Cozumel Dolphinaris, Risk It?

[Staceyl0u]

Hi all, Im looking for some help its our first cruise and we want to swim with dolphins and do the mayan ruins tour in Cozumel. Problem is we cannot book them both through Disney as the timings do not allow. So I have a few questions if any of you loveley people would mind helping!?

1) How does the time difference work? Does the cruise ships timings run on EST or CT?

2) If I'm booked on a port excursion from 8.45am - 1pm, is guaranteed I will be back at port by 1pm or should I allow an extra hour?

3) The timings currently showing up are (CT) 1.20pm, 2.05pm, 2.50pm, 3.35pm. I have to be back at port by 5.45pm, which would you reccomend

4) How long does the swim programme last at Cozumel?

5) Is this too bigger risk!?

6) Anyone else done this?

Sorry for so many questions any help at all will be muchly appreciated!!

 

[abdgeek]

I would allow a little extra time to get back. You should be back by oneish. The dolphin swim itself won't take that long(DCL says there's is 40 minutes). What takes time is getting to and from the site, getting fitted for life jackets, doing the briefing and then waiting for everyone to get their time and then changing.

I did the dolphin swim in Grand Cayman with DCL and had a great time. The only problem is that you're not in the water for that long with the dolphins. Our dolphins were acting up during our session, so they had to have a time out.

The earliest I would schedule the dolphins for is 2:05pm. You will probably be cutting it close if the excursion takes 3 hours. Try calling the tour operator to see. You will also need to check with DCL to see what time they are on while in Cozumel.

 

[Staceyl0u]

Any other opinions on this guys? I believe the DCL version says it lasts 3 hours for the swim and inaction one. I guess if it all fails we could leave early, but it's a lot of money to risk on that? help me! I'm so confused but it's my boyfriends first holiday and it's the only thing he's asked to do I really want him to be able to do it.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

i suppose it depends on what time you can do the Dolphinaris. When we were there, a couple of friends did a morning Dolphinaris swim with plans to meet us at Nachi Cocum when finished. We all left the ship at the same time, and they were to Nachi about an hour and a half later (by like 11:00 am) so the swim doesn't take long. Why not do them both on your own. Book and early Dolphin swim, then grab a driver to take you on a tour of the ruins? That's what I'd do, then you don't have to worry about timing. (AND, as an FYI, you are not allowed to wear sunscreen at Dolphinaris, so an early morning swim might be better if you burn easily).

 

[Staceyl0u]

i suppose it depends on what time you can do the Dolphinaris. When we were there, a couple of friends did a morning Dolphinaris swim with plans to meet us at Nachi Cocum when finished. We all left the ship at the same time, and they were to Nachi about an hour and a half later (by like 11:00 am) so the swim doesn't take long. Why not do them both on your own. Book and early Dolphin swim, then grab a driver to take you on a tour of the ruins? That's what I'd do, then you don't have to worry about timing. (AND, as an FYI, you are not allowed to wear sunscreen at Dolphinaris, so an early morning swim might be better if you burn easily).

Oh that's an idea, the only problem being the ruins tour contains about six different stops a tequila tasting etc in the price, and it's the only excursion our group of 10 I'll be doing together, so I'm pretty sure they will want to do it through DCL with the guide, maybe I could book the interaction only at the dolphins therefore cutting the dolphin time and reducing the risk of running over, if I allowed an extra hour to get back from our previous excursion and didn't make it I'm guessing we could still get a cab from wherever we are on the island, sorry for the ramble! Does that make sense?

 

[GordonBydand86]

I was in Cozumel in Feb on the Norweigan Star and we only had time to do one excursion. We say the Mayan Ruins in both Costa Maya and Cozumel and were a little dissapointed with the Cozumel ruins. Cozumel as a port city is AWESOME and BIG. It also can hold i believe 5-7 cruise ships at any given time so the city can also be very crowded, causing lots of traffic problems, i know go figure! I would suggest nixing the ruins in Cozumel. Another great place you can go and for cheap is Jimmy Buffet's Magaritaville in Cozumel. Yes I know it sounds corny, but for the price of a drink you get access to their docks and beach front which your BF will love... They have an entire section of the ocean ropped off with huge rafts and slides you can use if your drinking.

