best port to do dolphin swim??

[singbluesilver1]

is it better to book through the ship excursions or to do it online with someone??

 

 

we are hitting cozumel, cayman islands, honduras and belize..

 

 

any input is much appreciated!!!

 

 

i just want to swim with them and have a chance to get a picture for memory's sake!!!

[mom2girls]

is it better to book through the ship excursions or to do it online with someone??

 

 

we are hitting cozumel, cayman islands, honduras and belize..

 

 

any input is much appreciated!!!

 

 

i just want to swim with them and have a chance to get a picture for memory's sake!!!

I'd say do it in Cozumel. I was unable to actually do the swim since I got sick, and wasn't well enough to leave the ship. But, I did book it online with the same company the ship was using. (Chaukanaab Park sp?) They were wonderful. I gave them a letter from the ship doctor, and they refunded me the money.

[1sttimeAlaska]

We have booked Chankanaab Park in Cozumel for our cruise in May. We have heard it is beautiful!

[A&Jfamily]

We have booked Chankanaab Park in Cozumel for our cruise in May. We have heard it is beautiful!

 

It's a great way to spend the day. Be sure to walk around the grounds and the lagoons - the iguanas are very neat.

[TakeMeAway1001]

We have heard good things about Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan, we actually stopped to watch them getting ready for the first swim of the day when we were there in Oct :)

[emdia43]

We booked direct with http://www.dolphindiscovery.com in Cozumel.

It is cheaper to book direct than thru a cruiseline.

It was a fabulous day, we did the Royal Swim with dolphins.

[Kcarp]

We have only done Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan, but had a great time!

[cccer]

We booked through Carnival to do the Dolphin swim in Cozumel. We had a great time. We are going there in July and plan to book through a private group now that we are more savvy.

[singbluesilver1]

Awesome thanks I think we will do the royal swim in Cozumel

 

I can't wait

 

They take your pictures with the dolphins , right ? Is it expensive to buy them ?

[Payd]

We also did the dolphin discovery private excursion in Cozumel.

 

It was expensive but still lots less than the ship trip - and well worth every $$.

 

A memory to last a life time. Take extra $$ to purchase photos and video...only if you want to.

[JordanLovesCruisin]

Awesome thanks I think we will do the royal swim in Cozumel

 

I can't wait

 

They take your pictures with the dolphins , right ? Is it expensive to buy them ?

 

We booked through the ship for a place called "Dolphinaris" in Cozumel. It was absolutely beautiful and perfect. I would highly reccomend this place.

 

 

The pictures were very expensive. They have those little Kodak kiosks set up to where you can view your encounter. For one photo I believe it was $30. Luckily we were fortunate enough to have my parents with us as "observers" so they took our photos from a little further distance, but it was way cheaper!

[SJChaput]

We were thinking about doing it but I asked customer service about it and they say you get 30 minutes in the water with 10 people in the group... Doesn't that give you 3 minutes with the dolphin...

 

I would love to do it but to spend hundreds of dollars to swim with a dolphin for 3 minutes sounds a little economically unwise.

[TakeMeAway1001]

We were thinking about doing it but I asked customer service about it and they say you get 30 minutes in the water with 10 people in the group... Doesn't that give you 3 minutes with the dolphin...

 

I would love to do it but to spend hundreds of dollars to swim with a dolphin for 3 minutes sounds a little economically unwise.

 

Doing it independently will give you smaller groups with more time and you'll probably save some $ too :)

[cruisin' again]

We booked through the ship for a place called "Dolphinaris" in Cozumel. It was absolutely beautiful and perfect. I would highly reccomend this place.

 

 

The pictures were very expensive. They have those little Kodak kiosks set up to where you can view your encounter. For one photo I believe it was $30. Luckily we were fortunate enough to have my parents with us as "observers" so they took our photos from a little further distance, but it was way cheaper!

 

Bring a waterproof camera and have someone else in the group take pics...we also shared the cost of the video and made a copy (shhhh...lol)

[emdia43]

We were thinking about doing it but I asked customer service about it and they say you get 30 minutes in the water with 10 people in the group... Doesn't that give you 3 minutes with the dolphin...

 

I would love to do it but to spend hundreds of dollars to swim with a dolphin for 3 minutes sounds a little economically unwise.

 

Sounds like they are describing the 'Dolphin Encounter'- the groups are larger.

We did the Royal Swim which is limited to about 8. You are in the water around an hour- each one gets individual time. Have a look at the different programs offered. It is an expensive day, but unforgettable.

