Booking Cozumel Dolphin Swim

[gdpups]

I posted this question on the Mexican Riviera forum, but though someone on this one might be able to answer my question.

 

We will be on the RCL Freedom of the Sea in June 2009 and I'd like to book the dolphin swim directly with Dolphin Discovery. My question is Cozumel is on Central time and I read somewhere that not all ships go by port time, so if anyone has been on this particular ship can you tell me what would be a safe time to book the Dolphin swim. We arrive in port at 10 am and available times for the swim are 11 am, 12 pm, 1 pm, 2 pm and 3 pm.

 

Please let me know if you've had experience booking directly and thank you!

[TennisLover]

I booked for early afternoon - around 1 pm - to be safe. You can get to the park and go to the beach or pool, eat and swim before your dolphin swim. It was a great day! Good idea to book early to get the time you want.

[njmomof2]

We were on Liberty when we did this with Dolphin Discovery. If I remember correctly, the ship stays on eastern time (so you never change) so you need to remember to adjust your thinking for local.

 

So if you're arriving at 10 AM Cozumel time, your watch should say 11 AM (Eastern time). You need to check that it's 10 AM Cozumel time and not ship time. If it's ship time, it's really 9 AM there.

 

If that is the case, you can book the 11 AM time and make it easily. You just exit the ship and walk through the shops out to the street and get a taxi. They will take you directly to Chakanaab which is about 15 minutes or so. You check in at the desk and that's it.

 

I believe we did a later time for dh/ds and when we got there, they asked if we wanted to move to the earlier group since we were there. It was terrific. Only about 7 people in the Royal Swim (which is not offered by the cruiseline). While younger ds and I waited, we saw the busses arrive from the port and you can't believe how crowded those groups were. After they left, younger ds and I did the one where you meet and greet the dolphins, learn about them, touch them, etc. but no swimming. We ended up being the only ones with the dolphins (no other people) since the bus groups left.

 

If you're a bit concerned, book it for the second group available. Then if you're there early, enjoy what the park has to offer before you start.

 

Have a wonderful time. We loved it.

[wolfcathorse]

we had the 1 pm tour (husband is diabetic and I wanted to make sure he had eaten lunch). And already our dolphin was uncooperative so we had to change to another dolphin. We had plenty of time afterwards for shopping. So I'd go for the 11 am (noon ship time), even if you're late into Coz, you still have a 1 hr built in cushion with the ship being 1 hour ahead of Coz time. We were there on Freedom in October and she left at 7 pm ship time (6 Coz time) so the 11 am swim would still give you 5 hours of sightseeing/shopping time.

[Cavatelli430]

We were on Liberty in February, ship stays on ship time, which is Eastern, Cozumel is Central. So we docked in Cozumel at 10am eastern (9am Central), we booked ours directly with Dolphin Discovery at 12pm central (1pm eastern). It worked out great, gave us time to get off ship, get cab, got to park early enough to get changed and relax by the pool. They do have food there also, hubby had a snack while I was swimming with the dolphins! Have a great time, it was the best part of the whole trip for me!

[aurelius180]

We were on the Enchantment last week (different class and itinerary) and we switched to Cozumel time and stayed on it through Belize. We switched back to Eastern time 2am Thursday morning after leaving Belize.

 

This topic was debated quite a bit a couple weeks ago and apparently it's the captains discretion. We originally booked a 1pm then changed it to 11am. 1pm would have been 2pm Eastern time and figuring an hour with the dolphins would have put us at 3pm EST. Everything worked out anyway and the Dolphins were great! :D

 

Have fun!! :p