Extra excursion cost?

[mchelle77]

Does anyone know what photos will run me on the dolphin encounter through Disney? We have that (with the Turtle Farm) booked for Grand Cayman and I've heard it's gonna be a bit (upwards of $40 per photo, or close to $200 for the entire CD) Is that fairly accurate?

Also wondering if the CD is per stateroom, or per party? My daughter and I are going without my husband (he's touring alone) but we'll be there with 7 others in our group ... do they let you consolidate and put them all on one CD? (I'm guessing no, but if they're more likely to make money off of it, why not?)

 

[Kimosabe]

When we did ours (different tour but similar), we had our four-member family along with my brother-in-law and his four-member family. We were in the same dolphin group, but they treated us like two separate "customers" from the standpoint of buying photos/CD. After our dolphin experience, we were led into the room o' computers to look at our photos, and there were a handful of employees working the room, discussing packages with us. I guess everything in Mexico works on the negotiation platform, because when we made it pretty clear that we weren't going to pay the first price quoted, they started making deals with us. Still wasn't particularly cheap, but we ended up with all of our photos on a CD for a much better deal than what was originally offered. I'm sure every place operates differently, but while you can still expect to pay well for photos, give negotiating a shot and see if it helps. Frankly, I hate that process, but my wife loves it (or is at least willing to try it), and it paid off for us.

 

[MC0810]

Does anyone know what photos will run me on the dolphin encounter through Disney? We have that (with the Turtle Farm) booked for Grand Cayman and I've heard it's gonna be a bit (upwards of $40 per photo, or close to $200 for the entire CD) Is that fairly accurate?

Also wondering if the CD is per stateroom, or per party? My daughter and I are going without my husband (he's touring alone) but we'll be there with 7 others in our group ... do they let you consolidate and put them all on one CD? (I'm guessing no, but if they're more likely to make money off of it, why not?)

We have this booked in 3 weeks..wondering the same thing.

 

[mchelle77]

We have this booked in 3 weeks..wondering the same thing.

I'll let you know!

 

[Nike4000]

On the computers they let you pick the photos for the CD from your encounter group, so I don't know how they'd know the composition of your party. The CD is very expensive, over $200, but @Kimosabe is right, if you negotiate they'll work with you. It won't be much cheaper, but it's better than full price. We've been twice now. The first time we negotiated for the CD and bought it for around $150. This past March they wouldn't negotiate much and I couldn't get them below $200, so we passed on the CD.

FYI - we did the "Encounter" the first time and the "Swim" this time. We loved both, but thought the swim was worth the extra money. Having a dolphin propel you through the water is an incredible experience. Either way it's a great excursion, the kids love the turtles too.

 

[JW9DVC]

Well Grand Cayman is not in Mexico, so possibly no negotiations for Grand Cayman. Maybe you could do so at the one in Cozumel?

 

[mchelle77]

Coming back to answer my own question ... they were very anxious to sell to us (and everyone else), so they were throwing out all sorts of numbers at us as soon as we hesitated to buy. Our group was 6 adults and 3 children, we were planning on splitting the cost if we bought it.

The CD for a family of 8 was something astronomical like $580. They ended up selling it to us, along with a print for each person, a USB and something else, for a total of $300 (so each adult paid $50) A single photo was $40, and I was planning on buying at least one of my daughter, so I gladly spent $10 more to get all photos.

 

[MC0810]

thanks for updating us!