In addition to wanting to be able to say that we swam with sharks, we also wanted to say we swam with dolphins! After some research, we landed on this tour and booked our reservations online.
Contents
Hours
Dolphins and You offers 2 tours a day/7 days a week. They have a strict tour agenda (see below). For our tour (on October 26, 2018), we picked the 1st/morning tour.
1st tour 5:30AM / 2nd tour 10:00AM
Departure to the Waianae Harbor. The shuttle ride is about an hour. One the day that we went, there were two tour guides (one for English speaking people and one for Japanese speaking people) and they provided important information.
1st tour 7:00AM / 2nd tour 10:30AM
Arrive at the harbor and board the ship.
1st tour 7:15AM / 2nd tour 10:30AM
E Ho Mai Ceremony
1st tour 7:30AM / 2nd tour 11:00AM
Put on snorkel equipment. If you didn’t bring your own, they do have complimentary snorkel equipment that you can use.
1st tour 8:15AM / 2nd tour 11:45AM
Swimming with dolphins.
1st tour 9:30AM / 2nd tour 12:30PM
Snorkeling with fishes and turtles. In addition to snorkeling, you can also use their water slides, paddle boards, and kayaks.
1st tour 10:15AM / 2nd tour 12:15 PM
Lunch/Breakfast break – they provide snacks and a purple Hawaiian taro bun cheeseburger.
1st tour 10:30AM / 2nd tour 1:00PM
The on-board crew and tour guides will provide some entertainment.
1st tour 12:30PM / 2nd tour 3:00PM
Tour conclusion
Directions
Depending on where you stay in Oahu, there will be a different pick-up location. Our pick-up location was only a 5 minute walk so it wasn’t bad at all.
Price
The dolphin swim tour costs $156 per adult and $124 for kids ages 2 through 11. If you book your tour online, you also get the option to purchase a photo/video package.
Photo only: $60
Video only: $70
Photo/Video: $100
You can also purchase the photo/video packages on the shuttle ride to the ship. Keep in mind that if you do purchase the photo/video packages, they are for your whole group – not for each individual person. For instance, in our group of 3, we only had to purchase one photo/video package for $100.
Our friend that went with us bought one of their rashguards for $40 too.
Restrooms
Since the shuttle ride is about an hour, make sure to use the restroom before you get to the pick-up spot. They do give you a restroom break after the shuttle ride before you board the boat though. Also, there are restrooms on board the ship.
Dolphins and You
Getting There
Since we picked the early morning tour, we had to be at the pick-up location by 5:30AM. Luckily, the location was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel. If you have any questions or concerns, make sure you pay attention to what the tour guides are telling you on the shuttle ride there. They will explain the itinerary and give you an opportunity to make any last minute purchases. Some of the things that they were selling: PSI bands (motion sickness – these are great), rash guards, shirts, and photo/video packages. They accept major credit cards.
They sat me, Brea, and our friend in the front of the shuttle because we were the few people who spoke English. Oddly enough, more than 80% of the people on the tour spoke Japanese.
After the shuttle ride, they give us a few minutes to use the restroom before boarding the ship. One interesting thing we encountered here was that there was this cat just rolling around on the grass. On the way back from the tour, our friend spent a good minute or two giving this cat some water from a water fountain. It was a really unique sight and there were a lot of people taking pictures of him and the cat too.
Things to Bring
For this tour, make sure you bring these items (we didn’t do our preparation thoroughly enough so we forgot things like towels – it was pretty uncomfortable on the ride back after swimming):
- Sandals
- Towels
- Sunscreen
- Seasickness medication (we had Dramamine for Brea. We also purchased PSI bands from the tour guides that worked well. It cost $25 for a pack of two)
- Waterproof phone/camera
- Jacket or change of clothes
The tour gave us two opportunities to go into the water – the first one was for the dolphins and the second was for free snorkeling where we might be able to see turtles and fishes. You will also be able to use the water slide that they have and paddle boards.
One thing to keep in mind for photography is that even if you know how to swim, they will still make you wear life jackets. This was one of the things we didn’t like the most in this tour. Wearing life jackets makes taking good photos of you in the water or with marine life very hard.
Dolphins
The boat will park away from where the dolphins are so you are expected to swim towards the location. There are multiple guides to lead you to the correct spot. Everyone in our tour were fast swimmers. You might feel pressure to swim fast depending on your group.
Yes – we did see dolphins on our tour but it was not what we expected. All of the dolphins stayed together and were at the very bottom. The bottom was very deep. More than 30 ft. Our friend tried to dive down to see the dolphins more clearly, but our tour guides told him he wasn’t allowed to do that because if humans got close to the dolphins, it might cause them to scatter. So unfortunately, we don’t have any photos where we were swimming with dolphins but we did see them from above.
The second location for snorkeling was a little bit better because we were free to swim where we wanted (in a specific vicinity though). This was also where people could use the paddle boards and water slide. Brea and our friend were the lucky two that saw a turtle near the top of the water! We managed to get some up-close pictures of the turtle with Brea in the background.
If you get to swim with a turtle close up, be careful not to touch it! They mention that during the briefing on the ship. It is a hefty fine. More than what your trip is worth. Also touching a turtle endangers the turtle due to the oils on our skin and can cause them to die. They are protected by the government and it is an illegal offense!
One highlight was that compared to other locations (like Hanauma Bay), the water was very clear and blue!
After we were all done swimming, they provided us with food – snacks, a fresh pineapple slice and a taro bun cheeseburger that was pretty tasty. They have condiments available to put on the burger like ketchup, mayonnaise and mustard.
They also provided on board entertainment and took group pictures with everyone. They sang and danced while returning to shore.
After the tour, we had some time to use the restroom again and went back into the bus. They will drop you off at the same spots they picked up so make sure to remember where you were picked up.
If you got photos or a video package, you have to pick it up at a later time at their main office. They will announce the time when it will be ready during your bus ride. You will receive your photos and videos in a decorative USB drive.
Overall, we would say that this is a family friendly tour. If we could change anything, we would not require everyone to wear life jackets. It is also hard for one photographer to take good quality photos of every person who bought the photo/video package so we were glad that we brought our own underwater camera. The next time we do a dolphin swim, we would try to find a tour that is private and that gives us more opportunity to get pictures with the marine life (dolphins, fishes, and turtles) up close and personal. But this tour was good for it’s price and what they had included.
Click here for other things to do during your trip to Hawaii.
