Western Caribbean - Dolphin Encounter

MichelleCanada

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 21, 2017
My DH and DS7 will be on the Fantasy for the Western Caribbean cruise this summer. Does anyone have any experience and suggestions for the best dolphin encounter? I see that there are some in GC and some in Cozumel as well.
 
We did Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel. We have done both the Dolphin Encounter and Dolphin Royal Swim. Would recommend both of them.
 
We also went to Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel. We all (myself, dh and dd who was 8 yrs old) enjoyed it. It is at a National Park and there is a lot to do there after you are done with the dolphins(sea lion show, pool, beach, and more, all included in the price). If you do a search on here you will see several threads on it, all positive. You have a slighter higher chance of excursions getting cancelled at Grand Cayman's than you do at some of the other ports, because if the seas are rough they sometimes can't tender. Our excursion(stingrays) was cancelled the night before when we went to GC. The weather was nice sunny skies, however the seas were rough and the operator notified Disney the night before that they were cancelling the excursion. We had booked through Disney though so we were reimbursed. Even the beach excursions were cancelled, we were able to tender, but people were scrambling to find excursions. I was glad we had done the dolphins in Cozumel, I would have been disappointed if we had it cancelled in GC. Of course there's a chance any port could be missed due to weather or other reasons. Luckily we were able to do the stingrays in CC.
 
We just got home from our sailing on the Fantasy. We had to skip Grand Cayman due to winds/surf. If you have your heart set on dolphins, I would recommend booking in Cozumel. Though it may be canceled there, the risk is higher at GC.
 


We also went to Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel. We all (myself, dh and dd who was 8 yrs old) enjoyed it. It is at a National Park and there is a lot to do there after you are done with the dolphins(sea lion show, pool, beach, and more, all included in the price). If you do a search on here you will see several threads on it, all positive. You have a slighter higher chance of excursions getting cancelled at Grand Cayman's than you do at some of the other ports, because if the seas are rough they sometimes can't tender. Our excursion(stingrays) was cancelled the night before when we went to GC. The weather was nice sunny skies, however the seas were rough and the operator notified Disney the night before that they were cancelling the excursion. We had booked through Disney though so we were reimbursed. Even the beach excursions were cancelled, we were able to tender, but people were scrambling to find excursions. I was glad we had done the dolphins in Cozumel, I would have been disappointed if we had it cancelled in GC. Of course there's a chance any port could be missed due to weather or other reasons. Luckily we were able to do the stingrays in CC.

We just got home from our sailing on the Fantasy. We had to skip Grand Cayman due to winds/surf. If you have your heart set on dolphins, I would recommend booking in Cozumel. Though it may be canceled there, the risk is higher at GC.

I will book for Cozumel then - my DS7 would be quite upset if it was canceled - so we will go with the better odds. THANKS for your help!
 
I will book for Cozumel then - my DS7 would be quite upset if it was canceled - so we will go with the better odds. THANKS for your help!

Keep in mind if you book with Disney and they have to skip a port for some reason, you will get your money back for the missed excursion and they will help you with booking excursions at your next port. If you google dolphin discovery, you will see a lot of pics on their website with more info about what all they have there. I haven't been to the other dolphin place in Cozumel, but when I was looking at it, it didn't seem to have all the extra stuff that you can do at it like Dolphin Discovery has. If you do book an excursion with Dolphin Discovery, I'd try to book the earliest that you can so you'll have more time to do stuff afterwards. We did it in Jan 2017, the last shuttle back left at 3pm. We had time to do a lot, but would have liked a few more hours.
 
We just got back too.......our excursions in water were cancelled in Cozumel and all in Grand Cayman due to the tenders not being able to go over.
We rushed over to see what to book in Jamaica .....DGD's first cruise and she was heart broken that both rays and dolphins were cancelled.
So she got dolphins, iguanas and climbed a waterfall. Cost more and was long, but she loved it.
 


We did the Dolphin swim in Cozumel and saw it in GC. I would recommend the one in Cozumel over GC hands down. The dolphins looked like they were in more of a natural environment, (even though I know it was still enclosed) and at GC they were in stark cement ponds. The kids loved the Dolphin Swim. We went as observers since ours were old enough to go with out us and got great pictures while sitting in semi shaded area. I didn't buy the pictures offered by store. They were pretty expensive and outside of getting really close up pictures of faces, I was able to get just as good if not better with my camera and even got video action of them swimming.
 
We did it in Grand cayman last summer and was truly a lifetime highlight. The experience was fun. I can’t remember the actual name of our experience but it was the more expensive one so we could have more interaction. Even my very timid son loved it and did it on his own. I would do it again in a heart beat.
 

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