Choosing excursions

[FigmentSpark]

It's almost time to sign up for excursions. I'm having trouble discerning which is better. We are on the Fantasy Eastern so our excursions are to St Thomas and Tortola.

DH thought the kids might like a Dolphin encounter, so he picked the Dolphin Swim (TT07) or the Dolphin Encounter (TT06). It looks like they are very similar except that TT07 has an extra 20 minutes of swim time in the dolphin area, after the encounter.

Does anyone have any thoughts on either of these?

The other port, St Thomas, has some snorkeling adventures.

The Catamaran Sail, Snorkel and Private Beach Club (ST56) and the Doubloon Turtle Cove Sail and Snorkel (ST08) look almost identical. I think they go to different areas, so which is better?

Also, there is a full day version (ST43). Is it worth investing the full day?

I should also ask if doing the Castaway Cay snorkeling is worth it, compared to these other excursions.

I appreciate any opinions. Thanks.

 

[Marc D]

An encounter and a swim are two different things. In the encounter, you don't need to be a swimmer at all since you stand on a plateform and the dolphin come to you to be touched and given a kiss. In the swim, you are usually dragged by the dolphin, implying you can swim back. Be aware that those places put a lot of emphasis on you buying expensive pictures and that you will not be able to take your own pictures.

 

[bobbiwoz]

I used to enjoy the snorkeling excursion on CC until they used a Zodiac boat instead of a catamaran. Now I just snorkel from the beach.

In St Thomas I enjoy going to the National Park on St Johns and do the snorkeling trail that's under water. I do this from the beach and do it as a shore excursion.

 

[FigmentSpark]

An encounter and a swim are two different things. In the encounter, you don't need to be a swimmer at all since you stand on a plateform and the dolphin come to you to be touched and given a kiss. In the swim, you are usually dragged by the dolphin, implying you can swim back. Be aware that those places put a lot of emphasis on you buying expensive pictures and that you will not be able to take your own pictures.

I have heard that, but I didn't realize it was the Disney approved excursion. I don't even mind buying a few pics, but I don't want a hard sell to buy a lot of them... unless there's a 'deal'. That's good clarification about the swimming. Might be fun, but I guess you have to be a strong swimmer.

I used to enjoy the snorkeling excursion on CC until they used a Zodiac boat instead of a catamaran. Now I just snorkel from the beach.

In St Thomas I enjoy going to the National Park on St Johns and do the snorkeling trail that's under water. I do this from the beach and do it as a shore excursion.

What is a "Zodiac" and why didn't you like it? Is the National Park that an excursion, or did you go there yourself?

 

[bobbiwoz]

Zodiac is a soft hull boat, it was very hard to get into.

I did the park as an excursion, that included the bus once you get to ST John. I imagine people can do it on their own. Once we got to the park, our snorkeling was included.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Was that a Disney-sold excursion or did you go privately?

 

[dreadpiraterose]

The other port, St Thomas, has some snorkeling adventures.

The Catamaran Sail, Snorkel and Private Beach Club (ST56) and the Doubloon Turtle Cove Sail and Snorkel (ST08) look almost identical. I think they go to different areas, so which is better?

Also, there is a full day version (ST43). Is it worth investing the full day?

I just posted a similar reply about this on another thread, but I'd caution you on the Doubloon Turtle Cove Sail and Snorkel with kids. How old are they? I found the Turtle Cove snorkel to be a real challenge, and I'm a solid swimmer. There was a decent current, it was deep, and it was crowded (and we sailed off-peak, during November). It was hard to follow our guide with all the people, and we were SO exhausted when we were done. If I had younger kids, I'd skip this one if it were me. As an adult, I'm not even sure I'd consider doing it again.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I just posted a similar reply about this on another thread, but I'd caution you on the Doubloon Turtle Cove Sail and Snorkel with kids. How old are they? I found the Turtle Cove snorkel to be a real challenge, and I'm a solid swimmer. There was a decent current, it was deep, and it was crowded (and we sailed off-peak, during November). It was hard to follow our guide with all the people, and we were SO exhausted when we were done. If I had younger kids, I'd skip this one if it were me. As an adult, I'm not even sure I'd consider doing it again.

Thanks for the heads up. My boys are 12 and 14 and decent swimmers, but I don't think I could keep up, then. I'm not a strong swimmer (but I can survive in the water).

