gulf world marine park Reviews

We are locals and this was our first visit. We enjoyed seeing all the animals and learning about the rescue and rehab program.
We were bummed to see so many of each water creature in such small pools... but I suppose they are making the best of the space they currently have. Also we were sad to see the old flamingo all by himself, my son remembered that they live in large flocks and was worried for him.
My son did the royal dolphin swim and got to meet some of the rescues dolphins. He smiled so big all day. Worth it for sure. I see other encounters coming soon.

Not much was going here but great place for young children.

For small town, dolphin shows are excellent. All the shows really.

It was fun but needs work in several areas. The staff are a little unorganized but overall it was a good experience.

Highly recommended the package to swim with the animals. I had the opportunity to swim with the dolphins, sting rays, and sea lions. All of the trainers were very passionate about the animals and educating us. The swim alongs are pricey, but worth it. The place layout is small, but a lot of interactive activities are packed into the park. The food court is decent and reasonable priced. Location is conveniently located near the beach and main road.

My son gets to do one encounter when we go down. He has done the dolphin and harbor seal and it was awesome. I plan on doing it myself next year.

Good selection of animals birds and mammals. We loved the dolphin show!!

This was a really amazing experience. You could see the love for the animals here. The staff was so sweet, and getting to see the dolphin show was absolutely amazing! My kids have not stopped about this place. We will be back!

It was awesome. My son absolutely loved it. It's definitely worth the money to just see one show. They are doing good work there.

Such an amazing experience!!! It is obvious they treat the dolphins with love and respect. They do not make them do anything they do not want to do. The trainers were knowledgeable and knew how to make the experience fun. The experience was very structured and throrough. Additionally, military is 50% off and any dependant is 20% off. We were able to go at a VERY affordable cost. Im very happy with our experience and I m so glad we got to check it off of our bucket list.

Great place overall. Shows are really good and staff is great. Best to see all shows to get money worth. Only reason not giving 5 is because of cost of photos and the fact they don't let you take your own when a photographer is there. This is very different than any other park we have been too in Florida.

Gulf World was amazing! Everyone in the family had an awesome time. The sea lion show was fun. The dolphin show was educational and it was fun watching how agile the dolphins are. my son did the penguin excursion. He was the only one signed up and Saul the penguin was funny and my son had a great time. My daughter did the dolphin swim adventure. She will have a memory all her life of riding on dolphin. You are not able to take your own pictures during the excursions. That's the only down fall because they are expensive!

Great option for rainy days! Expensive, but far better than expected.

This place is absolutely disgusting. The tanks for animals are very small. The floors and benches are uncleaned. We asked for a refund and was called multiple names, and then a lady proceeded to snatch up our children in the groups wrist and cut off our bands. Doing so she also cut off the little girls bracelets. DISGUSTING. exploiting animals for the sole purpose of money.

Swimming with the Dolphins a really great experience!!

The sea lion and dolphin show were amazing. The other exhibits need some restructuring and cleaning. We were there when a private swim with the sting rays was in place so that was closed to us, I don t agree with that. The souvenir cup melts in the dishwasher.

Fantastic!! If you are swimming with the dolphins the royal package is best. Small groups and 2 dolphins. Very good trainers. Very attentive and would not hesitate to answer any questions. I have small kids and they were so good with them.

Perfect for families and smaller children, shows are nice!

My family did have a great time. We were upset with the dolphin "encounter" Most of the experience was spent waiting along the wall, waiting for the 10 other families to pose for pictures. When it was finally time for the encounter, the entire encounter was spent posing for pictures. The photographer stood on the opposite side of the "observers" so any picture that was taking by our family, was of the back of my families head. Then gulf world wants to charge a ridiculous amount for the pictures they took. For as much as they charge they really could update/enlarge some of the animal enclosures. My heart honestly broke for some of the animal's living conditions.

We have been there twice the kids love it and swimming with the dolphins was awesome

This place is awesome! The whole family enjoyed it!

