Dolphin Discovery

This was an absolutely incredible experience, when we will never forget, until we got to see our pictures and got the price. It’s pure robbery. $ 45 per person per picture our disc of maybe 25 pictures came to $ 480. My two sons and myself with the dolphin came to $ 145 for one 5×7. As I said great experience but at least we have the memories. I did get the CD of my two boys and the dolphins, took myself out in the price dropped by $ 300

Please be advised: do not pay the price for the adventure directly at the location, you can do better by bartering with someone upon arrival at the airport by spending a couple of hours for a timeshare presentation. Let me start by saying that I went there a week ago, and for my group, (8 people) we paid $ 50.00 (yes, for all of us), and we got the adventure package (8 tricks with 1 dolphin, speed boat ride and buffet)…
Let me say that they added another family of 4 to our large group, so it took over an hour, the employees there are really nice and polite. the dolphins too. especially our Poseidon.
Why then the 1 star??? because of the RIP OFF… they do not make you bring your camera, which is fine, and because for most of us might be the only experience, we would want to buy some pictures. WRONG… not all of us can afford the OFFENSIVE price they give you. Even after bartering hard, well, our experience? for my family of 4 the price asked for the family pic with Poseidon was $ 150.00. how come??? they charge $ 45.00 per person in the picture. Yes, you are understanding perfectly. if you have 5 children, the price will be $ 315.00. ahahahah. this is absolutely absurd. but true… and it is not even printed, and given to you with a cute paper frame like they would do at SeaWorld, but it will be a digital copy. so then you will have to pay for printing it, and occur more expenses. and wait for the best, this money will not stay in Mexico, but they belong to an American Corporation…
if you want to stop this ridiculous situation, stop buying pictures, and request a legit way of making prices. in America, if you go to Disneyland, and take a picture with Frozen, you do not pay per person in the picture, but for the picture itself, not matter how many people in it…

First off, the excursion itself was great. This review is for the service afterwards.
Went to dolphin discovery in playa deal Carmen of Wednesday, 22 June.
After the excursion, when you go to look at the photos, is when they tell you it will be $ 45 for one photo of one person, or $ 80 each for access to all photos. So $ 160 for the photos of my husband and myself.
I didn’t bring that much money with me, because why the hell would I think photos would cost more than $ 100? However, I wanted access to the photos because they didn’t let us take any of our own.
We were told that we could purchase the photos and leave money at the front desk of our resort and they would come pick up the money and leave our cd on Thursday 23 June at 8:00. They wrote us up a receipt, and we immediately left the money upon our return to the hotel that day.
The money was not picked up Thursday, nor was it picked up Friday. By Friday I was worried, we were leaving Saturday (which they knew and noted on our receipt). We tried to contact them via the phone number on the website, but twice it rang and led nowhere. I sent two emails, one to
and one to their comments section on their webpage. I did not hear back. I sent another email Saturday morning.
I waited to collect my money until Saturday right before we left the resort. I sent another email Saturday night when I arrived home, saying I was now home and asking them what they could do to fix the problem. I have not heard back.
Now I am home without my photos and with a shit load of pesos that I took out at an ATM specifically to purchase these photos. I AM PISSED.

I have to say, the experience was incredible, something I had on my bucket list for my entire life, we are a family of 4 and had an amazing time, the «one star» is for the pricing of the pictures… after the whole thing was over we went in the shop to look at our pictures, we were so excited, we couldn’t wait to get them! After learning that for a family of 4, the pictures would cost us over 600 dollars, we decided not to get them, is was outrageous and out of control, there was nothing anyone can do to change that… at the end we heard one picture would cost us about $ 45, we go to the guy and said ok, we want to get only the one with the whole family and the dolphin in our arms, guess what… that picture (because we’re a family of 4) would cost us $ 150!!! For ONE (did I mention 1!!!) Darn PHOTO!!! And to make it better, they don’t even give you a nice printed album with all the pictures or such, they give you digital photos, on a CD and they want all that money! We were not about to pay that price, not for the single picture, let alone the whole package, we were horrified and felt ripped off by this company. I have nothing bad to say about the people that work there, some of them do more than they should and probably don’t even get paid enough!!!

