Swimming With Dolphins At The Miami Seaquarium
Who doesn't want to swim with dolphins? It was on my bucket list for many years, and now I had the chance at the Miami Seaquarium, a milestone in my life.
Looks like today will be a beautiful day, the delightful sun shined right into my face after opening the hotel blinds this morning. I could not wait to go to the Miami Seaquarium which was one of my main objectives for this trip.
Got all my gear together and I left for the front desk of the Clay Hotel. After I confirmed with the clerk I had to wait on the side walk for the bus to pick me up which supposedly would take me to the Seaquarium.
met this nice guy from Santiago, Chile at the Miami Seaquarium - swimming with dolphins
Surprisingly I was the only person going to the Seaquarium, since my hotel arranges all kinds of trips within Miami there were more people waiting to hop on some bus for another Miami adventure. After waiting at least 30 minutes after pickup time I started to wonder where to bus was.
Luckily the people that booked the City Tour could drop me off at the Seaquarium... because I was the only one I guess the must have canceled the bus ride without informing me.
the flipper show
Unfortunately I had to stick through at least half the City Tour before they dropped me off, this sucked since I already saw the City Tour 2 days earlier.
Once the bus got to Little Havana another waited for me to bring me to the Seaquarium as a curtosy from the touring company. Quite fun getting a private bus ride to the Seaquarium I can say.
cool lizards at the miami seaquarium
Once at the Seaquarium I was presented the options to pay $40 for the park or $240 to get the exclusive package which allows you to swim with a dolphin. Luckily the girl at the cashier recommended me a timeslot where not many people signed up for the dolphins. This was great so it wouldn't be packed once I got there.
The Miami Seaquarium was a great experience. I don't think it can compare to Orlando Seaworld though.
playing with dolphins
After seeing the Dolphin show (where they flimed "Flipper" the TV series) I moved on to the crocodiles & the Killer Whale show. It was funny to see that still people sit on the front rows when they know they will get wet as hell.
So eventually the whale aired out of the water and splashed the entire front rows and people started to complain about wet cell phones and wallets etc. LOL. I mean c'mon.
After the Killer Whale show I progressed to the Dolphin Harbor. It was finally going to happen, I waited a long time to swim with dolphins so you must understand my excitement. I reported to the lobby where I had to wait and met up with a very nice family from Santiago, Chile. These folks were on a vacation and also purchased the VIP package for the Dolphin Harbor... that must have cost a pretty penny for 4 adults. An instructor waited for us and showed us a DVD explaining all the rules regarding swimming with dolphins.
After the presentation the instructor brought us to the pool and we got dolphin instructors assigned. My luck reached its high when they separated me from the Chilean family and brought out a dolphin all to myself. The instructor explained that it was the low-season in November for Miami because usually they handle 5 to 10 people per dolphin. So now I got to enjoy the full 30 minutes with the dolphin alone which also allowed me to do some more random tricks.
It was quite funny when the dolphin took a piss right in front of me, maybe that is the dolphin way of greeting a human being...lol. Also cool to mention is that I got my own person photographer who worked for the Seaquarium this was great so I could have someone else record video on my own camera at the same time. Dolphins are very humble creatures. At one point I was up-side-down in the water moving my feet above water while the dolphin was flapping with its tail fin at the same time.
The dolphin also took me from one side of the pool to the other side and back while I held his dorsal fin. After the show we entered a quality dressing room with some great showers. After getting dressed I rushed to the photo desk to collect the pictures that were taken only to hear I had to pay another $60 for the CD, pricey but than again I won't be doing this every day. It stayed a bit too long at the harbor which caused the bus driver to be a little aggravated (once I got to the exit) since he still had to pickup the entire City Tour group but in the end all was well. The experience was definitely another milestone in my life.
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