gulf world marine park Reviews

The kids had a good time swimming with the dolphins

This place I think everyone should take their kids they would love it and u can even swim with dolphins

Bird show was bad only two birds missed the sea lions show because they changed the time of show

It's FABULOUS. You get to see several underwater animals plus they have a dolphin, sea lion, and several trained birds and animal shows.

My 4 year old and I enjoyed our visit. His favorite part was the sea lion and rough toothed dolphin show and my favorite part was the bottle nose dolphin show. I wish there had been a bit more to see though and a better touch tank.

I like how the girls in this place do their job .. they have very good technique with animals

Good shows, but kind of short. Tropical bird show was the best one of all. The animals make the experience worth it, but the staff, price, wait, and small building don't.

Dolphin encounter was so fun. There's lots to do and see and the staff were really helpful. Honestly a must do if you're in the area on vacation.

Kids had a good time. Plan out the shows and expect to have some down time in between. Good Sunday outing.

Very fun kid friendly enviorment the sting Ray's very good for interaction

I have loved this place since I was a kid and love to take my kids now. It's a great experience to share.

The Dolphin encounters are awesome, however it's extremely over priced. They give you these $5 gulf bucks but you have to buy stuff in the exact amount. For example, two $2 waters and you can't pay with your $5 buck because they won't take the extra dollar. Total racket, very irritating. It's very tiny too so the cost/value relationship isn't there. They should reduce their prices.

Wonderful shows! But, the best part was feeding the stingrays. For $5 we bought a container of fish. Our 4 year old found it hard to sit still during the shows, but loved the interaction with the stingrays up close.

Nice place to visit with small children. Not to big, but big enough to entertain yourself for a couple of hours. Animal cages may have been bigger.

Their staff is rude, they do not allow to take pictures during petting dolphins after you pay $180 per person. An employee threatened to throw me out of the park for taking pictures!

Could use some updating in certain areas but all around good time, especially for the kids. The sea lion and dolphin shows were great and very entertaining!

Everything you see, and all the animals you see, are absolutely wonderful

Great Experience! What do you do when it's pouring rain and you need a bit of fun? How about enjoying the day at Gulf World with shows and interactive experiences with animals and marine life! They are open rain or shine, believe me, it was storming when I went and I enjoyed the entire day here. I loved being able to pet the stingrays, pet and play with dophins, talk to parrots (that talk back). And that part was all inculded in the admisson price. If you want to do things like swim with dolphins, there are extra charges. The dolphins love to play, they would come up to the window in the admisson/gift shop talking, rolling over, and play with you. During one of the shows I was picked along with two other people to come pet the dolphins. The animals are well trained and are visably happy performing. The stingrays love to come straight up to you to be petted. The sea turtles are huge and beautiful. Bring your camera! Great for children or Adults. Me and my husband came on our Honeymoon during Febuary and were not disapointed.

The shows were awesome! Only 4 stars because the food in the grill area was awful. Our burgers were burnt. I do not recommend any of it.

Kids and wife had the time of their lives swimming with the dolphins.

Price was decent and they have pretty cool interactions with the animals all in all pretty cool

Its a great place to take the kids. You need to arrive early though for the shows.

If you've ever been to Sea World, find something else to do unless you are paying extra for an upclose animal encounter. Other than that, it is crowded, super small, old and dingy.. Exhibitions were few, lacked space and lighting and were dirty. With what they charge, you would think they have enough $ to spruce up the place, add a playground, or a Splash Pad for kids to run around. Shows lacked WOW factor (the only one we enjoyed was the Sealion and Rough Toothed Dolphin Show). It was just not a pleasing place to look at and only 1 aquarium, whose walls were so dirty you couldn't see. I would rather go to Bass Pro Shop for scenery!

We started our day off... seems since our last visit things have went down hill including the staff. I came for my daughter, paid to get her picture taken holding the dolphins fins and she was rushed to do so and look at the camera so much so she started crying mind you she is 4! So we then went to leave the chaos and she left her souvenir cup. Went to find it and asked an employee and they would not help me! So we went to get our pictures come to find out the photographer thought my daughters picture turned out awful so he deleted it... so no souvenirs at all and a over all bad experience. Wish I could give zero stars

Great place to take kids!! As an adult I loved it as well!!

