We did the Dolphin Swim. We met onboard with our guide and his sign. We left the ship with a huge group and headed through the customs and to the transport. its about a 10 minute walk, but it's crazy. Our guide walked way too fast and we had elderly with us that couldn't keep up. So we had to make a convoy line to be able to make sure we didn't lose the guide or my in-laws. It was a very busy market place with a lot of people. Once we got to the shuttles, it was another 10 minute or so ride to the excursion itself. Once there they just dropped us off and we were left on our own to figure out what to do. There was a buffet at the restaurant that was included in our excursion. However it was outside and covered with flies. In the 30 minutes we sat there, not once did I see anyone attend to the food. They called our time slot and we headed to the next area to wait. This was a chaotic mess with a bar. You could buy drinks and smoothies. Then they called your group number, which we had no clue which one we were so we had to go ask. We almost missed our number. Then they handed out life jackets. All of them were very worn and they didn't have any adult sizes for our group. They said youth would be fine. My husband can't swim. His experience was not so great. It was all he could do to stay afloat. Meanwhile I had to tend to our three children and they couldn't swim well either. Our then 8 year old twins could kind of swim, but not our 5 year old. The platform for everyone to stand on was deep enough that our kids feet couldn't touch the bottom, especially with the life jackets on. They kept drifting off the designated area and I kept getting reprimanded for it. My husband, though not his fault, was useless since there wasn't even any platform room for him to stand up except the very edge, so he was just trying not to drown. Then the kids goggles kept leaking so they couldn't see the dolphin under the water. When it came time to have the dolphin pull us, I had to swim out with each child and go back and forth multiple times. Not on the dolphin either. Then they had us all go off the platform and form a line, it was like trying to herd ants. My children couldn't stay in one spot since the waves from the dolphin kept pushing them away. When our time was up, we grabbed our stuff and headed out through the photo place where they tried to charge way too much and they wouldn't even barter. Then we were welcome to the enjoy the fly ridden buffet. No thanks. There were no shuttles waiting for us, so we had to call for one. They dropped us off at the market place, no guide, so we had to find our way back to the ship. We were thirsty and extremely hungry by the time we got back to the ship.
Never again.
