Swimming with the Dolphins?

[sunrise717]

Where is the best place to swim with the dolphins in Cozumel or Grand Cayman? We love the beach and would love suggestion on what to do on the Western Caribbean fantasy in April. Cozumel, Jamaica and grand Caymen..
Has anyone used an outside vendor to check out different excursions?? Tia

 

[nikkistevej]

We swam with dolphins in Cozumel at Chankanaab a few years ago- great experience, fantastic place. At that time, you could book on your own, don't know if you can now.

 

[Spart02]

We also just recently did swimming with the dolphins in Cozumel at Chankanaab Park. It was so much fun! What was even more amazing was the manatee encounter though. My kids can't stop talking about it! I think they take most of the dolphin groups into the manatee area for a short encounter at the end, but if you are able to afford it, do the full manatee encounter. We booked on our own and saved a lot of money and were in smaller groups than doing it through the cruise line. I think we just had to fib and say we were staying at a hotel. We took taxis to and from the park and it was super easy.

 

[skylynx]

We did the Dolphinarus dolphin swim in Cozumel and really liked it. We booked it through DCL but you could do it yourself for less money and it is actually within walking distance of the port area (we skipped the ride back afterwards and walked back so we could make a pit stop at Margaritaville). My husband is a non-swimmer and they accommodated him, as well, though he didn't get to do the ride on the fin. The DCL excursion included all you could drink beer and cocktails and a lunch buffet, which we heartily took advantage of. Note: if at the end when you are looking at your photos you convince them you are only going to buy one or two of the best ones, the price for all of the snapshots plus the video quickly and dramatically drops. Only been on this one dolphin swim, so can't compare, but we really enjoyed it plus since it was so close to the port, there was still time to do other stuff. This was a bucket list item for us, but I'd do it again!

 

[jenmiller114]

We did Chankanaab also. I would recommend that over Grand Cayman. It is a national park so it's not just a dolphin swim. They have a huge beach area and pools along with a ton of other stuff to do. When we finished the excursion, we just hung out at the beach and my husband and boys rented a kayak. For that excursion, we did not have to wait for a bus to go back to the ship. They paid cab fare for us so we could leave when we wanted which was really nice. That was a couple years ago so it could be different now. I don't do a lot of excursions through the cruise line but I feel like we got a pretty good deal on this one. My boys did the dolphin swim with my mom and we just watched. A lot of dolphin excursions make you pay to get in even if you are just observing. At least we felt like we got something for our money there.