Dolphin Discovery Grand Cayman — Attraction in West Bay

BE AWARE!

Dolphins are a beautiful experience but the customer service experience in this place is TERRIBLE!

You can see a lack of communication between the sales management, dolphin trainer, and photographer. Prices of the pictures are only provided verbally. The “special offer” ends up in you paying so much more money than you expected, for less than they promised you.

Personally, me and my spouse paid $109 each one through Disney cruise, which offers a full swimming with dolphins and genuine bracelets provided by the team tour at the port before boarding the tour bus that will take us to the dolphin location. Once we got to the Discovery Dolphin location, the team tour claimed that there is a “special offer” that Disney cruise is not aware about. The “special offer” is $140 extra dollars that we had to pay at the Dolphin Discovery place before the swimming activity with dolphins starts. The $140 “special offer” includes a last minute orange generic bracelet, a package of digital pictures taken during the activity, plus a “Royal Swimming Upgrade” that gives you the opportunity of extra and different types of swimming with dolphins in comparison with the rest of the group of customers that didn’t pay for the “special offer”. The prices were always told by a few employees verbally, and they were charging $45 for ONLY ONE picture, and of course it makes you think that is less outrageous to pay the “full package”. Me and my spouse concluded: “this prices are extremely expensive, pictures are more expensive than the actual booked activity”, but we really wanted to keep a good memory of our first time experience interacting with dolphins. We noticed a constant “confusion” from the employees at Dolphin Discovery during their time filling up our receipt with a pen, writing down the amount of $170 instead of the $140 that they mentioned. Me and my spouse had to correct the employee 5 TIMES while by “confusion” he was writing the wrong amount in the handwritten receipt. Once the handwritten receipt was finally filled up with the “right” amount, they asked us to go inside of the office and pay for the “special offer”. Once inside the office the sales manager Sandra, took the handwritten receipt from us, charged us $140 and gave us ONLY the receipt that the credit card machine prints when you paid through the terminal. All this behavior from the employees, is something that I categorized as sketchy.

During the activity, the dolphin trainer was very bossy and very rude to me for no reason! I thought he was just having a bad day or maybe he was hungry and so in a bad mood. Photographer never mentioned to the dolphin trainer about the “special offer” package that me and my spouse already paid, even when we were the only two people in the group who paid for it and were wearing an extra bracelet. During the activity, me and my spouse realized that we were getting nothing special than the rest of the group during our activity. There was a boogie board swimming that my spouse and the rest of the the group did except for me. I told the dolphin trainer that I was missing a ride and abruptly he answered me: “no, you aren’t missing anything, it was a mistake that your spouse got the boogie board swimming”. I asked him why am I paying extra then? The dolphin trainer answered: “I don’t even know, my job is training dolphins”. Sebastian, the photographer was very rude as well, claiming that he is just a photographer and he didn’t know what were the sales office charging me. I was paying more and receiving less. I was upset because I felt: scammed, discriminated, and mocked. Sara, the sales manager was offering me a couple rides with the dolphins and with a more decent mood trainer as a compensation for the money that I already paid, but honestly it was so awkward enjoying anything in that place after this unpleasant issue. I would rather to obtain a full refund because this unpleasant situation ruined my whole experience and created a negative memory out of something that I was looking for...

Animals were great, people & equipment... not so much.

Thought we were paying for 2 of us with a dolphin (as in my opinion, the price was quite high). Turns out it's done in large groups, so you don't have any real one on one interaction with the animal. We did a package with 7 behaviors (touch, kiss, dance, smile, push on a boogie board and belly to belly swim... and maybe wave goodbye for the 7th). Price was very high and it amounted to 5-10 seconds for each interaction because it was a assembly line feel. The 5-10 seconds were just posing for pictures. You can't have your own camera/video pictures, because they then want to sell you their picture package.

As soon as you paid, no one told you where to go.... we asked where we should be, was told where we were was fine (at the front of the pool watching other groups) and someone would get us. Nope... we ended up just wandering up to the next group just in time to join. Otherwise, would have ended up waiting another hour to hour and a half. Quite disorganized and the only one that you could ask was a guy yelling (top of his lungs/singing) about buying a picture package.

Was given a ratty, cut up life jacket. After wearing it for a couple of minutes, the underarm started to scratch and irritate my arm. Asked for a different one. Was given an eye roll and told "don't you think you will be fine once your in the pool?" Showed him the cut plastic and he sighed and went to get a different one. Came back with one even worse (foam all coming out the front, missing buckles) and said "this is all we have left." and walked away. Put it on and same exact thing... the vinyl/plastic was jagged at the underarm. Ended up standing the whole time with one hand holding the vest down so it didn't cut me.

The underwater grate that we stand on had sharp edges and my BF kept getting scratched when we were standing against the wall.

Ritchie The Dolphin was cool, Carmen The Trainer was nice/funny and good with instruction with our group. Other trainers we saw really lost their patience with some people who were nervous, scared or excited. . Pros - you could tell the trainer really cared about the animal. The dolphin was well behaved and followed each of her commands. The trainer would calm people down or have them stop if they were doing something that stressed the dolphin out or not following the proper form/instruction.

Cons - Not worth the exorbitant cost. 2 people, maybe 1 minute of touch/interaction all told = $320. Then tag on the $150 picture package (which we declined and got barely an "K" before she walked away from us). Nearly $500 for a minute and a few pictures seems like robbery to me.

The equipment is old and ratty, boogie board we used had the plastic all peeling off from the top and the foam exposed. Assembly line feel, no story about the dolphin, how old, how long he has been there, etc. Set up in a 'just give us your cash' kind of way.

Bottom line - save your $ and swim with them someplace else. Go here for...

I never imagined I'd be writing such a review, especially after the wonderful start to our day next door at the Turtle Center. We arrived at Dolphin Discovery full of excitement, particularly my 6-year-old, who was practically bouncing at the thought of swimming with dolphins. Unfortunately, what we encountered was far from the magical experience we anticipated.

We were told about two available slots at 1:30 pm and 3:30 pm. Eager to secure our spot, I inquired about booking in advance. "No need," they said, "just come by 15 minutes earlier, and you'll be all set." Fast forward to us showing up at 3:10 pm, only to be met with the most disappointing news: the 3:30 pm experience was canceled because a group had backed out, and apparently, we were the only others interested.

This left me wondering: If their schedule was so flimsy, why not take bookings or at least contact details for updates? Why leave us—and more importantly, an ecstatic child—high and dry with no warning?

But the cherry on top? The staff's attitude. There was a complete lack of empathy or professionalism, which makes me seriously question how they handle the more significant aspects of their operation, like the care for their dolphins.

We came expecting a fun, engaging experience and left feeling completely disregarded. It's heartbreaking, really, to see your child go from the height of excitement to the depth of disappointment in a matter of seconds. And for what? Because a tourist attraction couldn't manage the basics of customer service or decency to give a heads-up about a cancellation?

Dolphin Discovery, you've not only lost our respect and patronage, but you've also left a sour note in what should have been a day filled with joy and wonderful memories. To anyone considering a visit, think twice. There are places that genuinely cherish their guests and the magnificent creatures in their care. Sadly, this isn't...