Dolphinaris

The experience of swimming with dolphins was great. But then they charge $ 75/​digital copy of photo or $ 248 for a whole package. This is ridiculous.

I came here with my wife today because I’ve always wanted to swim with dolphins. First of all, swimming with Pablo the dolphin was awesome. That alone gets 5 stars for me.
But this is where it starts to drop off.
They asked us for about $ 250 – 300 for all of our pictures. My wife even asked, «American dollars?» Once we realized they were being serious we said no and began to walk away. The girl helping us must have come to us with about 4 different offers. I think the cheapest deal was about $ 150 for a some digital pictures. By this time we were already turned off by the pricing so we weren’t biting. How are digital pictures so expensive? I don’t get it. We would have bought one printed picture for $ 29 but they conveniently never took a picture of us (my wife and I) together without the whole group of strangers. One of the other couples in our dolphin group asked to take a picture with the dolphin with just him and his girlfriend. He was denied which tells me they do that purposely to have you buy those ridiculously priced photo packages.
Other cons: food was mediocre (I could have grabbed some Ragu sauce and a tortilla and made a better pizza), you still have to pay for extra stuff although was pitched as all inclusive; you have to pay to rent a locker, towels and tubes.
Other tidbits, the ice cream shop isn’t part of the all-​inclusive package for some weird reason. Also, beware of the birds. It was like something out of the Hitchcock movie when we were eating our pizzas. They were all around us waiting to strike on the pizza.

PHOTOS were 6 mega pixels and over priced ___(iPhone is 12MP)
VIDEO NOT HD 480p and over priced ___(iPhone is 4k /​2160p)
WOULD GIVE 1 STAR but swimming with dolphins was fun but can be done through other vendors.
We were on our honeymoon and we decided to go swimming with dolphins. It sounded like an awesome idea. So we got tickets off Expedia for all inclusive wet’n wild park admission and dolphin experience through dolphinaris. The park was quickly boring but we were okay with it because it came as a bonus to swimming with dolphins. Our experience with the dolphins was exciting. My new wife has been wanting to do this for a very long time. We knew we would have to buy a photo package which from working as a photographer at Disneyland and going to Xcaret we assumed it would be around $ 100 USD. We were super surprised when the gentlemen trying to sell the package came at us with a price over $ 300. I was about to walk out when the guy started to haggle. I knew than we were being played. After 20 min of haggling we finally ended with 15 photos 2 prints and a video for $ 203.00. I wasn’t happy. I was even more unhappy to later find out that the video was 480p which for those who don’t know is generously over 5 years old as a standard especially for business. I am a cinematographer and photographer and I would never charge for this kind of quality. I will say the content was good enough.
For me the video was a huge let down. The photos were well taken just low quality but usable. Other than that the dolphin swim experience is fun.

Like most reviews, the biggest turn off is the high cost of photos. For all the photos, the least expensive option is $ 280 US.
If not for that price ripoff, the experience was decent. And avoiding a long drive from Cancun was great. After checking in $ 129 with $ 40 discount per person, able to change and use clean/​new rest facilities. Short video was entertaining and instructional. Kids enjoyed experience well. The pens are distant from shore so on lookers cannot see any action nor take any photos.
Staff were friendly and were helpful.

Overpriced. $ 99 for park, food, and dolphin experience is good, but then they want $ 365 for the pictures. Crazy.

Had the «pleasure» spending time to Solomon the dolphin today. What everyone else has been saying about the prices is 100% accurate. We paid USD100 per person. So $ 300. Then we pretty much got screwed when it came to the pictures. The price for the experience was well worth the money. When we went to be robbed for the pictures they started at $ 500. Yep… $ 500 bucks. We quickly told them no and then they told us we could have 20 for $ 200. We were with friends and decided to split the cost. After about an hour combing through 150+ pictures we narrowed it down to 20. They then came back to us and told us that we could have 2 CDs will all the pictures and 2 cd with the videos for $ 250. We decided that was fine then we Went to pay… Oh dear lord. That part of the experience took almost another hour. Still not sure if our cd’s work. Then we went to wet and wild… I guess it was better than our hotel pool in that they have a slide and a wave pool. But 90% of the park is under construction and only maybe 3 slides were open.
Thank god the dolphins are cute otherwise today would have been a complete waste. HOURS of our day wasted with incompetence.

The dolphin experience was great but they lost me when i was told i have to pay $ 169 for a cd with 9 pictures. The other option they gave me was to have one pictures printed for 29 $.

