Ocean World Adventure Park, Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. — Attraction in Puerto Plata

Booked an excursion here through a cruise line for the shark encounter. The description provided to the cruise line sounded like a lot of fun, but it was far from exciting. Once the encounter started, I was instructed to sit on the step with one of the 4 sharks to feel its skin and feed it a fish that had been ripped in half while a photographer took pictures. I then moved to the next person to give another shark a belly rub and give it another fish half with more photos being taken. The whole encounter was less than 5 minutes. For the snorkeling, I was told I could take my own underwater camera. The snorkeling area was covered, so sunscreen was not needed, that was nice. The shark exhibit only had 4 nurse sharks, and only 1 of them was swimming around a little. I was told the other 3 were lazy and they just stayed on the steps in the sun. While swimming around, a videographer followed me around. The “reef” in the tank was obviously fake, the coral was spray-painted neon colors, and you could see it was mostly just plastic props, many of which had fallen over. I Tried to get some photos of myself with the shark behind me in the water, but the videographer got in the way for most of my attempts. I imagine that was on purpose so I would buy their video. Snorkeling time was up in about 20 minutes. I checked the photos and video that they wanted $100 for. The photos (at least the previews) looked over exposed and the video had a lot of footage of my butt. I had to ask where the shark was in the footage, and they pointed out the shadow on the other side of the tank.

The description of what I purchased said waterslides were included, so after the sharks I rented a locker to put my stuff in to go on the water slides and do the other activities in the park. I was initially given a key to a locker that did not have a lock on it. While swapping locker keys I asked about my meal ticket, which had a time on it that was almost the same as my shark encounter time. I was told I needed to use it soon or they would no longer take it. After putting my change of clothes and wallet in the locker, I headed to the buffet where I found that a drink was not included. I asked one of the employees if they accepted payment by tap pay with a phone, I was told they did. After selecting a drink and waiting in line, I was told cash only, even though the card reader was sitting right next to the register and I had used a card to pay for my locker right before I walked over there. While asking if there were any free drinks included with the lunch, another customer paid for my drink. I double checked the description provided to the cruise line, no mention that drinks with lunch were an additional cost.

After lunch, I went through to see the birds, those were fun, lots of them landed on my arms and head. I looked at the snorkeling reef loop, but it was more fake plastic neon painted reef. There was an Iguana enclosure and the one Iguana I could see inside just looked miserable. I could not find a way to see the Sea Lions and the show for them that day was the same time as when I was scheduled for the sharks. I watched the dolphin show, it was nothing exciting, same ol tricks you see dolphins do everywhere. I attempted to do the waterslides that were included, but they were closed, and none of the employees I asked could tell me why. The only included water activity available was the inflatable slides which you had to walk over to the beach to get a life jacket from the beach before waiting in line to jump in and climb them. They did have a lot of places to rinse off and large stalls for changing clothes before you leave. On the way out, I noticed magnets in the gift shop with the name of the place in the shape of sea turtles. I asked the gift shop employee if they had sea turtles somewhere. There were none, and she also thought it was strange they sold those when they didn’t have turtles. The whole experience was not worth anywhere near the $150 I paid. Much better options for the money available that I should have done instead...

Ocean World was a lot of fun. There are plenty of activities to do. Shark, Dolphin, Sea Lion and Bird Shows, swimming with the dolphins, snorkeling with tropical fish and even a small water park with a few slides, a pool and a water trampoline. We were mainly here for the dolphin swim but checked out the dolphin show and the waterpark as well. The swimming with the dolphins was phenomenal. The trainers were very friendly and the dolphins were amazing. They do several different interactions with the dolphins but by far the coolest one was getting pushed on the foot by the dolphin while riding a boogie board. Very unique. They have several shops and a restaurant on premises as well.

