Hi,<BR>We are taking our first cruise and the kids really want to do the swimming with dolphins thing in Cozumel, so I have a few questions that I hope someone could answer.<BR>1. Should I book this excursion on board ship or should I book on line ahead of time. I purchased our cruise through cruises.com and I understand that I could purchase the excursion through them. Has anyone ever used them or done that?<BR><BR>2. How long does this take because I would also like to have time for shopping and a margharitta (sp)!<BR><BR>3. I don't swim and have no desire to get into water with dolphins, but my husband and kids do. So can I go along on the excursion anyways or do I also need to pay the $119 for myself?<BR><BR>4. Is this worth it?<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Kathy<BR>

Kathy<BR>Chankanaab is 10 min from where you dock and costs $10.00 to get into the park. You can certainly go with your family, pay the 10.00 and watch as they have wooden walks around where they will swim with the dolphins. Take a walk on the beach from where your family will be and have a margarita or beer on the beach. Be sure and walk the botanical gardens while you're there, they and the lagoon are beautiful

Thank you CD. I just checked carnival's website for excursions in Cozumel and they no longer have a swim with dolphins excursion they call it a dolphin encounter. Has anyone booked this through Carnival and can you tell me about it. If we want to do the actual swim how would I go about booking that? Is the $119 price correct? I'm sorry for all the silly questions, but I am new to the whole cruise idea.<BR><BR>Thanks,<BR>Kathy<BR>

Kathy - my understanding is that swimming with the dolphins is different than the dolphin encounter. Go to dolphindiscovery.com and you should get all your questions answered. Its a neat site.

My daughter did the dolphin swim exactly one week ago. We booked it via the ship excursion because Dolphin Discovery never replied to my emails. It was 149.00 (and they charged me 25.00 to tag along). For that, I received the return taxi ride with her(about 20 minutes because we docked in Cozumel not Puerto Maya)and the 10.00 entrance fee to the park. The whole dolphin thing took from about 9:00 (meeting at the pier) until about 11:45 (because they started later as people kept on dropping in. The program takes about 1 hour with about 30 minutes in teh water (groups of 8). Chankanaab is very pretty with a beach and supposedly very good snorkeling (when we were there the sea was too rough). In your case, I would just tag along, hop in the cab with your family (who have paid for transportation when they sign up for the excursion) and pay a 10.00 ticket at the park entrance for yourself.