a Dolphin and a women (Brit) just got married to one in a Red sea resort.Google will find if your interested.
 
Hi
Whatever else you ever do with your life, if you have the chance to swim with dolphins, just do it!! It is such a major life-changing/enhancing experience and so well worth it. And the cost? Hey, it's only money and there is little else that you could spend it on that will match it in lasting quality. The remark from Peterkro's girl-friend of how it was way better than sex could so well be correct. I did mine (dolphin-swimming, not sex) in NZ and it was truly awesome. Maybe a bit like sex, until you've done it you cannot begin to understand how God has invented such good things for us to do.
Good luck with the hols in any event and ---- why not let us all know how it went when you get back?
 
I did it in a somewhat more controlled environment, perhaps, in the Florida keys. That is, it was at a nature sanctuary in a large open pool of water vs. being in the open water.

It really was a fantastic experience - we first did a group swim with the dolphins, where they (there were 2 of them) swam around the group and you were able to touch them and swim alongside of them. It was amazing how big they were - much larger than I had imagined.

After the group swim we did a one-on-one thing, including "dancing", plus they pulled us through the water by their dorsal fins, which was fun.

One interesting fact that they told us that I didn't know what that they won't allow pregnant women to swim with the dolphins. Not because they're afraid she'll get hurt but because the dolphins would be fascinated by the fact that they detect two heartbeats from one person, and no one else would get any attention!

I'd definitely advocate doing it if you can. It's a lot of fun and an amazing experience to be around these incredible animals.
 
UKnjb said:
Hi
The remark from Peterkro's girl-friend of how it was way better than sex could so well be correct.
Click to expand...

umm maybe I should point out she was a dive buddy and not my girlfriend(half my age) she had however done a thousand dives in the area and never seen it happen before,something I'll never forget.
Incidently the swimming I did at Kaikoura was in the open sea with a pod of about one hundred Dolphins.
 
I went for a swim with the dolphins in Jervis Bay two summers ago. Not an organised tour or anything, I just popped out for an early morning swim and the dolphins were there surfing in the glassy-smooth waves. It was great, nobody else around for miles and the dolphins were just zipping up and down the coast, babies in tow.

Baby dolphins are cool.

I didn't want to get too close in case the bigger ones got protective and I know that there's some distance you're supposed to maintain from wild dolphins but that's kinda hard when you're splashing around in the waves and suddenly there's a pod of 20 or 30 dolphins in the waves with you. Scared the living crap out of me at first cause I thought they were sharks (down here, if it's big and swimming, it's either me or a shark) but realised they were dolphins and just soaked up the experience that people pay hundreds of dollars for anywhere else in the world.
 
I’m going to the Bahamas in February with my boyfriend, and we were looking into doing a dolphin swim. I found one particular company www.dolphinencounters.com that looks to be the best experience in Nassau (the only "public" island we're visiting, so it would be our only place to look for dolphin swims) we’d like. It is a little on the expensive side; 165.00 USD for about a 30 minute swim and boat ride to the encounter. (includes “dancing”, “hugging”, and a foot push)
Click to expand...

Im assuming these are wild animals in which I find it sad that the owners are promoting physical interaction with the dolphins.

I went Dolphin swimming down in Kaikoura (south island of NZ). Water was freezing even in a wet suit. It was some time ago but sure its good fun.
 
It depends. I think you need to get more details about the place that allows you to swim with the dolphins. My wife and I did it in Jamaica, and it was a WASTE of money. You had about 10-15 people watching you and you really were not swimming with them....just in the water trying to get them to do a few tricks that the instructor wanted done. They would not let me take any pictures or video or get anywhere close enough to do that. They then charged about $25 for a 5X7 pic of my wife with a dolphin. The video was worse...they wanted $30 for a 10 minute DV tape.....which I refused to buy because I had my own DV camcorder and they wouldn't let me use it. But of course they did not tell us any of this until we had already paid them for the services before changing into our swimsuits and getting ready to go out there. I was pretty pi..ed off about it.
But my wife still looks back on it fondly, b/c it was something she always wanted to do.
 
Jovian9 said:
It depends. I think you need to get more details about the place that allows you to swim with the dolphins. My wife and I did it in Jamaica, and it was a WASTE of money. You had about 10-15 people watching you and you really were not swimming with them....just in the water trying to get them to do a few tricks that the instructor wanted done. They would not let me take any pictures or video or get anywhere close enough to do that.
Click to expand...

This place looks different than what you seemed to have experienced. We found a bunch of "encounters" where you just pet and feed them, but this one lets you do the tricks, the feeding, and the foot push. (where you lay on your stomach and a dolphin pushes on each foot and stands you up in the water) It also looks like you can take all the pictures/video you want, but everything is going to get soaked and they can't take liability if your equipment gets ruined.
 
UKnjb said:
Hi
Whatever else you ever do with your life, if you have the chance to swim with dolphins, just do it!! It is such a major life-changing/enhancing experience and so well worth it. And the cost? Hey, it's only money and there is little else that you could spend it on that will match it in lasting quality.
Click to expand...

True. Money is only as good as what you do with it. :D

UKnjb said:
Good luck with the hols in any event and ---- why not let us all know how it went when you get back?
Click to expand...

I will! I'll make sure to post pics when I return! I think we've decided to go for it if there's spots left.
 
selloutvixen said:
Bottom line: Is it really worth it? It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I know it will be a lot of fun. We were looking to stick to a modest budget, but we might have to splurge for this if it’s really incredible. Has anyone dealt with a company in Nassau other than this one that's really great? Opinions?
Click to expand...

It's 100% worth it. My wife and I got married in Nassau and went to this (same place) 2 days later. I was sick as HELL (cold) and still did it. It was so much fun that I completely forgot about being sick while I was there. Just don't bother with all the little knickknacks they sell afterwards (photos and whatnot) they're too expensive. But the actual swimming with the dolphins was killer. They're so FAST and GRACEFUL!

The foot pushing was awesome. I suggest you surprise your boyfriend and when you leave the water, do your best Superman impersonation.

100% Worth It!


pknz said:
Im assuming these are wild animals in which I find it sad that the owners are promoting physical interaction with the dolphins.
Click to expand...

You are incorrect. They are not wild. They are highly trained dolphins.
 
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