Observer ticket is $75.00? Are you kidding me?

[scrapmamma]

*Cozumel Dolphin Encounter*

 

 

I emailed CCL and asked if my husband needed a ticket as all he wants to do is take pictures and not get in the water at the dolphin encounter. Their answer was that he needed to purchase an observer ticket for $75.00 :eek:

 

So it's going to cost me that much just so he can ride the transportation with the kids and I?

 

Sounds like I should try and get an excursion outside of the cruise line. The only problem is I need to book something early as we have to be back onboard by 5 that evening.

[firefly333]

Yep, even to go in and take pictures, its going to cost him dearly. (even if you book direct)

 

I think that whole swim with the dolphins is very expensive to do.

[salty dingo]

Sounds like I should try and get an excursion outside of the cruise line.

Yep. You are learning what a lot of us have known for a long time. Avoid cruise tours.

[scrapmamma]

Yep. You are learning what a lot of us have known for a long time. Avoid cruise tours.

 

But my kids want to swim with the Dolphins. It's hard to avoid the tours when you have kids with.

 

Wonder if I can get a taxi to take us somewhere else. Will everyone want him to pay $$$ just to take pics? :rolleyes:

[pjtulsa]

We are booked on our own thru Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab Park. Entrance to the park for non swimmers is something like $19 and you can stay all day. The Dolphins was $103 or $139 but they offer a discount for booking early. Taxi each way is less $15 for 4 passengers..

 

I have also read that their park and experience is much better than where Carnival takes you,,, We will find out in Oct when we suprise our daughter and her friend.

 

[ilangal]

Last year on our cruise, the only excursion my DS's girlfriend was interested in taking was the Dolphin Encounter. I booked and pre-paid (there was a discount) for her directly on the Dolphin Discovery/Chankanaab Park website.

 

No one else was interested in the encouter itself but two of us went along to tour the park and just relax. We took a cab and paid the small admission fee(her entrance fee was included in the price of the encouter). Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact cost of anything but I think it was similar to what pjtulsa quoted.

 

There was an organized tour of the park that we all took, then just hung out and waited for her encounter. We were not allowed to get close enough to take pictures or see exactly what was going on, but sat on the patio of the restaurant with a few drinks and a distant view of the encounter. We could see the group in the water and could pick her out but nothing else was really clear at that distance.

 

Anyhow, she had a great time and bought a few of the pictures of her interacting with the dolphins. The pictures were all really good and she had a hard time deciding. We called it a day and took a cab back to the pier.

 

All in all it was a good day. So, I say go for it........just book it on your own. You certainly will save a lot and not pay $75 for you husband to tag along.

[poptart]

Book directly with Chankanab for the earliest time...get off the ship right away and take a cab straight over. It's not far from the port. I think we paid about $16 for 4 people. You should have plenty of time.

 

Plus once we arrived they were getting the 1st group together and asked if we wanted to go ahead then or wait until our appointment time. Of course we went ahead with the earlier group.

 

My dh was able to watch...from a distance. He paid less than $15 for the entrance fee. He took some pictures but they were really too far away. But the pictures and video they sold was awesome.

 

We then had lunch and toured the park, swam in the pool and just enjoyed the rest of the day. It is a beautiful place. Clean and friendly.

 

Yes it's expensive but to me totally worth it.

[luvmysox1]

We are booked on our own thru Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab Park. Entrance to the park for non swimmers is something like $19 and you can stay all day. The Dolphins was $103 or $139 but they offer a discount for booking early. Taxi each way is less $15 for 4 passengers..

 

I have also read that their park and experience is much better than where Carnival takes you,,, We will find out in Oct when we suprise our daughter and her friend.

 

 

yeah. google the park. I looked last night 144 for 2 people w/ 20% discount after 1pm. I am definitly leaning toward this for our Triumph cruise in November.

[luvmysox1]

Book directly with Chankanab for the earliest time...get off the ship right away and take a cab straight over. It's not far from the port. I think we paid about $16 for 4 people. You should have plenty of time.

 

Plus once we arrived they were getting the 1st group together and asked if we wanted to go ahead then or wait until our appointment time. Of course we went ahead with the earlier group.

 

My dh was able to watch...from a distance. He paid less than $15 for the entrance fee. He took some pictures but they were really too far away. But the pictures and video they sold was awesome.

 

We then had lunch and toured the park, swam in the pool and just enjoyed the rest of the day. It is a beautiful place. Clean and friendly.

 

Yes it's expensive but to me totally worth it.

 

Do you remember the costs of photos / video? I'm interested in visiting this park. And what about the sealion show, is good?

[bplazo]

We have done Chanknaab park and while you cannot get real close you can get close enough to take pictures. There is also a great snorkeling spot.

[nativedipper]

The wife and I booked directly with dolhin discovery last October. It was much cheaper. There were only two ships in port and we were the only ones from our ship. There were about 8 people from the other one. I think we all ended up in an earlier slot than what we booked. Several of the people had the little waterproof cameras and were taking pictures of the others. There are only two dolpins per group so who ever was not with the dolpins could take pictures. The pictures and dvd are expencive but worth it.

