Save A Sea Turtle Tour

Would love to get feedback on this excursion. I know it's offered on RCL and Celebrity... the season starts in April... we will be in Cozumel on April 8th.

I want to make sure the turtles will be there and if it's worth the $94.00.

Does anyone know when the season is over for this excursion. We will be there during the last week of November and the limited info I can obtain would suggest the season might be over sometime the first part of November.

I'm cruising in November and I just signed up for this tour. I am also looking for more information.

Would love to get feedback on this excursion. I know it's offered on RCL and Celebrity... the season starts in April... we will be in Cozumel on April 8th.

I want to make sure the turtles will be there and if it's worth the $94.00.

Did you end up doing this excursion? I'm interested in doing this in August. Any info/review would be appreciated!

another interested party ... any info on this would be appreciated.

My daughter is interested in doing this. We will be there in May 2015 any info would be great

Interesting.

I didn't think about "season", but when I google the subject it shows the nesting is from mid May to mid November. We booked this excursion through NCL for Thanksgiving week. I wonder if we'll be too late to have a memorable experience.

For anybody interested in more info on this, my boyfriend and I ended up doing this excursion with Royal Caribbean last week. I wanted to do it because I love anything related to animals... especially baby animals! My boyfriend just went along with it because I wanted to do it, but I think he ended up having a better time than I did. :p This excursion actually takes you almost all the way around the island and has several side stops in addition to the turtles. It was pouring that day, so we had to skip the first stop, which looked like a beach area that had several shopping stalls. The second stop was the turtle nesting beach area and by that time the rain had stopped. Some local biologists met us there and taught us how to dig through an already-hatched nest to look for baby turtles that were still stuck in the sand. You only work on 1 nest at a time as a group, you do not get your own nest. We took turns digging and saved maybe 8-10 babies. They're so cute when you dig them out of the sand. They start frantically waving in the air like "oh! I'm supposed to be running towards the ocean!" You just put them on the beach near the water and make sure no birds eat them while they make their way into the ocean. Then when we were done with the first nest, we were SO lucky that the biologist found a nest that had just hatched. There were a ton of babies trying to climb out of the hole and we watched as they all ran towards the ocean. Afterwards we did the same thing as the first nest, dug through the egg remains to see if there were any babies that were stuck in the sand. The second one we probably saved about 20+ babies. Such a fulfilling experience! After that we all piled back into the vans and they took us to a small resort hotel where we spent about 30 minutes. You could grab a drink, walk along the beach, or use the bathroom facilities. After that they took us to a small Mayan village where you could sample chocolate, honey, tortillas, and tequila. Of course, they were trying to sell us all of these things and other souvenirs. After that they took us back to the ship terminal and we still had several hours before we had to board the ship, so we had lunch downtown and walked around. So, I would definitely recommend this excursion to any animal lovers or kids. My boyfriend still talks about how cool that excursion was til this day. I could have done without all the side trips, but it was a nice bonus I guess. Let me know if anybody has further questions!

Pis this available as a private excursion?

This looks awesome! i don't see it offered on very many RC cruises that stop in Cozumel even during the "season". i hope to see it added to more cruises soon. I don't see any private excursion options either. Does anyone have more info?

Oh man, my son would love this!!!!!

My daughter, too! I e-mailed RCI in July for more information and to see if they would be adding this excursion to any additional sailings. I got a response that they would need to research more...

Yesterday, I re-sent the email with their attachment. If I hear anything, I will be sure to post here. We will be in Cozumel the first week of June, so it may be too early for the turtles. :(

I did get a response from ShoreEx. After contacting the vendor, it appears this excursion will be offered Aug. through Oct. We will be too early in June, and too late in January. 😓. For those that visit during the right season, it looks like an awesome opportunity.

Question to those that have done this excursion - - how physically demanding is this tour - RCCL web site indicates 'Activity Level: Moderate', DW has a bit of trouble walking over uneven ground, but sand is no problem. :confused:

Alan-

We just got back from a week on Oasis and did this tour while in Cozumel. There are three stops as others have mentioned - 1st - a tourist trap, nice view of the ocean and a bathroom break, but I think it's mostly to give the Nest hunters time to setup for our arrival. There are some rough areas that might make walking difficult but it's relatively flat beach.