Forgettable experience in dated exhibits. Shows could use more animals - only one bird in the 'feathers' show. No dolphin exhibit outside of the show and small sea lion area. Food and extras are a ripoff. Not worth the $30 price!

Very disappointed! Extremely over priced! The place was very run down, half the exhibits were closed, the vending machines didn't work, the animals that were there didn't look very healthy either. The only good part was the dolphin show. Even with all the exhibits running this place is much smaller than the website leads you to think. I won't go back again. I do not recommend!!

This was such an amazing place. They were friendly answered all our questions. The dolphins were simply amazing. I was disappointed that I was not able to take pictures of my daughter in the school with the dolphins. I do understand and I brought the pictures

There is not enough , attention to the public.. and is not what the website .. offers but I give him a 4 star dolphins deserve it..

The place was kind of a let down honestly. We walked through the entire thing in 10 minutes, and at the time they had 2 areas shut down. If you go, plan on staying and watching the seal and dolphin shows. We hung around for the dolphin show, and that pretty much saved the trip. It was amazing the tricks they did! But for $140 for 5 of us, we kind of felt let down.

They have good exhibits and it's great to have the opportunity to interact with sea life. The picture package prices (if you interact with dolphins and/or sea lions) are overpriced in my opinion and you aren't allowed to take your own pictures, but other than that we had a good time!

I loved it. I especially loved the dolphins. I got a pic with one anyway i spent time with grandmother it was amazing and a shout out to Noah Wells with the great magic show

I have mixed feelings on this attraction. My family had a very enjoyable visit. It is a bit dated. Shows were good with the exception of the bird/cat/dog show. Very informative. Animals looked decently cared for. It seemed their space was limited and that the animals could have larger living spaces. That seemed cramped and almost cruel. My wife and son enjoyed the sea lion encounter. I would feel better if the animals had larger living environments.

Family favorite, reasonable admission price but beware of all the add ons.

Was a fun place for us to go while on vacation. Our family really loved the dolphin shows.

The place could use some work.
The trainers we super nice! And the shows were awesome! Loved being able to see the trainers interact with the birds and see the dolfin show!

Gulf World was amazing!! Well worth it We will return soon!

We paid $725 for the Swim Adventure for 4 people for 30 minutes. We were so excited after reading some of the reviews. The reality was 12 people lined up on a wall with one dolphin. Interaction time with dolphin was about 3 minutes per person. You were allowed to do the 4 things advertised with the dolphin and back to the wall. They took several pictures of you in your 3 minutes and as you leave the packages are per person. We had 4 people in our group so our package price was $169. The positives were the dolphin was sweet as can be for such a large group. The trainer handling the large group was very professional given our very short time frame. So this is really a Gulf World problem. On the phone they said group size is usually about 6, but they can put up to 10 in the group. I normally don't write reviews, but the 12 of us stood there in shock of how many of us were there and how little time we actually got to interact with the dolphin.

My wife and I did the penguin encounter. Absolutely loved it.

Staff is always nice. Food is a little pricey for the quality

Wonderful experience, be sure to check out the shows!

Loved and all the animals and shows it was so much fun

We love visiting and the new exhibits being put up and older ones being renovated are exciting!!!! My daughters love it and the workers are always kind and helpful!!

My boyfriend and I paid $54 online ($24 each plus tax and fees). Considering that we've been to multiple aquariums, I would say I wasn't impressed with much of anything but the shows. Gulf World is doing alot of construction. Some of the exhibits looked like they needed repainting, cleaning, and repairs. You get what you pay for. The Dolphin Show, Sea Lion Show, and Bird shows were all entertaining. The food is inexpensive we got nachos for $3.50 and ice cream for $2. Overall, Gulf World is making an honest contribution to PCB. The best thing to do is start early so you can see all the shows which run from 10am until 3:45. I give it 3 stars because it was just good enough. Nothing spectacular, but fun nonetheless!

