WHERE and HOW to do excursions on your own?

[pampaul]

We've only done one cruise in our life (last August on the Norwegian Dawn) and we booked a couple excursions through the cruise ship itself. But I keep hearing that you can book them on your own (gotta make sure you make it back to the ship in time though)

 

I'm THINKING that I'd like the 4 of us to do a "swim/interact with the dolphins" type of excursion. But it depends on how much of a price difference I could get by booking it on our own. Going through Disney they run $188 per person. That's a bit steep for my wallet. But I heard that you get a cheaper rate if you book on your own. Can someone tell me what kind of price difference it is? And where would I book something like that? With our TA? On our own once we get off the ship?

 

Plus they say on the Disney website that the tour itself runs 7-7 1/2 hrs with the dolphin encounter being only 30 mins. What do you do with the rest of the time? And how much are the pictures that they take? Can you use your room key or do you need a regular credit card.

 

Sorry for all the questions but I've never done this on my own before.

 

Thanks!!!!

[vital1]

We've only done one cruise in our life (last August on the Norwegian Dawn) and we booked a couple excursions through the cruise ship itself. But I keep hearing that you can book them on your own (gotta make sure you make it back to the ship in time though)

 

I'm THINKING that I'd like the 4 of us to do a "swim/interact with the dolphins" type of excursion. But it depends on how much of a price difference I could get by booking it on our own. Going through Disney they run $188 per person. That's a bit steep for my wallet. But I heard that you get a cheaper rate if you book on your own. Can someone tell me what kind of price difference it is? And where would I book something like that? With our TA? On our own once we get off the ship?

 

Plus they say on the Disney website that the tour itself runs 7-7 1/2 hrs with the dolphin encounter being only 30 mins. What do you do with the rest of the time? And how much are the pictures that they take? Can you use your room key or do you need a regular credit card.

 

Sorry for all the questions but I've never done this on my own before.

 

Thanks!!!!

Which dolphin encounter are you doing? There are several out there. I booked on my own with Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel. I think they have several in the Caribbean. Go to their website and check. I booked online, printed my receipt and took it just in case. I caught a cab at the pier and went to Chankanaab Park and we swam for the morning before our encounter. I think the cab was 5$ a person, can't really remember. The picture was about 20bucks. They also had a DVD for 50 you could buy but I didn't do that. I did this all by myself with my 5yo son in tow. Never felt rushed, worried or any of that. After we did the dolphin swim, we went back to the pier and hung out and watced the drunks come back from Senor Frogs.

The first one we did was in Nassau and I booked through the ship (Carnival) since I didn't know any better! I saved a ton of money doing it on my own. Both of the encounters were awesome! Good luck and have fun!

[featuremom]

On our Wonder cruise last week, which we booked late, the Dolphin Encounters excursion was sold out. I called the company directly and managed to squeeze us in on the afternoon one. The price was $168 for the swim and $90, I think, for the encounter. The person I spoke with said they usually have cancellations; I'm guessing you could be put on a waiting list.

[featuremom]

Oops forgot a couple things. It's a three to three-and-a-half hour program, which includes a significant little boat ride out to and back from Blue Lagoon Island. A portion of the time is a short lecture on dolphins, the ocean environment, etc. You also get to visit the sea lion exhibit, featuring sea lions rescued from a Mississippi marine park during Hurricane Katrina. They have a gift shop and you have to wait around a bit for your photos and DVDs to be processed. There really isn't much dead time. Our sailing had a 9:30 and a 12:30 program. It couldn't have been 7 1/2 hours! We weren't in Nassau long enough. We did a credit card. I'm pretty sure you have to book in advance with a card because you won't have your room key until you get onboard, and at that point, it would be too late. This is a really popular option.

[ajcolorado]

We booked a Royal Swim in Cozumel through www.dolphindiscovery.com - actually, it was already full by the time I went to site so I called and they fit us in. It was something like $139 + park entrance + cab so it was actually more than the ship excursion but they do SO much more than the standard "Dolphin Encounter". We watched both and have no regrets that we went with the more expensive encounter. We got to do the foot push and the belly swim. It was amazing.

 

Go to www.cozumelinsider.com for a printable coupon worth $2 off Chankanaab Park entrance, per person. We used it in March and it worked. We had a group of nine so we needed two coupons but we saved a total of $18.

 

On another cruise with Royal Caribbean, we did our own trip from St. Thomas to Trunks Bay on St. John. It was super easy and we had a great time. We saved about $12 or $16 per person.

[edan]

I HIGHLY recommend doing your own thing on a cruise! The very first cruise we took we absolutley booked with the ship for the excursions because we had never done it before. Once we'd done that we saw that we could save so much money by doing it on our own! So, I came to this board and read and read and read! The next cruise we went to St. Thomas, took a boat over to St. Johns, rented a jeep(reseverd thru Hertz in advance), and had a BLAST going to all the wonderful public beached (ALL DESERTED!!!!!!!!!_. It was cool, cause they drive on the left side of the road over there, hee hee.

But the thing to do is just reseach on the Web.

There are tons of site, then just check here to make sure they are legit. The knowledge on these boards is so vast, someone is bound to have heard of the company you want to use.

Last night we just booked our own "excursion" to the Atlantis. We are going to pay for a room for the day while in Nassau so we can use the pools and enjoy that wonderful, heaven on Earth resort. It was only around 450.00, which is cheaper for us, as a family of 6, than booking most excursions thru the ship.

Remember, read read read and ask ask ask!

Good luck and have a great time,

Carla

[pauleknight]

I just tried to book directly on the Blue Lagoon dolphinencounters.com website directly and was told that it had to go thru Disney. :confused:

 

They sent me an email that I was all booked thru Disney and when I asked the price it was the over inflated Disney price. :mad:

 

Blue Lagoon told me that I had to book thru Disney.

 

Is there a work around that someone could recommend?

 

Thanks

[wwinfl91]

Unfortunately some tour excusion companies are forced by cruise lines to sign exclusivity agreements with the cruise line and agree NOT to book the cruise line passengers to private excursions during the time the ship is in port. It is very difficult to get around these other than finding other companies that do the same type tours. But with dolphin encounters this is not usually an option.

 

I will be interested if anyone has a good way to get around this.

 

Have a great next cruise anyway.

[suezyq50]

Information can be found at the various ports on these threads. That is how I first learned about booking your own. Definitely worth the time checking it out.