MAKING MARINE MEMORIES
You can squeeze a lot out of Clearwater Marine Aquarium and Winter’s Dolphin Tale Adventure. But you can also splurge on memorable experiences. Read the fine print — there are age restrictions.
Day with the dolphins: Be a “trainer for a day” (three hours, actually) and join two training and feeding sessions with the dolphins. We spent time quietly playing with Hope in a back pool and helping the trainer with Nicholas in front of a crowd. We also hung out in the kitchen where the mammals’ fishy meals are prepared, and in the dolphins’ toy room looking at “environmental enrichment devices.” Trainer for a day costs $325 (U.S.) (and comes with a souvenir photo, bag, T-shirt and towel); 30minute dolphin encounters cost $195.
Otter and other encounters: Walle and Cooper are the resident North American river otters, and we helped train the active and curious one (Walle) during the “trainer for a day” experience. Cooper is older and partially paralyzed. You can also book encounters with sharks ($75), feed Ricky the pelican (from $30), feed stingrays (seasonal pricing applies) and feed a puffer fish ($5).
Behind closed doors: The one-hour behind-the-scenes tour is geared to those with patience and attention spans who want to learn about the aquarium’s history and mission to rescue, rehabilitate and release. We got to walk through the open-air critical-care facility full of sea turtles. Cost: $11.95 for kids and $16.95 for adults.
Photo ops: Like most tourist outfits, the aquarium nabs you in the entrance for photos and hopes to sell you prints or digital products. If you sign up for the photo ops or animal encounters, they’ll tag along, which works well since you can’t bring your camera behind the scenes. We went for the whole digital shebang, spending more than $100 for a souvenir thumb drive shaped like Winter. If you change your mind, you can buy later from Fintastic Photo’s website.
Boat rides: The aquarium sits on Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway and has various water adventures, including a sea life safari boat tour, dolphin adventure tours and guided kayaking adventures. Prices are $20 and up. We ran out of time and didn’t try these, but loved the free boat shuttle between the aquarium and Winter’s Dolphin Tale Adventure downtown, a trip of about 20 minutes.