Dolphin Experiences!

If swimming with dolphins is on the to-do list for your visit to Orlando, Florida, you should know that you have several options for a unique experience. Here we touch on the special locations throughout Orlando that offer a safe, intimate interaction with one of the ocean’s most intelligent, social and playful creatures: the Atlantic bottlenose dolphin.**

SeaWorld’s Discovery Cove

For an intimate, unforgettable encounter, Orlando’s Discovery Cove offers a unique swimming-with-dolphins experience in a private lagoon. Guests, accompanied by a trainer, are given a 30-minute interaction with a dolphin that includes petting and playing with the dolphin as well as a dorsal fin tow-ride through the deep end of the lagoon. Advance reservations are required, and the base price for Florida residents is $220, while it’s $230-350 for non-residents, depending on weekday and time of year. However, that price includes food for the day, wetsuit and snorkeling equipment, free rein of Discovery Cove’s beaches and swimming areas, and a 14-day admission to SeaWorld. Participants in the dolphin swimming experience must be at least six years old and accompanied by an adult. Extra encounters, such as feeding rays or swimming with sharks, require an additional fee.

6000 Discovery Cove Way, Orlando, FL, USA +1 407-513-4600

Disney’s Epcot

At “The Seas with Nemo and Friends” exhibit in Epcot Future World theme park, up to eight guests can participate in the Dolphins in Depth program each day. The backstage tour includes a three-hour presentation about the bottlenose dolphins that call Epcot home, the marine research programs Disney supports, and a private in-water experience that allows guests to pet and take photos with the dolphins. Participating in the Dolphins in Depth program requires a reservation, which can fill up quickly, and you should check for any restrictions in seasonal availability. Participants must be at least 13 years old, and the price is $199 per person.

200 Epcot Center Dr, Orlando, FL, USA +1 407-824-4321

Marineland Dolphin Adventure

Marineland of St. Augustine, Florida, which is about an hour and a half northeast of Orlando, offers guests the opportunity to go swimming with the dolphins that call the world’s first oceanarium home. There are two interaction options for swimming with dolphins in both shallow and deep water, called the Discover Dolphins and the Immersion Program, each including an educational behind-the-scenes tour that highlights the animals being studied at Marineland. Reservations are required for all participants, who must be at least five years of age and accompanied by a parent, and prices range from $179-239, depending on the weekday and season.

Key West: Fury Water Adventures

Meet dolphin in their native habitat: wild and free in Key West's back country with Fury Water Adventures. On the tour, knowledgeable guides dole out fun facts about dolphin lifestyles as you watch them frolic in the boat’s wake. The tour also includes a chance to snorkel the Keys’ famous coral reefs.

Key West: Dancing Dolphin Spirit Charters

Be the dolphin on Capt. Victoria’s Dolphin Day for Humans charter. Specializing in “children of all ages,” the wilderness boat tour includes a snorkel tow on a “dolphin water massage board.” Wild dolphin often join “human dolphin” on their voyage into dolphinity.

Islamorada: Theater of the Sea

One of the highlights to this all-day Islamorada dolphin destination is a short boat ride on a “bottomless boat,” where dolphin perform in the open water at the boat’s center while passengers applaud from seats around the arena. Besides watching dolphin behavior, swimming with dolphins in Florida and a snorkeling cruise into dolphin habitat, the 62-year-old Theater of the Sea offers sea lion experiences, a beach, snorkeling with tropical fish and gardens filled with parrots, sea turtles and other native and exotic creatures.

Marathon: Dolphin Research Center

Paint with a dolphin? The Dolphin Research Center in Marathon adds an artistic twist to the dolphin experience. Participants collaborate with one of its 22 dolphins – some of them descendants of the 1963 Flipper movie cast – to create a colorfully abstract T-shirt that the dolphin decorates with water-based paints and a paintbrush it holds in its mouth. This and other encounter programs help the facility cognition and behavior, provide programs to military personnel and their families, work with people with special needs, and develop top educational programs for students of all ages.

Marathon: Hawks Cay Resort

Stay where dolphin live at this seaside resort. The Dolphin Connection has designed programs for kids and adults to interact with a pod of friendly bottlenose dolphins in the resort’s ocean fed lagoon. Whether you choose to jump in the water for a hands-on dolphin encounter, learn how to train dolphins or stand on the dock and admire fantastic aerial tricks, Dolphin Connection can tailor a specific program to meet your needs either individually or in a group setting. 

Key Largo: Island Dolphin Care

No child is left out from the dolphin experience in Key Largo, and Island Dolphin Care makes sure. It was developed specifically so kids with special needs could undergo the healing pleasure of a dolphin’s company. Programs range from half-day meet-and-greets to five-day “Dolphin Time-Outs.”

