We discovered this through an ad on Eversave.com and decided to buy the 1/2 price tickets to the Dolphin Encounter Cruise. What a blast!
My wife, tweenager, and I enjoyed the free soda and reasonably priced mixed drinks ($5 drink of the day and $6 mixed drinks). Snacks are $1 and include chips, candy bars, etc.
We looked forward to seeing some dolphins up close and they did not disappoint. All the younger kids got a 10 minute lesson on sea life in the area and the basics of the boat while we were heading to the Intercoastal. They were made official Dolphin Spotters. It didn't take long before we saw our first couple of dolphins. We slowed down, watched them in the water a few minutes, then took off to find more.
We located a family (3 adults and 1 baby) off the beach in the Gulf and watched them for a good 15 to 20 minutes. At one point, they were within 10 feet of the boat and everyone got great pictures. The dolphins seemed to enjoy it as much as we did.
The staff is incredible and very friendly. Captain Ron appears to really enjoy his job. When we boarded the boat the staff took pictures of each family and toward the end of the 1.5 hour cruise brought them around. The picture is $10. It was a great picture of our family so we bought it as a souvenir.
The only reason I give the tour 4 stars is because of the parking situation. The parking is hard to find and I eventually paid $15 for a private lot about a block away. When we checked in the lady at the booth asked us if we needed our parking validated and said that there was a lot to the north of their location that we could have paid $2 with the validation. It's not mentioned anywhere on the website that we saw and it was never mentioned when we called to make our reservations.
Highly recommended and we will enjoy this company again in the future!