We purchased the swim adventure package. Overall it was a good day. Fun interactive experience with the dolphin. The trainer was excellent. However, the photos were extremely expensive. $ 46 for one photo was ridiculous. The boat ride was somewhat uneventful and the buffet was not very good. The waitress was good with the drinks

Ok I am going to give this Five Stars but with a caveat. and if you have read other reviews of this place im sure you have read the same thing. I paid $ 189.00 dollars for the Royal Swim that included 40 minutes in the water with two dolphins (I think we even got more time then that) free roundtrip van from downtown Cabo, lunch (nothing great hot dogs and fish sticks but held you over till diner, a camel ride that was fun for the kids, and a boat ride in the ocean that was awesome. I found the items in the gift shop do be reasonably priced and the staff helpful and friendly. The Dolphin Trainers were great and everyone in the group gets one on one play with the Dolphins. The Royal Swim comes with something called the foot push this is awesome I would recommend spending the extra money for the Royal swim as I don’t think the other packages come with the Foot Push. What is the Foot Push? you lay face down in the water with your legs spread and two dolphins come up behind you and their noses in the arches of your feet and push you, you will get air born and standing fully out of the water ridding on the two dolphins this was incredible. Great experience with a lot of fun and laughs.
Ok now for the pictures. They don’t allow you to take your phone or camera down to the water so taken your on photos will not happen, they want to charge you 860 pesos about $ 90 USD for the photo CD or for a single photo $ 48.00 USD, I as others in my group thought this to be way over priced, I realize that this is a business and they need to turn a profit pay for staff and take care of this beautiful animals but after spending a large sum of money and then get hit with this on the price of the photos was a bit much. If some one from Dolphin Discovery is reading this I hope you will consider making the price of the photos more reasonable, we had 13 people in our group and no one bought the photos. Now one person did tell me they got a deal on the Dolphin Package that included the pictures so maybe that is an option. but other then that I found this to be a first rate place and a great excursion for your vacation.

I have written a Unilocal review twice, 5 star review years ago. My intention in writing this review is to allow others to be aware of the photo price practices of Dolphin Discovery. I had the pleasure to experience the dolphins in Cancun with this same company three years ago. Pricing of photos was inline with other amusement parks, such as Disneyland, $ 150 for the disc. This year in Cancun, we booked a family of 7 for the Royal Swim. The photo option for all images…$ 500. When we chose not to purchase the photos we were punished. The transportation to our resort was waiting for our party and another group inside the store selecting their photos for purchase. An employee came out and instructed the driver to leave. After 30 minutes another van was available for our return.
There are other companies available for Dolphin encounters, Dolphin Discovery has a relationship with resorts that sell timeshares or vacation ownership opportunities. No one likes to feel taken advantage of, especially on vacation!

The experience with the Dolphins was amazing. We purchased the Royal package and were pushed and pulled through the water by two incredibly friendly Dolphins. The only bad thing about the experience is that you are not allowed cameras, and the pictures taken by staff are approximately $ 50 a piece. You leave feeling badly about the experience. Their picture pricing scheme tainted the entire morning.

It is 5 stars in my book! We got the special for $ 140 Dolphin swim and ride for 2 people and includes transportation from our hotel we are staying. When we arrived there the tour guide who spoke excellent English gave orientation, then we put on life jacket and head out into the dolphin habitat. There are two Dolphins Maya and Poseidon whom we interacted with. There were 6 others joined us. The water was very cold. The Dolphins did their jumps, and cute tricks and got kisses from them. Then we swam a little distance where we held out our left hand and tapped twice on the water and the dolphin came toward me and I grabbed on both of the fins and glided on its belly. The second one I had boogie board and the dolphin came and you don’t see them as they are under the water as they swam and suddenly I felt it’s nose pushed on my left foot the whole time as I glided through the water. It was exhilarating. There are also other options like encounter with dolphin, all inclusive and royal swim plus.
The photo costs $ 150 and you get a CD with about 75 pictures and 3 printouts of your choice. The camera they used were great as the pictures came out beautiful.

I’m honestly surprised by all the low reviews. Our hotel recommended offered a deal for this place. The dolphins are in a marina vs others where it’s a pool. We got to do several dolphin activities and even a few small extras. The boogie board push and belly swim were the best. The trainer was very friendly and interactive. They had the Dolphins do lots of jumps and tricks for us too. Yes the pictures are expensive but you know that going in to a tourist destination. My parents came to observe and took their own pictures of us — farther away but a free option :)

This is the ultimate price gouging and take advantage of the tourist activity. The experience was tolerable only because of the sweet dolphin. The staff was rude, intolerant of young children and the entire experience was focused around their photographer. The over the top expensive activity culminated in the photo viewing area where they charged $ 150 USD for a single photo! Upon viewing the photos they have staff watching you and checking your phones to make sure you are not taking any shots of their dolphins or their photos as you view them on the screen. I have traveled throughout the country with my family, river rafting, zip lining, and experiencing multiple adventure activities. Always loving the pictures sold by the company to peruse over for days and weeks after the experience is long over. I hope my children remember their time with the dolphins because I will have no pictures to reminisce from. A true tourist trap… BEWARE!

