Abandoned Water Park Los Dolphins

[keepcoming]

I am not talking about tourists. There are residents living in that area that can use season passes.

There is not much of a local population in that area, not sure if you have been in that area. Ex-pat residents that live around the Cap Cana area are not the "waterpark types". As Maria pointed out it is a fairly decent distance from the areas where people with the means would go there. But I still do not think it is a place where people would go more than once. Not really sure why they put it in that area. The price point they have now is priced for tourists. They seem to want to market it to those who want a "classier" (if you can call a waterpark that) experience so they would need to keep their price a bit higher to maintain that.

 

[MariaRubia]

There is not much of a local population in that area, not sure if you have been in that area. Ex-pat residents that live around the Cap Cana area are not the "waterpark types". As Maria pointed out it is a fairly decent distance from the areas where people with the means would go there. But I still do not think it is a place where people would go more than once. Not really sure why they put it in that area. The price point they have now is priced for tourists. They seem to want to market it to those who want a "classier" (if you can call a waterpark that) experience so they would need to keep their price a bit higher to maintain that.

I'm confused now, are we still talking about Los Delfines or the one in Cap Cana? Regarding Los Delfines, I think they could potentially make this work if they get their price point right, think about what is included and think about even putting on transport, especially on slower days. As per my other posts today, I've just stayed in an AI for US$ 55 per person per night all inclusive. If you charged me say RD$ 2000 to go to a waterpark and this included lunch and maybe some drinks then I think it would be competitive and still priced at a level where you'd keep out the barrio trash. RD$ 2000 is the kind of price we pay for a day pass at a niceish hotel, including lunch, a couple of drinks and use of the facilities. And like I said if they had a bus and charged, say, RD$ 500 extra for transport to and from the capital then I can see it would be a hit. I think people pay about RD$ 4,000 for a daytrip to Bayahibe, including drinks lunch and transport and those trips are very busy.

Summit trampoline park is now RD$ 750 per child per hour and it's packed out all weekend. So I just think if the can come in about RD$ 2000 and include food, that would be the right type of ball park to be competitive and also profitable.

Regarding Agua Splash, it's now RD$ 500 entry and they recently jacked up their food and drink prices a lot so a nasty burger and fries comes in at about RD$ 800 and it's RD$ 200 for a warm can of presidente.

 

[keepcoming]

The one in Cap Cana, El Dorado. For the local population, you would have to go quite a bit of a distance. I just do not see where a waterpark in Cap Cana can have enough of a draw to maintain.

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

I'm confused now, are we still talking about Los Delfines or the one in Cap Cana? Regarding Los Delfines, I think they could potentially make this work if they get their price point right, think about what is included and think about even putting on transport, especially on slower days. As per my other posts today, I've just stayed in an AI for US$ 55 per person per night all inclusive. If you charged me say RD$ 2000 to go to a waterpark and this included lunch and maybe some drinks then I think it would be competitive and still priced at a level where you'd keep out the barrio trash. RD$ 2000 is the kind of price we pay for a day pass at a niceish hotel, including lunch, a couple of drinks and use of the facilities. And like I said if they had a bus and charged, say, RD$ 500 extra for transport to and from the capital then I can see it would be a hit. I think people pay about RD$ 4,000 for a daytrip to Bayahibe, including drinks lunch and transport and those trips are very busy.

Summit trampoline park is now RD$ 750 per child per hour and it's packed out all weekend. So I just think if the can come in about RD$ 2000 and include food, that would be the right type of ball park to be competitive and also profitable.

Regarding Agua Splash, it's now RD$ 500 entry and they recently jacked up their food and drink prices a lot so a nasty burger and fries comes in at about RD$ 800 and it's RD$ 200 for a warm can of presidente.

Say what, they raised ot $500RD now from $200 that I paid in 2012. Lord have mercy. Their food are still garbage.

If Los Delfines want to make it work, they need to add a hotel next door like that what their next phase 2 suppose be and charge $4000RD (at least) for everything include hotel stay, transporation, admission to the park and lunch meal. That would make sense after all.

If El Dorado Waterpark is successful, I would be surprised. However, they need a hotel next door to lure more people so they can purchase ticket admission to the park to keep them alive.

My daughter who just become 11 year old and she asked for birthday gift is a day to Summit Trampoline at Sambil and I paid $1400 for 3 hours and a meal and she loved it. It was packed that day too. That was last weekend.

 

[MariaRubia]

Say what, they raised ot $500RD now from $200 that I paid in 2012. Lord have mercy. Their food are still garbage.

If Los Delfines want to make it work, they need to add a hotel next door like that what their next phase 2 suppose be and charge $4000RD (at least) for everything include hotel stay, transporation, admission to the park and lunch meal. That would make sense after all.

If El Dorado Waterpark is successful, I would be surprised. However, they need a hotel next door to lure more people so they can purchase ticket admission to the park to keep them alive.

My daughter who just become 11 year old and she asked for birthday gift is a day to Summit Trampoline at Sambil and I paid $1400 for 3 hours and a meal and she loved it. It was packed that day too. That was last weekend.

I've banned the kids from going to Summit after I have read about the head and neck injuries - including deaths - that kids have got from going to trampoline parks (not just Summit, all of them are really dangerous). I believe there have been deaths and paralysis caused by injuries from Summit SD though. However we digress, let's stick to talking about Los Delfines.

 

[CristoRey]

IMO waterparks are not that big of draw in the DR. Expensive, people go maybe once and that is it. Tourists have even less interest.

With the higher cost of living effecting the average Dominican family, it's cheaper to take the kids to the beach for day.

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

With the higher cost of living effecting the average Dominican family, it's cheaper to take the kids to the beach for day.

