Marineland Dolphin Adventure

Saturday 3/31/2018
No boat travel.

Both of the dock masters here at the marina recommended we visit Marineland Dolphin Adventure facility across the street from the marina. Clark decided that since we have stayed here three times and have never seen the main attraction, it was about time we saw what they had to offer.

The marina supplied us with two complimentary passes to avoid paying General Admission entrance fees. These passes also entitled us to a discounted price on the "Behind the Seas" tour. We overslept a little so we did not get there at 9:00 when they opened as recommended, but we did not miss anything by arriving at 9:30.

We had also been told to request the 3:00 tour. When we checked in, we found that the last show of the day was scheduled for 1:00 due to a wedding being held at Marineland tonight. The "Behind the Seas" area is used by wedding parties to prepare for the wedding. We opted for the 1:00 tour.

We really had no idea what to expect. Marineland was in its "hay days" in the 1970s. After Sea World opened near Disney World, tourists lost interest in what was once the amazing phenomenon known as Marineworld. Since its inception, when it was designed and built for filming movies, the facility has morphed several times over. Over the years it has served as a research and education facility as well as a breeding and care facility for various aquatic species. The main focus today is dolphins.

This past winter when the waters around Florida got unusually cold, the facility housed five green turtles in one of the tanks. The tank is now empty because the ocean water warmed up enough for them to be released and survive. We saw other turtles - some live, most in poster form. Two living turtles are "hanging out" at Marineland because one is so old it is arthritic, and the other, a teenager, was badly injured by boat propellers and can never be released back into the wild.

Many posters at the facility explained the different types of sea turtles. One mural showed their varying sizes, so I had Clark stand next to the largest for comparison purposes. He is almost 6' tall.

While boating, we have seen a few sea turtles though I have never been able to determine which variety I am looking at. I had Clark take pictures of the various types for reference purposes.

After wandering around the turtle area, we found a Marineland volunteer who told us to head up to the dolphin exhibit where at 10:00 a "full immersion" program would be underway.  A walkway along the ocean took us to the dolphin area. Views of the facility from the walkway are shown below.

Ocean proximity
allows easy use of ocean water by the facility

"Whitney Park" - dolphin training and research area

Turtle and Shark Tanks

"Neptune" - marble statue

A volunteer, who used to teach at Idaho State, told us an interesting story about the Neptune statue. The husband / wife team that paid for its creation had differing opinions on whether he should be marble or bronze. The husband, who placed the order for the statue, ignored his wife's wishes and had it created in marble. After it was built, the wife went behind her husband's back and had it painted bronze. Today it still has some gold/brown coloring where the bronze color could not be removed.

We arrived at the dolphin tank area in plenty of time to see the full show. The display area consists of multiple interconnected tanks. I found it hard to know where to look as dolphins frolicked in multiple tanks simultaneously. The "full immersion" program took place in the central tank. A second tank to the left held dolphins participating in a little girl's birthday party.

Off to the far left another large tank held those dolphins not participating in the morning shows. To me, the ones on the far left side behaved like children pouting in "time out". They kept watching the other tanks and definitely looked like they wanted to join in all the fun.

"Can I come out and play too?"
(his "chin" is resting on the cement hoping to get a good look)

In the birthday party tank, the dolphins played catch with the party attendees. (Movie)

Although the "playing catch" and the "I want to play too" dolphins were fun to watch, our focus centered on the main activity antics. The trainers had the dolphins do jumps, chase balls, splash the paying participants, "clap" their fins, and "talk".

Full immersion program - Jump

Jump High!

Stand tall!

The Full Immersion program lasted about 30 minutes and then we were free to stroll around until the next activity time. We walked up close to the tanks to get a good look at the dolphins there. Since this is an education facility, many posters described details about dolphins lives. One fact I found interesting is that dolphins cannot sleep like humans do. Instead they rest one half of their brain at a time, at will.

Lazy-looking dolphin? Or is he resting one side of his brain?

Besides the ocean-dwelling creatures, we got to observe some birds.

This blackbird came and sat right next to us
with not a care in the world.

Sandpipers on the beach
running in and out to avoid waves

The next program took place at 11:30 where a staff member gave a 20-minute presentation on dolphin care and training. After that we walked back to our boat (across the street) to get lunch before the 1:00 tour we had paid for.

We returned just before 1:00 for the "Behind the Seas" tour. A volunteer named Joan, whom I had talked to earlier and learned worked at Cornell University before moving to Florida, led us on our tour. As it turned out, only Clark and I had signed up for the 1:00 tour, so we had a private showing.

Walking down a flight of stairs that took us to the "underbelly" of the facility, I realized that "behind the seas" actually meant "behind the tanks". The stairs took us to an exhibit area displaying a picture-presentation of the history of the facility as well as exhibits including live sea creatures.

