gulf world marine park Reviews

Dolphin show was fun. A little pricey and not a whole lot of exhibits.

The Dolphin show was pretty great! The trainers appeared very connected with the animals. I loved the birds. The bad parts.... The place needs a remodel. Some of the display windows need replacing as they are in such bad shape that you can't see in them. The retail operation is so ineffective. We waited for at least 20 minutes trying to buy a ticket (there were not that many families in line). We waited at least 30 minutes to order food at the Dolphin Grill as they only had 1 register. We waited at least 20 minutes for our food. I saw one of the food handlers touch a spray bottle then continue preparing food without changing gloves or washing his hands. As a public health employee, the fact that the restroom doesnt have any soap is unacceptable. The mens' restroom was disgusting. Then we waited in line for at least another 20 minutes to purchase from the gift shop as they have online ticket sales and gift shop purchases from 1 register. This place needs a serious overhaul!

Really enjoyed the dolphin encounter. Wish it was longer.

Booked a penguin encounter assuming that it was a later time because of the pandemic no phone call or email saying that the time was still the same. Also tried calling for over a hour with no response! Employee at check in was extremely rude as well!

Awesome place to go I brought my grandson and my daughter very enjoyable we'll go again staff is unbelievably nice to Dolphin Show breathtaking

My wife and I brought our 5 year old and 3 year old. The 3 year old was excited with the animals we saw. My 5 year old noticed how the upkeep seems to be falling behind. Everything is less than clean. The turtle next to the shark tank had NO water.
YOU CANNOT SEE THE DOLPHINS UNLESS YOU PAY TO SWIM WITH THEM OR CATCH THE DOLPHIN SHOW.
It's very sad to see the dolphin/sea lion show while there sits 2 cages with dolphins in them. Way too small. The shark tank is a big circle, but way too small as well. My wife and I both left very heartbroken for the majority of the animals here. You can see that the money that's being put back into this place is either misguided, or doesn't exist. The staff were friendly and informative, they seem to enjoy their work, that was refreshing to see. This seems to be a situation where the minimum is being supplied to the staff and animals so someone can extract as much cash out of it as possible.

Always enjoy going to Gulf World. Very good place to take your children.

Fun place and friendly employees. Worth the money. Had a good time. Florida residents get discounts.

Swimming with the dolphins was an experience you want forget.

A little smaller than I anticipated but their dolphin show is fantastic. They also do amazing work in rehabilitating local wildlife so I'm happy to support their work.

Swam with the dolphins and had a great day. Spent lots of time after swim to see the rest of the exhibits. Food available nothing fancy, so plan the extra time.

Wife loves Turtles and dolphin and they had both! Very old and dated. Not much to see really and no Aquarium to speak of. We did watch two short shows and the bigger tank show was better but not by much. But at $30 it was a little lacking!

Great shows and great shows. Definitely recommend!!

We arrived when they opened. I would recommend to do this. It started getting really hot and humid after noon. The shows are the real attraction especially the dolphins. We all enjoyed our day there.

The private experience was cool. The wife and I were all smiles until we noticed the price of the pictures.... I keep reading from the management that it is on par with others .....it's not! Also IF YOU DONT do the experience you can get photos for 15 but, if you do they are 35.....you guys need to reevaluate this because you're waaaaay off compared to others and it is a huge slap in the face to be honest.

It was super amazing and the animals are so adorable. The shows are also entertaining

Went there today with my family this place Is awesome. Lots of exhibits you can get fairly Close to the animals

We did the Royal Swim package and it was amazing! Our trainer and photographer were both named Ashley. They were both very attentive and answered all of our questions. It was 3 of us that swam, my husband, daughter (10 next week) and myself.

We didn't get really anything for the package we paid for. And they wanted 55$ for one picture of you with the dolphin. We paid 530$ for our family to go, and then you got the nerve to say is 50$ for a picture! Your just money hungry...