Do you know if the other one is any better or should I plan a spa day for myself.

 

[mom4fun]

Don't do the full day one that goes to Honeymoon beach in St. Thomas. They sell marijuana on the beach at the bar. Also, the worst bathrooms I've ever seen in my life. Disgusting. I wish we would have done one of the excursions that went to St. John's.

 

[bobbiwoz]

Was that a Disney-sold excursion or did you go privately?

Disney, but not recently

 

[FigmentSpark]

Don't do the full day one that goes to Honeymoon beach in St. Thomas. They sell marijuana on the beach at the bar. Also, the worst bathrooms I've ever seen in my life. Disgusting. I wish we would have done one of the excursions that went to St. John's.

Eep! Good to know! Thanks.

 

[dreadpiraterose]

Thanks for the heads up. My boys are 12 and 14 and decent swimmers, but I don't think I could keep up, then. I'm not a strong swimmer (but I can survive in the water).

Do you know if the other one is any better or should I plan a spa day for myself.

I haven't done the other one, sorry.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Thanks, anyway.

 

[Clteacher]

Don't do the full day one that goes to Honeymoon beach in St. Thomas. They sell marijuana on the beach at the bar. Also, the worst bathrooms I've ever seen in my life. Disgusting. I wish we would have done one of the excursions that went to St. John's.

Thanks for the advice

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

Some feedback on the Dolphin "encounter" vs "swim." Though we did ours on Grand Cayman (through DCL) most of them have the same setup (my sister did one the year before on Cozumel and they were quite similar to ours). They are in enclosed pools or lagoons, not out in open water. Also, everyone is wearing a life-jacket, so although for the swim, you have to be able to "swim" out to where the dolphin will pick you up, you'll be wearing a life-jacket, so you don't have to know any strokes, just kick your feet and move your arms and you will get there. We found the "swim" portion to be worth the extra money because as the dolphin swims up from behind you, you grab his fins and he pulls you along, so it give more of an interaction with the animal than the encounter does. And if you and your kids do it, you go in pairs of two, but still one at a time, so you'll get to watch your kids take their turn.

We also did the "extreme" swim, which in addition to the encounter (shake hands, kiss) and the swim (dolphin pulls you with his fins) there is a third part, where they give you a kick-board, and the dolphin comes up behind you and pushes your feet with his snout. This gives you more speed and you really feel like the dolphin and you are one thing swimming through the water.

As for the pictures, our experience was that there was only one option, all of the pictures, not a smaller package. It was like $250 for our family of 4. But they didn't pressure us, in fact, you didn't even have to go up to the picture stand if you didn't want to. I suggest you decide ahead of time whether you want to spring for them or not, that way, you can just stick to your plan and not have a tug of war with yourself or your kids at the time.

 

[jrabbit]

When we evaluate port adventures, we look at what we might be interested in then list off

• Tour Name / Number
• Time
• Cost per person
• Highlights
• How much time in a bus being transported (boats don't "count" - they are part of the fun)

From this we decide what we want to do. And it's pretty much personal preference.

We just helped some friends picking shore excursions, they gave us their list of possibilities and we made our "normal" bullet point list above and decided that we could not help them because we like: Snorkeling, Sailing, Zip Lining, Climbing Waterfalls, River Tubing, visiting cool historic locations (fortresses, museums, Palaces, Cathedrals, etc) and they mostly had: day at the beach and city tour by bus.

The great thing about the DIS is that people have (usually) participated in the excursions that you are looking at, so hopefully their tastes are similar to your own.

Good Luck with the research.

 

[FigmentSpark]

Some feedback on the Dolphin "encounter" vs "swim." Though we did ours on Grand Cayman (through DCL) most of them have the same setup (my sister did one the year before on Cozumel and they were quite similar to ours). They are in enclosed pools or lagoons, not out in open water. Also, everyone is wearing a life-jacket, so although for the swim, you have to be able to "swim" out to where the dolphin will pick you up, you'll be wearing a life-jacket, so you don't have to know any strokes, just kick your feet and move your arms and you will get there. We found the "swim" portion to be worth the extra money because as the dolphin swims up from behind you, you grab his fins and he pulls you along, so it give more of an interaction with the animal than the encounter does. And if you and your kids do it, you go in pairs of two, but still one at a time, so you'll get to watch your kids take their turn.