Key Largo: Dolphins Plus

Tiny tots can enjoy the dolphin experience at Dolphins Plus. Participants ages 3 years and up and at least 4 feet 6 inches tall can participate on their own (if they do not meet the height requirement, they must have a participating adult to hold them in the water). The Shallow Water Dolphin Encounter is a waist-deep dolphin interaction program where you can meet the dolphins up close and personal, while standing comfortably in waist deep water. You can experience interactive behaviors like body rubs, handshakes or kisses. All interaction is guided by a dolphin trainer, and one-on-one contact is guaranteed.

Miami: Miami Seaquarium

Here at the home of TV’s “Flipper” and erstwhile filming site for the show, you can make like Sandy and Bud and befriend a dolphin in either the Dolphin Encounter or the Dolphin Odyssey at Miami Seaquarium. Both are group experiences, last two hours and are prefaced with a learning experience. Don’t miss the Flipper Dolphin Show at this 50-plus-year-old classic Miami attraction.

Southeast Florida: Dolphin World

If you’re in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Key West or West Palm Beach and are looking for an easy, no-fuss dolphin adventure, book with this tour company, which specializes in dolphin excursions. Leave the driving and arrangements to Dolphin World. Your only worry: How to smile bigger than a dolphin in the photos that can be purchased at the end.

Everglades City: Everglades Area Tours

When it comes to getting close to wild dolphin, kayaking is the way to go. Everglades Area Tours makes quick work of getting you out into the raw nature of the Everglades by combining the use of horsepower and manpower. A mother boat transports participants to prime spots where they can paddle with the tides and currents back to point A. Along the way, a naturalist informs as birds, fish, manatees and dolphin put on a show. Trips can be customized for camping on deserted beaches, fishing or whatever your family pleases.

Fort Myers Beach: GAEA Guides

Estero Bay, the section of Intracoastal Waterway that separates Fort Myers Beach from the mainland, is known for its wild dolphin population. Chances are nearly 100 percent that a foray into the sheltered waters, part of the 100-mile Great Calusa Blueway paddling trail, will reward with a dolphin sighting. Connie Langmann, owner of GAEA Guides, takes kayakers – first-time or experienced – into these dolphinated estuary waters for an intimate paddle among the resident pod.

Fort Pierce: Florida Dolphin Watch

The East Coast’s Indian River is home to hundreds of dolphin that seek the shelter of the Intracoastal Waterway to feed and breed. The Dolphin Watch is a two-hour trip out of Fort Pierce that's limited to six people. It's a leisurely, educational experience where you'll be entertained by dolphin 90 percent of the time. Longer customized tours are available and can include lunch on a deserted island.

Tampa: The Florida Aquarium’s Wild Dolphin EcoTour

Tampa Bay boasts more than 400 dolphin, and Tampa’s Florida Aquarium takes you to where they and hundreds of birds live. Board a comfortable 72-foot catamaran for an hour-and-a-half narrated excursion. And just outside of Tampa, you can swim with dolphins in Clearwater.

Orlando: SeaWorld Adventure Park

Seaworld offers engaging shows where you get all wet if you’re sitting in the Splash Zone -- and from there, experiences with dolphin grow more intimate by the minute. Visit the Dolphin Nursery to learn how mom and calf interact. Sign up for the Dolphin Up-Close Tour, a walking tour experience they’ll be immediately texting their friends back home about. At SeaWorld’s waterpark, Aquatica, two awesome, enclosed tube slides send you speeding through a lively lagoon filled with playful, black-and-white Commerson’s dolphin.

Orlando: Florida Dolphin Tours

You’re in Orlando, but you’re craving a quick dolphin getaway to the Keys. Florida Dolphin Tours are the people to see for a two-day dolphin side-trip that includes round-trip transportation, accommodations, a two-hour one-on-one dolphin program, an airboat ride through the Everglades and shopping in Miami's Bayside District. If you’d rather snorkel with dolphin in the open, the tour operators can get you there.

Space Coast: Kayak tours

Adventure Kayak of Cocoa Beach, A Day Away Kayaking Tours and the Brevard Zoo all lead paddling excursions into the dolphin-full waters of the Space Coast’s Indian River and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. The ever-curious dolphin often come so close you can touch them.

Destin: Glass Bottom Boat Dolphin Cruise

Climb aboard the Destin-based, 80-foot Southern Star and prepare to do a lot of swivel-necking. Dolphin love jumping in the boat’s wake, but you never know where exactly they’ll surface next. You can sometimes catch them in their most playful mode, when the males are showing off for the females or tossing fish to mates. It’s better than a trained dolphin show because it’s spontaneous and unpredictable. You can bring your camera, but it often seems they’re laughing at your attempts to capture them. Kids especially love the ride because besides being able to see dolphins above and below the water, they get to drive the boat.

Panama City Beach: Gulf World Marine Park

Once you’ve seen Gulf World Marine Park's daily Dolphin Show, you’ll be hooked and ready to jump right in with these beauties. You’re in luck because in Panama City Beach, Gulf World offers various programs such as Trainer For a Day, Dolphin Day Camp, Meet and Greet, Snooze with Sea Life and Swim with the Dolphins, where you can see, kiss and swim with dolphins in Florida.