The time with the Dolphins was fun, but I really only say that because we got this at such a deal. First, it’s partially cool that you’re in Ocean water with the Dolphins, until you realize it’s pretty dingy marina water. They start by selling you on a photo package… For $ 350. But hey if that’s too rich for your blood you can order individual pictures… For $ 40 a piece. The Dolphins looked extremely healthy and staff was nice, those are the redeeming factors. I’d submit a picture of my experience… But, well, we couldn’t afford them. If you spent the full $ 130 for your 30 minutes you may not end up too pleased unless you drop the rest of your cash on some pictures.

They were running a special which got us the dolphin swim & ride (included a belly ride and a push on a boogie board) for $ 180 for 2 adults and a child. It included r/​t transportation. Compared with what we spent with Cabo Adventures for only a «dolphin experience» I thought it was a pretty good deal. I’ll agree with everyone that the pictures were very expensive but so was Cabo Adventures. We ended up paying for the disk and they gave us all the pictures taken. Expensive yes but we knew that going in.
Tip — if cost is a concern then try to get this experience for free if you are willing to put yourself through timeshare presentations. That will free up the cash to pay for the pictures which can cost more than the experience itself!

This place was awesome! We got to touch the dolphins, feed them, they even did a bunch of tricks for us and we’re very friendly and well trained.
They were not afraid of us and they were so sweet and you couldn’t be afraid of them either.
I had a great experience and got to purchase or very nicely snapped pictures of us. Fun fun fun place: D

Personally, I think the price of what we paid for was pretty decent. Cabo adventures is $ 160 per person for 30 minutes, while Dolphin Discovery is 60 minutes for $ 95 a person. Included, we got a round trip shuttle from our hotel, a quick camel ride, dolphin experience, and a quick kayak race.
Yes, just about everything you do is for the photos, but I thought our trainer was great and very nice. I had a blast doing the «dolphin push» being raised above water while being pushed by 2 dolphins!
However, like most of everybody else, my wife was pretty disappointed about the picture prices… 550 pesos, or about $ 35 per picture, per person! Just for a photo of me and a photo of her would’ve been $ 70?! Quite ridiculous. They took 98 combined photos of us so they definitely try and get you with the photos… my tip? I believe somebody can watch everything standing by the life jackets so just have them take photos/​video!

Our dolphin encounter was fantastic. I completely recommend this company :)
We signed up and there was a two for one deal. My husband, my two year old son and I went. It cost $ 100. We bought all the photos for $ 75, which was 141 digital pictures. Unlike some of the other review, I got a really good deal. **ask for the resident discount ;)**
The water was clean when we went. Our dolphin trainer Angel was fantastic. He was friendly, referred to us by name, and showed a great amount to love to the dolphins.

Pros: trainer Ernesto was amazing, very friendly and knowledgable. I had done a dolphin interaction in FL previously and he didn’t rush, remembered our names and it was a fabulous experience with dolphin Shelly. Ernesto had a genuine connection with Shelly, you could tell she liked interacting with him. Our driver was also very nice.
Cons: It is a tourist trap and all about photos. It is our honeymoon and all we wanted was a photo of us and a dolphin. They refused to take the family photo because we didn’t prepay for the photo package of $ 110 usd for a cd. We later found out that was a «miscommunication» and that she would’ve taken the photo but we still had to buy the whole package, not just that photo; but it was very shady and the photographer was not eager to please us and take the photo… very strange. Each photo is $ 35. When I expressed I was unhappy that they didn’t even take the photo I wanted to buy (and would’ve paid the extortionate $ 110 for) and tried to negotiate the price for the rest of the photos that I didn’t want as much, «customer service» rep Jonathan got snappy with me and said «this isn’t Guatemala, we have a business to run». What does that even mean? :/​There have to be much better establishments to do business with near cabo. Go elsewhere. If the owner ever reads these reviews, here’s free advice from a business consultant: excellent customer service would go a long way. People are already paying a premium for your dolphin experience and willingness to pay for those memories is there… but don’t force it upon your customers, it really ruins the whole experience. If we would’ve read these reviews we would have never chosen your company.

