Marineland Dolphin Adventure — Attraction in Marineland

I have metastatic cancer and wanted a special experience for my kids. I am ultimately happy they got the experience. I’ve read dolphins are really good for people facing serious trauma, as my kids obviously are.

…. but there were some downsides that the company could have mitigated and improved by the company, and I think should have been at this price ($650 to offer this to my children).

Lightning delay right at time to start— we were left inside a crowded room inside with nowhere to sit or distance ourselves—— not ideal because I’m immunosuppressed and have physical disability from metastases. Ended up on the concrete floor. Fairly painful… when we came up, finally at 2:30, they decided to have us wait another half hour for the 3:00 group to come and get ready.

This greatly increased the size of our group, though we had booked aiming for a smaller group.

It felt like we got a worse experience in return for our patience and the loss of so much of our time, and increase in the risk profile for the activity over what we booked.

Most companies would have tried to do something to make it worth it. They cannot control the lightning, but they can control what happens during the delays and how they respond to them from a customer service perspective. They also can control whether they made us wait longer than the weather made necessary, and whether they combined our groups with others. (The wait meant we had to get out and wait again for another lightning strike we would not have been impacted by if we started immediately.)

The other people in the experience were generally upset about it. A few left.

Our trainer was fantastic. I forget her name but she had a splint on her leg. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and energetic.

My daughter was amazed with the experience, though I had to talk her out of leaving at multiple points to get there. Her smile was worth anything. My son was really sad to miss out on the swimming but loved touching the dolphin. Time for each of us was very limited by the massive size of the group. It definitely would be superior to go when the group can be smaller, as you get a little extra time with training type activities after the minimum promised check list after that is completed, up to 30 minutes.

I was definitely disappointed my youngest couldn’t do a dolphin swim because he has growth hormone deficiency and wasn’t 48” yet. (Just an inch short)

The cost for the dolphin encounter is too high compared to the royal swim for what is offered. He is a very strong swimmer and older than other kids doing the swim. He absolutely would have loved swimming with them and I didn’t see anywhere that inch would make a difference. I don’t know if I will even be alive to bring him back later, unfortunately.

The gift shop ladies were very nice, too.

We didn’t see much to see outside of the experience, although we didn’t have a lot of time to look after being sequestered for so much time and having to go through and select the photos we pre-bought rather than just getting them.

TIPS: If you book, wait to book day of, not in advance, so you can make sure no lightning (even if day is sunny) and can make sure you get a smaller group.

Know that there’s not a lot of extra or thought put into customer service.

Admission is not worth it without a paid dolphin encounter.

Dolphins are still really cool and they do have dolphins.

Hope this helps others have a better experience for the price. Without a rain delay I’m sure it would have been...

Marineland was first conceived by W. Douglas Burden, Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney, Sherman Pratt, and Ilya Andreyevich Tolstoy (grandson of Leo Tolstoy) as an oceanarium that could be used to film marine life. A site was selected on the Atlantic Ocean south of St. Augustine, eventually known as the town of Marineland. The site of Marineland is within a 20,000-acre (8,100 ha) grant given to London barrister Levett Blackborne in 1767. The well-connected Blackborne, grandson of Sir Richard Levett, Lord Mayor of London, never settled his grant (nor even visited Florida), and eventually Blackborne's plantation was regranted to John Graham, a Georgia Loyalist fleeing the Revolutionary War.[4] Ultimately, the land that is today Marineland was broken up over the years into smaller parcels.[citation needed]

Financing and construction presented challenges as Marineland was the first attempt at capturing and sustaining sea creatures. These challenges were overcome. Construction and engineering were carried out Arthur Franklin Perry Co. of Jacksonville. On June 23, 1938, "Marine Studios" (the name "Marineland of Florida" would later be adopted) began operations with its main attraction a bottlenose dolphin. Unexpectedly, over 20,000 tourists clogged Highway A1A to visit the new attraction. For many decades Marineland consisted of not only the oceanariums but several amenities including a motel (Marine Village Court, Marineland Motel and Quality Inn/Marineland); Dolphin Restaurant and Moby Dick Lounge; Periwinkle Snack Bar and Sandpiper Snack Bar; Marineland Marina; plus fruit shop and gift shop; and a pier at the north end of the facility. A Texaco service station was adjacent to the Periwinkle Snack Bar, and Greyhound Bus Lines stopped regularly during its St. Augustine to Daytona Beach run.[citation needed]