There were a few things however which led me to give this 4 rather than 5 stars and I hope that the owners will take the constructive criticism well and make their park even better! So the most frustrating part of the park for me was the lockers. They are old school lockers which have a lock and key, the key has to be purchased from the upstairs bar. We had 50 people in our bus from the cruise and there were several other buses that came at the same time. Naturally, everyone went to try and rent a locker first. This caused a huge line at the bar for lockers which is cutting into your bar revenue since your staff were trying to reduce the line from the lockers. Additionally the lockers were cash only. You cannot use a credit card to rent one... For me, bringing cash to a water park is not the greatest of ideas and I only had a credit card with me. They do have an ATM but we waited 30 mins in line just to find out the lockers were cash only and I didn't want to go to the ATM just to wait on the line again so we kept our bag with us. It would be much better for the patrons, the staff, and even the owners if they were to invest in a modernized locker system that can be purchased via e-terminals, with cash or card in the locker area. This would also prevent a line at the bar for lockers which would increase your revenue from selling drinks since the staff would be free to serve the patrons vs working the locker line. And it would also increase your revenue from the lockers since more people would be able to purchase them with credit card and not have to wait on a long line. This also frees up the patrons time to do other events in the park or spend more money at shops and restaurants. I really feel it would be in yours, and your patrons best interest to modernize the lockers!

Lastly I have to mention my concerns about the water park. The slides are in desperate need of maintenance/repair. The stairs leading up to the slides are worn and have jagged edges that can easily slice your foot open and the slides themselves are leaking and have visible holes in the sides of the plastics of the slides. The plastic looks very thin and flimsy to begin with, once I saw the holes that was enough for me to not want to ride them anymore. Seems very unsafe.

The dolphins are the star of Ocean World. Definitely be sure to do the dolphin swim experience. They have a photo lab that takes pictures and videos during the encounter that can be purchased and sent to your email after. Swimming with the dolphins has been the highlight of the trip for me and the dolphins at the show were also amazing!

We wish that we had more than the allocated time we had to explore the other features of the park, but what we did was very fun. Thanks for an amazing day...

Worst trip ever! I don't believe all those fake reviews of five stars, about the staff they are most likely having the workers family or friends post fake reviews because it wasn't nothing as those comments posted here. My family and I had the worst experience ever, My family and I were disrespected by the staff not once but twice on the same date when we first went snorkeling with my 5 years old and the second time while we were heading to encounter the sharks my two, 12 years old daughters, my 5 year old son and my wife when that happened I proceeded to leave the park and requested my refund back WI will never ever head back to ocean World Dominican Republic the worst, also the staff was prejudiced towards my family and I. We couldn't believe this due to the fact that during COVID-19 we had visited once and the staff at that time were very polite and respectful never in our life we thought that we would be mistreated and abused by the staff there. And the worst thing that my sister was with us at the same time with her family and she saw what happened and she later called me and said you know the funny thing is that she asked the staff what had happened to see if they were going to say the truth she mentioned that the staff lied and said that we were trying to go to an area that we did not pay for when we had the bracelet for the shark and swimming with the dolphins on each of our wrist all of us. STAY AWAY DON'T VISIT OCEAN WORLD DOMINICAN REPUBLIC THE STAFF THERE IS PREJUDICE AND DISRESPECTFUL... VERY UNFAIR AND UNFORTUNATE WE HAD A BEAUTIFUL BLUE DAY TURN TURN GRAY BY THE STAFF THERE AT OCEAN WORLD. AND THE WORLD STAND IS THAT WHEN I WAS FEELING UP THE PAPER FOR THE COMPLAINT I TOLD HIM I'M VERY UPSET I FELL DOWN MY INFORMATION I SAID TO THEM I WILL FORWARD TO YOU VIA VOICE NOTE VIA WHATSAPP HOW UPSET I AM AND MY COMPLAINTS AND YOU CAN WRITE IT DOWN THEY NEVER CALLED BACK FOR AN APOLOGY I LEFT MY NUMBER I HAVE WAITED OVER A WEEK AND A HALF AND THEY ARE DISRESPECTFUL THEY DON'T CARE ABOUT YOUR FAMILY EXPERIENCE THEY JUST CARE ABOUT THE MONEY AND HOW MANY PEOPLE VISIT THEM STAY AWAY FROM OCEAN WORLD DOMINICAN REPUBLIC THE WORST EXPERIENCE EVER FAMILY FUN DAY AT THAT PARK TURNS GRAY AND SOUR WE WILL NOT BE STEPPING IN THE OCEAN WORLD EVER AGAIN. AND THE FOOD THERE THAT THEY GIVE YOU IS DISGUSTING THEY RUSH IT THROUGH THE PLACE SO YOU CAN GET OUT AND THEY CAN GET MORE PEOPLE IN NOTHING...