Dolphin Cove; Ocho Rios, Jamaica

RATING: $+++++
Dolphin Cove Ecological Park
Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Carnival Dream 22-Day Cruise
October 22, 2015

Playing With Lovebirds

What an AMAZING day!  We were on a 22-day cruise, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica was one of the ports.  We were just looking for something fun to do that day that included snorkeling.  This excursion was so poorly advertised by Carnival.  I believe it was $42.99 per person, and that just included the entry pass and transportation.  The Shore Excursions desk really played this place down, saying it was a "little park with some snorkeling and an area to play with birds."  When she said, "play with birds," I was hooked. That's about all you have to tell me, and I'm ALL IN on that!











This happened to become one of my favorite days on Earth!  We played with animals ALL DAY!  When we first got there, we went straight to the love birds.  From there, we got to hang out with parrots and bunnies.  Then it was off to some snorkeling.

Southern Whiptail Stingray -- super friendly!

We were so surprised to find that for just an additional $5, they let us hang out in a gorgeous lagoon for as long as we wanted to snorkel with gorgeous fish and HUGE stingrays.  John said it was some of the best snorkeling he's ever done because it was a calm lagoon.  One stingray's name was Big Mama, and boy, was she HUGE!!!  (Not the one in the pic.)  After the lagoon area, we went into a small pool that housed two stingrays we could play with for as long as we wanted.  That turned into at least a half hour.  The black one pictured was a Southern Whiptail.  She was super friendly and loved to be petted.







SWIM WITH SHARKS???  WHAT????
After the stingrays, we were told about their nurse sharks.  They wanted just $25pp to swim with them, but we didn't want to spend another $50.  So once we said no, they said to John, "How about if you buy it, your wife can join you for free?"  Well, heck yeah, we were IN! So John and I BOTH got to swim with three nurse sharks.  They had us both get in the water and put one of them on our laps and gave us a blow-by-blow description of her whole body.  Her name was Lisa. After we fed her and touched her, then John swam with all three of them with a guide.  Wow, what a great forever memory!

John's First Time Touching a Snake!

To end a totally perfect day, we headed to pick up our professional photos.  The photographer took some great shots.  It was normally $30 per photo, but ... we're a sucker for good photos, so we took EVERY photo they had and they put them on a CD for us. They also gave us the entire video of us playing and swimming with the sharks.  They added that to a DVD, and we took the whole package for $89.  We didn't want to spend that, but we also wanted to go home with every photo (of course).   After getting the pics, we headed to visit the iguana and snake on the way out.

So all I can say is ... next time you visit Ocho Rios, Jamaica, DEFINITELY put Dolphin Cove at the top of your list ... if you love to snorkel and/or love animals.

What a great day!!

Happy Travels!
Andrea & John Walen

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