Where the Wild Things Teach:
Wonder, Play, Rest, & Aliveness
A week-long retreat in the Bahamas to Swim with Wild Dolphins
What’s Included in the Retreat Fee
All your accommodations Sunday through Friday night, based on double occupancy. The Retreat Center is directly on the water, with simple, spacious rooms, private bathrooms, and A/C. A few single rooms and waterfront rooms are available for an additional fee.
Meals: Breakfast and dinner at the retreat center and lunch on the boat. Our private chef will cook our meals with mostly organic ingredients, a vegetarian-friendly menu, with some seafood and chicken. Our chef is a master at meeting special dietary needs, including vegan, gluten-free, and/or dairy-free.
Daily boat trips on our beautiful catamaran sailboat (5 days out, weather permitting). This is when we will be snorkeling with the wild dolphins. Note: Tourists on the island spend upwards of $250 per person, per trip, to go out on a small motor boat for only 3 hours.
Morning yoga and meditation led by Michelle and Cheryl.
Group Zoom calls a couple of months before the retreat. You’ll receive advice from Cheryl about how to prepare for snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins, and how to connect with them energetically before we arrive on the Island. The group Zoom calls are lots of fun and really help the group build connections.
Teachings from Cheryl and Michelle and the WildQuest Crew about all things dolphin.
Dolphin Attunements from Cheryl, where you will receive healing personal messages from the dolphins.
Guided Group time after breakfast for sharing and learning about how to optimize your experience in the ocean with the dolphins.
Shuttle transfer from the hotel to the airport on Monday morning for those flying with the group on the charter plane.
Airport transfers on the island upon arrival on Monday and upon departure on Saturday, when traveling with the group.
Complimentary use of kayaks and bicycles.
Wifi connection
What’s Not Included in the Retreat Fee
Travel costs to and from Fort Lauderdale (you book your own flight to Florida).
Travel costs to/from Bimini Island in the Bahamas. *You will need a valid passport. About your flights: You book your own flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, arriving any time on Sunday, May 23, 2027.
Your flight to the island of Bimini, Bahamas. We recommend Tropic Ocean Airways. If you fly with the group on Monday morning, you'll receive a discounted round-trip fare of $600. However, you are not required to fly with the group if you’d like to do your own research. We will share more details soon about coordinating the group flight to Bimini from Fort Lauderdale.
Single room and waterfront room upgrades. A single/private room is an extra $520 for the week. There are just a few single rooms available. Upgrade to an oceanfront room is $130 per person in a double-occupancy room. For a single room, the waterfront upgrade is also $260, in addition to the single-room upgrade.
Individual body work sessions are available for $110 an hour.
Snorkel equipment rental is $30 for the week for the set, or $10 for fins only.
Retreat photos by staff photographer (including lots of underwater photos of the retreat participants swimming with the dolphins) for $80.
One dinner out at a restaurant while you are on the island.
Travel Insurance, ***strongly recommended for all participants to protect your investment.
WildQuest Crew Gratuities: most people give 10-15% of $2,500 (the WildQuest portion of the retreat fee).
The early bird rate for the retreat is $3,795. All you need to do today is pay the non-refundable $1,300 deposit to the retreat facilitator, Michelle Johnson. Then Michelle will send you the link to the WildQuest website to pay 25% ($675)of the remaining balance. Your final payment of $1,872 is not due until 60 days before the retreat begins.
If you choose to take the charter flight to the island with the group, payment for the flight ($600) is not due until May 2027. You are also welcome to find your own flight to the island.
***The $1,300 Deposit is the Early Bird Discount and is good through November 6th, 2027. On November 7th, the deposit increases to $1,504, making the total cost $3,999.
*** With only 20 spots available, we expect the retreat to fill quickly.
*** Please note… You will not be fully registered with your space saved until both the non-refundable deposit AND the WildQuest Booking have been completed.
Cost of Retreat
Many of our guests travel solo to Bimini, so no worries if you don’t have a travel companion. You’re sure to make new friends quickly. We can match you with a roommate, or you can request one of the single rooms allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
Send an email to Cheryl Schirillo, Cheryl@mybridges.net, or Michelle Johnson, info@michellecjohnson.com, with questions or assistance.
Two Zoom calls will take place before the retreat to orient retreat participants to one another and our adventure and to answer any questions.
Traveling Alone?
"What a heart-expanding adventure! We learned how to open our hearts, let down our guards, and interact respectfully with the dolphins on their terms. I highly recommend her retreats and can't wait to join in again."
– J.W.
About Your Guides
ABOUT MICHELLE
Michelle Cassandra Johnson is an author, activist, spiritual teacher, racial equity consultant and educator, and intuitive and shamanic healer. She approaches her life and work from a place of knowing that we can, and must, heal individually and collectively. She is loved and respected for her embodied approaches to racial equity work, creating ritual in justice spaces, and enlivening our divine connection with nature and Spirit so we as a culture can heal.
Michelle facilitates workshops and immersions, leads retreats and transformative experiences nationwide, and offers an array of healing services for individuals and groups. For over 25 years as a racial equity educator, she has worked with large corporations, non-profits, and community groups.
Michelle leads courageously from the heart with compassion and a commitment to address the heartbreak dominant culture causes for many because of the harm it creates. She inspires change that allows people to stand in their humanity and wholeness in a world that fragments most of us. She lives in North Carolina with her husband, sweet dog, Jasper, and her honeybees.
ABOUT CHERYL
Cheryl Schirillo led her first WildQuest retreat in 2019. She has been working with dolphins and whales in the Dreamtime since 2013 and swimming with wild dolphins in the ocean for more than a decade. After touching a Grey Whale and gazing deeply into Her eye in 2024, she felt an even deeper calling to serve as an Ambassador for the Dolphins and Whales. Cheryl is a certified Dolphin and Whale Energy Healer, initiated by the Grey Whales in Mexico, the Spotted Dolphins of Bimini, and trained by Master Healer, Anne Gordon. She is also a 600 hr Certified Wholistic Health Counselor in the yogic-healing science of Ayurveda.
Now in her 60s, from the age of 17 years old Cheryl studied with Spiritual Masters in India, Integrative-Medicine Practitioners from Duke University, Buddhist Monks, Native-American Shamans, Pacos from Peru, and Ayurveda Masters.
Cheryl believes you are an essential part of this beautiful planet and that it is possible for each of us to play a role in promoting world-wide healing for all beings.
For more information visit https://cherylschirillo.com