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Turtles in Grand Caymen and Dolphins in Cozumel


HodgeNNicole
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You can easily take a taxi to the turtle farm in Grand Cayman. With that said, when I checked prices one year, it was actually cheaper to take a ship's excursion that stopped at the turtle farm.

In Cozumel, the dolphins are at Chakanaab. You might have an issue booking independently as they tend to hold reservations for the ship's tours.

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Chanakub is a whole park area, so that might be your first choice for the dolphin excursion but if the above poster is correct that you can't book there is another dolphin option there. I've had luck just looking up a hotel name and telling places that don't allow cruisers I am staying there, but if that doesn't work we visited cozumel prior to having kids and liked Dolphinaris. they had a whole day dolphin program, which was really nice. On that same trip (prior to kids) we also swam with the stingrays and they dropped us off at the turtle farm. I'd totally understand if your kids are too small for stingrays (they let young kids do this, but you might not be comfortable) but your kids will love the turtle farm.

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We did the turtle/dolphin excursion in Grand Cayman last year. When we boarded the bus from our ship there were 14 people and we were excited. Then we stopped and picked up more people from another Princess ship in port (30 total). We went to the dolphin venue (across from turtles) and were joined by 4 more busses. They walked all 120+ of us across the street to turtles and we had a photo op holding turtles (kids under 5 can't touch) then we looked around for 30 min while everyone else got photos done. Then over to dolphins- very organized, we put on life jackets and had 8-10 groups run simultaneously. It was very cool and if all the of my kids had participated, worth the $$. However, my 5 and 3 year old refused to touch or interact with the dolphins. We then declined to spend $100+ on photos (repeatedly). Bribed our van driver to drop us off at the beach on the way back and spent 2.5 hrs on the beach playing in the sand and eating beach vendor BBQ.

I advised the excursion desk to expect complaints because people were choked.

 

If you do it, check how many ships in port that day (5 for us). And maybe do it on your own.

 

Sent from my Z220 using Forums mobile app

Edited by Zozizar
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When we did the Dolphins in Cozumel, it was more organized than the experience in Grand Cayman. Our group (15 or 20) had our own pen and dolphin. My only complaint, is that the whole thing was choreographed for the photos they took. If they got a bad shot, they had you do the activity again. At the time, they allowed water proof cameras, but weren't happy when I had mine. Now they don't even allow that. Expect them to do a tough sell on photos.

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If you book Chankanaab, do so independently. They will not let you book if you indicate you are a cruise passenger. But they really have no way of knowing and they are just jacking up the costs - it's almost double to go through the cruise ship. We have booked privately a couple of times and had zero issue.

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I have cruised many times and we really like to get off the ship with a basic idea of what we want to see or do then hire a van with a couple of other people or taxi and tell them our plan. I have always had good luck with a driver that will not only take us to what I wanted to see but also show us around and stop at other places that either locals know or that are less publicized but great to see. The smaller group makes it easier to stay shorter or longer any place. Now with a toddler involved I don't want to be on a much more expensive shore excursion when my little guys window of excitement comes to a close if you know what I mean. That is why I want to book it on our own. Sounds like the turtle farm and dolphins are close enough to the port that it won't be an issue to get transportation. We are probably going to pass on Dunns River Falls because of the hour drive. Any other ideas with our little guy would be great.

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Take a taxi or bus to the turtle farm. You can get there before the crowds and stay longer. Much better experience. They sell tickets online with a 20%-ish discount.

 

Good idea to pass on Dunn's River Falls. We did that when our twins were ~4 and it was a bit of a nightmare. If we didn't have several kind strangers helping us along, we would have had to bail almost immediately. With one child and two adults, you're better off, but you will still wind up dragging/swinging/carrying him up portions of the falls. He'll probably love it, but not so much fun for the adults.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Take a taxi or bus to the turtle farm. You can get there before the crowds and stay longer. Much better experience. They sell tickets online with a 20%-ish discount.

 

Good idea to pass on Dunn's River Falls. We did that when our twins were ~4 and it was a bit of a nightmare. If we didn't have several kind strangers helping us along, we would have had to bail almost immediately. With one child and two adults, you're better off, but you will still wind up dragging/swinging/carrying him up portions of the falls. He'll probably love it, but not so much fun for the adults.

 

I was going to say the same thing. When we did Dunn's River Falls a few years ago, there was a girl who was maybe 4 or 5 with our group and the being in the water freaked her out. She also didn't have a life vest or other flotation device so her parents (and us and several other adults) were constantly having to make sure she didn't go under water in the deeper areas since her parents mentioned she couldn't swim.

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