We also did the "extreme" swim, which in addition to the encounter (shake hands, kiss) and the swim (dolphin pulls you with his fins) there is a third part, where they give you a kick-board, and the dolphin comes up behind you and pushes your feet with his snout. This gives you more speed and you really feel like the dolphin and you are one thing swimming through the water.

As for the pictures, our experience was that there was only one option, all of the pictures, not a smaller package. It was like $250 for our family of 4. But they didn't pressure us, in fact, you didn't even have to go up to the picture stand if you didn't want to. I suggest you decide ahead of time whether you want to spring for them or not, that way, you can just stick to your plan and not have a tug of war with yourself or your kids at the time.

$250 for family of 4? That's a lot. I wonder if that's about right for all the encounter/swim places? Thanks for alleviating my fears about how much swimming is involved.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

$250 for family of 4? That's a lot. I wonder if that's about right for all the encounter/swim places? Thanks for alleviating my fears about how much swimming is involved.

I know, right. It is a LOT for pictures. We did get like 100 pictures between the four of us, some of each action for each of us, so you could find the best one. And it also included one print. My sister had about the same price, so we were expecting it, and had already made peace with it. We looked at it like the excursion costing $60 more per person.

Maybe someone here can say what the cost was for the Tortola one, but for 4 people, I'll be it is similar. All the dolphin encounters seem to be VERY strict about not letting you take your own pictures. They say it is for the safety of the animals, but it seems for the safety of their wallets. In contrast, the horseback riding excursion we did tried to sell us pictures, but they also often used our cameras and took many great shots for free. It made us much more likely to do that again than the dolphins. I will say they were good close up shots and action too. A great way to remember the trip, and what my boys "used to" look like.

 

[Beth06015]

Some feedback on the Dolphin "encounter" vs "swim." Though we did ours on Grand Cayman (through DCL) most of them have the same setup (my sister did one the year before on Cozumel and they were quite similar to ours). They are in enclosed pools or lagoons, not out in open water. Also, everyone is wearing a life-jacket, so although for the swim, you have to be able to "swim" out to where the dolphin will pick you up, you'll be wearing a life-jacket, so you don't have to know any strokes, just kick your feet and move your arms and you will get there. We found the "swim" portion to be worth the extra money because as the dolphin swims up from behind you, you grab his fins and he pulls you along, so it give more of an interaction with the animal than the encounter does. And if you and your kids do it, you go in pairs of two, but still one at a time, so you'll get to watch your kids take their turn.

We also did the "extreme" swim, which in addition to the encounter (shake hands, kiss) and the swim (dolphin pulls you with his fins) there is a third part, where they give you a kick-board, and the dolphin comes up behind you and pushes your feet with his snout. This gives you more speed and you really feel like the dolphin and you are one thing swimming through the water.

As for the pictures, our experience was that there was only one option, all of the pictures, not a smaller package. It was like $250 for our family of 4. But they didn't pressure us, in fact, you didn't even have to go up to the picture stand if you didn't want to. I suggest you decide ahead of time whether you want to spring for them or not, that way, you can just stick to your plan and not have a tug of war with yourself or your kids at the time.

We are considering the dolphin excursion for our May cruise. My daughter has been writing book reports about dolphins since kindergarten so it's been in my mind for a while to try to do this. However it will get quite expensive to do it! Do you know if the excursions and swim are done in the same group (i.e. Kids will watch others swim while they just pet) and does the whole family need to do it or can one parent take two kids? And is there a place to watch or would the other parent have to pay for observer to do so (with no camera)?

 

[Beth06015]

When we evaluate port adventures, we look at what we might be interested in then list off

• Tour Name / Number
• Time
• Cost per person
• Highlights
• How much time in a bus being transported (boats don't "count" - they are part of the fun)

From this we decide what we want to do. And it's pretty much personal preference.

We just helped some friends picking shore excursions, they gave us their list of possibilities and we made our "normal" bullet point list above and decided that we could not help them because we like: Snorkeling, Sailing, Zip Lining, Climbing Waterfalls, River Tubing, visiting cool historic locations (fortresses, museums, Palaces, Cathedrals, etc) and they mostly had: day at the beach and city tour by bus.

The great thing about the DIS is that people have (usually) participated in the excursions that you are looking at, so hopefully their tastes are similar to your own.

Good Luck with the research.

Where did you climb waterfalls???? Sounds fantastic!!