Sea Life Park, Waimanalo

This park is no Sea World and they are very sneaky and under handed in their advertising of specials and the rules arround them. Their latest ripoff is the Dolphin Encounter on your birthday. It only appliles to local residents but they don't tell you that until they have your whole family sucked in and you have paid your money for everyone else. Then they pull the question: Are you a Hawaii resident crap on you and leave you holding the bag to tell your family we can't afford to do this because we aren't all from Hawaii. When you call them on it they accuse you of being a liar and a cheat. Great customer service. Can't imagine why Hawaii is seeing a tremendous drop in tourism spending if everyone is treated like this! Gov Lingle - here is part of your problem. Maybe you need to review your tourism industry practices. There is no way you can feel sorry about a state going broke when they treat their customers like this!

Great show and the best luau food for vegetarians! Although the show only consisted of 8-dancers, a 4-member band and MC, they did a spectaculor job! Customes were great and talent excellent! I was born and raised on the islands and lived in Oregon for the past 15 years. We went back for our 25th anniversary, to take a Hawaiian cruise and for a visit with family. In the past, we've done the Polynesian Cultural Center Luau, Old Lahaina Luau and other luaus and have found Sea Life Park's luau to be the best! I searched online for luaus on Oahu and saw that Sea Life Park Luau had the best selection on their menu for vegetarians. My husband is a vegetarian. Aside from the normal luau of him only having macaroni salad and white rice, this luau had the best freshest poi, a veggie platter, tropical fruit platter and tofu with ginger sauce. Desserts were out of this world. Haupia (coconut pudding), pies and cakes. This luau was even "All You Can Eat Buffet". We felt the luau was worth every penny at $89! There was sashimi, tako (squid) poki, grilled mahi mahi and chicken long rice. Check out their website and read the menu. Think of when you go to a sushi restaurant and how much you have to pay for sushi and sashimi alone. The additional dolphin show, petting of a turtle, getting up close to the penguins, watching the trainer feed the sting rays, seeing the tropical aquarium were an added bonus treat! If ever we were to take more friends to a luau, Sea Life Park will be our first choice again!

My family (including me, my husband and two daughters who are in their 20's) went there during our first trip to Hawaii a few weeks ago. We were pretty disappointed right from the start. While the admission price is fairly cheap, it should be. You can walk from one end of the park to the other in about 30 seconds. There are VERY few attractions. However, our biggest reason for going there was to do the Dolphin Adventure (dream of a lifetime!). It was $199 per person for 45 minutes...expensive, but I guess that is comparable to other places. We did enjoy the swim however and were also able to see a Wolphin. The downfall though was that of course we had to buy the pictures and video. For each picture set (3 pictures per set for each of us), it was $49.99, so that totalled $200.00. Then of course, we had to get the video. That was $50. When we got home to view the video, it was a total of 8 minutes. It only included the individual interactions. I think for $50, they should have kept the entire 45 minutes on the video. So, all in all, our total adventure (admission, swim, pictures), not including food, was $1,050 and we spent a total of about 2 1/2 hours in the park...quite a bit of money, I think.

Unless you have kids the only reason to go to the park is to do the Royal Dolphin swim. A great experience! The only bad thing is they get you on the cost of the pictures and most of the "action shots" don't come out that great. There really isn't much else to see here. You can walk the park in an hour and the show's aren't spectacular. We had a choice of leaving at 1 or 3. We did our Dolphin Swim at 10:45 and were more than ready to leave at 1. I will say the back drop of the park is breathtaking. The view is gorgeous

Sea Life Park is a wonderful interactive experience. My daughter and I did the Sea Lion Adventure and the Royal Dolphin Swim .. definitely worth the price. They are memories that will be with us for a lifetime. Only drawback was the cost of the photographs and video ... you really have to get them because they are so precious but the cost seems a little high. I guess if you consider that all proceeds to go back to the park and the care of the animals, it makes it a bit more palatable.

Appeared old and dirty. If you have ever been to Sea World you will be disappointed. This place is in a different league. The "dolphin swim" should be labeled as "Overpriced dolphin petting zoo." Interaction was minimal and you don't have to worry about booking far in advance because it seemed to me that they squeeze as many in as possible for each session. I paid about $120, granted the cheapest "interaction," however I did not expect nearly two dozen people when you included children sharing two dolphins for at most thrity minutes. You do the math your "interaction" is limited. The sea lion interacttion was a little better. However, the park is small and there is not much to see. I scheduled my three events throughout the day thinking, oh there'll be plenty to do. I ended reschedulin gthem closer together during the day so that I wouldn't waste a whole precious "Hawaii" day at Sea Life. I considered leaving but given that I had spent almost $250 on my day's adventure I stayed. Lastly, I paid $40 for the sting ray adventure. I had more interaction time with the animals at Sea World when I spent $3.00 to feed them. The staff feeds the sting ray, you get to touch it a couple of times and then you spend the rest of your 20 minutes floating around in the sting ray exhibit, which is a less than thrilling given that Hanauma Bay and the real experience can be done for $5.00 a couple of miles down the road. In addition, the whole park needs a face lift, the dolphin swim pool is dirty (I realize these are animals and the tanks won't be "swimming pool clean" but this was bad. There is only oone rest room and they nickel and dime you on the photographs. Photographs are $15 for one 5X7, $25 for 2 and around $30 for three. I did both the dolphin and sea lion events which are photographed. I asked if I could buy one for each for $25. Nope had to buy each for $15. Given the price of everything else and the quality this sen tme over the edge. I loved Hawaii. There are so many natural wonders that are essential free of charge, so I say leave this overpriced artificial atrraction .

I had the best time ever! I can see how this park would only be worth the $ if you sign up and do an interactive program, but most people do that. The staff was so helpful, and the facility was clean. The backdrop of the ocean is simply spectacular. The interactive program prices are almost half the price of comparable ones at Sea World, and the small/local atmosphere makes it well worth it. If you compare the park to Sea World, then no it is not as big or glitzy. But if you compare the animal adventures, it is way better. You need to do this!!! Enjoy!

I haven't been to Sea World since I was a kid, so I'm not comparing this to that. I don't and won't plan a vacation around Sea World. But I love Hawaii, and will return, and the Sea Life Park is worth a visit. The dolphins and the wholphin are awesome. The main reason for the visit. If you have already spent enough money to go to Hawaii, then spend the money to swim with the dolphins. It is an experience you'll never forget. Sure, you can do it in the Caribbean for less... also, though, if you have a large enough group and can spend the whole day at the park, split of the time slots for your group to swim. you can't have a camera in the water, and the only way to get pics is to pay for the ones they take of you. they charge you outrageous prices for these. of course, we bought them, and don't regret it... but if we had another couple with us, we could have had them take pics from "shore" and we could have returned the favor.

I enjoyed the activities for kids as well as what they had for adults. I especailly loved all the interactive exhibits. You can swim with dolphins, sea turtles, and all manners of sea life, but it is up close and in your face. This place is laid out nicely and it's admission is well worth the cost.

sea life park is wonderful and your kids will love it. the adults can even do stuff like interacting with dolphins,sting rays,and sea lions it may not be sea world but it is great and you can spend the whole day there and you can feed the sea lions and the trurtles for 1.00. And the food is great the burgers are wonderful so is the ice cream. I Just cant get over the wonderful piretes plot with dolphins and everything. when you leave you get a gift.