One of our party came out on the pier and took photos- the ones they sell are $$$. We did the program at Chankanaab Park.

[singbluesilver1]

do they get mad if you take your own pics too ? I would be willing to get a water proof disposable camera if I wouldn't get yelled at

 

And the website saysits 10 people with 2 dolphins does that sound right? That is for the royal swim

[cruisin' again]

do they get mad if you take your own pics too ? I would be willing to get a water proof disposable camera if I wouldn't get yelled at

 

And the website saysits 10 people with 2 dolphins does that sound right? That is for the royal swim

 

 

http://travel.webshots.com/photo/2442300280099831895zzElhT

 

We did the Dolphinaris Swim and Ride. There were 6 people in our group with 2 dolphins...it was a lot of fun...

 

The pics were expensice...I think they only took one or two of each person. Mine was blurry, but I didn't notice till after we left...o well...

 

We did buy the DVD...I think it was $30...but shared the cost with another couple in our group and just made a copy of it.

 

If I did it correctly, the link above shows 2 pics of us riding the dolphins. One with me on the one dolphin and another with someone else in our group who rode between 2 of them (she couldn't get one of them to take her - they wouldn't cooperate with her for some reason...)

[cruisinez]

Just returned from Cozumel and my DS did the Royal Dolphin Swim at Chankanaab Park. It was great and the park was beautiful. They have restaurants and gift shops on the premises as well. If you are into snorkeling you can also do that there as well. They have equipment that you can rent if you don't have your own. We had already snorkeled at one of our previous stops so we didn't try it. We booked directly through the park and it was cheaper than the cruise line. Keep in that when you schedule your time slot it goes by Cozumel time and not ship time. We didn't realize the difference until we got there and so we had a bit of wait before the swim took place. Also I would give yourself a good hour to an hour and a half for just the swim if you are planning on doing other things. They have to give you instructions and distibute life jacket vests prior to you getting in the water and then each person gets a turn with the dolphins. We saw them working with groups of about 8-10 people for those participating in the swim. Afterwards they take you into a viewing area where they show you a video and give you opportunity to purchase pictures. We ended up spending about half of our day there but loved every minute of it.:p

[singbluesilver1]

awesome thanks

[poptart]

I booked the Royal Swim at Chankanaab online. There were 8 in my group. It was absolutely awesome. I got all my pictures and the video for $74. Like you I checked online and knew the aprox cost and was prepared for it. The swim and pictures were totally worth it.

 

There is a link to my Legend review in my signature and pictures of my swim and of Chankanaab park which is also awesome. Very clean. People are friendly and there's lots to do. You can spend the whole day there and we did.

 

BTW we arrived early and after we were greeted and sent to the sign in desk they asked if I wanted to go ahead with the 1st group that was starting then or did I want to wait until my reserved time---needless to say I went with the 1st group!

 

Pricey? yes! But oh so worth it!!!:D

[singbluesilver1]

Ooooh thanks for the tips

[LizaMM]

We did the Dolphin Royal Swim with Dolphin Discoveries in Cozumel in Feb and then we did it again last week in Grand Cayman with Dolphin Cove.

 

Either are a good choice and I think it depends on what other things you might want to do in each port....that was why I picked GC for the April trip...I wanted to go to Paradise Beach in Coz this time.

 

My girls had a great experience in Cozumel with Dolphin Discoveries as far as the actual swim part went but I felt that Dolphin Cove in GC was a super operation! We had a great swim there as well.

 

Overall, I liked Dolphin Cove in GC better.....I could give you a full comparison of why but of course some of that is subjective.

 

I will be doing a full review of my Liberty cruise soon and I promised to post the GC part to a thread on the GC Ports of Call Boards.

 

I would be happy to answer any questions in the meantime!

[MustardMan]

We booked direct with www.dolphindiscovery.com in Cozumel.

It is cheaper to book direct than thru a cruiseline.

It was a fabulous day, we did the Royal Swim with dolphins.

 

 

We did the same thing last year and it was amazing!

[Drew B]

If you ever go to Las Vegas...

 

I would recommend the "Trainer for a Day" program at The Mirage. It's a much longer experience (over 6 hours, if I'm not mistaken) and you do all sorts of husbandry behavior and training with the dolphins, in addition to getting in the water with them. They have a maximum of four people per day (broken into two groups of at most two) and there are five dolphins. It's expensive, but very, very worth it.

 

I know this is not cruise-related, but if you do a (better?) dolphin interaction elsewhere, you can do other things on your cruise...

[singbluesilver1]

ive been to vegas twice and its not my thing so i doubt i will ever go back but thanks