I have body surfed with dolphins a few times - no big deal just go to a beach with dolphins.
When I was travelling up the west coast of Australia, we dropped in at a little tourist place called Monkey Mia. They have tame dolphins that come to the beach and help extract money from the tourists. So the show starts - someone yells ‘dophins!’ and everyone on the beach rushes into the water. Sort of the opposite of yelling ‘shark!’.
The dolphin-guide-man has this bucket of fish and people are pushing in front of each other to get near a dolphin - maybe even get to touch a real wild dolphin - groan - so I am just standing at the back watching this symbiotic feeding frenzy and the dolphin-guide-man points to me and asks ME to feed and pat the dolphin. All these rude, aggressive, fucknuckle tourists who pushed were pissed off that some bloke standing at the back was the chosen dolphin feeder.
Wow, I wish I’d thought of that. And there are SO many dolphin-inhabited beaches in central Illinois!
Actually, going to a beach where there are dolphins (are there any on the Atlantic coast of central Florida (Daytona to Coco)?) is too random for my tastes. We may not see any, and even if we do it’s unlikely they’ll approach us.
Since I’ve got more time now I can tell you what Iris and I did at Discovery Cove. I also have a referral card that I can send you and they give you a free underwater camera, they also send us a $25 gift certificate. Just shoot me an email if you’d like it.
As Iris said it was for her birthday, we went down to Orlando, did a few things then on her birthday then went to Discovery Cove. When we got there they gave us an ID card that also doubled as a cerdit card. They then led us to the changing areas, gave us a wetsuit, which you have to wear, unless it’s warm out then they give you a vest. I think I would rather have the wetsuit unless it was really warm.
Then we were free to roam the park. They have a number of pools, one is a stingray pool where you are allowed to touch, and feed if you are there, the stingrays, and any other fish if you can catch them. The other pool is a reef, which is huge, and has some large rays and tons of different fish. They also have the river, which is fun to float around in. When the river goes through the aviary and some of the birds would come up to you. We had two that were trying to get bugs out of our wetsuits.
With the dolphins you did what everyone has already said, touched them, got shown some tricks, feed them, got to be pulled back to shore with them. I did enjoy it, but if I were to go back again I wouldn’t pay for it. Nor would I pay the extra for the birthday bouy and things like that. I would say doing it once was worth it though.
The rest of the day we went back and forth between the pools and then played with the birds. Most of the birds would eat out of your hands and even sit on your arm. They would also fight over who could eat. Overall the day was very relaxing. The people who worked there were all great as well, everyone was friendly and very helpful. I would much rather go back there then many of the other places in Orlando. I would suggest going in a down season though, even though they only allow 1000 people in, if you can get there with only 2-300 people it feels like you own the place.
Dolphins also have a tendency to use an erect penis as an arm; they’ll use it to pick up things and rub people with it. The latter has been known to cause confusion (i.e.: “I’m being rubbed with an erect penis! He must want sex!”).
With the 7-day pass to Sea World/Busch Gardens that they give you, can you use it that day? Depending on how early my dolphin experience ends, I might try to get in a ride on the Kraken before I head back.
I’ll have it sent out in a day or so. I used one of these cameras and it came out ok, kind of dark, but it was an overcast day. I couldn’t tell you when you are allowed to use the seven day pass, it might be that day, I don’t see why you wouldn’t be able to. I did ride the Kraken, very smooth, I liked it a lot. I think though that they only allow you to pick either Sea World or Busch Gardens, not both. You’d have to ask them though.