This review is for Dolphinaris Cancun next to the Wet n Wild water park.
First, the dolphin trainers were very nice and the actual dolphin program was good. The dolphin program deserves 4 – 5 stars.
However the manager and the staff that tries to sell the photos to you are horrendous. Buying the photos was absolutely the worst experience I have had in Cancun.
When we started looking at the photos they gave us ridiculous pricing. It was $ 30 for one photo, $ 169 for 15 photos and $ 300 for all of them, which was about 60 photos (but a lot of them were repeated three times). After denying the very expensive pricing, they started giving us «promo» pricing. After denying them multiple times, they eventually offered $ 169 for all the photos. However we only wanted 8 or 9 photos and asked for a lower price. They told us that if we were Mexican with a Mexican ID we could get 8 photos for $ 125, but because we weren’t Mexican we could only get six. I asked them if this was based on law, the staff member said nothing. I told her that it was illegal and that you aren’t allowed to offer different people different pricing. She said that this is what the manager said to offer. After complaining and needing to go somewhere else, we reluctantly paid for the six photos. The most frustrating thing is that the receipt we got said «8 photos for $ 125» and the cashier that gave us the photos was extremely surprised to see only six photos in the CD. This clearly tells me that we could have gotten 8 for $ 125. We were definitely ripped off. But more importantly, we were probably illegally discriminated against.
You do not want to support an organization that supports discrimination or uses unethical methods to haggle customers for money. The manager of this place knows that tourists will only be there once and will try to get as much money out of you.
If you want to go play with Dolphins, go to a different place. The customer service we received at other places were multiple times better than this. In fact, customer service and long term customer satisfaction does not exist at this establishment.
I do not usually write reviews, but I felt obligated to warn the world of this place. This place deserves negative stars.

We went to Dolphinaris and while the experience with the dolphins and the trainers was amazing and the presentation and activities with the dolphins were unforgettable, they really disappointed me with their prices when you want to capture the experience.
While you and your family are interacting with the dolphins, a member of the Dolphinaris staff is snapping several pictures. BEWARE because the prices they charge for those photos ARE A TOTAL RIPOFF!!! We only purchased 3 (yes 3!) pictures on a CD and the price was $ 75 USD. Yes you read correctly, 3 images for $ 75 USD. They totally ripoff tourists and they do not allow you to bring your personal cameras near the water so you can only capture your experience by paying their exorbitant prices for their photos. THIS PLACE IS A TOTAL RIPOFF!!!

Lo primero que me molesto un poco fue la chica que nos atendió de entrada, llegue pidiendo información y no quiso dármela y hasta mala cara hizo, tal vez porque hay pocos mexicanos atendiendo a este tipo de actividades, el precio es en dolares, lo cual me molesta un poco ya que todo los insumos son en pesos y los defines cobran en pesos también supongo… total reservamos los 4 integrantes de mi familia por poco mas de dolares, unos 6,200 pesos mexicanos y habría que esperar como 2 horas para pasar con los delfines. arriba hay un lounge bar con una alberca que te permite pasar el rato de la mejor manera, accesible en precio y el servicio muy bueno…
ya al pasar con los delfines, en realidad es poco lo que convives con ellos, los tocas y básicamente pagas 100 dolares para que te tomen 4 fotos con los delfines y esas mismas fotos de las venden en 29 dolares cada UNA… al final termine comprando 5 fotos que serian como 150 dolares adicionales…
en total gaste como 550 dolares por tomarnos fotos con los delfines… un poco caro, pero bueno, solo se toma uno una vez fotos con estos animales tan comercializados y explotados.
en general vale la pena la experiencia, pero es prohibitiva para muchos…

Had the best time with The trainer Omar, he was very patient with me and ensured I had a great experience. The Dolphins Squallo and Mercuro were awesome. I think it priced very well for such a great experience. The pictures were priced very high but hey they got to make money somewhere.

Our kids had a wonderful time. The dolphins seemed healthy, the swim area was clean, and the trainers were friendly and competent.
Also, the facilities for sitting and viewing are good. There is a mezzanine area with a bar so you can have a drink and watch your kids have fun.
I would recommend.
However, I would strongly recommend avoiding the Wet’n Wild facility next door. A completely run-​down water park.
Other than that, Dolphinaris was a good experience for our family.