Since public beaches starting to disappear so that why they are building these waterparks to rob us money, perhaps?

 

[RDKNIGHT]

Forgot to add:

However, after I checked their website: https://eldoradowaterpark.com the hours they open are kind limited and admission prices are more expensive, $129 for adults and $89 for kids. However, they are releasing an season pass which is cheaper, $150 for adults and $75 for children however for DR residents, its cheaper, $69 for adults and $30 for children. At any time, ticket purchased, an service fee of $287.10RD is added.

After look at google map, its a small waterpark. So we will see how it goes after 6 months.

Tip: see the vid abt the new waterpark:

I have been to this park real nice for the kids..They have a special now adults pay 150 and kids 75 for free excess till Jan 1

 

[CristoRey]

Since public beaches starting to disappear so that why they are building these waterparks to rob us money, perhaps?

First time I've heard of public beaches disappearing.

 

[AlterEgo]

First time I've heard of public beaches disappearing.

I think he means some have been privatized by hotels, etc. The last time we went out to Playa Caribe/Embassy Beach the whole parking area off the highway was roped off and impassable it happened after the hotel closed. That may have changed, it was awhile ago.

 

[MiamiDRGuy]

I think he means some have been privatized by hotels, etc. The last time we went out to Playa Caribe/Embassy Beach the whole parking area off the highway was roped off and impassable it happened after the hotel closed. That may have changed, it was awhile ago.

That what I was going to say, my mind wasn't being today. More AI hotels build that prevent beaches to be available to the public so they can charge you to use it. It needs to stop.

 

[CristoRey]

That what I was going to say, my mind wasn't being today. More AI hotels build that prevent beaches to be available to the public so they can charge you to use it. It needs to stop.

Indeed it does. Seriously this is the first I've heard of it aside from some knuckle heads up in Cabarete
a few years ago who were forced by court order to remove their blockade/ fencing.

 

[NALs]

Unfortunately, I think for the part of my wife's family, I can confirm this, except that the percentage is higher... Not one member of the family likes swimming... This is something that has always wondered me, as their country is a half-island and has many many beaches... The only person of her family I have ever seen in a bathing suit is my mother-in-law playing with the kids (yes, she did kind of swim a few feet but still...), I think the others do not even own bathing suits...

My country in Scandinavia has a coast of more than 1000kms and thousands of lakes and accordingly, we (my wife does enjoy swimming, so calling her the odd member of her family...) are excellent swimmers. Our elder just passed a rather strict exam on swimming....

For centuries most people lived inland and never in their lives had see the sea or the coast. This explains many things of the DR that isn’t usually the case with islands.

Usually the island is small enough that the sea is never faraway or most of the towns and surrounding rural areas are on the coast or very near it. That’s part of the reason seafood is abundant in the diets of island societies, but most traditional Dominican plates have no seafood. Before refrigeration, which is still most of the time, seafood is spoiled if taken too far inland from say Puerto Plata and nothing went faster than a horse. Just to go from Puerto Plata to Santiago was going to take at least 2 days and most of the population (60% to 70%) for much of the colonial period and even a few decades after independence was acheived lived in the Santiago - La Vega - San Francisco triangle. Most were farmers and much of the DR was covered in forests, nit savannahs like now. In fact, you speak to older people in their 70’s and 80’s and most confirm that when they were kids there were a lot of “montes” that started not far from where the towns ended. Even plates that are originally from Spain and are heavily seafood based once in the DR the seafood was replaced by land animal meats, such as with “arroz caldoso” which in the DR is known as asopao.

I wasn’t even shocked when in an interview Hipólito Mejía, who is from Santiago (Gurabo), said that he was a teen when he first saw the sea and that was in the malecón of Santo Domingo. He couldn’t believe it. He did what many inland people never did in their entire lives, visit the coast.

 

[lifeisgreat]

No, not planned properly. He didn't think electricity would be an issue. He was a retired wrestler, btw.

Jeez, does anyone else here remember back then? His name was Rocky.

He thought there was enough population in Los Frailes for it to be a success.

If he were to have built it in the last few years it may have succeeded.

Rocky Johnson?

 

[JD Jones]

Rocky Johnson?

Retired wrestler, right?

 

[lifeisgreat]

Retired wrestler, right?

Rocky Johnson - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[JD Jones]

Rocky Johnson - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Not that Rocky. I must be mistaken about his last name.

 

[NALs]

There is not much of a local population in that area, not sure if you have been in that area. Ex-pat residents that live around the Cap Cana area are not the "waterpark types". As Maria pointed out it is a fairly decent distance from the areas where people with the means would go there. But I still do not think it is a place where people would go more than once. Not really sure why they put it in that area. The price point they have now is priced for tourists. They seem to want to market it to those who want a "classier" (if you can call a waterpark that) experience so they would need to keep their price a bit higher to maintain that.

In PC tourists are bussed from their resorts to a mirad of attractions in the area. It isn’t like Cancún (or even Cabarete and Sosúa) where most tourists can walk out of their hotel property and find many touristic attractions within a close distance. As long a destination is being promoted as one of the day or partial day tours in the resorts, I think it matters little the location as long it’s somewhere in Bávaro/PC/CC.

Not that there aren’t tourists that leave the resorts on their own, especially if it’s near El Cortecito, but generally they are on some tour or being bussed to/from the airport. That’s part of the readon no one sees many tourists walking the streets in that area despite at any given time there are a few thousands up and down the coast in the resorts.

The main reason I think it’s like this is that the area wasn’t really built to be pedestrian friendly. This goes back to its origin when there wss nothing there and the resorts had to offer everything to tourists.