Doing Coral World without booking through Disney??? How about the Sea Lions??

[Schachteles]

Well our 90 day mark is on Saturday night at 11:01pm and I want to get a few things together before then.

I was just looking at Coral World. Has anyone ever done this without booking through Disney and just take a cab? Pros and cons?

Also, they have where you can meet the sea lions...I thought that this would be fun, since we did dolphins on our last trip and the girls really had fun.

Any help you can give me would be great!

THANKS!

94 days till we set sail!

[ctc917]

We did Coral World on our own this past April, we ended up walking a little farer away from the cruise ship to get a cab which was a few dollars cheaper than getting one as soon as you exit the ship. The cab/van had a few other people on it with us and he made some stops along the way dropping them off as we went. When we were thru with Coral World we just exited the place and there were a good deal of cabbies waiting and we just asked how much? the first one had a good price so off we went back to the port. It was easier than I thought it would be.

We did not do anything but visit coral world and I found it to be very small and I don't think I would visit it again for the price that we paid. The one thing I wish we had done was visit the beach that is right next to Coral World and spent some time there but we didn't, you can also get lockers at Coral World to use and they have bathrooms there to use too if you are doing the beach.

ctc9171

[tvguy]

Kids seem to love Coral World. If you have a decent aquarium in your area, you will likely be disappointed as an adult. We went 20 some years ago before kids, and would not have gone again as adults, but took our kids on our Disney cruise and they loved it.
I just don't feel comfortable booking an excursion directly with the tour provider. The extra money I pay buys me a little piece of mind that the cruise line is backing the tour operator, and that they will make sure you get back to the ship on time.

[pointybubble]

I was at Coral World this past June. I had originally booked multiple excursions with them, including the sea lions, turtles, and helmet dive. I booked all of them independently (not through Disney). A few weeks before my cruise, they called me and canceled my sea lion swim, apparently to remodel their aquariums The week before my cruise I decided to change my helmet dive to a snuba experience, but decided to switch to a different company- Virgin Island Snuba Excursions based on research (they meet right at Coral World and the experience with them was amazing). So that left only my turtle encounter.

Getting to Coral World on your own is very easy, because there are many taxis right outside where you dock. (It is just as easy leaving, and we got back to the ship with hours to spare). However, I found Coral World to be somewhat disorganized once I got there. You have to get your tickets from the gift shop- this was not immediately clear. From there you can check in for excursions inside. Even though I had spent a lot of time on the phone with these people (booking, canceling, confirmation calls etc) they tried to tell me that my turtle encounter was at a different time than I had booked (and would have also conflicted with my Snuba ). It took them a while to straighten it out, and I had to be pretty insistent. Once that was taken care of, I did really enjoy my turtle encounter.

As far as Coral World itself goes, it's pretty small. There is the aviary where you can feed birds, which is a fun 5-10 minute experience. There are stingray feedings and such that you could watch if you wanted. Although I enjoyed the area, I probably would not visit Coral World just for Coral World because there is just not that much to do. If you want to do an excursion like the sea lions, then it is a nice place to spend some time looking around before or after an excursion. I would also visit just because of the proximity to Coki Beach (literally steps away), and the availability of bathrooms with showers, shade and a snack bar. Coki Beach is very beautiful, with crystal blue waters and lots of fish that swim around just where you enter the water.


Coral World Main Area


Turtle Encounter


Aviary


View From Coral World


Coki Beach

[Eeyore'sthebest]

We did Coral World and the Sea Lion swim in January.

It is extremely easy to get to Coral World. We got off the ship and got a taxi right out of the gates. Just make sure you ask how long they are going to wait for it to fill up. It cost us $9 pp so for 3 of us I just gave him $30. Taxis were waiting right outside the gate when we left - a lot of them!! There is no need to ask the driver to come back for you.

We bought tickets for Coral World right at the front ticket window and didn't need to go into the gift shop. Went through the front gates and then went over to the excursion area (big white building in the middle of the water) and paid for the Sea Lion swim. I have to tell you that they discouraged me from booking more than one excursion in a day. They said that if you try to squeeze everything in you may be late for other events and miss out on what you booked/paid for. The woman on the phone was very serious about this. It worked out fine for us.

There is a full review of my trip, with pictures in the FAQ sticky thread. I"ll try to come back and add the link for you. We had a blast and would do it again to swim with the sea turtles. Feel free to ask me any questions.

And I'm glad to hear that they were updating the sea lions home. They were mentioning that when we were there.

Here's the link: http://www.disboards.com/showpost.ph...14&postcount=3

[kcashner]

Coral World on your own is very easy. As you learned from the above, taxi rates in St. Thomas are not regulated, so get the price in advance. Cabs are readily available both near the port and at Coral World.

Advantages to doing it on your own--YOUR time schedule. You can go back and forth to Coki Beach (at Coral World you'll get a wrist band that will allow you to come back in to use their bathrooms/snack bar, etc. as desired). You can just tour the aquarium and underwater tanks or you can do the hiking trails, aviary, etc...and then hit the beach. There used to be discount coupons and family rates available on line and in the tourist info magazines that are free at the port--the last time I looked for the discount coupon I couldn't find it, but found lots of google references to it. You'll have to check to see if it's being offered now.

[Schachteles]

Looks like it is best to just do it on our own.

For the people that did the Sea Lions, did you prebook that or just book it when you got there??