Dolphin Encounter

[Melrandamom]

I am thinking of booking the dolphin encounter at Chankanaab. What is the interaction really like? We would love to to the Royal swim but our 6 yr old daughter is to young.

 

Mary

[Kiera99]

Hi Mary,

We did the dolphin Royal Swim with a 6 year old. We had a group of ten and did not want her excluded. She was a little scared and did not do many of the interactions. The dolphins are very well trained, and the 8 year old did the foot-push, and dorsal tow. The little one did the hand shake, dolphin kiss and had free time with the two dolphins.

The six year old can do the Dolphin Encounter, without any problems.

If you do a search, you will find pictures of the dolphin encounters. Crusin Grams has some great pics.

The DVD has just our group and is well worth the price. The six year old is in it.

Please feel free to ask me questions about our encounter.

ileen

[Kiera99]

We did the dolphin Encounter with a 6 year old. We had a group of ten and did not want her excluded. She was a little scared and did not do many of the interactions. The dolphins are very well trained and the 8 year old did the foot-push, and dorsal tow. The little one did the hand shake, dolphin kiss and had free time with the two dolphins.

If you do a search, you will find pictures of the dolphin encounters. Crusin Grams has some great pics.

The DVD has just our group and is well worth the price. The six year old is in it.

[Melrandamom]

Hi Mary,

We did the dolphin Royal Swim with a 6 year old.

 

How long ago was this? According to their site, it says that the minimum age is 8.

[JordanFam]

Our 7 year old just did the royal swim a few weeks ago (and she had just turned 7). When I initially looked into it, they said children under 8 could do it as long as they are good swimmers. No one there ever even asked her age or anything though. Once in the water, everyone is wearing a life jacket, and the only "swimming" you need to do is going to the middle of the encounter area to do the dolphin pull/push. It was a little scary at first, even for us adults, but as long as your child is pretty adventurous they should do fine.

[Kiera99]

They are not very strict about the age limit. It depends on your daughter. Either encounter will be a lot of fun for her.

We did it in August, 2008.

[familycruising4us]

Our 7 year old just did the royal swim a few weeks ago (and she had just turned 7). When I initially looked into it, they said children under 8 could do it as long as they are good swimmers. No one there ever even asked her age or anything though. Once in the water, everyone is wearing a life jacket, and the only "swimming" you need to do is going to the middle of the encounter area to do the dolphin pull/push. It was a little scary at first, even for us adults, but as long as your child is pretty adventurous they should do fine.

 

Just made my day! :) I have the dolphin swim reserved for myself and dd7 (just turned Nov 6th)and dd13. I was worried a bit, even tho she is 4ft tall and a good swimmer. Good to know she should be ok. :D

[Suni99]

what are the prices for this?

[JordanFam]

Just made my day! :) I have the dolphin swim reserved for myself and dd7 (just turned Nov 6th)and dd13. I was worried a bit, even tho she is 4ft tall and a good swimmer. Good to know she should be ok. :D

 

Oh yeah, she will do fine...especially with big sis with her. I thought I had posted these in my other post, but I guess I forgot. Here is pictures of my daughter during her dolphin swim.

[familycruising4us]

You all got me wondering, is there a platform we are on to start? Your 6 yr old did the "encounter" part, was it on a platform, is what I'm asking? :o

I have my 5 yr old and my husband booked for the encounter, but it's at 1, so we may not have time since we have to catch the last tender by 2:30. (Cozumel time, ship time 3:30)

Do you suppose I could ask if they could be a part of our swim but the 5 yr old wont do the belly ride?

[JordanFam]

You all got me wondering, is there a platform we are on to start? Your 6 yr old did the "encounter" part, was it on a platform, is what I'm asking? :o

I have my 5 yr old and my husband booked for the encounter, but it's at 1, so we may not have time since we have to catch the last tender by 2:30. (Cozumel time, ship time 3:30)

Do you suppose I could ask if they could be a part of our swim but the 5 yr old wont do the belly ride?

 

You could ask, but I am guessing that the "encounter is in a different area where the water is not as deep maybe. Yes, you are on a narrow platform which my 7 year old could barely stand on...it's about waist to chest deep water. How long is the encounter suppossed to last? Yeah, you might be cutting it really close. Plus it would be really cool if you could all be together....

[NOVEMBERCRUISER]

We just returned from the 5 day Carnival Inspiration sailing. We did the Dolphin Encounter at Chankanaab on Thurs. 11/20. We loved it!!! We were in the water for a full 45 minutes, even after the "training" talk. I have a 9 yr. old dd and 13 yr. old ds, plus dh. There is a platform made of chain link fence type material that you stand on. It can be difficult to walk on, but there is a handrail you're supposed to keep hold of at all times. And the lifejackets have a strap on the back that you can hold onto to help a small child. The water can get very choppy as the dolphin swims around. Our experience would've been 100% flawless but for one thing...my daughter got stung by a jellyfish during the encounter. The trainer told us the other fish in the enclosure eat the jellyfish, so the jellyfish hang out on the fence at the back of the platform (which you are supposed to lean against) There was a little girl next to us, probably 10 or so, who was doing the encounter by herself (mom was up on the dock) she told the trainer that the fence scratched her, and could she please get out. Trainer called the paramedics, who helped her out and sprayed white vinegar on it. then my daughter started complaining that she got "scratched" also. The trainer explained the jellyfish and said it happens to her all the time, but if you don't touch it the first 5 minutes at all, it will stop hurting. My daughter made it throught the rest of the program, and the paramedic sprayed her leg when she got out ( he said that's the best treatment, the vinegar) Needless to say, through the rest of the program, she did NOT want to stay back against the fence, so I just held on to her right in front of me. So......if anyone gets a "scratch" just don't touch it. My daughter stopped complaiing in about 15 minutes. The trainer felt sorry for her and let her feed the dolphin a fish!

 

We loved 4 of the many pictures they took and bought those. After much back and forth, she charged us $11 each. If you want to buy all your pics, its actually cheaper just to get a pkg, because the video is included. We didn't buy the video.

 

But, it was a great experience! We booked online and paid $237 for all 4 of us (3 adults and 1 child)

 

To familycruising4us...

I do think that would be too tight. Our program didn't even start on time. I would say overall, we were tied up for about 1 1/2 hour for the encounter, then another 15 minutes or so to watch your video (you are herded into a room to watch it right after...you could skip it, but if you have any inclination to buy it, its nice to be able to see it first) then time to look at and decide on pics, then time to buy pics (which took awhile, since the shop was crowded) I would hated to have been trying to enjoy my encounter but worrying about the time. For what its worth, we booked the 3:30 encounter, but we went straight to the park after we got off the ship. We went to dolphin discovery to check in and she said that they had slots available at noon (though when i booked 3:30 was all that was available) so we were able to go earlier.