What to do in St Kitts and Is the Dolphin Encounter Worth It?
What to do in St Kitts can be easily answered depending on your wants and desires. St Kitts is one of the islands in the Southern Caribbean that we visited on our recent cruise.
Quote of the day: “I don’t ever want to look around and think there’s nowhere left to go.” Michelle O’Bama
This quote spoke to me especially because of what we chose for the question of what to do in St Kitts. Since we were on our cruise, we were limited to one day on the island. And many of the options on each island can be the same from one place to the next. You know? Visiting beaches and touring the sights is the norm for this area.
Just to give you the inside scoop, our Celebrity cruise visited 6 islands (if you count where we embarked and debarked. That was San Juan which I shared about earlier). Since there were 4 of us, we wanted to play fair, and let each of us choose one excursion (of course realizing each other’s likes and dislikes. For example, while I would enjoy zip lining, my 82 year old mother would not, ha ha)
So let us thank Nancy for suggesting the Dolphin Encounter because I’m not sure I would have thought to pick this one. This is definitely one reason we needed a couple of those 7 essential things to pack for a Caribbean cruise.
Is the Dolphin Encounter Worth it?
In one word: YES! But there’s so much more to the story, and you know how I always like to give the good and the bad.
This was an activity none of us had ever done. And I think there’s something to be said for that. Just like the quote above. Sure, the unknown can be scary, but it can also be a fabulous adventure.
How Close Are you to the Dolphins?
The best part about using this company for our excursion was there were 4 different ways you could experience the dolphins. If you are not a water person, you could hang out and just watch from above. Or you could go to the extreme of actually being pulled on a boogie board by the dolphins.
Insider tip: Make sure you get the package you want before you get out to the site. The company is not well equipped to change to a different excursion once you are already there.
As for us, we decided to choose the option where you stand in the water and get to touch the dolphin, hug him and kiss him. This meant we were in our bathing suits.
Insider tip: If you don’t want to be barefoot, make sure to have water shoes. Flip flops were not allowed.
The Good and the Bad of this Dolphin Encounter
Overall, the experience was a one of a kind, good feeling day that made us smile. It’s funny because we were quite giddy afterwards, yet there were many things that could have been better.
The Good Points
These dolphins are so well trained. They follow the hand prompts and come up to each person who is standing where the guide tells you. If you think this activity might be scary, it’s not. There was one girl who was autistic and she did absolutely fine on this occasion.
Our guide was extremely patient, kind and very knowledgeable. Considering he had to say the same thing over and over to 20 different people, he never got exasperated.
The Not So Good Points
If you’re wondering why we don’t have any photos of the dolphins themselves or the fun we had with them, it’s because the company takes their own photos. Obviously you are in the water so you can’t take your camera with you. And even if you have an underwater camera, you are NOT allowed to use it.
So did we buy any of the photos? OMG, they were $80 each. So needless to say, we didn’t even consider it.
Insider tip: I did read one review (after our excursion), where they haggled the price down for the photos. I wish I’d thought to do this myself. I also read on the Dolphin Encounter website, that the photographs are included if you purchase through their site.
The other bad part of the excursion was the company was not organized. We had to travel down to the lockers from the van, and because it was slow going for us, we got left behind and didn’t know where to go. Then by the time we did get to the lockers, the leader was done with her spiel, and we missed it.
Insider tip: There are only 3 changing rooms that don’t have seats. So try to wear a cover up that you can take on and off easily.
Can You Have This Dolphin Experience Elsewhere?
One reason we chose this dolphin experience as what to do in St Kitts is because it wasn’t offered on any of the other islands on this cruise. That’s not to say that you can’t do it anywhere else.
In fact, this same company has these offerings in Mexico, Florida, Jamaica, as well as some other Caribbean islands.
On top of that, there are some sister parks listed on the site in case you are visiting somewhere else and want to look into this.
Insider tip: The prices of this excursion varied depending on the source you purchased it from. If cost is your concern, I would google it to get the best deal.
Interesting Facts About Dolphins
I knew nothing about dolphins before this outing. So I was super excited to learn what we learned. Let me share some of these fun facts I gleamed from our guide.
1- Dolphins can live to 50 years old in captivity. If they are in the wild, their lifespan is only about 12 years old.
2– They shed and get new skin every 2 hours.
3– Their hearing is incredible under water. It’s 20X better than ours. Above water they are deaf.
4– Dolphins mate 25 times a day. They mate male to male, female to female and female to male
5– They never sleep.
6– A female is pregnant for 12 months and the calf weighs 60 pounds. The male adult dolphin that we “played with” weighed 280 pounds.
Other What to Do in St Kitts Options
Now this list is only me sharing with you some of the other options about what to do in St Kitts. These were actually excursion options we could have chosen instead of the dolphin experience. However we did not actually experience any of these activities.
Scuba diving & Snorkeling
Touring the island on a bus
ATV adventure
Hanging out on the beach
Rum Tasting
Insider tip: Rum is a huge product of the Caribbeans.
Zip Lining
Railway Tour
Rain forest Adventure
Photo credit: Rob Filogomo
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