Spirit of Aloha and Dolphin Experience

Two of the magical extras we had planned for our Covid cancelled WDW vacation don’t appear to be available right now. Has anyone heard if Spirit of Aloha at Polynesian :pineapple: will be opening again soon? Wondering the same about the EPCOT Dophin Experience. :dolphin: Our trip is in early May.

1 Like

Have not heard about SOA reopening but it’s really not very good. Or at least wasn’t before it shut for pandemic. It was one and done for me and I was rather disappointed in it overall.

2 Likes

Even HDDR got to the rumour stage months ago and nothing further has materialized.
But I don’t recall SOA even getting that far

2 Likes

By “Epcot Dolphin Experience” do you mean Dolphins in Depth? I did it years ago and really enjoyed it. Just be aware that it is NOT a swim with the dolphins. You get to touch them and do some behavioral cues.

1 Like

Dolphins swim in super cold water! At least the bottlenose dolphins at Epcot do. The big tank is set to about 80 degrees or so, and the dolphins are in the 50s/60s I believe.

We did the scuba at Epcot (DiveQuest) pre Covid and it was awesome. All that stuff isn’t coming back just yet, from what I understand. With the DiveQuest we got to visit the dolphins (and manatees) in the backstage area. Pretty neat!

1 Like

Yes, I am aware. We put on wet suits and were in the water up to about our waist with them.

1 Like

We were disappointed in Spirit of Aloha as well.

The whole set up of where the tables are vs where the entertainment is clunky. Makes for too much disconnect. Obviously if a guy is twirling fire around, he’s got to be separate from the audience.

We were 2nd or 3rd tier with a kid who wanted to join in some participation dance. By the time the kid made it to the group, the dance was over.
If you go and you have a participant, make sure you’ve figured out how to get them away from your table and down to first level quickly.

Some of our group did like their drinks but then, they’re an easy room when it comes to drinks.

As noisy and hokey and what - unsurprising? - as Hoop De Doo is, we’d go back there again.
But balcony again. With ear plugs.

I’m pretty bad at quoting on this forum still/replying to topics, so I was originally chiming in to the OP, but since you mention this I’m curious- did they give you a shorty wetsuit or a full? On the DiveQuest they had shortie suits set out for everyone, but the water was a wee bit chilly for me! I saw some repeat visitors had requested ahead of time a full wetsuit.

Pretty sure it was a shorty. I run hot, so I was fine - especially since we were not fully submerged.

1 Like

I don’t think Spirit of Aloha is coming back, at least not any time soon. All the cast were “let go” and there’s been nothing since.

Contrast that with Hoop de Doo where they recalled cast, and also held auditions for new cast. The issues there are around both catering and dining at full capacity (which is now almost certainly just down to staffing in general).

2 Likes

We expected to have the same reaction but with two little girls that really wanted to go, we took the chance. I have to say that the adults had as much fun as the children. The food was plentiful and actually good. The floor show had lots of fun jokes that weren’t too risque for children but that the adults could get a laugh out of. It may have helped that the beer was flowing and there was a really inebriated lady a few tables over who kept interacting with the show in hilarious ways. :grinning:

Thanks Lizzieanne. We have a 15 year old that would love to do the swim with dolphins part but isn’t old enough. She was so looking forward to the Dolphins in Depth part and had read all about it. I think the stuff you describe would send her over the moon! Fingers crossed it will be available again.

1 Like