Disney Fantasy Western Caribbean Excersion Advice Wanted!

[TiggerBW]

Hi!! I'm new here, but not too cruising on DCL. I have mainly done Eastern Caribbean or Bahamas itineraries in the past. I have never done Western and I am looking for advice. I have two children ages 5 and 12. What would you recommend as far as fun excursions to do or things that we should not do? Are there any beaches within walking distance of the ports? Thank you!! (Thinking of maybe a dolphin excursion of some sort somewhere.... Possibly kayaking or is zipline but really open to recommendations!). Thank you!!!! Can't wait!!!!

 

[Peaseblossom36]

We loved Dolphinaris in Cozumel! I would definitely recommend them if you’re wanting to do dolphins. We did do the Dolphin Exclusive VIP excursion which is outside of age ranges for you but the Dolphin Swim looks pretty much the same. I will say that we saw a family which at younger child (probably around 2-3) who was freaking out. They were absolutely terrified of the dolphin, so you may want to consider that if your kiddo hasn’t ever seen a real dolphin. They’re much bigger than you might expect. If you read trip reports Timon did a really great one about this. A family member of ours was also recently there with a different cruise line and loved it too.


We did the exclusive and fun beach break in Falmouth and I wouldn’t recommend it. We had intended a calm day but had someone stop by every few minutes to try and sell us things, they also had a dolphin area here but it was sad. The guy trying to sell it to us stopped by at least every 15 minutes with the same pitch. They then set up a cooking demo directly behind where we were sitting with a mic that kept having feedback issues and was turned up really loud. We wanted to leave so badly. It was comical how bad this excursion was These things could have changed since it’s been a few years but I would still never go back.

 

[TiggerBW]

We loved Dolphinaris in Cozumel! I would definitely recommend them if you’re wanting to do dolphins. We did do the Dolphin Exclusive VIP excursion which is outside of age ranges for you but the Dolphin Swim looks pretty much the same. I will say that we saw a family which at younger child (probably around 2-3) who was freaking out. They were absolutely terrified of the dolphin, so you may want to consider that if your kiddo hasn’t ever seen a real dolphin. They’re much bigger than you might expect. If you read trip reports Timon did a really great one about this. A family member of ours was also recently there with a different cruise line and loved it too.


We did the exclusive and fun beach break in Falmouth and I wouldn’t recommend it. We had intended a calm day but had someone stop by every few minutes to try and sell us things, they also had a dolphin area here but it was sad. The guy trying to sell it to us stopped by at least every 15 minutes with the same pitch. They then set up a cooking demo directly behind where we were sitting with a mic that kept having feedback issues and was turned up really loud. We wanted to leave so badly. It was comical how bad this excursion was These things could have changed since it’s been a few years but I would still never go back.

Thank you so much for all of this info!!! I definitely want to do a dolphin swim in Cozumel and I was looking up the two different places to do it. The one that you mentioned sounds great but do you know if everyone got a chance to hold on to the dolphins fin and swim on its back? It sounds like the other one definitely has that and I think that would be so cool!!! Thanks!
Any suggestion for Grand cayman? I'm looking up things to do there and it's saying stingray city is a must.

 

[Peaseblossom36]

Thank you so much for all of this info!!! I definitely want to do a dolphin swim in Cozumel and I was looking up the two different places to do it. The one that you mentioned sounds great but do you know if everyone got a chance to hold on to the dolphins fin and swim on its back? It sounds like the other one definitely has that and I think that would be so cool!!! Thanks!
Any suggestion for Grand cayman? I'm looking up things to do there and it's saying stingray city is a must.

Not on their back, but on their belly. You kind of hold their fin and they swim on their back, it was really cool. We also got to hold their fins and “dance”, get/give a kiss and hold and pet them. It was probably the best thing of our whole trip. Reading through the dolphin swim at dolphinaris - all inclusive (CZ38) says it includes the dolphin ride. Which ever you do make sure to be prepared to purchase pictures, they won’t let you take your own of the actual swim. And make sure you tell the kids to keep their mouths closed during the swim or they will end up drinking a ton of water They also had two baby dolphins we were able to see from an observation area.

We did the Cheeseburger Reef snorkel in Grand Cayman and enjoyed it but I probably wouldn’t do it with kids.The water was kind of hard for snorkeling, I’m a smaller adult and was pushed around a lot. It was a lot of fun but would wait until 15 or so. My husband didn’t have as much of an issue. I would probably go with stringray city

If you do want to do snorkeling at all I have really good memories of snorkeling at Castaway with my dad when I was just 12 or so. That was a long time ago () but I remember it being a lot of fun and the water is calmer than Grand Cayman.

 

[lklgoodman]

We did a Dolphin swim in Cozumel in 2017. The one we did was Dolphin Discovery at Chakanaab National Park. Once we were done with the dolphins, we had several hours of free time at the park. This included lunch at the restaurant, pool, beach, sealion show, tequila tasting, and a trail with replicas of Mayan ruins--all for free. Dolphinaris is the other place to do dolphin swims in Cozumel, they don't have all the additional activities, I know they have a bar and maybe a pool.

 

[Clarkson U]

Hi!! I'm new here, but not too cruising on DCL. I have mainly done Eastern Caribbean or Bahamas itineraries in the past. I have never done Western and I am looking for advice. I have two children ages 5 and 12. What would you recommend as far as fun excursions to do or things that we should not do? Are there any beaches within walking distance of the ports? Thank you!! (Thinking of maybe a dolphin excursion of some sort somewhere.... Possibly kayaking or is zipline but really open to recommendations!). Thank you!!!! Can't wait!!!!

At grand cayman we used captain Marvin’s and did his snorkel and stingray adventure which was great and very well done when we did it in 2019.

In Cozumel we did amazing race Cozumel and it was a lot of fun. I highly recommend that and it is similar to the show but you don’t eat any crazy food!

Don’t think we did an excursion in Jamaica.