Realize Your Dream of Swimming with Dolphins in Florida

My love affair with these friendly creatures began when I watched the charming and intelligent ‘Flipper’ in the TV series named after it. I can say that I was besotted with dolphins my entire childhood years and dreamt of swimming with this fascinating animal. It was years later as an adult that my dreams came true.

There are numerous laws for the protection of these gentle creatures, making swimming with them in the wild an illegal activity. With their highly-laudable conservation efforts and education programs worldwide, Sea World has earned the approval of the US government to allow visitors access to dolphins. After hearing about this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, I started planning my trip to Florida, the Sunshine State. I couldn’t wait any longer to see a dolphin face-to-face and play with them up close and personal.

After a thorough research, I found out that Discovery Cove, a sister park of Sea World, has the best of facilities for interaction with dolphins. Discovery Cove is a theme park in Greater Orlando, Florida that allows visitors to interact with a variety of marine animals, especially bottlenose dolphins. Besides talk, touch, play and swim with dolphins, Discovery Cove visitors can interact with exotic birds, tropical fish, rays and land mammals.

Those who wish to play with dolphins need to schedule a reservation for the same. As only limited number of visitors is allowed for this program, reservation has to be done well in advance. Trained dolphin adventure guides conduct a safety orientation and information session for visitors before allowing them into the dolphin lagoon. Dolphin Swim Experience is a 30-minute interactive adventure in which small groups of visitors are allowed to enter dolphin lagoon accompanied by a trainer. They can hug and kiss the dolphin and give it a rubdown. Then, it is time for deep-water interaction with the dolphin, culminating in an exciting dorsal fin tow ride back.

To spend more time with dolphins, the ‘Trainer for a Day’ all-inclusive package is the best option. This includes spending a day at Discovery Cove with some extra benefits. In addition to experiencing the 30-minute session with dolphin, it allows an enhanced deep-water dolphin interaction. Other highlights of the package are private photo session with two dolphins, extra time with trainers, exclusive tour of the park, snorkeling in the Grand Reef, feeding birds in the Explorer’s Aviary and close encounters with other animals. The package also includes breakfast, lunch, snacks and beverages throughout the day. Visitors are given a Discovery Cove gift bag with a waterproof camera and trainer t-shirt.

For a dolphin-lover like me, the sole attraction of the day was swimming session with the dolphin. After dreaming of doing this for so long, my expectations were sky-high. I was apprehensive that my monumental anticipation of the event will let me down. But, I was more than bowled over by the experience and was not at all disappointed. It made me feel that all these years of wait was worth it.

After interacting one-on-one with an animal as intelligent as a dolphin, you will start treating other members of the animal kingdom with more respect. Even if they cannot speak and express their feeling like us, they too experience the same range of emotions as we, humans.

I am eager to go back to Florida and relive the experience one more time. I am saving up to fund the trip.