We visited in septemer, we absolutely loved this place. I never pet or feed stingrays and manarays before, that was unforgetable experiance! Dolphin show was great!!

Overflowing trash cans, wet and slippery floors, missing ceiling tiles, empty exhibits, and aquarium display windows so covered in algae they were difficult to see through. Needless to say, we were very underwhelmed.

The dolphin and sea lion shows redeemed the visit a bit, as the staff seemed professional and the kids were entertained. The rest of the facility was quite a disappointment though. In our opinion, not worth the money.

Kids loved it! Got a picture of my daughter getting a kiss from a sea lion and shaking hands with a dolphin!

Loved this place! Awesome shows! 50 for my daughter and I well spent! They had indoor areas and shade for the heat of the day

It is probably more expensive than is justified, but kids will love it. Lots of fun animals and it is educational. The habitats should probably be nicer.

The whole family had a great time. The shows were entertaining, do recommend stopping by for a few hours!!

All I have to say is: STOP. STARVING. THE. ANIMALS. Imagine if you were starved every time you did something wrong. It s disgusting and embarrassing on your part.

I never realized how cruel it is for all those animals to be kept in such small spaces until I got up close. I left feeling disgusted and sorry I took my daughter here. All the animals look so sad and almost as if they're drugged, especially the birds. Normal birds dont just sit on a branch and not move. Their eyes looked as if they could barely stay awake. The "aquarium" is more like a fish bowl and looked dirty too. All of the dolphins have pink spots on their bodies and one of then even had an open wound. I'm sure all that is from rubbing their skin against the cement when they get out to do tricks. We as humans should know better and leave all wild life the way it should be, IN THE WILD. If anyone with a heart reads this and still decides to go may God help you.

Swam with the Dolphins. The staff was very informative and the Dolphins were very friendly. They seemed to enjoy the human interaction.

Great place to take the family and get up close to Marine life. Animal specialist are very friendly and knowledgeable. We did the penguin experience. Pretty cool but not worth the extra price. Wish we could have touched them more and interacted with them a little more.

Loved the dolphin show and getting too have your picture made with them. Do not recommend coming when it is raining because it is very crowded. Didn't get to do everything because of the crowd. Also recommend getting here when it opens at 9:30.

Very family friendly, a little pricey, but worth it to see the smile on the kids' faces.

Small aquatic center with several animals to enjoy. Interesting that most of the birds are not in cages. They have their own stands and seem happy to stay put.

Great place for the entire family. They make learning exciting and fun. My wife is in a wheelchair but the staff was awesome doing everything they could to accommodate her so she could do the dolphin encounter and swim . Very friendly place for people with disabilities. Everyone is so friendly. Thank you Gulf World.

We took our 2 year old daughter and we had lots of fun! We will definitely go back when she is old enough to swim with the dolphins!

This company is exploiting animals for profit! Look at the size of the pens the Dolphins are kept it. Cruel! Horrible excuse for entertainment.

Completely disappointed at the waste of money. Many empty and dirty exhibits, and no one understands the meaning of social distancing. Even the animals seemed bored.

We did the Dolphin Swim and Harbor seal experience. It was a great way to spend the day! All of our guides and trainers were very professional and knowledgeable. We highly reccomend Gulf World and all it has to offer! Thank you again to all the staff!

Great place to take the kids but don't expect to spend the whole day there. A few hours and you've seen it all.

They seem to do good rescue work, but many of the exhibits seems cramped for the animals. They seems to do enrichment with them. But the price (~$30) is a bit much for the size/experience, $20 would be more appropriate.

I wish I had the money to see the show but did get to see the dolphins in the aquarium they are beautiful

Was amazing and fun even thou they are not a large park
Animals are happy and entertaining

Gulf World is a great place to spend the day my grandson.he has the best time looking at all the wonderful sea life .he really enjoyed the experience with the sting rays . I would highly recommend this place to everyone who is looking for a great time and a excellent place too learn about the sea life that they help

Not worth the money literally 10 min. Dolphin show and layout very confusing. Raises money for a good cause though

Great place for kids. Not as big as I was expecting but still a fun place.

