Suggestions for excursions (Western Caribbean)

[newdeal]

We are going on our first cruise Feb 3 to Feb 10 on the Fantasy. We are stopping at Cozumel, Grand Cayman and Falmouth Jamaica, plus castaway cay. Our group will be myself, my wife and two daughters aged 7 and 5. We are looking for opinions on excursions. We plan on doing the beach at castaway cay, and also would like to do one half day of just beach/snorkelling at one of the other stops, suggestions? Then at one of the stops we would like to do swimming with the dolphins. Mainly we would like the swimming with the dolphins to be as good s possible for the cheapest price with the fewest expensive upsells. And it has to be able to be done by a 5 year old. Not sure if all those things are even possible LOL. We are pretty sure that we would like to do either stingray city in grand cayman, or Dunn's river falls in Jamaica however I am not sure that our 5 year old is going to be able to do Dunn's river as I am not sure the level of co-ordination and strength required to get up it. So basically we need to decide the best place to do the dolphins, the best place to do the beach, and then either Dunn's river or stingray city to fill in the third stop

 

[KashasMom]

We did swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel and loved it. It is located on the beach in Chankanaab National Park, which itself is beautiful. The info is here - https://www.dolphindiscovery.com/cozumel/. ALL of the dolphin places charge a bunch for photos. You can control spending there by how many you choose. You can spend the whole day there between the dolphin excursion, seal show, small pool, and beach. Another option for Cozumel is Paradise Beach. Take a taxi - entrance and chair by pool/beach is $3 pp. The beach is nice, the pool is great, and the poolside restaurant had excellent food.

Not sure about Dunn's Rivers Falls. I went a while ago with a then 3/4 year old and it was fine. Have good swim/water shoes. My daughter (7 at the time) and I just did river tubing on the Rio Bueno in Falmouth and it was a blast. Should be okay for a 5 year old.

It's been a while since I went to GC. Seven Mile Beach is the beach to go to...you can take a taxi - believe there is a bus as well. Haven't done the Stingrays there - did them at Castaway Cay (which really wasn't so good).

 

[JimGA]

We did the Dolphins in Cozumel as the previous person mentioned, it was a very reasonable price, nice place, but just ridiculous prices for pictures, so buyer beware, and family cannot take pictures.

We snorkel in GC and loved it, it was post card weather so the water was perfect. I had researched prior that the snorkeling was better in GC than Cozumel.

 

[dad of 3 addicted to DCL]

We did the stingray snorkeling at GC (DCL excursion G09). AMAZING. All we hoped for and more. Was about 1/2 the day. Kids were 12, 10 & 10. Had to drag them out of the water. Afterwards, there was time for trinket shopping and plenty of time to get back to the ship.

 

[SteveMP]

I agree on snorkeling in Grand Cayman is amazing. And if you want to grab a drink at Margaritaville, they had a little waterslide play area out front. Another fun thing to do at GC is the duck boats if your kids aren't into snorkeling.

Cozumel dolphin thing is cool and they have various experiences whether you wNt to ride or just pet etc. and as mentioned the pictures is where they try to ream you. But they are all like that, doesn't matter which place you go.

As for CC, one of our favorite things to do is rent bikes and ride around the island, go to the watchtower etc. its also about the cheapest thing you can do there.