Dolphin Island – Maria’s Magical Birthday Party at Adventure Cove Singapore

My daughter loves swimming parties and like most girls, she went through the whole mermaid wannabe phase. This year we decided to have her 10th birthday party at Adventure Cove’s Dolphin Island in Sentosa Singapore. Here is a review with photos, tips and prices.

Themed Birthday Parties

I love throwing themed birthday parties for my kids! It’s something my children look forward to every year. And every year I literally crack my head for new ways to delight them and their guests. The whole planning process is fun for my daughter and I, as we do it together for a month (or two) before the actual day. I see this as spending memorable bonding time with her. Now that she is older, I let her choose the date, party list, birthday theme and get her to chip in with her ideas and participate with all the fun little details of party planning.

Narwhal Themed Party at Dolphin Island, Adventure Cove

Almost every girl I know was mesmerized by Princess Ariel and the Disney movie Under the Sea. This year my daughter had this crazy idea to have a Narwhal themed birthday party. What?? Don’t know what a Narwhal is you say??! Don’t worry, I had to google it too!

What on earth is a Narwhal?

Believe it or not, Narwhals REALLY do exist. A Narwhal is a class of whale that has a “tusk” that protrudes from its head from a tooth. This ‘tusk’ looks a lot like a horn, thus awarding the Narwhal the magical status of being an underwater unicorn.

Now that I was armed with this new knowledge, I was better equipped at developing details for this year’s birthday party. After some pondering and google research, I had a eureka moment – Let’s have her birthday party at Adventure Cove’s Dolphin Island in Sentosa Singapore!

More Narwhal Madness

Drawing from the Narwhal inspirations on the internet and Maria’s ideas, I started designing her birthday card. I chose her favourite rainbow colours and picked a picture of a girl hugging a cute Narwhal.

Narwhal Birthday Card

Narwhal Birthday Cake

Maria’s quite a showy kid, so having a beautiful cake was very important to her. Hence in line with the Narwhal theme, I had Maria’s birthday cake designed as a cute Narwhal.

We chose the cake design together from internet images and sent it to my trusty cake supplier – Little House of Dreams. I always get a great price from Grace Goh (the owner), plus I know that the awesome chefs at Little House of Dreams create cakes that taste as delicious as they look. Grace suggested a vanilla and speculoos filling – I slurped up the idea in a heartbeat.

Narwhal Stuffed Toys

I ordered these cutey-pie Narwhal stuffed toys from the internet for each of our guests. The girls adored them. They were very cute, soft and fluffy. Even my son asked for one!

I was worried that regular paper bags would start dissolving once they got wet so I searched for fabric bags. I found very nice cotton bags from Typo, they were well priced at $2.50 each. While we were at Typo, we scored some nice notepads that were selling at 3 for $12.

You can’t go wrong with Smiggle or Typo gear, kids dig that stuff. We filled the loot bags with the stuffed narwhals, spin-out notebooks and some snacks, tied some colourful ribbons and were all set.

But enough of Narwhals and Unicorns, let’s move on to dolphins!

Dolphin Island, Adventure Cove in Sentosa Singapore

Dolphin Island is an attraction within the Adventure Cove Water Park. To do the Dolphin experiences you need to first have a ticket for Adventure Cove. If you buy the Dolphin Island tickets, it comes together with the Adventure Cove Ticket built-in.

There are a few options available at Adventure Cove’s Dolphin Island.

1. Dolphin Adventure
2. Dolphin Discovery
3. Dolphin Encounter
4. Dolphin VIP – Adventure/Discovery/Encounter
5. Dolphin Trek
6. Trainer for A Day

There’s plenty of information and videos on the official Resorts World Website so browse that if you want to know more details on each program. We eventually selected the Dolphin Adventure program.

I booked by emailing the Resorts World Reservations team. They were helpful at accommodating my many questions and amendments. We spoke on the phone a few times to clarify my booking. Finally, I gave them my credit card details to hold the reservation – the actual payment was done at the Adventure Park itself.

Resorts World Invites

If you have the resorts world invites card, you can get extra 10% off for the 1^st 6 tickets. We managed to apply this discount. We also get free parking using this card – this is useful because parking at resorts world all day can be a mini bomb.