Through our tour, we learned that an oceanarium is different than an aquarium in that different species are exhibited together in an oceanarium.

World's First Oceanarium opened in 1938.

During the tour, I was amazed to learn how the town of Marineland grew from empty marshland before Marineland, the show, opened into a thriving town / small city when the facility was in full swing. When it first opened its doors, 30,000 people swarmed in to see what it was all about. Hotels and restaurants opened in the area due to the popularity of the facility.

One restaurant that opened had a bar that looked like the hull of a ship. People "climbed on board" to order their drinks. When someone new sat down, a button could be pushed that made the bar rock like a boat at sea. I expect that surprised more than a few patrons to find the bar swaying. Today, all that remains of the Moby Dick Lounge is shown below.

No lounge behind these doors!

The town had a post office, mayor, and fire company.  No signs of any of this remain today. I found it quite sad to think of how it peaked and then crashed to bankruptcy. The original tanks stood in what is now the parking lot with the parking area located across the street. A circular tank stood 75' across, and a rectangular one measured much larger. They no longer exist. After bankruptcy was declared, a conservationist bought the area and built new tanks for research, education, and rehabilitation purposes.

The first dolphins ever to be trained were trained at Marineland. Based on their intelligent behavior, someone got the bright idea that dolphins might be trainable and hired a trainer from the Barnum and Bailey circus to come in and work with them. After a year the trainer had taught a dolphin 6 "tricks". This was the start of something big! Ripley of "Believe it or not" fame came to visit to verify that dolphins could truly perform.

After learning about the rise and fall of Marineland, we came to the movie making portion of the tour where we learned that the series Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges was filmed here. Although not filmed here, the idea for the series Flipper came from Marineland. The star of the show was named after a Marineland dolphin named "Flippy". Both of these shows were favorites of mine as a young girl.

I had heard from both dock masters at the marina that the movie "Creature from the Black Lagoon" was filmed at Marineland. Based on that I did some research before visiting the center. I figured out from Google that the movie filmed here was actually "Revenge of the Creature [from the Black Lagoon]".  I saw the "Creature from the Black Lagoon" movie but neither of the two sequels. Now, knowing it was filmed at Marineland, I would like to see the "Revenge" movie but am not willing to pay $7.95 to Amazon for the pleasure of owning a copy.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Revenge of the Creature

I also learned from Google research that Clint Eastwood's first movie role was a bit part in the "Revenge" picture. Knowing this tidbit of information came in handy during our Behind the Seas tour because the guide asked if we could guess who the 87 year old actor / director might be that had been in the movie. Clark said, "You're asking the wrong person", and I "guessed" Clint Eastwood and got a big smile for "guessing" correctly.

As part of the movie tour, we saw some old camera and film-making equipment.

Then we entered the room with the live sea creature exhibits. Joan made sure to point out what creatures might be lurking in each tank. More often than not, she referred to them by name. Finding the moray eel had come out of his hidy holes made her very happy.

Green Moray Eel
(Like the villains in Little Mermaid)

The guide pointed out that Moray Eels have bright blue eyes.

Owing to spending time with my granddaughter, I am now familiar with a few movies I would never have seen otherwise. Today I saw some sights that reminded me of watching "Finding Dory" with her. I was just about as excited as a four-year old to see a Blue Tang.

A relative of "Dory" from the film Finding Dory 

I was equally excited to see an octopus come out of hiding to greet us. I learned from watching Finding Dory that an octopus can change color to camouflage itself to match its environment. The octopus at the exhibit did just that. The guide explained that this octopus is very social. S/he came out of hiding to say hello, waved her arms at us a bit, and then climbed back into the background to "hide". She looked just the same color and texture as the coral after she sunk back down into the scenery. Amazing!

Common Octopus "Octopus Vulgaris"
Unlike Hank from Finding Dory, this octopus has all 8 legs,
but like Hank, it has three hearts.

As an oceanarium, tanks displayed those sea creatures that could share tanks without eating each other.  Besides "Dory" and "Hank", we saw a hermit crab (like "Sebastian" from Little Mermaid), sea urchins, lobster, sea cucumbers, grunt fish, sea stars (used to be called starfish), and many other sea creatures.

Our private, "Behind the Scenes", tour ended at 2:00. Clark had a couple of posters he had not read yet, and I wanted to stroll through the gift shop. After that we returned to the boat - me to blog and Clark to do travel planning.

We leave here tomorrow heading for Jacksonville and the St. Johns River area. A cold front came through with the rains yesterday, we woke this morning to temperatures in the 50s with highs in the 60s. With the ocean breeze, we wore long pants and jackets for our day at Marineland. I hope warmer weather comes back again soon.

Hard to see the sunset tonight through the clouds ...