gulf world marine park Reviews

Amazing place had a lot of fun seeing the shows and all the animals, birds and dolphins.
Great for the kids. But as a adult I had fun too.

Loved the shows they do. Staff is great with kids. Definitely will be back!

Waste of time and money. Extremely disappointed. Took maybe a total of 30 minutes to walk through. Little attractions for the money spent. Watching the sharks be fed for 5 minutes and petting/feeding the stingrays (have to pay extra for) was the only part worth going.

We are local but will never tire of visiting Gulf World. Whether my kids are enjoying the shows, feeding the stingrays or participating in an encounter, they always have the best time!

great place, informative and fun for all ages. smiling faces and helpful people seems to be the norm! definitely worth a visit if you are in the area. Awesome animals too!

Amazing place, very educational for children, will bring kids back next year during another vacation.

I love this place! But I cannot believe there are not recycle bins anywhere!! Every single animal show preaches recycling, and plastic products are sold, but no place to recycle. Practice what you preach! RECYCLE BINS!!

I loved taking my granddaughter to the dolphin and sea lion shows. It was so fun to see the animals up close. It's a smaller place so you get right up close to the animals. The trainers are knowledgeable and the shows are really fun and the other exhibits are educational as well. They have a great Friday very lovely and amazing animals. Definitely worth a visit!

Okay place. We enjoyed the dolphin show and sting ray petting tank. Do not go to the bird show, it will leave you sadly dissapointed. You can pay extra to swim with dolphins though.

Very cool place to visit, the dolphin show is amazing and the kids loved it. I highly recommend checking this place out if you have kids.

Gulf World is very beautiful place to visit at Panama City Beach, specially the Dolphin show was too good and enjoyable. Kids & Adult both can Love, Enjoy and have fun at this location. Staff was too friendly, Food cost is very reasonable and very clean. Specially Kids can took pics with Sea Lion and Dolphin. In short our family enjoyed lot.

Awesome!! Great shows and food is reasonably priced!!

Whoever is Panama City should know. Very cute animals. Adults and children have fun

The enclosure for the sea turtles and shark is horrible. Those animals have to be miserable. I m shocked that this place has such good reviews. I guess some people feel like having their kids entertained is more important than the wellbeing of the animals. It s disgusting. I am not some fanatical animal rights advocate, I can just see when an animal is miserable. The dolphin encounter was good but the conditions for some of the animals is heartbreaking.

Amazing! The animals are soooo smart and the trainers are fantastic!

My son enjoyed getting to swim with the dolphins. I wasnt aware that your not allowed to take photos yourself. They take them and then charge you another 55$ to get them. I thought it was pretty high considering the cost to actually swim with them is already over 125$. Other then that, we enjoyed all the exhibits and had a good experience.

Great sea animal park for kids with dolphin shows, sea lions and others! It is worth paying for the photos from the "DVD", where the child receives a bracelet and takes exclusive pictures with the animals after each show with the photographer. In the end just go to the store and get the DVD with all the photos.

Interactive Dolphin meet & greet was great for our daughter. But other than that and the sea lions, there's not that much else to see... a bunch of tropical birds, couple of alligators, and a small shark tank with a big sea turtle. Staff were all extremely kind and helpful.

Great place to take the kids. Make sure you check out all the shows.

Great fun place for the kids lots to see sharks !!! They fees the sharks to

This is a nice little aquarium, but a bit over priced for what it offers. The dolphin show was really fun with a cute story line. We went in October, and it was a mad scientist skit, so I m guessing it s a seasonal theme that changes.

I swam with the dolphins! It was great. Only downfall..., it was kids day and I was the only adult. I would have done a different day had I known. Overall, it was a great experience and the staff were extremely friendly and helpful.

Great attractions and great family fun!! Schedule swim with the dolphins in advance to be able for ur children to do this activity!! The animals and alligator is very cool along with the sting ray petting area!!

Fun to take the kids. Expensive for it's limited activities. Closes early.

Love this place! Kids swam with dolphin and had an experience with penguin. Relaxing!

This was absolutely amazing, Maddie was the trainer for Soliei and my time spent with them was nothing short of breath taking. Every moment was captured by Alex on photo and all of them turned out perfect, I highly recommend this to anyone!!!! Simply amazing! Wonderful and friendly staff and super educational!!!

