Why not much Buzz on dolphin excur????

[moody35179]

Why is there not much talk about the Dolphin excursion's? Wanted to do this with grandkids, but am worried that it's not worth it or bad. I see alot about the Stingrays, but not much on dolphins.

 

Would love some feed back. Grandkids are ages 8 and 4. Worried the Stingrays will scare them. I know there are two choices on the dolphins (Discovery and Dolphin Cove) is one better than the other? Or should we stick with the Stingrays.

 

Have never done either one before. Thank you for your feed back.

[wocheez]

I'm also interested in the dolphin excursions...would love feedback good or bad...thanks!!:)

[TurtleTagger]

There happen to be a few ports of call with dolphin captivity centers that I think may be cheaper than those on Grand Cayman.

 

Not so for a natural Sting Ray encounter, it is rather unique.

[mitsugirly]

I agree with the previous poster...you can find the dolphin swims at just about any port...some good, some bad. But the stingray adventure is not found everywhere. Especially when they are out in the middle of the ocean on a sandbar that you can stand in the water with them in their natural environment instead of an enclosed tank or area. :) That's just one of the big attractions here.

[cls711]

In my opinion, and just my opinion, most of the dolphin encounters outside of SeaWorld Discovery Orlando are just a little sad. I did one on the big island of Hawaii that was pretty good.

 

But.....about 8 yrs ago my young son and I did the dolphin encounter on Grand Cayman. I don't know if it's the same one that is running now or not. Our encounter went something like this......get on the bus, get off the bus, sit in orientation for 30 min that spends 25 min trying to sell you video and picture packages and 5 min talking about dolphins, wade in to very murky water, stand in a line, dolphins swim by and around, take turns kissing a dolphin for photo op, get out of water. At this point those who paid more for the more imursive dolphin interaction stay in water, eveyone else, out. (actual dolphin time 15-20 min total because that's how long it took to take everyone's photo) ....Next, wade into even murkier water for "touch pool" experince with some horseshoe crabs and a few rays (water was too gross for me to get in, we actually felt bad for the sealife in this shallow, dirty, brown, warm, stagnent water) stand in line to pose for another photo with crab or starfish, get out of water and go see parrots, stand in line pose for picture with parrot, go see monkey, stand in line pose for photo with monkey, back into orientation room to view 20 min video even if you chose not to buy it, (I refused to sit thru video I knew I was not going to buy and left the room with much frowning from personel) exit thru gift shop. Much more time allowed to "browse" in gift shop than to interact with dolphins. Wait, wait, wait for bus to take you back. We were, needless to say, very dissapointed.

 

For the record, I'm an easy, go with the flow, non complaining, non confrontational traveler. This place tested every one of those qualities.

 

On the other hand, I have been to sting ray city with many different tour companies on many different types of boats and watercraft and have never been dissapointed. Seeing creatures in their natural habitat who freely choose to come interact with you is an amazing experience every time.

 

Hope you find the right tour for you and your grandkids, I'm sure they will love whatever you choose because they get to do it with you!:)

 

Oh, and the rays are not scary at all!

[moody35179]

Thank you so much for all your comments. They help a lot. I believe we will by-pass the dolphins. I'm sure with the right guides we will enjoy the Stingrays as much as so many readers have posted.

 

Thanks again.

[lovevacadays]

We thought it was pretty lame and probably the worst dolphin encounter we have seen.

[GeorgeCuiser]

Not sure why all the negative talk, we went to Dolphin Cove and had a blast! I know that there are two in Cayman, we didn't go to the other park but I've heard some negative thing about the other park. That's why we choose Dolphin Cove plus we got to do two excursions in one day stingrays and dolphins.