Horrible place! Such a rip off your better off going to another place to swim with dolphins, not only were they rude here but they try to sell you a package of photos for about $ 397!!! Really?! Thats a car payment thank you but no thank you! From my experience I would recommend to get your photos and dolphin experience from xel ha while your there they sell you a package for unlimited photos through out the whole park for one price ($ 96) unlike here you have to pay per photo or get the big package! Definitely won’t be here next time… Another tip their Dolphins looked mistreated scratched fins and mouths ect and when we asked why they looked mistreated their response was «oh! Dolphins don’t have hands so their use their mouths to get things and at times they bump into rocks ect» I don’t buy it

came here because i really wanted to swim with the Dolphins!
We decided to book it through our hotel, our hotel had some inaccurate information.
when you arrive you will need $ 17 American dollars to rent a locker. we were told $ 10. you get the $ 10 back it is a deposit. since we did not we had to leave our items with the people at the front desk, a little nerve racking not knowing if anyone will go through our items.
We swam with Squallo and Mercurio. really well trained. we were given life jackets, told not to wear sunscreen to avoid over contaminating the salt water for the dolphins. there was only us and another couple in our group. but that didnt mean we got to do anything extra. they have two staff members one with a camera and the other with a video camera to capture it all! photos are of good quality and in jpeg format.
if the experience did not cost enough to obtain all the photos and the video on disc it is about $ 365 dollars. both are on separate discs. they check the dvds/​cd before you take them to make sure they work. (i am very happy they did that, had a bad experience in Orlando with photos on a disc that never appeared after doing something) so that was reassuring. to pay for photos printed is additional also.
i saw someone taking a photo on their cell phone of a photo right away a girl came over and told the lady you need to delete that off your phone and she watched and made sure she did it. i mean this place is a business i could’ve done that too but that’s ballsy!
when it came time to pay the only form of payment we brought because my boyfriend is convinced that Discover is taken everywhere in mexico outside the US and that was how we paid for our excursion DISCOVER IS NOT ACCEPTED!
as screwed as we felt they let us try and swipe it and it said declined… now we were like great here went our great experience now we have no photos/​videos to prove it/​reminisce.
so since our hotel was not far we opted to wait for the bus. this cab guy said that bus runs on the hour. so my bf made a deal with him for $ 340 pesos which we didnt even have on us the rest was at the resort to go back and forth and back again so we could get my VISA in order to pay for the pictures…
Lesson learned travel with more than one card.
I hope someone reads this and sees my story so they do not get screwed by having the wrong card! Vacations should be priceless not stressful!

Nice experience, but a tourist trap! We had a great time once inside the pool with my friend (spanish speaker) and a little girl from the US (english speaker). The trainer took the time to speak both in spanish and english and took questions from everyone at all times. We had a blast with the dolphin, swam with it, touched it and had great pictures taken.
However, you’re not allowed to go inside with a camera so if you want a picture as a souvenir, they start at around USD 100! What a rip off! IN addition, since you’re not allowed to go inside with anything other than your swimming suit and towel, you need to leave everything in a locker that they charge you extra for! Why don’t they include it in the (already expensive ticket) or just give it to you for free? If they told you about all these extra charges when you buy the tickets online or at the counter, it changes the experience and at least doubles (or triples) the cost, but once you’re there there’s no way back.
The worst part is that they know it’s so astonishingly expensive (and lie that their prices are those of the market), that one of the staff members offered to give us the camera’s SD card with ALL the photos they’ve taken of us for USD 150 if I paid her directly in cash. Of course she was scamming us and stealing from her own employer so we declined, but Dolphinaris needs to reevaluate the cost of their photos and the user experience otherwise these things will keep happening.

Tuve la oportunidad de trabajar en el área administrativa para el delfinario y cuando entras en tu curso de inducción te dan un nado con delfines, nadar con delfines es una experiencia mágica y maravillosa.
Dolphinaris se encuentra al final de la zona hotelera en el km. 25 a un costado del wet and wild lo cual lo hace un poco complicado en llegar si no tienes vehículo ya que solo llega un camión de la zona hotelera y pasa cada 25 minutos, los taxis para aquel lado son muy caros 150 pesos aprox, el estacionamiento es muy amplio, al llegar lo primero que haces es check –in en cajas y muestras tu hoja o comprobante del nado con delfines después de eso te dan una introducción de cómo entrar con los delfines y te piden que nunca te quites el chaleco salvavidas, manejan diferentes tipos de programas con delfines, la duración del nado con delfines aproximada son 20 minutos de explicación y 40 min de nado con ellos (todo varia del programa) lo que no me gusta es que no puedes tomar fotos, ellos te las venden y el precio es algo elevado, lo bueno es que todos los nados con delfines incluyen acceso al parque acuático para que te diviertas el resto del día.