2nd stop is the beach where we went looking for nests. Very sandy. once we found the nest, we ended up laying on our stomachs to reach down and dig out the shells. It was amazing how deep they actually were.

3rd stop is the replica mayan village - which is all flat pathways. Shouldn't have any walk trouble there.

Worth the cost - but we were on the extreme end of the hatching season so there are less and less turtles to find moving forward. Hope this helps.

Steve

Alan-

We just got back from a week on Oasis and did this tour while in Cozumel. There are three stops as others have mentioned - 1st - a tourist trap, nice view of the ocean and a bathroom break, but I think it's mostly to give the Nest hunters time to setup for our arrival. There are some rough areas that might make walking difficult but it's relatively flat beach.

 

2nd stop is the beach where we went looking for nests. Very sandy. once we found the nest, we ended up laying on our stomachs to reach down and dig out the shells. It was amazing how deep they actually were.

 

3rd stop is the replica mayan village - which is all flat pathways. Shouldn't have any walk trouble there.

 

Worth the cost - but we were on the extreme end of the hatching season so there are less and less turtles to find moving forward. Hope this helps.

Steve

I am interested to know more details of the stops.

Is the first stop on the east coast? Is it Punta Morena? - it has several stalls as you go in but we have never been bothered by vendors (other than mariachis) inside the beach club, if that is the location.

Is the last location El Cedral or Pee Pee station?

Just did this awesome experience last Friday. We were on the NCL Star. It was only about 100 feet from the roadside to where the turtle nests were located. A volunteer biologist and assistants showed how to carefully open up the nests to check whether any hatched turtles failed to leave the nest. We also helped by counting the number of eggs that were hatched. Our tour group found eighteen (18) turtles and released them into the sea. To dig you have to lay in the sand..........but it was worth it.

I am interested to know more details of the stops.

 

Is the first stop on the east coast? Is it Punta Morena? - it has several stalls as you go in but we have never been bothered by vendors (other than mariachis) inside the beach club, if that is the location.

 

Is the last location El Cedral or Pee Pee station?

The first stop was at a place called El Mirador on the south east side coast of Cozumel. https://goo.gl/maps/tixmHkESs5u We searched for the turtles about a mile or two north of this stop.

The last stop was at Pee Pee station.

Thanks SteveinOrlando & mike&joluvcruising! We did go ahead and book the excursion; Cathy should be able to navigate the sand just fine and we'll just avoid the rough spots whenever possible. We're really looking forward to this excursion, as we've been to Cozumel so many times and were looking to do something other than the same ol' thing.

The first stop was at a place called El Mirador on the south east side coast of Cozumel. https://goo.gl/maps/tixmHkESs5u We searched for the turtles about a mile or two north of this stop.

 

The last stop was at Pee Pee station.

Thanks I had forgotten about the vendors stalls at El Mirador, I was thinking you had stopped at a beach club/bar.

I have never stopped at Pee Pee station but it seems to be becoming increasingly popular.

Quick update - we just got back from our short 4-day cruise on Navigator of the Seas, our only port call was Cozumel. The Save a Sea Turtle Tour was just as advertised - Cathy was able to navigate thru the sand down to one of three nests that were identified for our tour group; she managed to dig out two of the five turtles that we eventually found in our nest. All in all there were something like 19 turtles among the three nests that were dug up and released.

The other two stops on the tour were the tourist trap about a mile or so south of the nests, and the Mayan village on the way back.

The guides told us that this was probably the last tour of the season, as few nests remain.

Definitely I'd recommend this tour to anyone looking for something out-of-the-ordinary in Cozumel, if you're cruising during the nesting season.

For those that did the tour, can you confirm when the tour starts and finishes? I read somewhere it begins at 7 30am (8 30am). Is that correct?

Cheers

For those that did the tour, can you confirm when the tour starts and finishes? I read somewhere it begins at 7 30am (8 30am). Is that correct?

 

Cheers

We were instructed to meet in the Metropolitan Theater at 8:00, and shortly thereafter led to the gangway. The tour guides were on the pier. Around 8:30 we were led outside, across the street, to a couple of vans.

Great to know, thanks! :)

Oh man! Now I need to plan another cruise just to do this!! We sail Jan 7. 🙁