Save a Turtle

Has anyone experienced the SAVE A SEA TRURTLE EXPERIENCE offered by Carnival?

I'd be interested to know as well. We are doing the turtle swim at the same location.

I'm interested in info as well. We're booked on the excursion offered by Royal Caribbean in late August.

Anyone been lately??

We just got back yesterday, and thought this was a great excursion!

We just got back yesterday, and thought this was a great excursion!

This is awesome to hear! Did you have other stops along the way and how many baby turtles were you able to rescue?

Can't wait to hear more we are so excited about this! Were you with Carnival?

We just got back yesterday, and thought this was a great excursion!

Any details you can share? Were you able to swim in the ocean at some point....Just thinking it's going to be very hot next month when we do this excursion and not sure how strict they are on this. Is there bathroom facilities, place to purchase water or soda??

Any pictures?

Thank you for the information. Trying to talk hubby and son into this in Dec.

Any pictures?

 

Thank you for the information. Trying to talk hubby and son into this in Dec.

Dec? I don't think it will be offered then. Turtles nest in Cozumel during the summer. They don't lay eggs year round.

It's my understanding it is only offered July-Sept/Oct due to nesting season

Well, so far no reviews on this excursion lately. I've booked this for our 8/28 cruise on RC Liberty so I will report back when we return.

Looking fwd to your report! We are going in September and have it booked through Carnival

All my trips to Coz and I've never heard of this. Please let us know how you liked it.

We did this last week through Norwegian and it was awesome. It was a 4 hour excursion limited to 24 people and it was sold out two weeks before we sailed. We met at 11:30 and stopped at a "scenic view" location with a couple small shops for about 15 minutes on the way to the dig site. Once we got to the beach, our group of 24 was divided into two groups of 12 as there were two nests that had hatched the previous night. Our group of 12 picked the right nest as we found 15 baby turtles. The other groups nest didn't have any turtles left. After maybe 20-30 minutes of digging we released the 15 turtles into the ocean. Because my group found 15 turtles we loved the expierence, but I would have been very disappointed had I been in the other group and not found any.

After the turtle rescue portion, we went to a replica Mayan village. It had nothing to do with turtles and felt like a 3rd grade field trip, but my two kids enjoyed it. I would have been less enthused had it been just my wife and I.

All in all, because we got to find so many turtles, we loved the excursion, however because it's nature, there are no guarentees. Be advised you get hot and covered in sand and you spend most of your time on the beach laying on your stomach trying to dig sand out of a three foot hole.

Thanks for your review....Were the two groups so far apart that the other team that didn't find any eggs couldn't have come to your side to at least experience what your team did?

You mention that "It's hot and sandy" and I get that, but can you get in the ocean occasionally to cool off while digging is going on?

I wonder if the excursion offered by Norwegian and the one Royal Caribbean offers are the same location or if there are multiple locations.

Again, Thanks for the review. :)

We were on the Carnival Dream. It was booked as a 3.5 hour excursion. Here are just the facts you decide. On the drive out to the Turtles, you stop at a "scenic rest stop" that just happens to have huts with people peddling goods a rocky type beach and massive bugs biting you. Then on to the Turtles, the taxis stop on the side of a highway, you get out run across the street up a sandy embankment and then down a bigger embankment to the beach that is covered in seaweed. You are met by 2 men in a old pick up truck with turtles painted on the side of it. Then on the the adventure. I rigged my 15 year old with a head go pro for this and brought a portable charger incase the go pro died. NO CHANCE. Group of 13 divided into 2 groups who were to take turns digging the hole. Well, we had a very aggressive middle age man who pretty much took over the activity while everyone else could only watch. My 15 YEAR OLD ATTEMPTED to assist in the digging but was very limited in his work due to this man being so aggressive in his participation. The go pro shows exactly 9 minutes of digging with 1 turtle found and then there was the release that is video of 8 minutes just because the turtle we found kept being pushed back to shore. Now we leave spent exactly 17 minutes of documented excursion on the beach and now we go back up to the taxi where they spend equal time trying to sell you a shirt with a turtle on it. We got one just because. Then on the drive back we are stopped for a very extended time at a tequila stop where they tell you all about the different kinds of aloe vera and how tequila is made. The displays are very rough and of poor quality even by Mexican standards. Again this is a stop to peddle products and at 45 minutes of again being bitten by bugs and standing around in heat my family and I went back to the port and ended this early. My criticism of this is you got less than 20 minutes of what you thought you were buying for the excursion and the rest of it was pedding with stops and peddling goods. I believe each family should have been able to dig their own hole looking for turtles and not be put into groups where one group can take over and essentially cut out other people from the experience they paid for.. I know the feeling was shared by another family in the other group. it was cool to find the turtle and watch it leave but you potentially are doing a lot of watching if you have some overbearing people take over. I also think there should be more to an excursion than 17 minutes out of 3.5 hour excursion. Cool to see, would never waste my money again with so limited of time. Also all the while the tour guide is continually telling us to feel free to share with him and the taxi drivers when we leave. That was a constant theme though out the tour. IF you go on this go with low expectations and you will enjoy it for a few minutes. if you expect what you paid for then go on a different excursion. I can say I am glad I saw it (never really got to participate) but NOT worth what I paid for the excursion for myself and 2 boys.

