Dream, Where is best to Dolphin swim?

[holdon216]

Going on The Dream in July. This is my 4th cruise. Have never done a dolphin swim. Anyone have any recommendation for doing it on Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel or Isla Roatan? Any place you would avoid? If so what did it cost? TY in advance.

[steveaaaaa]

Going on The Dream in July. This is my 4th cruise. Have never done a dolphin swim. Anyone have any recommendation for doing it on Belize, Costa Maya, Cozumel or Isla Roatan? Any place you would avoid? If so what did it cost? TY in advance.

 

 

Cozumel was $159

 

Steve

[ladycaveat]

I always swim with the dolphins in Cozumel at the Park.

[rednose83]

Orlando at Discovery Cove.

[luke6t6]

We have done the dolphin encounter at Cozumel (Chaukanaub) and at Sea World's Discovery Cove in Orlando. We will also be on the Dream (7/10/10) and plan to do the Cozumel encounter (Royal Swim) again. It was great, far more interactive than Orlando.

 

They also have a swim with the Manatees at Dolphindiscovery in Cozumel. We are going to try to do both on this trip...

 

Luke

[holdon216]

THANKS!!! How long do they give you in Cozumel to swim with the dolphins? I assume it is 159.00 per person? Would it be something extra to also swim with the manatees? That sounds fun!

Was it Belize that i saw there was somewhere to swim with manatees in the open?

I have read so much that it is hard to keep it all straight even while taking notes.

[holdon216]

E Mail address for Belize does not go thru. Came up as an error.

[dprg644]

We have done the dolphin swim adventure at Cozumel (Chaukanaub) park and booked it directly with dolphin discovery and saved as it is the same excursion as Carnival. It runs around $103 each (which includes the fee to get into the park) and we just grabbed a taxi from the pier to the park and then back. The taxi I think ran about $10 each way for both of us. This was one of the best times we had. Great fun!

[David-n-Rita]

Stick with Cozumel and Dolphin Discovery. We actually did the swim on the mainland because of a hurricane damaging the site on Cozumel. All the dolphins were moved to Dolphin discovery on the mainland. All is repaired and they now do it on Cozumel again. Avoid Costa Maya, we went on a beach break at the same beach where they had swim with the dolphins and it looked rather cramped and trashy. We were not impressed and left the excursion and took a taxi back to the boat. Belize is a tender port and that adds alot of time to the "get off and get back on" experience.

Stick with Cozumel. Dolphin discovery is on several islands and has a website, just google Dolphin discovery

[Irishlinny]

We did the Dolphin Swim and snorkel at Chankanaab in Coz, as well, and LOVED it! We spent around 45 minutes in the water with the dolphins and then were able to snorkel with them. Fantastic and was only around $100 (much better than most prices I have seen in other places). They also have the Royal Swim which is more. We booked thru Cozumel Insider dot com. Chankanaab is a beautiful place to spend the day...one of our favorite trips of any cruise. And it's close enough to the port so you can get back quickly and do some shopping, etc if you like.

[rednose83]

We have done the dolphin encounter at Cozumel (Chaukanaub) and at Sea World's Discovery Cove in Orlando. We will also be on the Dream (7/10/10) and plan to do the Cozumel encounter (Royal Swim) again. It was great, far more interactive than Orlando.

 

Possibly more interactive but their facility is very unhealthy/understimulating for the poor dolphins.

[ValerieM]

I have to agree with Cozumel. Our family did both the one in Orlando and the one in Cozumel. Paid about half the price in Cozumel and it was MUCH BETTER than Orlando's. We booked the Royal Swim directly with the park. Paid about $160.00 per person. So worth it. Included swimming with the dolphins, actually riding them several different times. The ships price was similar, but the participants had less time and did not get to swim with the Dolphins, only touch/play with them in the water. The tour was more crowded (about 25 people in the group) versus our group with just 8 people, which allowed for a lot more individual attention.

 

The staff at Cozumel were fantastic. I started to panic when I realized that I booked the tour without taking into consideration the one hour time difference and that the ship stayed on "ships time." The staff were so relaxed and accomodating stating, get here when you can....we will work with you to get you back in time. No problem what so ever.

 

The Chakanuab park was beautiful. You can rent snorkel equipment for about $5.00 per person. Snorkeling was okay, not the very best we've seen, but still very enjoyable. Be sure to leave time to walk through the park grounds....they have replicas of the monuments in Mexico all throughout the grounds and that makes great picture taking spots. I really wish we had left more time for walking through the garden areas.

 

I'd love to go back and would book this again in a heartbeat!

 

Plan to spend extra money on the video they make - about $50.00. I'm really frugal, but this was worth it! They did a great job. Only downside of the video is that it includes everyone on your tour. There was another family with us and luckily we liked them, so having them in the video is a plus for us.

 

Transportation for our group of 6 was $20.00 each way, easily found as taxi/vans were waiting outside the ship/park.

 

Have a great time!

[ladycaveat]

We have done the dolphin swim adventure at Cozumel (Chaukanaub) park and booked it directly with dolphin discovery and saved as it is the same excursion as Carnival. It runs around $103 each (which includes the fee to get into the park) and we just grabbed a taxi from the pier to the park and then back. The taxi I think ran about $10 each way for both of us. This was one of the best times we had. Great fun!

 

I think I paid $99.00 directly to the park and the taxi is a set fare of $10.00 each way for one to four people.

[holdon216]

Great info, THANK YOU!!!!!

[luke6t6]

The Manatee swim is $29 per person, but if you look at dolphindiscovery.com, it appears that they may be offering the Manatee swim free for a period of time if you buy the Royal Swim w/ Dolphins.