Clearwater Marine Aquarium

Ever since I saw the “Dolphin Tale” movies I had wanted to visit and see Winter the dolphin (the star of the movies) in person. For our first family trip to Florida in 2019, I made sure to plan a day to spend at Winter’s home Clearwater Marine Aquarium “CMA”. It is located in Clearwater, FL which is about a 35-minute drive from Tampa, FL, and about a 2-hour drive from Orlando, FL. So if you are visiting Disney (like we did) it is a quick day trip to the Aquarium.

We recently went back to visit CMA in May 2021 and I am so glad that we did. After 16 years, Winter just passed away after fighting an infection on November 11, 2021. I’m so thankful we got to see her twice and so recently. I had been wanting to write a blog post to document our two visits and now seemed like the perfect time to honor Winter’s memory.

Remembering Winter the Dolphin

For those who don’t know, Winter is a bottlenose dolphin who was rescued as a baby off the coast of Flordia after being caught in a crab trap. Her tail was so badly injured from the entanglement she eventually lost it. No one thought she’d survive, but she did. She had to relearn how to swim in a side-to-side motion as opposed to the up and down tail motion that is normal for dolphins and she eventually got a prosthetic tail and became an inspiration to amputees and people with disabilities across the country.

September 2019 Visit

At the time of our first visit in 2019, CMA was still in its original building – the same location as the two Dolphin Tale movies were filmed. They were in the process of construction to expand. After parking in the parking structure, we had to purchase tickets in a small area at the bottom of the parking garage and were given stickers for entry. We walked around outside of the parking garage to reach the small Aquarium side entrance.

There were a lot of construction areas around the building, the restaurant was closed at the time, and the bathrooms were small trailer buildings outside. We got some photos taken upon entering and got to hold one of Winter’s prosthetic tails. We got a schedule of the shows, etc for the aquarium that day and then set off to explore the aquarium.

The original dolphin pool for Winter, Hope, and PJ was inside a small area with minimal seating. Most of the walkways were small and hard to navigate through with a stroller – which we had for our 2-year-old and 1-year-old kids in tow. On their outside deck, resident male bottlenose dolphin Nicolas lived.

Despite the small walkways, we all had an absolute blast! We got to watch a demonstration with Nicolas outside and watch Winter exercise with her prosthetic tale one. We got to see some of the filming locations and props, shop in the gift shop, pet stingrays, see many kinds of marine life, and learn all about CMA’s Rescue, Rehab, Release mission to help marine animals.

My favorite memory of this trip was watching the female dolphins swim in the underwater window. The windows were small (and there were only three) so you had to take turns with other visitors – but we had an amazing encounter with the dolphin Hope. While standing at an underwater winder holding my just turned 1-year-old son, Hope swam by our window and hung out watching us. She would go up for air and come back and just stay by our window over and over. She did this for at least 10-15 minutes. She never stopped to visit any other guests at the other windows while we were there, only us. My son loved watching her and I was in awe (dolphins are my favorite animal). I could have stayed there all day. We took many photos and videos to document the special moments with Hope.

Every team member we encountered went above and beyond. They were able to answer any question we had about any of CMA’s animals and they were so friendly and helpful! After this amazing visit, my kids fell in love with Winter and Hope (as much as me) and I just knew whenever we visited again we could have to stop by CMA again to see them and check out the renovations.

May 2021 Visit

With my love of dolphins, my kids’ obsession with Winter and Hope, CMA’s newly renovated building, and their new resident dolphins since our last visit – there was no way we weren’t going to make CMA a stop on our May 2021 family trip to Florida! The kids were so excited to visit the dolphins. The CMA renovations are just amazing!

CMA still has its original building and areas we visited in 2019. The outside Rescue dolphin deck that used to house Nicolas now houses two male rough-toothed dolphins, Rudy & Rex. There are only two aquariums in the US that are home to rough-toothed dolphins, and CMA is one of them. All of the bottlenose dolphins are now in a new addition to the aquarium in giant tanks with huge underwater windows. Nicolas also now has another male companion, Hemy.

The new additions to CMA are bigger, roomier, and open. When you park in the parking structure you enter through the garage and make your way to the big-ticket booths. There are cool displays of the animals and props from the Dolphin Tale movies. I noticed how bigger everything was right away. The original small shop is still there but they also have a bigger main store upon entering. There is also a restaurant and indoor restrooms. There is a top floor where they have different displays. When we visited they had a whale display and giant inflatables. It was really neat.

There is an outdoor deck area you can sit and eat on as well as an indoor eating area. On the outdoor deck, you can get a look at all of the new dolphin pools from the top/above the water. The walkways are bigger and more accommodating for strollers, wheelchairs, etc now. There are stairs and elevators to move from floor to floor.

There are giant underwater viewing windows and areas for the dolphin pools. There are also really cool educational exhibits and games along the walkway around the dolphin tanks under the water. You can hear and see each dolphin’s unique sounds up close on one of the sound machines. There is an educational board that shows you where the dolphin’s organs, etc are on their body.

CMA also offers special packages and experiences for you to get up close with some of their animals. We haven’t done any yet mainly because my kids are too young but I definitely plan to one day because they have so many cool options. They also have daily boat tours. I wanted to do a boat tour on our last visit but they were sold out. So I would recommend booking boat tours ahead of time because they have limited seating and they only do a certain amount per day.

The restaurant was good and all of the employees we encountered were so helpful. I have loved interacting with each working at this aquarium each visit we’ve had. It doesn’t matter if they are working in the gift shop, the photo center, the service desk, or one of the animal trainers – they are all very helpful and willing to take the time to talk and answer any questions we had. They also had trainers stationed at the underwater dolphin windows to help tell guests which pools the dolphins were in/which windows you could see them at all day. This was so helpful!

Both of our visits were so much fun and I’m definitely planning on going again on our next Florida trip. CMA has also partnered with a hotel on Clearwater Beach and renovated it to feature Winter and her CMA pals. The hotel is called: Winter the Dolphin’s Beach Club. The photos are gorgeous and it is on my to-do list to stay there on our next trip.

CMA is definitely a bucket list stop! Even though Winter is gone, her memory lives on, her friends are still there, and CMA is still a must-see aquarium. The staff is phenomenal and the memories will last a lifetime. I encourage you to visit for yourself, you won’t regret it!