Wow, that doesn't sound fun at all. I need to talk to my husband and may need to reconsider this excursion. You said yours was offered by Carnival. Ours is through Royal Caribbean, but I assume they are probably making the same stops. :/

Thanks for your review.

I have always been surprised to hear this is offered as a cruise ship excursion because I was under the impression it occurred early to late evening depending on the time of year.

My son and I did this via Royal Caribbean last week.

There were 49 people on the bus (with a/c). We met at 8:15 and left at approx 8:35. We were handed cold water when we got on the bus. We drove approx 25-30 min to a "look out" area. This had a bathroom and was very pretty. Sadly, we spent approx 40 min there to shop (I don't know if anyone bought anything, but almost everyone went back to the bus within 20 min); it was a long time.

We were given more cold water and drove approx 15 minutes further to where the nests were. We were split into 4 groups: 2 groups went with the tour guide and 2 groups went with the biologist. We went with the biologist and got some good information. We had lovely, cooperative people in our group. Our group found 4 turtles and many hatched eggs. The biologist kept track of all of them. The entire group came back together to release the turtles together. It seemed that everyone who wanted a turtle had one, certainly all families did.

Then the guide took some group photos on the beach with people's cameras (which I thought was a bit odd, but ok). We bought turtle t-shirts for $15 each (Hoping part of this actually did go to the biologists' efforts). We were offered more cold water.

From there we traveled another 15-20 min to see a Mayan ceremony. It was interesting but somewhat odd. We did some tasting of chocolate and honey and saw some crafts. My son really liked this. Then there was taquilla tasting and more shopping.

We really liked the turtle part and my son really liked the Mayan portion. We both thought there was too much time spent shopping (especially since people were on the bus and ready to go on). On the way back to port, the guide talked about tipping him and the driver multiple times, which was a bit off-putting.

I did not see anyone in the water during the excursion. Everyone was much more interested in digging and the turtles.

My son and I did this via Royal Caribbean last week.

There were 49 people on the bus (with a/c). We met at 8:15 and left at approx 8:35. We were handed cold water when we got on the bus. We drove approx 25-30 min to a "look out" area. This had a bathroom and was very pretty. Sadly, we spent approx 40 min there to shop (I don't know if anyone bought anything, but almost everyone went back to the bus within 20 min); it was a long time.

We were given more cold water and drove approx 15 minutes further to where the nests were. We were split into 4 groups: 2 groups went with the tour guide and 2 groups went with the biologist. We went with the biologist and got some good information. We had lovely, cooperative people in our group. Our group found 4 turtles and many hatched eggs. The biologist kept track of all of them. The entire group came back together to release the turtles together. It seemed that everyone who wanted a turtle had one, certainly all families did.

Then the guide took some group photos on the beach with people's cameras (which I thought was a bit odd, but ok). We bought turtle t-shirts for $15 each (Hoping part of this actually did go to the biologists' efforts). We were offered more cold water.

From there we traveled another 15-20 min to see a Mayan ceremony. It was interesting but somewhat odd. We did some tasting of chocolate and honey and saw some crafts. My son really liked this. Then there was taquilla tasting and more shopping.

 

We really liked the turtle part and my son really liked the Mayan portion. We both thought there was too much time spent shopping (especially since people were on the bus and ready to go on). On the way back to port, the guide talked about tipping him and the driver multiple times, which was a bit off-putting.

 

I did not see anyone in the water during the excursion. Everyone was much more interested in digging and the turtles.

Thanks so much for your review. Do you know if the other groups found any turtles?

I know the other group with the biologist found a bunch of turtles, but not sure how many. I don't know what the other 2 groups found, but they came back happy, and when everyone lined up to release the turtles, everyone seemed very happy.

These are great reviews. We had booked tickets going September 14, 2016 on the Carnival Triumph out of NOLA. However the excursion is on hold at this time for Carnival due to negative feedback from guests. Carnival said they hope to resolve it, but I'm thinking they won't have it improved for Carnival guests when we go in a few wks. We were really looking fwd to this, but I am glad Carnival has listened to guests concerns.

Now the Save the Turtle excursion with Carnival is back on. We are going to try it Sept 14th when we are on the Triumph

We were so excited to try this a week ago on the Triumph, sadly after we received our tickets we then received a notice it was cancelled due to not enough people signed up:-(

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