Great exhibits, knowledgeable & friendly staff, not as expensive as many aquariums we've been to. The dolphin experience was awesome!

Get place for the kids to look and touch sea animals. I love dolphins you can also swim with them!

Dolphin swim experience was amazing. Basic swim is great for all ages. I had ages between 3 and 35 go and it was an experience of a lifetime. Be aware that if you go as a group and choose different experiences between the groups members, you may not all be in the same pool. It's also fun to watch the dolphin show prior to swimming with them.

Unless you want to swim with the dolphins, don't waste your time or money. Worst place ever. No animals to see or touch. My kids were bored to tears! Way overpriced.

Swim with dolphins !!!Great park but the show is the dolphin show and swimming with them. The park is small enough so that your not tired by time your swim with dolphin is scheduled. Had a blast me and my wife did encounter. Shelby was our dolphon trainer she was awsome.

Great fun for entire family, trainers are top notch very informative and interactive shows

Great place to take the grandkids that won't wear us old people out

Lots to see and the show's are the best. Will do this again

They have alot of neat animals but there animal housing needs some major improvements!!!!!!

I had such a great day here and the staff was outstanding i will definitely be back ...fun fun fun

Great for the kids to swim with the dolphins. The shows are also great family fun! We will return!

This is a great place to take your family. The admission is not bad, and if you've got little one's you have to get a pic of them getting a sea lion kiss before you leave. The staff is AMAZING, you won't regret this!

My two year old loves the dolphins and birds. Great family fun!

I feel bad for the animals being so couped up. The facility is too small for the amount of large size animals being held captive there.

The most amazing experience I have had in a long time

Tanks were too small for the sharks and sea turtles. The tanks for the rough tooth dolphins were way too small. Not much interaction between guest and employees. If a child had a question they seemed annoyed to have to take the time to answer it or the child got ignored. For thr price its not worth it. You can go at 10 and be done by noon. I do understand that they have been in the same spot for 50 years and things have built up around them. But at the sametime they have had 50 years to move to another location thats better for the animals.

Happy surprise to see my 1 year old grandson ooo and awe during the dolphin show!

I got to play with the dolphins longer than I was supposed too and they were very nice and always smiling

We went for the first time today as a family and had a great time. The front desk offered a discount for a sea lion impression which was nice. We didn't do an encounter today but did watch the shows. The feathered friends show, dolphin amd sea lion show were all so great. Honestly, though, the best thing about this place is the animals are rescued and taken care of whipe the park educates people on what we can do to help the ocean environment. Great experience.

Very clean facility, birds, turtles, flamingos, stingrays, dolphins, sea loins, pinguins, etc. are well taken care of. Staff folks are friendly as well as cashier's. Enjoyed all the shows and talks. Will definitely be back in the future. Did not do photo ops, took my own photos.

Loved going to Gulf World. Local so been a bunch! It is small compared to many, but they do work with alot of foundations that help & care for our Sea Animals!

We took a group of 9 (5 kids). We did general admission and watched the sea lion show and dolphin show. Such a fun experience. Aside from the shows there is not a whole lot to see, but overall we spent around 3 hours in there between shows and seeing all they had!

Worth experiencing at least once in your life but not something I would do every time I m on vacation. Wish the dolphin experiences was a little more affordable and maybe at least had a option where you didn t have to get in the water but you could still pet one for a much lower price.

This building was a bit worn down and the prices were a bit ridiculous but the dolphins were precious and the trainers and staff were really nice

Place is small but we had a good time. My husband kissed a sea lion and the dolphin show was good.

Gulf World is a great local place to see some local marine life. Gulf World does some great stuff with animal rehabilitation efforts for all kinds of things from cold shocked turtles to injuries caused by fishing line, boats, illnesses, to other natural injuries.

My girls had a blast. One of the best places we visited in Panama City Beach!