Welcome aboard, Cindy! Congratulations on booking your very first Disney cruise!
My daughter and I had the most wonderful experience a few months ago when we swam with the dolphins at Blue Lagoon. Before I booked that particular Port Adventure, I did a lot of research and chatted with guests who had done the Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim and the Dolphin Cay swim at Atlantis. The majority of feedback I received was that while both were great, the Blue Lagoon experience offered more hands on time and a more in depth experience, so we opted for that one. Now, I can only speak for our experience there since we didn't experience the swim at Atlantis, but Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim was spectacular! If your daughter is old enough, definitely pay the extra cost to go on the swim versus the encounter. When we arrived, we broke off from the encounter group and found that our swim group only had four guests, including my daughter and myself. We had the option of wearing wetsuits here, which I was thrilled about because I always get chilly in the water. We had lots of hands on time with the two dolphins who played with us, swam to the bottom to bring us gifts of rocks, hugged them, kissed them, petted them and just swam around. Then, the best part was the push across the water with one dolphin on each foot. What an amazing experience!
I also loved that after the swim, since we booked the earliest one of the day, we had hours to explore and relax and play on Blue Lagoon Island, and were able to choose one of a few different return times whenever we felt like we were ready to head back. I highly recommend the
Blue Lagoon Dolphin Swim. The encounter there got rave reviews too, from folks we traveled with, but I am so glad we had the more in depth experience during the swim.
Stop back if you have more questions, Cindy! Happy planning!