Dolphin Discovery Costa Maya — Attraction in Quintana Roo

We pre-purchased the Royal Swim package (dolphins, manatees, and VIP buffet). When we checked in, they up-sold us the photo package, which included taxi fare for the way home.

The trainers and photographers were great, and it was amazing being able to spend time with the dolphins and manatees.

Afterward, we went to the VIP buffet. The food was cold and flavorless, and there were very few choices. The only good thing I can say about it was that the waiter was very friendly and made good drinks.

When we went to get in the taxi to go home, the driver refused our ticket because it was wet and had split at the perforation. We used the lockers provided and kept our ticket in it with our dry clothes, but it got wet when we were changing.

I went back inside to get a new one and they refused, saying that we should have been more careful with it. They had been so friendly when we checked in but when we were discussing the ticket, their attitude towards us had completely changed.

I understand that some people might try to reuse a ticket for a free ride, but we had only been at the park for a short time and they could see by the time on our bracelets that we obviously couldn't have had time to leave the park, return and be leaving again. Plus, it's a water activity, maybe a tiny paper ticket isn't the best thing to use. They wrote on our bracelets with a sharpie that we had the upgraded package, which was enough proof to get our pictures, but not enough proof that we had the taxi ride too. We left feeling like we were scammed.

Also, when we were walking down the dock back to the changing rooms, we saw one of the dolphin pens had a lot of garage floating around in it.

We spent the rest of our time there walking around the beach. There were plenty of chairs and hammocks.

Beware of the free tequila samples at the bar on the beach. We did some research afterwards and found that the company listed on the bottle we bought...

4-20-22

This was fantastic.

Broken into groups of maybe 10 folks. You are given a life jacket and instructed on safety and the 411 of what will go on. You are assigned a locker if needed for your stuff. You are then taken to the swim area.

The instructor will show you how to interact with the dolphins and the use of hand signals (splashing, waving, etc). You will be able to touch them here as well. This includes touching their nose, holding their fins, feeling their smooth skin. The part that everyone loved, including myself, was riding/being pushed by the dolphin. You get to grab their fins and they pull you. The next go-round they push you by your feet while you are on a boogie board. The dolphins are very powerful swimmers and they could pull/push even folks well over 200 pounds (I wondered about the larger folks in our group and couldn't believe the dolphin could accommodate). It is impressive at how fast these creatures will move you.

Pictures is the downfall here. If you bring someone who isn't participating, they are able to view the shenanigans and snap pictures. If not, you have the option of purchasing pictures, with different packages available. There is a computer room where you can view your pictures, select whatever you want, and then purchase. Of course they are expensive and this isn't my qualm with it as I expected these to be expensive. The computer area was too jammed with folks. The process to download your photos was a tad tedious and could be a tad more simple in some way. If they could simplify this process, this would make for a better experience.

This is a 5-star outing in fun and is a really neat experience. But if they could make the pictures thing a tad easier, perhaps have more folks/registers/space helping, then I wouldn't dock it a star.

Fun. Do...

My Swim Adventure with dolphins was GREAT. But, there were lots of issues to get us to that point ...

1. You could only book through Royal Caribbean and not directly with DDCM.
2. We had a party of 9 people total (6 adults, 3 kids). The kids are not the best of swimmers yet, so we opted for them and one of our adults to do the Encounter instead of the Swim Adventure and booked tickets through Royal Caribbean, as instructed.
3. Day of when lining up to walk over to DDCM from the ship, we were told EACH kid needed an adult, not just one adult for all three, and that it was not possible for those adults doing the Swim Adventure to accompany the children for their Encounter because they both happened at the same time and the groups were split up.
4. Once we frustratingly assigned an adult to each child for the Encounter and I was in the pool for my Swim Adventure, I discovered that you COULD intermingle Swim Adventure and Encounter participants, as one of the participants was a child doing the Encounter with the rest of their family that was doing the Swim Adventure ... Thus, our reshuffling of adults was FOR NOTHING and some of our party lost out on the Swim Adventure because of it.
5. I was told afterward by one of the adults that went with the kids that they didn't get to do all of the same things with the dolphins that others in their Encounter group got to do ...
6. All of this was described to the staff at the photo purchase shop in hopes of some kind of discount for our trouble, but no. Nothing was offered. And, the photos are expensive ($200 for a handful of pictures of just my kids) with no way to take your own, since phones must be left...