Was awesome. First place ever my wife and I were allowed to interact with the marine animals.

Fun fun dolphin show. Not a very large place. We were bummed the sea lion show still wasn't up and running. The birds were a lot of fun. Thank you so much to the handlers who allowed us to follow them around and ask questions during feeding time. And then eventually letting my kids pet a couple of the birds

Very expensive for what the size of the park. Cashier and cooks at the snack bar were extremely rude and lacked any customer service. Definitely won't go back much less drive 2 1/2 hours. Extremely disappointed!

The hourly shows and the wonderful staff make the experience at the park more than worth the general admission price! This is a place that is worth going to at least one if you are visiting the area.

We enjoyed our last minute trip to Gulf World thanks to their half-price ticket deal. While we were a bit disappointed there wasn t more to do, feeding the stingrays was a highlight.

I must visit for tourists or locals alike. Plan to stay the day watching all the shows and seeing all of the sites.

Fun for an affordable price. Sea World type environment and dolphins! Swimming with them and pictures! The kids love this! Great fun!

This place is getting worse and worse every year. My family had extremely frustrating experience for a premium price. Most pavilions are closed for renovations and no animals in the garden. Flamingos are gone.Pinguins - just a few left.The place is tiny, and looks like management dedicated most of it to concession stands. The animals looked distressed and the dolphin show was mediocre at the best. I do not recommend this place. Better take a ride down to the Destin's Sea World

SO much fun for my whole family, don't miss the dolphin show! You can tell the trainers are passionate about their job and it was really cool to see! Also recommend the dolphin encounter!

Staff was pretty awful at coordinating movement from one even to the next. They let everyone run amuck and do whatever they want and don't say anything.

Cooper was AWESOME ! And both dolphin types too! Very friendly staff. Great day of shows, photos w/animals and fun for all ages!

Awesome place to go with the kid's. Make sure to see the dolphin shows.

My daughter did a meet n greet w the dolphins. The trainers were great. Everyone was friendly and happy to answer questions. We had a great time and the pricing was fair. Just like every other tourist destination pictures were ridiculously over priced.

This place was awesome! We spent all day there. Seeing the dolphins in the air was so cool.

Tried for 2 days to schedule a dolphin encounter for my son with special needs. They ask you to call to talk to them. No one calls back EVER! So frustrating. It's not like they are doing it for free! You would think someone would answer the phone or call back.

Love to take the family here. Go here every time we are in Florida.

The way they handle customers with disabilities is horrible. Denying a child due to down syndrome is no way to run a business. This child is well mannered and sweet. It should have no bearing on him swimming with dolphins. I would never spend a penny at a place so outdated and who discriminates.

Dolphins made the visit exciting. Being able to touch stingrays provokes curiousity in all ages. There seemed to be a lack of exhibits that didn't revolve around shows. It felt as if the empty spaces were filled with birds. The workers were impatient and insistent on filling bleachers shoulder to shoulder. This felt insulting after having spent around $200 for entry fees.

Loved this place!!! My favorite animal is a sea turtle. The fact I was able to see not just 1 but 2 was amazing. You are able to get pretty close to them. Watch them feed them and talk about them. It was amazing. The dolphin shows were great as well.

Cool place. Sharks an huge turtles. You can swim with ocean creatures.

Awesome place to visit, and take your kids and Grandkids...

We loved it worth every penny can't wait to go again

We had such an amazing time here! My kids are 18 and four and a half so quite a big age difference and they both had a blast as did I. My 4 year old was chosen to get kissed by Wendy, the sea lion. It was the cutest thing ever! My 18 year old was chosen to pet a dolphin and I paid to get a pic of my kids shaking hands with one ($15). It was such an awesome experience! We loved the dolphin and sea lion show and highly recommend to anyone visiting PCB. We will definitely be back! The trainers were very knowledgeable and had wonderful relationships with the animals.

This place is awesome!! All shows are on time. Great bang for your buck. Will go back everytime i come.

