Dolphin Cove

Dolphin Cove promises an “experience of a lifetime” and that’s just what we got; an awesome, terrific, adventure - filled day, swimming with stingrays and dolphins, watching the exciting shark show and interacting with a variety of other wildlife creatures!

Just across the road from Dunn’s River Falls, is this somewhat hidden treasure reef, which offers a pleasant tropical retreat. Our first tip; you must pay careful attention or you will miss the entrance. The tour of Dolphin Cove began with a trek through nature trails upon which we encountered exotic parrots, boa constrictors and iguanas. If you are brave at heart, feel free to snap a picture holding these creatures!

If you’re not a fan of jungle trail walks, then as we Jamaicans love to say “No problem mon!” Go kayaking on the beautiful Caribbean Sea or stroll the boardwalks of “Little Port Royal”. This area mimics the layout of the world famous Port Royal with gift shops, snack counters including Haagen Dazs ice-cream. Needless to say, it’s an instant hit with the kids and they are sure to be fans of the never - ending antics of one-legged pirates who freely roam the boardwalk.

Swim with the stingrays

Frolic with dolphins

And then it was time for the highly anticipated interaction with the dolphins. There are several packages available including; the touch encounter, encounter swim, dolphin swim or you could choose to be a sea keeper for a day. All of these packages allow some degree of interaction with the dolphins! We chose the dolphin swim and enjoyed dancing with the dolphins, kisses on the cheeks and lips and a fantastic performance of jumps and songs by the dolphins. The highlight of this experience would soon come as we swam with two dolphins who gave us an exciting dorsal pull through the waves and then an exhilarating foot push which had me flying through the air!

Can’t swim? Not a problem. Then you’re like me and the lifeguards and trainers will be more than happy to assist you. In fact, you are always wearing life jackets.

Shark Show

Dolphin Cove offers a program to swim, hold and feed the sharks. We weren’t so brave and so we satisfied ourselves with simply observing much touted “shark show”. This performance was clever, highly entertaining, comical and frightening all at once. We watched as the pirates delivered a hilarious routine on how dangerous the sharks were and then looked on in amazement as they proceeded to enter the waters, feed the sharks and then petted them like harmless dolphins! Needless, to say this is a must see.

All well, ends well

We didn’t want to leave Dolphin Cove, but alas our day had come to an end. But not before I got the opportunity to captain my own mini-boat and that was certainly one of the most exhilarating experiences that I have had. We then paid for and collected our photos and video as they were professionally prepared for us by one of the shops on spot. We grabbed a quick bite while hopelessly attempting to answer the hostess’ questions on Jamaican quick facts that not even I knew the answers to.

Then we were off, marveling at why it ever took us so long to take a trip to this fabulous retreat.