We just got back from Puerto Plata and visited Ocean World. It was very clean and the animals appear to be well cared for. It is a small place compared to such places like Sea World. Also, there are only a few displays around which you can walk. The main emphasis in the park is for interactive experiences and shows. If you are not interested in paying for additional experiences beyond the entrance fee - then I would not go. While the snorkeling tank and bird areas were interesting - there just isn't enough to do. (If you do plan to snorkel - I encourage you to bring your own towel.)
And do watch for the time share salesman. They are linked to Lifestyle Hacienda. They get you coming in and exiting the park.
I really felt the entire experience was orchestrated by a marketing team rather than a group really interested in having people understand and appreciate animals.

We travelled to Ocean World to do the Dolphin Swim, and upgraded as soon as we were there to do the Stingray/Shark.

Stingray - Hated them, but not their fault. Not that they are not amazing creatures, just would rather look and not touch/feed. you get to feed them twice, once for practice, once for a photo. One gave a nasty bite on the arm to one of our party. Then you get some snorkling practice, which is great for whats to come.

Shark swim - the staff are fantastic at whipping up the energy of the crowd. You sit there whilst they pour blood into the water and let everyone know exactly how many fingers you will be left with. It was a nice touch actually being part of a show. Then you get in the water, and we had a 6 foot nurse shark on our laps. The biggest in the pool is 7 1/2 foot. You stroke the top of the shark, the underside and then feed it, before posing for a photo. The staff are amazing at making it a special experience. Then comes the best bit. You get to snorkle with them. Having a 7 1/2 foot shark swim right past you was amazing, and this certainly felt like the most natural experince of the day and was my highlight.

Dolphin Swim - Although this was totally incredible, it is very staged and very much about photo opportunities. First of all one jumps over you, then you get in a line and stroke the dolphin as it swims past, and do a twirl in the water along with the dolphin. Then you wait your turn for the one to one activity with a dolphin. Kissing, feeding, hugging, dancing and getting splashed by an amazing mammel was simply incredible. Then you get pulled along in the water by 2 dolphins. There are plenty of short breaks so the dolphins dont get tired. And you can tell the staff love these animals.

The shows we saw were the dolphin and sea lion. Both very entertaining. I would definitely return to do the Sealion encounter as they looked so intelligent and funny. Their show was quite funny.

The snorkle reef is also brilliant, and was not very busy. The fish in there are very big, and can recommend taking an underwater disposable camera.

We got 8 pictures at $12 each and the DVD between us, to make the day come to $521. Expensive, but we can't say it was not money well spent. Cannot comment about food at the place as we did not get time to eat, and we still did not see everything.

Thank you to Ocean World for an amazing day, expecially the guys with the sharks.

i went to ocean world jan 29th. it cost $145 to do the dolphin swim and i went ahead and paid the extra $30 a piece for the sea lion encounter and the shark/stingray swim. ($205 total) i didnt ask what the admission price was if you just wanted to walk around and not do any of the encounters.

the "swims" are a little more involved than the "encounters" and thus they are a little more pricey. for example, in the dolphin encounter you are on a platform with the water oh about waist high. the dolphins swim by so you can touch them and they do a few tricks for you. during the "swim" you strap on a life vest and get on out there with them. i got a chance to get a dorsal fin ride. they said okay swim over there, stop and hold your arms straight out to your side. the dolphins swim up, one on either side of me, and without even moving i catch their fins. when they feel you have them they take off...lol lol. to me that alone was worth the $145. they move so graceful but they are some powerful animals. during the encounter there is someone from the staff there to take pictures for you. you can buy these in different priced packages later. the highest price package was $85 and it included a DVD. i just got a 5x7 of the pictures that i liked. they were $10 each.

during the shark/stingray swim they start with a few safety do's and donts. they provide snorkel gear and you're given 10 minutes or so to swim with the stingrays. then you're moved to the shark tank where we actually became part of the show. they introduced us as todays victims errrr i mean volunteers...lol they had us sit down on a ledge in the water. staff put the sharks in our laps and we got a chance to feed them (them meaning sharks). after that we were allowed to snorkel around in the shark tank for awhile. i took some really nice pictures with a waterproof disposable camera i bought. hope they come out.

the park doesnt appear to be that big but i had a wonderful time. then again that could possibly be because i did all the encounters/swims.

oh and one more thing. beware of the people in the white shirts in the area of the gift shop/ where you buy the pictures. they offer to show you around the park. they are not park staff but really time share sellers for the nearby resort.

Just like their t-shirts say, it's a "once in a lifetime experience". If you go be sure to pay the extra for at least one of the 'sea life interactions'. . It was VERY expensive but totally worth it. It cost us almost $350 US for admission (that includes the extra we paid for the dolphin interaction for all 4 of us and my husband did the swimming with sharks thing - don't worry they're just nurse sharks). It is an absolutely amazing place, but they are obviously using all of that money to take care of the animals because the food is AWFUL. We went to the buffet though, maybe the sit down restaurant was better. The burger was so dry (even smothered with ketchup and musterd) and tasteless, i was speachless, i just couldn't even beleive it. It was hands down the worst food EVER. I think it was only about $3 so I wasn't expecting much, but man, that was BAD. I looked around at something else to have but i guess i had just lost my appetite because it all looked bad.
Don't let the freakishly bad food discourage you from going though. OCEAN WORLD IS AMAZING!!!
- Linsay from Calgary, Canada