Dolphin Swim or Dolphin Encounter

[mablinki]

We are scheduled to go on the Dawn on 8/28. I noticed that there is a Dolphin Swim excursion in Miami and a Dolphin Encounter in the Bahamas. Can anyone tell me which excursion is better or if they are basically the same. This is for my 11 year old daughter. Thanks in advance!

[rburns44]

Dolphin encounter you dod not get into the water. The dolphins come up and you get to pet them. Dolphin swim you are in the water and interacting with the dolphins. Swim is much better in my opinion.

 

Becky

[Karen Carney]

The swim is fabulous!!! It is worth every penny. You will never forget the dolphins and being in the water with them.

[MandyGirl]

In Nassau, you can book the dolphin swim (or encounter) directly with Blue Lagoon online. Our most recent cruise only offered the encounter in Nassau, but we booked the swim directly. That is definitely worth looking into. I thoroughly loved the swim, and hubby went as an observer for $20 taking lots of pictures. This is the same Blue Lagoon where the cruisers go that book through the ship, and on our ship, the ship prices were much more than booking directly... plus the only option was the encounter and not the swim option (which I wanted the swim and not the encounter).http://www.dolphinencounters.com/program.html

[kr64]

We did the Dolphin encounter in Nassau last summer, booked through the ship. You do get in the water with them, you are almost in a pool with them. You do not get to swim around with them, but you do get to interact - hug and dance with them. I wanted to to this rather than the swim - just in case my kids freaked out - I would have hated to waste all that money. But they loved this - and were great with the dolphins. If you are worried at all about your daughter getting scared, this is probably the one to go for. Maybe next time we'll try the swim - but this was a good beginning step for us.

[mablinki]

for such wonderful replies. I like the idea of trying to go outside of NCL to get a cheaper rate. This is really being planned for my 11 year old daughter so I'll ask her what she wants to do. Any other suggestions re: excursions would be appreciated. We leave on 8/28.

[vacationgogo]

kr64 is right. We also did the dolphin encounter and we were in the water with the dolphins. We had 4 kids, 12-17 in our group and 4 adults and we all loved it!

[donarubj]

Does anyone know how much time you need for the dolphin encounter at Nassau. I would be interested in this excursion but we are only there for a short time. Thanks for your help

[MandyGirl]

donarubj - The Blue Lagoon (Nassau) programs are coordinated with the ferry schedule. I would say to go off of the ferry schedule on this website to help determine your timeframe.

http://www.dolphinencounters.com/trans.html

For example: I did the 2:00 swim (which is the same time the encounters began) so we were on the 1:30 ferry from Paradise Island and back by 5:00. In fact, the first stop coming back was the ferry terminal on Paradise Island, then the ferry continued on to the ship docks in Nassau. They told cruiseship passengers to stay onboard, and we literally drove around the ships and were dropped off on the dock. Saved the $10 cab ride from Paradise Island back to the ships.