Observer ticket is $75.00? Are you kidding me?

[rrraydon]

Blue Lagoon, in Nassau, dolphin encounter charges a hefty observer fee too and that's booking direct, not through the cruiseline. I think it's crazy.

[dstone]

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

Call the 800 # or chat with someone on their site....the time was a problem for me for what was showing up as available, but the lady (Marijose) was able to find a 10 a.m. (it wasn't it posted as an advertised time slot!)

She gave us the 20% instead of the 15% off. From what I have read and what she said, observers are so far away unless you have a superdooper camera you want get a good px anyway. Some posters say they were allowed to take px, some say not - I am hoping for the best - thinking maybe a gratuity might convince them. Can't wait for Dec 20!!

[CarnivalCruzer]

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.....

 

Are you referring to the participants taking pictures or observers? 'Cause we all had cameras in the water with no problem.

 

If you had a camera with a decent zoom, you could sit & take pics from afar.

 

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.

 

Our pics were beautiful! I bargained them down as far as I could. There were 3 of us. I ended up with all of our pics and the video for $65. :D

[nothomeonacruise]

I don't know if this will work, but what if you and the kids take the Carnival tour and your husband takes the taxi and meets you all there?

 

If not, he may have to pay that 75 just to be sure and get good pictures.

[Needs_A_Vacation]

We were just there in July. If you have a big group, you can try calling to see if they will open a session for your group. There were no times available for us and we had a group of 12. They created a session just for us.

 

The video was originally about $50 and $20/picture.

[MamaParrotHead]

Are you referring to the participants taking pictures or observers? 'Cause we all had cameras in the water with no problem.

 

If you had a camera with a decent zoom, you could sit & take pics from afar.

 

 

 

Our pics were beautiful! I bargained them down as far as I could. There were 3 of us. I ended up with all of our pics and the video for $65. :D

 

I outright asked the guy if he could do any better (especially considering how many people were in our goup) and he said, "we don't work that way here" and walked away.

[LynneL]

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.

 

We had the same experience at the Dolphin place in Tortola. They were so nice there, let the adults stay on the catwalk & charged us nothing, even let us hold parrots before the swim, take our own pictures with the birds & we took tons of pictures while our kids did the Royal Swim.

 

For the video showing we did all go in a room to see it. Their video was really nice so we bought it for around $50. I think. Didn't feel forced to do so or even to watch it. I'm not even sure what they could do to make me feel forced. Someone compared their experience to a timeshare presentation. With a timeshare you agree to listen in exchange for money or park tickets. If someone isn't giving me something for my time (and generally I'll say cash only), then there is no way I'd feel obligated to give them any of my vacation time. It is a shame if places aren't being as nice as the Tortola one, unless that has changed too.

[matj2000]

Are you referring to the participants taking pictures or observers? 'Cause we all had cameras in the water with no problem.

 

I think they told us not to bring a camera, there were no observers so I cannot tell if they didn't allow that. It was no big deal, but was obvious they had this system down to sell photol/videos.

[Eeyoregon]

This is exactly why we booked our dolphin encounters independently in Cozumel. It's only $17 for the observor and they get full access to all of the park amenities (pool, beach, snorkel gear, etc.) plus the cost of the taxi to Chakanaab.

 

Three of us are doing dolphin swims and three aren't but we all want to spend the day together and the non-participants will be taking the photos for us.

 

Book privately and take a taxi. Go online to cozumel-tours dot com and it's $83.60 for the swim for adults.

Then go to discovercozumel dot com and click on special offers. Pre-pay and the entrance fee to Chakanaab is $17 instead of $19 at the gate.

 

Gina