The total property area consisted of 125 acres (51 ha) sandwiched between the Atlantic Ocean and the Intracoastal Waterway. Originally planned for the St. Augustine area, residents of that community did not look favorably on the attraction being located there; thus the new site south of Matanzas Inlet was chosen. It is also said that Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney chose the upper east coast of Florida due to the less frequent occurrence of hurricanes compared to other parts of Florida.

There were two large tanks as the center piece of "Marine Studios" or as they were known as a Marine Studios coined name, oceanariums. Visitors upon entering would encounter the circular oceanarium from the south. The circular oceanarium nicknamed circ tank by staff was the home of dolphins and sometimes some groupers and pelicans. The circular oceanarium held 400,000 US gallons (1,500,000 L; 330,000 imp gal) of water circulated at 3,000 US gallons (11,000 L; 2,500 imp gal) per minute. This oceanarium was also 12 feet (3.7 m) deep and 80 feet (24 m) across. with some rocks laid in on the sandy bottom. The rectangular oceanarium, nicknamed "the rec tank" by staff, held 450,000 US gallons (1,700,000 L; 370,000 imp gal) of water circulated at 2,500 US gallons (9,500 L; 2,100 imp gal) a minute. This oceanarium was home for an assortment of fish both local and tropical, sharks, eels, turtles and other marine life. Its tank was 100 feet (30 m) long and 40 feet (12 m) wide at its widest point and required two cables, bolted to the walls, across the topside to assist with...

I’ve done various dolphin encounters throughout my life, but I have never had such a difficult customer service experience as I did here at Marineland, St Augustine. I made sure to review ALL of the requirements prior to purchasing the experience, and it did not say anywhere that a parent was required to be on the premises if you are under 18. Upon check in, we were informed that a parent needed to be on site to sign a release form even though it was previously signed online. I am 7 days away from my 18th birthday and asked if my mom could confirm on the phone via face-time or any other way seeing as she was almost 45 minutes away. We were denied so my mom made the drive there and no papers were required for her to sign as told. Instead, she was given a wrist band and told she had to stay for our Royal Swim experience, despite the fact that release forms were signed online and again it does not say this anywhere online. On their website, it says “participants between 48” and 54” must be accompanied by one paying participant over 18.” And another requirement that said a parent was required if under 10 y/o. Neither of those were applicable to our situation. At the very bottom of our confirmation email it did say that “each participant must fill out a reliability release form at check in. A parent or guardian must sign for anyone under 18 years of age.” This was written in small font discreetly and was not seen until after this whole situation. Regardless, I would assume that meant that the forms online would need to be signed by someone over 18 which my mom did. I’ve done many encounters at other higher quality locations that did not require any of this in the first place, but I understand that you must abide by each company’s rules. However, those rules should be clearly stated so that these situations are prevented. I also tried to call several times in advance to confirm that we were okay to come without a parent, but no one answered the phone or called us back. The front desk staff was also not accommodating whatsoever or apologetic. It was very unfortunate that the girl we dealt with at the check in had such a sarcastic attitude and was not willing to help or explain. With all that being said, the encounter was fun and the trainer made sure it was a pleasant experience. I am disappointed in the customer service, but I did enjoy my time with the dolphins. I still say to not waste your time / money at this establishment and spend your money else where for the reasons above and if you are not participating in an encounter there’s not much else to do. The dolphins were great and had no part in the negativity, but the interactions at the check in were ridiculous. With the Royal Swim, the photo package cost $49 which I was happy to purchase, but the photos were horrible and the “photographer” was not on her game or paying much attention which likely contributed to the disappointing outcome. I was also unaware that some of the dolphins were bred at the park and they aren’t all rescues who are unable to survive on their own in the wild. Personally, I do not support breeding in captivity so keep that in mind as well before purchasing tickets. If you’re ever in The Keys, I highly recommend Dolphin Connection at Hawks Kay for an exceptional experience that you will...