 

[sparklechicks]

Hi -

We did the swim at Dolphinarius in June. I booked the early one so we were the 1st ones in the water. We were able to leave there by 11ish and we took a cab over to a beach club for lunch and the remainder of the day. Both of these I booked by myself and not with DCL. We were paired with people from the ship for the dolphin swim. They were waiting around for their bus back when we left in cab for the beach. Hope this information helps! Good Luck!

 

[staffieri]

I have done the Dolphins in Cozumel at Chankanaab Park with Dolphin Discovery. I have done it once with Disney and once booked directly with Dolphin Discovery. ITs was the best booked on my own. So easy and worked very simular to Disney. It includes your taxi there or if you don't do the dophin swim its very easy to get a taxi on your own. One thing is this place is amazing and fun. Its not just dolphins. You could send the day there the snorkeling is great!!! Food, beach, shows. Also, you don't swim with dolphins in a pool it in the ocean which I love. So you might want to think about doing the Ruins in Costa Maya and planing a day here and ending with shoping at the port. We had 6 of us in the Van and I did ask our driver about taking us to seeing the ruins. He said we could come pick us back up for $80 and take us.

You get a time for the dolphins and without the big group with Disney it doesn't take as long and you have a smaller group with the dolphins.

 

[mikeymouse1223]

Hi -

We did the swim at Dolphinarius in June. I booked the early one so we were the 1st ones in the water. We were able to leave there by 11ish and we took a cab over to a beach club for lunch and the remainder of the day. Both of these I booked by myself and not with DCL. We were paired with people from the ship for the dolphin swim. They were waiting around for their bus back when we left in cab for the beach. Hope this information helps! Good Luck!

What time did you do the swim? I'm booking Dolphinaris myself. The earliest times available are 8:50am, 9:35am, and 10:40am. The itinerary says port arrival time is 8:30am in Cozumel. Obviously, the 8:50am time is out (they say you need to check in at Dolphinaris 30 minutes prior to your reservation), so my question is, will we be fine to leave the ship and get to Dolphinaris in time for the 9:35 interaction, or should we play it safe and go with 10:40am? Thanks!

 

[sparklechicks]

What time did you do the swim? I'm booking Dolphinaris myself. The earliest times available are 8:50am, 9:35am, and 10:40am. The itinerary says port arrival time is 8:30am in Cozumel. Obviously, the 8:50am time is out (they say you need to check in at Dolphinaris 30 minutes prior to your reservation), so my question is, will we be fine to leave the ship and get to Dolphinaris in time for the 9:35 interaction, or should we play it safe and go with 10:40am? Thanks!

I just checked my reservation and we did the 9:35. We walked off the ship and over to the port and took a quick cab ride there and we were actually one of the 1st people. I even was able to convince them that my 6 year old was a strong enough swimmer so that she could do the Swim and Ride. I had also made reservations at Nachi Cocum for the day so after the swim which lasted about 45-50 minutes we waited a bit for our pictures (yeah we got sucked in ) and took another cab over to the beach for lunch and to swim and relax. If you skip the pictures and head out you will get there even quicker. We were able to do both the dolphins & beach for what it would have cost me to book just the dolphins with DCL.

 

[mikeymouse1223]

I just checked my reservation and we did the 9:35. We walked off the ship and over to the port and took a quick cab ride there and we were actually one of the 1st people. I even was able to convince them that my 6 year old was a strong enough swimmer so that she could do the Swim and Ride. I had also made reservations at Nachi Cocum for the day so after the swim which lasted about 45-50 minutes we waited a bit for our pictures (yeah we got sucked in ) and took another cab over to the beach for lunch and to swim and relax. If you skip the pictures and head out you will get there even quicker. We were able to do both the dolphins & beach for what it would have cost me to book just the dolphins with DCL.

That's great! Thanks Sparklechicks!!