Delphinus Punta Cancún — Attraction in Cancún

Delphinus Punta Cancun, located at the Hyatt Ziva resort, offers a well-organized dolphin experience, but there were several issues that made it less enjoyable than expected.

I visited on January 6, 2025, with my six-year-old son while staying at the Grand Fiesta Americana next door. When booking, we were told that someone would meet us at the Grand Fiesta Americana marina area to walk us over. However, no one showed up, so we walked to the Hyatt Ziva ourselves. When we arrived, my wife and son were stopped by security and told they couldn’t enter because they weren’t guests of the resort, even after explaining they were there for the dolphin excursion. I was able to find a staff member who eventually walked us to the right area, but this was an unnecessary hassle that could have been avoided with better communication.

Once we checked in, my son and I got ready while my wife was directed to a viewing area on the far side of the dolphin pool. We were told at booking that she could stand near us to take photos, but once we arrived, we were told otherwise. This seemed less about resort policy and more about pushing their professional photo sales. The cost for pictures was excessive—$189 USD for ten photos and over $200 USD for all photos.

The actual dolphin experience felt very short. We booked the “ride” package, which was supposed to include 15 activities plus a ride. While the ride itself was fun, it lasted about ten seconds. The other activities were also brief, including splashing, swimming next to the dolphin, a kiss, and touching them. We were also offered extra activities for an additional cost, which wasn’t mentioned when booking.

After returning home, I received an email offering to buy photos online. I purchased one for $31 USD, but when I got the download link, it was the wrong picture. I contacted them to fix the mistake, but they insisted it was the photo I selected, which wasn’t the case.

I’ve done dolphin experiences before that were included with catamaran trips, and those lasted longer with more time in the water. The pricing for photos at those locations was also much more reasonable.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this experience due to the short duration, the difficulty accessing the venue, overpriced photos, and poor customer service when trying to correct a...

We stayed at Krystal Grand Cancun, right across the Delphinus Punta Cancun location. As first-time visitors from Canada, we were excited for our son to experience riding on a dolphin.

First, we were not aware that they are inside the property of Hyatt Ziva. Their website doesn’t mention anything about sharing the area with the hotel and when we visited their store front, it wasn’t obvious that they’re only renting the space from Hyatt.

Before we bought the ticket, we asked the cashier (Elizabeth) if we can take pictures and film videos of our own. She said yes but the most important information she intentionally withheld from us is that they will only allow us to film from the bridge, which is awfully far from where my son and the dolphins are, making it impossible to capture any good pictures/videos. I specifically and repeatedly asked if we can have a good view and she said yes, which was not the case.

After the orientation, we were instructed to watch from the bridge because we are not hotel guests and can’t be anywhere else. We were not allowed to stand behind the rail of the pool where the activity was, which is outright gibberish. It’s not like we’re swimming in the hotel pool or sitting on their loungers! We just wanted to stand behind the rail where my son was but the staff rudely shood us away and told us to stay on the bridge, at high noon at 37 degrees Celsius without any shade!

After the activity, they sold us the photo and video package for $204 USD, which we felt compelled to buy because we had none of our own. The worst part of it all is that after we got home and accessed the photos and videos online, we realized that the video has very low resolution! The clip also included ALL the participants’ faces, which was purposely done to extend the duration of the video! I don’t need to see 4 strangers in the personal package that I paid for! The photos were also repetitive to inflate the number of shots!

This business is money-hungry and conceals a lot of information to generate more income. They don’t disclose the small details and employs a bait-and-switch tactic! Had we been told that we can’t take good pictures, we would have gone somewhere else. In our entire Mexico trip, this is the only place we...

I've wanted to swim with dolphins all my life, and on my honeymoon vacation to Riviera Maya, Delphinus made my dream come true. Unfortunately though, the experience itself was borderline boring and they wanted $200+ for twelve measley photos. Word of advice for anyone choosing Delphinus (aside from DON'T) is DO NOT buy the Couples Dream Swim. You spend $400 just to do exactly what all the other groups do, and since your are not in a group, they fill time by having the slowly dolphin swim around you for 1/3 of the time. The rest of the time is spent posing for photos that they will charge more (A LOT MORE) for. At the end of our swim when all the groups left, we just stood at the stairs watching the trainer work on a boring behavior. The real outrage came after we got out of the water and they brought us to the photo studio. Firstly, they do not allow you to bring your own camera, you HAVE to buy their photos, they know it, so they try to extort as much money out of you as they can. As if $400 for a subpar swim wasn't enough, they wanted to charge us an ADDITIONAL $200+ for photos. The packages were $220 for a 12-photo CD, $250 for all the photos (there were 90+) on a usb, or $300+ for all photos plus a photo book. We tried to work with the photographer and asked if we could get just 1 photo for $50 but they would have none of it. Pay an arm and a leg or go home was their motto it seemed. We returned to our resort disgusted and disappointed and upset. Luckily I was wearing sunglasses or the other tourists would have seen my tears. My dream finally came true and I didn't get to bring the memories home with me. These people preach saving the dolphins and the environment, but all they care about is extorting tourists for every...