Both my 12 year old grandsons and I visited Dolphin Discovery and had a fun, unique and learning experience doing the Dolphin Encounter. It is not necessary that you know how to swim to enjoy your visit. The time we spent in the water with the dolphin was fun and educational. The trainer had the dolphin perform several tricks with everyone in the pool. We got to really be in the pool with the dolphin and actually touch him. The dolphin was very sweet and talented.

My wife and I took our 14 and 16 year old granddaughters to spend an afternoon here. Got to play with a male stingray first, and then got to interact with Cappi and Darwin. The trainers did a great job of educating us about Dolphins while we interacted with them in a variety of ways. Great experience for everyone!

We swam with the dolphins at Dolphin Discovery and loved it. I know other reviewers recommend Dolphin Cove for it's natural setting versus a swimming pool setting, but we ended up doing Dolphin Discovery because our 6-yr-old could participate here, but not at Dolphin Cove. (She was 48" exactly). My husband, and two daughters (12 and 16) did the activity where they held onto two dolphins dorsal fins and were pulled along and then were pushed through the water by two dolphins (pushing against their feet). They loved it! Dolphin Discover does both still pictures and video of this program. I did the next program down with my 6-yr-old because she wasn't old enough to do that one. We still had loads of fun. We each rode on the tummy of a dolphin, holding it's side fins, and then laid on a boogie board and were pushed by a dolphin (pushing against your foot) through the water. Definitely recommend the 2-dolphin swim if you can do it! But the one-dolphin swim was very fun, too. We used a 20% off coupon in a tourist magazine we grabbed, so both programs were similar in cost (about $120 each with the coupon for the two-dolphin swim). The pictures are pricey! $199 for all the pictures from both groups, then you could add the dvd for $35. Well worth it though since any observers can't get close enough to get good pictures. There was lots of other interactions with the dolphins and we all agreed it was definitely a worthwhile experience! (even if it was in a pool instead of a cove) btw, the cost also included the basic fee to get into the turtle farm, which was right across the street . . . normally $18 I think. Or you could upgrade to the whole turtle farm package for an additional $15 after doing Dolphin Discovery. (Normally $45 if I remember right).

My wife has wanted to swim with a dolphin for years, so she finally got her wish. Since we had our five year old son with us, we opted for the low end package, which did allow us to get in the water with the dolphin and do some interaction, but no swimming. I would agree with some of the other reviews that the whole experience did seem rushed, but the trainer we were with did take time to answer questions. The whole time you are in the water they are taking pictures. When we were able to review the photos, my wife commented that they should have taken one of us as a family, which was met with the reply "it is against corporate policy". They should reconsider that policy.