A must see on your vacation. It was not crazy crowded so we were able to enjoy our time with each animal and the trainers and staff are around to answer questions. Book an encounter. It is worth every penny. Just be ready to spend at least 45 dollars per person after the encounter for a CD of the pictures per person.

One of our few remaining attractions that has been here since I was a young child.
It is a nice way to spend a little time. It is very expensive. $30 after tax per adult. Children under 5 are free though. If you aren't going to stay for the shows there is only about 20 minutes worth of things to see. The shows are a good time for people seeing them for the first time. This is an old property so make sure you watch your step. They are under fairly new ownership and changing things but some of the things needing revamping aren't quite there.

On vacation from Virginia and wasn t sure if we would like this. We loved it! You pretty much see the animal shows and it s pretty awesome. Also had two daughters do the dolphin encounter while the rest of us were observers . It was a great experience that we really enjoyed!

Swam with the dolphins had an amazing time...well worth the money, make an appointment ahead of time !

A fun experience.... enjoyed the dolphin experience. It is sort of small, so not a lot to see, it doesnt take long to get through the place, maybe 2hrs...but the kids had fun and that is what matters

It was great really fun for the whole family to enjoy. Can't wait til next time

It was nice watching Payton interact with the sea lion. But ridiculous if we wanted close up pictures they take the cost is expensive! We already paid for her to do it and then our tickets, the pictured should be discounted or free!

Great place for kids of all ages. Shows were very fun. They rescue injured animals to use in the shows. They are also very environmentally friendly because allot of the injuries to animals is from trash.

Absolutely awesome. We went and it was raining that day but that didn t stop us. To our surprise you can pretty much see every exhibit even while it s not raining and not have to worry about getting wet. There setup of their facility is awesome. The real close encounters and swim with dolphins packages are high prices but wife got to pet a dolphin as a volunteer during one of the shows. It was awesome. We can officially say we got to pet a dolphin on our honeymoon ( well my wife did at least). This is a must see for Panama City Beach. Also recommended to arrive at opening time to catch all shows. You will have a blast with all the exhibits and shows and get to be really close as well. You can even pet stingrays.

Dolphin swim (Royal) was an excellent experience as was the stingray feeding.

Employees and shows were great and entry is a fair price. We are from Atlanta and spoiled by the aquarium. Just normalize your expectations and you will enjoy it.

Really nice and the grandchildren loved the animals especially the "Dauphins"!

The trainers were SO amazing with the dolphins! I loved seeing their relationship and how loving they were with these spectacular creatures! It was a spectacular interaction!

Very nice place. ALL of the staff were extremely nice and helpful except for one female. All of their shows are informative and fun to watch. We have been here a few times.

Great place with plenty to do....and military friendly...warrior beach retreat 2019

It is a place to go with the family to have fun
Is very pretty.

I did the dolphin experience, and it was amazing! The only downside was the price of the food and drinks, but that's to be expected in these kinds of places. We were really looking forward to the seal pictures, but it was canceled due to a storm getting a bit too close.

This was a great attraction!!! This was the highlight of our vacation especially on a cold fall holiday trip to Panama Beach City. We had a chance to swim with the dolphins and the penguins, do a meet and greet with the dolphins, Feed The Stingrays and hold snakes and birds.

Fun day watching dolphins and lots of other sealife perform.

A little run down for the price they charge. Good dolphin show though

It DEFINITELY was not worth the price. This place should be shut down until construction is done. Everything seemed to be closed. The employees were absolutely no help. I felt ignored. They just walk around playing on their cell phones & clowning around with each other. I saw a total of 6 birds, 1 lizard, 2 stingrays & 2 seals, which took about only 10 minutes to see. I was left with just sitting down for about 45 minutes until the dolphin show began. The dolphin show was the only thing good, but it only lasts 30 minutes. I left immediately after, because I refused to sit for another hour just to see the seals perform. BORING!!! $30 gone down the drain. BEWARE!!!