[zqvol]

But my kids want to swim with the Dolphins. It's hard to avoid the tours when you have kids with.

 

Wonder if I can get a taxi to take us somewhere else. Will everyone want him to pay $$$ just to take pics? :rolleyes:

 

Unfortunately MOST of the dolphin encounters do charge a hefty admission fee for observers for the simple reason that they want to control who takes pictures. Every picture that you take is one less that they sell. You will find that observers are charged admission at almost all of these places across the Caribbean.

[scrapmamma]

We are booked on our own thru Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab Park. Entrance to the park for non swimmers is something like $19 and you can stay all day. The Dolphins was $103 or $139 but they offer a discount for booking early. Taxi each way is less $15 for 4 passengers..

 

I have also read that their park and experience is much better than where Carnival takes you,,, We will find out in Oct when we suprise our daughter and her friend.

 

 

Unfortunately I can't book the time I need there. I checked and they only had like a 3:00 and we have to get back onboard by 5:00

[scrapmamma]

:( All they have is a 3:30 time for us at Dolphin Encounter Chank Park.

 

We have to get back onboard by 5:00

 

Any chance of us showing up early and trying to get in sooner? I would hate to book and then find out we can't get in.

 

So sad...

[DEERINH2O]

We booked directy with Dophin Discovery too. we did the Royal Swim... It was the highlight of our cruise. If you call and talk to Dolphin Discovery and explain your situation they will try to work with you. We had a group of six and my sister who did not want to participate could watch from a pier. She took some pics and they are ok, but the pictures the DD take are awesome and the DVD is priceless, we watch it over and over!

 

Good Luck.... Enjoy the Triumph...

[bplazo]

:( All they have is a 3:30 time for us at Dolphin Encounter Chank Park.

 

We have to get back onboard by 5:00

 

Any chance of us showing up early and trying to get in sooner? I would hate to book and then find out we can't get in.

 

So sad...

 

We had a later time book and thed did take up earlier, although I do not know how common this is.

[Tapi]

As others mentioned, you can watch from a distance and take pictures. We went to Chankanaab on our own and sat on the opposite side of the area where they conduct the Dolphin Swim and took some pictures. Get a camera with a decent zoom. Here's a sample of one of the pics we took from a distance.

[TaraLynne]

*Cozumel Dolphin Encounter*

 

 

I emailed CCL and asked if my husband needed a ticket as all he wants to do is take pictures and not get in the water at the dolphin encounter. Their answer was that he needed to purchase an observer ticket for $75.00 :eek:

 

So it's going to cost me that much just so he can ride the transportation with the kids and I?

 

I didn't read all of the responses to this post, but--

 

I went on the Valor in '05. We took a taxi to Chankanaab (where the dolphin thing is) for maybe $8 each way (could be more expensive now) and I think it was $10-ish to get into the park. We just went to swim/snorkel/hang out...but we did end up wandering over near the dolphin encounter. We got close enough to get decent pictures of the dolphins. Nothing like what you would get if you were spending that $75 and sitting right there, surely, but if you don't want to be completely ripped off this is another option.

[BallFour4]

First, we love Chankannab and have enjoyed the dolphin swim three times while cruising.

 

The observer price is charged at the facility and most likely that includes the admission to the park.

 

Now, do not buy it from the cruise line. You can pay it on the spot.

 

Also, don't be surprised if the staff at the park does not let you take photos with your own camera. We experienced this on our most recent trip. One variable might have been I had a Canon 7D beast of a DSLR and zoom, but who knows.

 

Contact Chankannab via their website and get the facts before you go is my suggestion!

 

 

.

[matj2000]

Chankannab does not let you take pictures. They have a guy videotape and take photos of the whole thing. As soon as its over they make you go in a private room and watch the video and look at pictures. Then give you the hard sell. Kind of like a timeshare.....

[goodml]

Clearly they've changed the rules since our kids did the Royal Swim several years ago. We had four kids in the water and four parents on the catwalks right near them, two of which were taking pics non-stop. We still ended up buying the video though. It was great.

[luvmysox1]

does anyone remember the costs of the picture and/or video?

[MamaParrotHead]

When we went we had to pay the admission fee for non-participants and then they offered us like $5 more to be able to walk out there on the dock but those in our party declined.

 

the pics were a rip off and they weren't willing to deal at ALL (were quite rude about it inspite of the fact i had 7 people with me whom they had pictures of to sell). luckily there were enough in our party, and we had a decent digital waterproof camera, that we got great shots on our own. They had a ton of pictures and the video, I've heard prices around $100 for a modest package.

[illinoismomof4]

We are booked on our own thru Dolphin Discovery at Chankanaab Park. Entrance to the park for non swimmers is something like $19 and you can stay all day. The Dolphins was $103 or $139 but they offer a discount for booking early. Taxi each way is less $15 for 4 passengers..

 

I have also read that their park and experience is much better than where Carnival takes you,,, We will find out in Oct when we suprise our daughter and her friend.

 

 

we paid 10 for 4 to the park just two weeks ago

[illinoismomof4]

does anyone remember the costs of the picture and/or video?

 

there were four of us and we did the dolphins sealions and manatees it equaled out to 125.00 a person for the complete photo and video package