This place is terrible, STAY AWAY! 0 STARS HERE. Filthy water, so filthy that my 3 year old refused to go into the water because it was «dirty daddy», small marina pools that must be a horrible habitat for the poor dolphins. Greedy owners and employees, it is disgusting.
We paid for the $ 245.00 per person «ROYAL SWIM», it was supposed to be an hour of dolphin interactions but was really a ½ hour photo shoot with guest appearances of dolphins for pictures. Staff was rude and gave the impression of let’s get this over with. The 10 seconds of the actual dolphin swim was good, thanks to the dolphins. After the mediocre «Royal Swim» we were directed into the gift shop, of course, why not? There I was approached by «Guillermo» who bluntly told me digital copies of the pictures were $ 35.00 each per person or $ 54.00 for all pictures of 1 person, yes one person! So for the family of 3 it was $ 162.00 USD plus $ 16.00 for a USB Stick, that’s $ 178.00 USD for about 50 pictures, mostly frame by frame quick shots of the same thing, I quickly questioned the price as I was dumbfounded by the high cost only to be rudely shot down by Guillermo who said «These are Family Memories, you can’t complain about the price» which really caught me by surprise, so I responded by saying «Disney isn’t this expensive, how can you honestly charge so much here», he replied «They don’t have dolphin pictures there», I said as far as I’m concerned I paid $ 245 per person for the dolphin Royal Swim, these pictures are just pictures, at this point, in Spanish he tells his Supervisor or coworker Sergio «we have a problem here», now I speak Spanish so I quickly went into defensive mode as Sergio approached me and warned him not to touch me or he would have a problem, he quickly backed off and said please leave the store there are other customers here who may want to pay for their memories. Now anyone who knows me knows I am far from cheap and will pay top dollar for great service, but this was just a tourist trap ripoff with employees who are rude and obnoxious, I asked for my transportation back, he said I had to wait until 1:30pm, it was now 12:15pm, do I really have to wait an hour and 15 minutes for a ride back to my hotel? I’m with a toddler and a 12 year old, Sergio responded «If you don’t like it you can pay for a Taxi, so that’s just what I did, at first the taxi tried to charge us $ 60.00 but this wasn’t my first time in Cabo so I knew the ride back to the RIU Palace was only $ 35.00 for up to 4 people. I gave in and paid $ 45 USD for the sake of leaving there before things got ugly because I am not going to keep quiet for what’s right. As a multi business owner myself, I’m hoping that the owner reads this review and understands that if you charge, let’s say $ 60.00 total then more people would be willing to purchase without a problem. Why attempt to rip people off in the first place?
At this point I will make sure that I post this review in every possible place. Thanks for nothing Dolphin Discovery.

If I could give this place zero stars I would! Absolutely HORRIBLE experience especially since I’m traveling with two kids. The interaction is all about PICTURES and NOTHING more! This isn’t my first time swimming with dolphins, and by far this is the worst experience, and not fun at all! We paid for a hour, and literally got 40 minutes as they rush to take as many pictures as possible. When we were done, which I was so glad we were! We went to check out the pictures. Now I know why it’s all about taking pictures because it’s $ 35 per pictures!!! It’s two adults, and two children, with 20 something pictures, you do the math! I have been to Disney, took pictures with ALL the damn characters, and was never charged $ 35 PER PICTURE! I could have hired a damn personal photographer and paid way less, their response was «Disney don’t have dolphins» well moron yes they do, and if I would have did this bullshit in sea world I bet I wouldn’t have paid $ 35 for ONE PICTURE! the people who work there are totally there to rip you off! The experience was horrendous! When we asked for the transportation to go back to the hotel, they said we have to wait an hour and a half! I’m traveling with a three year old! I don’t have time to sit around, the damn transportation wait would have been longer than actually being in the water with the dolphins. Oh and by the way there are only two dolphins in your group, and out group was about 10 people, there was no one on one time, there was no touching the dolphins unless it was for picture purposes. I have did this in cancun twice years ago, and I remember many dolphins, it was a lot longer, we got good pictures, and they damn sure wasn’t $ 35 each!!! My recommendation… STAY AWAY!

Pros:
The dolphins are amazing and the facility is very nice.
Only a $ 5 deposit for a locker.
Cons:
This place is all about the pictures and not about the interaction with the dolphins. Abd they try to sell you th pictures for $ 57 a person on top on the $ 149 it is to «swim» with the dolphins. (NOTE: you can negotiate the price of the pictures. Immediately ask for the manager after they quote you the outrageous. We were able to negotiate our group of 9 to $ 33/​person (about 40 photos of each person).
I was very upset with the fact that our trainer seemed very rushed through our whole encounter with the dolphins. She also seemed not interested and kept calling us by not our real name. Ugh. The customer service here is the worst. All they care about is making sure the photographer got a good picture of you.
Overall, it was nice to be able to interact with the dolphins but I don’t think I would visit this facility again. I’m sure there’s better, more educational programs in Cabo.