It was a fun morning with the kids. The shows were well done. We did not participate in any of the extra experiences. There were not many other exhibits besides the ones featured in the shows and extra experiences.

Absolutely terrible!! They have done the absolute bare minimum to keep this place going. Animals are kept in shallow habitats and the birds who are meant to live in groups have all been separated and put in the smallest little area possible. Two dolphins were kept In such a small space it might as well have been a bathtub. And one was even trying to kill himself by beaching himself out of the water and on the cement before giving up after a few minutes and letting himself slowly roll back into the water defeated. These animals deserve to be back in the ocean where they belong. Not pushing people by their feet out of the water.i know for a fact this tank wasn't big enough that they were holding them in because I looked up the requirements and it wasn't on par with what I had read. We even asked how many gallons were in the tanks because they definitely didn't seem up to standard and not one of the workers could tell us. The people who train these animals and are there daily don't even know the requirements of animal safety laws. This experience was downright sad and I'm so disappointed that people give this place their money. They aren't in it for the animals at all they are here to make a quick buck off of creatures that can't even defend themselves. I wish so badly that someone would step in and put a stop to all this. If I could I would give this place zero stars.

Solid 4 stars. The Dolphin shows are great, but it's expensive for what you get. Do yourself a favor and wait for a deal to go.

I have been to Gulf World every year since 2005. This place continues to use its assets to better the experience for the consumer. Other than the air conditioning being out, this was fantastic. I m sure they have it fixed today. The entire facility is clean, the trainers and staff are friendly, and the animals are amazing! It is well worth the time and money to stop by for a visit. Then go eat at Salty Sue s. That will make an absolutely perfect day!

Oh, by the way get the photo package. It s the best 30$ I spent!!!

Great staff great shows and great gift shop!! I never saw such smart animals

This is all its cracked up to be. My wife swam with a dolphin named Comet and that was great. Lots of shows to watch dolphins, sea lions, reptiles, birds, etc. Also a very educational trip as well. Good for kids and adults of all ages.

Awesome place! Dolphin shows, sea lions, birds, touch the stingrays, sharks... We paid extra to have the kids get pictures with the animals and it was definately worth it! A kiss from a sea lion, dance with the dolphin, hold a reptile and a bird on your shoulder. I would definitely go again.

The swim adventure interactive event was amazing. Both my girls (9 and 12) loved it and want to do the next level along with trainer for a day. We will be back !

Loved it Our favorite part was the dolphin show and getting splashed when the dolphins would jump out of the water

Gulf World is a must do if you are in the Panama City area! Way better than SeaWorld and it's nice knowing all of their animals are rescues.

Our family visited two years ago and felt like the experience was worth the price of admission. We returned for another visit to find that a large number of the exhibits are closed. We were very disappointed.

Get there earlyy, so you don't miss anything!! Loved it!

Overpriced. A few of the tanks were empty. The dolphin show was the highlight and everything about this place. You're basically paying to see the 30 min dolphin show.... You definitely will pay a lot to do the extra dolphin stuff. Wasn't impressed or happy with the experience. Not for the price at least.

The dolphin show was amazing! the entire park was very interactive. Greatly enjoyed as an adult. Perfect for kids!

Hot, terrible. Not worth the price of admission. First show had a great soulful storyteller but her wildlife animals were horrible. Sea Lions and dolphins were better. I left some after as I could not take anymore or any other dismal performances.

My family loves this place we did the encounter with the dolphins and that was a amazing time. It is a family place the kids will love it

We really enjoyed seeing all the animals and our children loved the dolphin show sadly due to covid not more then 175 people fit into the area to see the sea lion show so we missed it

The shows was pretty good, motto big donor a lot of walking.

We always enjoy Gulf World. Staff are knowledgeable and friendly. The extra savings for being a medical professional was an added bonus too!

Overpriced and underwelming, be one or the other... this place is both.

The shows are wonderful, you can leave and come back because they stamp you we u pay. And it is worth the money.

Great for younger kids. Enjoyed the shows. Easily doable in one day.

