Dolphin Discovery w/ship & others on their own

We have 4 in our party who would like to do the Dolphin Discovery through the ship (on sale right now, and cheaper than doing on our own), but 2 others who just want to enjoy Chankanaab park. If 4 of us do the ship excursion and the other 2 just go to Chankanaab on their own, will we be able to meet up? Has anyone done this?

Also, can you bring your own camera into Dolphin Discovery?

Thanks for your help!

Dolphin Discovery locations do not allow personal cameras to photograph or record the dolphins and people in the water.

Neither does Atlantis in Nassau.

Instead, dolphin places charge $30-40 USD for one printed picture. I have heard that Dolphin Discovery charges $40.

Others not in the excursion would be able to meet up with you at Chankanaab. You could swim/snorkel with them, enjoy the rest of the park. Those 2 people just would not have the unlimited food and drink that the dolphin excursion people would have. They would have to buy their own food/snacks. I think the cruise lines reserve all the morning time slots, as only afternoon ones are available on Dolphin Discovery websites. So your dolphin activities would be finished by noon or so and you could hang with the remaining 2 for the rest of the day. Chankanaab is open from 8am-4pm.

I plan on going to Chankanaab (on our own) in January and maybe do the sea lion discovery. I will have a good breakfast on the ship, eat a little food/drink at the park, and then have dinner back on the ship.

Dolphin Discovery locations do not allow personal cameras to photograph or record the dolphins and people in the water.

Neither does Atlantis in Nassau.

Instead, dolphin places charge $30-40 USD for one printed picture. I have heard that Dolphin Discovery charges $40.

 

Others not in the excursion would be able to meet up with you at Chankanaab. You could swim/snorkel with them, enjoy the rest of the park. Those 2 people just would not have the unlimited food and drink that the dolphin excursion people would have. They would have to buy their own food/snacks. I think the cruise lines reserve all the morning time slots, as only afternoon ones are available on Dolphin Discovery websites. So your dolphin activities would be finished by noon or so and you could hang with the remaining 2 for the rest of the day. Chankanaab is open from 8am-4pm.

 

I plan on going to Chankanaab (on our own) in January and maybe do the sea lion discovery. I will have a good breakfast on the ship, eat a little food/drink at the park, and then have dinner back on the ship.

Thank you! That is extremely helpful! Do you know how the return to ship is handled for those on the excursion? Can we stay as long as we want or do we have to return at a set time? I chose the earliest time available (8:30am), but I'm assuming that is the time we leave the ship, correct?

We just returned a few weeks ago from our cruise and did the Dolphin Discovery on our own at Chankanaab from our Carnival Cruise ship.

I couldn't recommend it more!!!

We bought the memory package online for only about $10-12/person more and it was well worth it. We were told we would get about 20 pictures per person in our party (there were 4 of us), but we ended up taking home a CD of 120 pictures! The only thing that we didn't get was a family picture with the dolphin. We were allowed to pre-purchase that, but it would have been $60...so we declined that.

Getting to and from the park was an absolute breeze. There were helpful folks waiting at the port and told us ahead of time that it would be $12 each way for our family of 4 for a taxi. We waited about 30 seconds for a taxi headed that way, and $12 is what we were charged.

We spent a few hours there in the pool, and bayou, and did the dolphin and manatee experiences, and watched the sea lion show.

When we were done and wanted to head back to the ship, there were Taxis lined up at the park as well, waiting to take us back to the port, and it was another $12. Absolutely no problems getting to the park and back on our own and I'm sure we saved a bundle over what the cruise line would have charged.

Also, I have heard that the food is average. The unlimited would be at the Dolphin View (or just View) restaurant only.

I don't know if they add more sea lion shows for dolphin participants, but there should be shows at 10:30am, 12:30pm and 2:30pm.

At 8:30am you would ideally leave the lineup area at the pier. The Royal excursions are 3 hrs, 30 min, so if similar your excursion would aim to have you back at the pier terminal at noon.