need help with timing to do dolphin swims

[crewsing with fam]

Hi. We are trying to do a dolphin swim adventure and a royal dolphin swim. We have a 4 year old who doesn't want to do it so need to split up. The boat gets in at 9 (but I believe that is ship time, so 8 am Cozumel time). We want to do them on our own, and take a taxi to Chankanaab. I called our cruise ship and they said it can take between 1-3 hours to get off the boat (Carnival). Is that realistic? The dolphin swim adventure times are 10 and 1 and royal dolphin swim times are 11,12, 1 and 2. Our boat leaves at 4 pm local time. I had thought the swims were 45 minutes, but someone posted that they were 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Also, someone had posted that they didn't always start the swims on time. Anyone done this before or have ideas of how/if this can be done with getting back to boat on time? Thanks!

[mitsugirly]

Just so you know, they will not let you do the swim on your own if they know you are on a Carnival ship. I'm not sure if you've read up on that or not. They have some type of contract with Carnival and Carnival will charge you out the ying-yang for their excursion. Most people that cruise Carnival will make a reservation saying they are coming in on a different ship that will be there that same day or say they are staying on the island at a certain hotel. ;)

[crewsing with fam]

Thanks! Luckily I had read that here before I called to schedule the swims, so I didn't mention Carnival. One royal swim with Carnival would have cost $188. I got 2 royal swims and 2 swim adventures for a little over $200-what a difference!

[lild428]

Can I ask what company you booked the dolphin swims through?

[Hol-meister]

Dolphin discovery dot com and they have a special going on until nov 30 bogo free! We booked the royal swim.

[4my2girlz]

Have you already been? I'm curious if any questions were asked when you arrived & had booked the promo?

 

Dolphin discovery dot com and they have a special going on until nov 30 bogo free! We booked the royal swim.

[Hol-meister]

Yes, we already went. It was my two kids 11 and 14 and they had a great time. They didn't ask any questions about when we booked or about the promo. We checked in when we arrived and then again about 15 min before excursion started. We were told they were running 1/2 hr behind. So then we had about 45 min to kill, so we walked over to the pool and let the kids swim for a bit. (It's right around the corner from the check-in).

 

I was dissapointed that we didn't get any pictures with the kids together. I didn't see them taking any pictures with more than one person in them so I don't think it was just us but it would have been nice to have a couple with them together. It is kind of like an assembly line. I guess because they all have to do the "required" stuff. It just seemed a bit rushed. But like I said, the kids loved it. The pictures are overpriced but only way you can get good shots. We were able to get some because they were closest to the boardwalk but if they had been farther away we wouldn't have been able to.

 

Have fun!