A little high prices for what they offer. Birds dolphins and sea lion. 25.00 a person I felt was alot.

The only reason why I am giving it a 4 stars is because when they opened the doors at 930, a young boy announced if you paid for an experience at 10 a.m. to please come in and follow a young girl and she would get us to where we needed to be. Come to find out, not ALL 10 a.m. experiences were suppose to follow all the way back. We were there for the penguin encounter. The young boy at the front should have said if you are arriving for the dolphin 10 a.m. experince, long story, but it was confusing. Anyway, most of the workers were very friendly, Gulf World was clean. It is mostly outdoors and can be very hot. They have a small cafe and lots of vending options for drinks. The penguin encounter was amazing .....our girls loved it.

We swam with the dolphins and it was an amazing experience. I woul highly recommend anyone that has an opportunity to do this to absolutely do it. They take in rescue animals that would not make it in the wild and care for them.

Went to gulf world back in August had a great time as we have all the other times in the past it's a little pricey and the food is pricey but all in all it's a great way to spend the day with your family

An excellent show. We spent almost 3 hours and we did not realize it.

Was a great time for our family. Would recommend to anyone.

we watched the sea lion and dolphin shows. they were very entertaining and fun. during the dolphin show you will get soaked. we were looking forward to that most!! it was unorganized at the entrance though. other than the shows there s not really any thing to do there. would definitely recommend it.

Really enjoyed this experience! During off season, there are very few people and we were able to have a dolphin encounter by ourselves/without a group. It is definitely worth it!

A pleasant surprise in the PCB area. Our kids love the shows.

This place was so much fun! Makes me second guess my career path. I would of loved to have been a marine biologist! Beautiful animals and the staff was VERY knowledgeable about the animals.

It was very crowded the day we went and unenjoyable. We left 15 minutes after arrival. Was the biggest waste of money on our trip.

Park was nice but be prepared to dip into your saving to enjoy all the cool stuff this place has to offer. They wanted $180 for some pictures GTFOH. Wear your Snapchat Spectacles you will thank me .

Very friendly staff & the dolphin experience was great

The swim with the dolphins was an awesome experience. The facility and staff however leave much to be desired. You are trying to follow the signs that are posted but then many stations are left unoccupied or understaffed. It is a little confusing. I did all of my booking online and when I entered it said prepaid admission this way with an arrow and there was no one there. Therefore I had to stand in line which of course what I was trying to avoid in the first place by booking online in order to gain admittance. The facility was not clean and there are no changing rooms once you complete your swim. Then I went to purchase my photos but the server was down so after waiting about 20 minutes I opted to return the next day. I was given a 15% discount but that was a small consolation for the trouble. I m glad I was able to give my children the experience with the dolphins however I really feel that the facility could do a much much better job for the high cost.

Not worth all the money for sure!!!
Unless tropical storm Cindy is in the area

Love the animals. Great place for the family. Dolphin show was great!!

My son Matthew and my daughter Allison bought me the Royal Dolphin Swim for mother's day it was amazing!!! I will never forget this experience!!! The park itself has great animals to look at and dolphin and sea lion and seal shows both awesome to watch!!!

Not worth it for the price. $29 for about half hour you can walk the whole place. Habitats are tiny for animals. I would consider animal cruelty.

My family of 2 kids 2 adults visited for the first time this spring break. I found some of the tanks needed better cleaning. Shark tank mainly. Dolphin shows were very entertaining. My kids loved all the animals especially one little talking bird in a cage.

Very nice park and a good break from the beach. The premises are kept clean (you see lots of staff with trash bags and brooms), and the exhibits are beautiful. The food is moderately priced and slightly better than average. Shows were very nice with energetic trainers. TIP FOR FAMILIES: IT IS VERY HOT AND CROWDED. Kids got restless quickly. Only gave 4 stars because of the price of admission was way too much (to compare, The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is only 15 dollars per adult, and is three times as large and extravagant. It was 30 dollars here!) Overall a very nice place.

One of my dreams came true and I swam with the dolphin . What a great time!

Quite pricey for the place, very small, very short shows. Didn't do any hand-ons. Took 5 adults and 5 children, in and out less than 2.5 hrs.$193.00. Zoo would have been a better choice.