We took two of our grandbabies there today and they had a blast!!!

It's okay could do a better job by there dolphins, was glad to hear that they have been bought out.

Amazing! We had hallie as the trainer and Sandie was the dolphin. We did the swim adventure and it was worth every penny! Both the trainer and dolphin did an outstanding job! The rest of the park was amazing as well 10/10 recommend going!

I visited Gulf World on August 15, 2018 with my 6 year old son. He participated in the Swim Experience and I can't say enough great things about it! He swam with Maya and though I can't remember her trainer's name, she was wonderful.

He was the youngest swimmer by a few years and I worried that he might have a tough time grabbing on to Maya's fins as she swam by. Sure enough, he wasn't able to get the timing right but after two attempts at the middle of the pool, the trainer brought him to the shelf in the shallow end. He was able to swim with her on the first attempt in the shallow end and he loved it!!

The experience included petting, kissing, holding hands and swimming with Maya. The photographer took lots of great photos, which I purchased for $60. This package included about 30 photos of my son, as well as a 10X12 print of my choosing. I was able to download the photos to my phone before leaving the park.

This was a wonderful experience that I highly recommend! Thank you, Gulf World!

Dolphin show was good, bird show was so miserable hot in the building that we couldnt stay to watch it all. Overall a good experience, and the kids enjoyed it.

Great mission, great shows. Worth general admission... Didn't have time for the bigger experiences there though.

Have another great time. Perfect place for families. The weather was incredibly cold and the staff did a fantastic job running the shows and acting as if it was sunny and warm. Second time coming and love this place.

We had an amazing time. I did the Swim Adventure. Halley was the main trainer & Tuck was the talented dolphin I got to spendtimewith. He really showed off for us. I would definitely recommend Gulf World to anyone!

Loved the facility! Great place to hang out with the family and get to see marine life up close. I like that they are setup to hekp animals and not just as an attraction. Staff was very friendly.

Got to swim with dolphins and pet them a dream come true

Perfect place to go to see with your kids, or romantic date. One of my favorite places in PCB

This was our first vacation to Panama City Beach. We decided to visit Gulf World, so glad we did! We got to see sharks, sea lions, dolphins, amazing birds, and sea turtles. They also have a stingray petting pool! The dolphin and sea lion shows were awesome!! We will definitely visit again on our next trip to PCB.

Great experience, great shows... Dolphin encounter well worth it..

The place is small, but it has really good shows. It's great for little kids, because you can pretty much do everything in about 3 hours. We had a good time.

Purchased meet and greet tickets for 10-15 min dolphin time for my 4 year old daughter and 7 year old niece. 1st off you do this meet and greet with several other people so I reality your child will only get a total of maybe 1 minute with the dolphin (if that) then went to purchase pictures from a disc they offer which included 25 of those pictures of someone else's child and not mine and only 3 of my daughter that I paid 50.00 for. Staff is hit or miss with their attitudes and overall you don't get what you pay for. And after spending 300.00 I got 3 pictures of my daughter and 25 of another child? Will not ever return

Every time I come here I see something new just amazing.

After charging a good amount for the dolphin experience they decide to charge you even more for the pictures of the experience for a rediculous price. Sad to see that after a few years they have raised their prices to offer the same if not worse experience.

This kind of place should not exist. Don't come in this park unless you like to pay for animals abuse.

Awesome experience seeing my daughter swim with the dophins

Make sure you come at least by 1:00 p.m. so you can get all the experience. At the end of every show you can take photos which I like, but they all cost money. The bottlenose dolphin show was the best, and very entertaining. They have little resturants that you can eat from to that arn't that expensive. The admission is a little pricy but worth it.

A Must experience place on everyone's Bucket list !!!!

Its small but when I was there they were remodeling so it will probably be a bit bigger. They have a variety of animals, including stingrays which are in a touch tank. The staff were very friendly and the shows we're lively. A fun way to take up a couple of hours.