Insider Recommendations

The Resorts World Reservations team suggested that I get a Private Cabana inside the adventure cove waterpark so that my party had a place to put their items and shower. Considering that there were 15 of us, placing our items in the cabana was definitely better than renting the Adventure Cove lockers.

They also recommended that I have the birthday lunch and cake cutting at the Bay Restaurant inside Adventure Cove waterpark and put me in touch with the Bay Restaurant managers. I followed their advice and both these suggestions ended up being brilliant.

I managed to snag a Bluwater Bay Cabana – which was the biggest one available. These cabanas are right beside the Wave Pool. The cabana comes with a private shower at the back, a lounge seat, a safe to lock valuables and 2 towels.

Tip: Make sure you pre-book these cabanas online because they will get taken up closer and closer to the actual visit day.

The Bay Restaurant is a casual dining place inside Adventure Park. We booked the 2^nd floor for the birthday party. I cannot sing enough praises for the team at the Bay Restaurant – Xan and Naren, who went out of their way to make the birthday yet more special for our party. The Bay Restaurant is lucky to have these great staff!

The kids ordered Hawaiian Pizzas, Mushroom & Cheese Pizzas, Chicken Karaage with Spaghetti, Chicken Meatball Pasta with Tomato Sauce and Fish and Chips. I think the pasta dishes were quite a hit. If you rent a Cabana you can have the food delivered there as well.

Dolphin Adventure, Dolphin Island Sentosa

And finally, the jewel of the party – the dolphin adventure! The girls had been talking about it all day and could hardly keep their squeals of delight down when they arrived at the Dolphin Island check-in gates.

You have to keep your watches, iPhones, cameras in the free lockers provided at Dolphin Island. No video or photography is allowed – you need to purchase the photos from the Dolphin Island’s photography centre.

It was a pleasure just watching the trainers getting the dolphins ready – it’s like watching a teaser before seeing the actual movie. We were given wet suits to change into and life vests to wear. After a quick briefing, we were brought into the water pods for our Dolphin Adventure.

The trainers split our party into smaller groups so that each group could spend quality time with the dolphins. We got to enjoy time with Singa (female) and Shuai Shuai (male), who entertained and played with us. We all had a whale of a time.

The girls got to do various experiences with the dolphins. Seeing the wondrous delight on their faces just made it all worthwhile. In a nutshell, the Dolphin Adventure is magical and super duper special. I highly recommend it.

Dolphins are very soft to touch and have velvety smooth skin. It was awesome just being close to them and looking into their dreamy eyes. They were playful and friendly, and kept coming back again and again to socialise with the girls.

We played peek-a-boo with the dolphins, sang and danced with them. It was apparent how highly intelligent the dolphins were because they could respond and interact so well.

The dolphins are incredibly strong! They pushed us around the water pods and we could “drive” and steer using the body boards. It was amazing to feel how powerful they were. Everyone got a chance to surf around the pods.

After the Dolphin Adventure, we stayed on in the park till it closed at 6pm that day. There are really fun and thrilling rides at Adventure Cove although there’s a bit of a queue. My favourite is the lazy river and the snorkelling reef. Do I recommend a visit to Dolphin Island and Adventure Cove? Yup I sure do!!

Why did I write this review?

I often get asked about the parties I’ve planned and thought to pen down some details to provide inspiration to help fellow parents with their birthday party planning. I’ll like to mention that all the recommendations and tips written here are independently authored by me. No sponsorship was involved in the writing of this review.

Prices and details

Booked via email to: RWS Reservations and Ticketing <reservations@RWSentosa.com>

Bluwater Bay Cabana, Adventure Cove

Full-Day Rental @ S$138.00

• Outdoor Shower
• Ceiling Fan
• Lounger Chair
• Safe
• 2 sets of Towel
• 2 bottles of mineral water

(New Features for the upgraded Bluwater Bay Cabana)

• An enclosed private shower area with amenities
• Hot & cold shower facilities
• 2x extra power points to charge electronic devices
• Electronic mosquito repellant
• Insulation on the roof for cooling purposes

Book the cabanas online from www.rwsentosa.com

The Bay Restaurant, Adventure Cove

8 Sentosa Gateway, Sentosa Island, 098269

T: 6577 8899 | https://www.rwsentosa.com/en/restaurants/bay-restaurant

Little House of Dreams

Block 8 Dempsey Road #01-14, Singapore 247696

T: 6472 4977 | http://www.littlehouseofdreams.com