Dolphinaris

[punkin35]

Has anyone been to Dolphinaris on a booked excursion through the cruise ship and stayed longer? I'm wondering since we are in port until 6:00 if we can stay and hang out at the beach there and just take a cab back to the port? If we book an 11 excursion, we would be done by 2:30 and still have lots of time left for fun in the sun! My mom was just there last week and said the place is beautiful. Any info appreciated :)

[punkin35]

UPDATE: back from this trip and I posted this to someone else's question about Dolphinaris. Copy and pasted ;)

 

I just returned from my cruise on Sunday. We were in Cozumel Friday andbooked Dolphinaris through Carnival. We had an 11 am time scheduled. I hate totell you this, but I was really disappointed with this excursion. First, let mesay there were 5 ships in port that day, and I think they really justoverbooked the excursions, more $$ for them. My mom was there the week beforeme and had a totally different experience. I would check the port schedule forthat day to see how many ships will be in port.

We waited and at 11 ish.. they loaded us into van taxis for the ride toDolphinaris. It was probably a 10-15 trip from Peurta Maya peir. Then it washurry up and wait from there. It was like hearding cattle from one area toanother. My son wanted food when we got there and they would not allow him toget anything. At this point it was almost 12. Get there, move into an area andwait. Then, to another area and wait, then wait for life vest, then wait forthe instructors. It was probably almost 1:30 before we ever even got in thewater. It was so crowded and annoying waiting with so many people and it justfelt like such a waste of time.

The actual part of being in the water with the dolphins was great! Veryinteractive, ours had a 2 month old baby with her, so that was very cool. Ithink we were in the water about 40 minutes.

Then, we finally got to eat. My son got all of our $$'s worth! lol.. Thefood was just ok. My husband had a few of the free alcoholic beverages too.Then, we wanted to paddle board, you had to wait until a certain time, every 30minutes..but, no one ever showed up. The snorkel area did not look clean andwas very small. We went to look at the pics.. the prices were outrageous!We tried to go to the small VIP pool area they have, we were not allowedbecause we had not purchased the VIP package, which I get. But, there was nowhere else to swim unless you got in the snorkel area. No beach area or pool.

We ended up leaving and headed back to the port area to shop. We had donethe dolphin swim in Domican Republic at Ocean World and it was such a niceplace compared to this one. Again, my mom was there the week before and shesaid there were only 2 ships in port and she had a totally differentexperience. I am not trying to burst your bubble, but I wish I would have knownthis before we spent $360 on this for the 4 of us.

Good luck on making your decision. We love Cozumel and have been at least 10times. My favorite thing to do is rent a jeep and ride to the other side of theisland that is not touristy and it's so beautiful :)

 

 

Has anyone been to Dolphinaris on a booked excursion through the cruise ship and stayed longer? I'm wondering since we are in port until 6:00 if we can stay and hang out at the beach there and just take a cab back to the port? If we book an 11 excursion, we would be done by 2:30 and still have lots of time left for fun in the sun! My mom was just there last week and said the place is beautiful. Any info appreciated :)