Looking for latest info on Balmoral Island excursions

[npb1894]

We are considering booking this excursion, some of us just the beach and others with the dolphin swim. Recent reviews on the Carnival Shore Excursion page have not been great. Does anyone have any recent experience with this excursion, especially the boat ride over and the dolphin experience.

[Clt9488]

We did Balmoral island in August and really enjoyed it and are thinking about doing it again in April.

 

The island was beautiful and there were plenty of chairs and umbrellas to go around. The beach was a little rocky but not enough to keep us out of the water and the drinks were VERY pricy so we opted not to drink.

 

There is a pool that is great if you want to jump in and cool off and when we were there everything was brand new!

 

Our transportation to the island was just a boat nothing fancy but our transportation back was on a catamaran and it was wonderful!

 

I've noticed that it states on the Carnival site that umbrellas are available for rent but they were included in August. :-/ I would like to know how much the cabanas around the pool cost and how you reserve one?

 

I'm also a little concerned that the walk from the ship to the transport boat will be too much for my mother...need to look into that more.

 

Overall, I would happily book the excursion again!

[Clt9488]

...I forgot to answer the dolphin question. I did not do the dolphin add on but my cousins did and were happy with it. It was different than others I've done because you wade into the water instead of standing on a platform. I think they got more actual dolphin time than at Dolphin Discovery in Freeport but I think it was a newer program and could use a little improvement.

 

Also, they did not allow you to take waterproof cameras or allow people on land to take pictures. When we went to buy the Carnival pictures back on the boat they were terrible and way way too overexposed so that was disappointing. I did take a few before we were asked to out the cameras away but they are from a distance.