My 8 year old daughter and I did the dolphin encounter on 12/9/02 It was a very chilly and rainy day and it was still the most AMAZING experience of our life!!!!!!!! It is a feeling that you cannot describe, almost like it is life altering. They gave us a full wet suit and that really made a difference. Our encounter was at 1:30 with LaToya and the day just seemed to fly. We spent 3/4 of the day with our faces under water while waiting for 1:30 to arrive. The stingray lagoon was so cool, they look as if they are flying under water. We were the only 2 in the stingray lagoon when it was feeding time so my daughter got lots of extra attention and really enjoyed feeding the rays. As far as the aviary goes I think we would have enjoyed it more had it not been raining, the bird and small animals were still out but not as friendly as they would have been had it been a nice sunny day. There was this Ibis that was so friendly, I turned around to find my daughter standing there smiling while this bird is picking at her teeth...... She thought it was the funniest thing.
It was finally time for our dolphin encounter, WOO HOO..... My daughter did the dorsal tow and I did a belly tow...... 30 minutes does not seem like a whole lot of time but you really do get alot of interaction with the dolphin..... I can't describe the feeling you get when you are looking into the eyes of this 500 lb gentle giant who has a permanant smile on her face..... INCREDIBLE!!!!! We are really considering booking this again for this December..... It was definately one of the few things in life that I can truely say is worth every penny we spent....... One thing that I would recommend for anyone taking younger children is to have them practice with a snorkle before you go it really paid off, my daughter shocked me with how well she did. She was able to stay under for about 5 minutes at a time.......
Thanks for reading by babbleing....