Dolphin Swim in Roatan?

Has anyone had a dolphin swim experience in Roatan? We are scheduled to stop in Roatan and would like to do a dolphin swim.

In doing some research I noticed Anthoney's Key does a dolphin swim. However, I do not see that my ship offers that excursion and when I called them, they informed me that they only provide service to cruise passengers that book an excursion through the ship; they do not book individual excursions. Any suggestions?

We were told by our guide that cruise passengers were telling other passengers that they got the swim cheaper so the company wanted to keep the cruise business so they no longer allow individuals to book independantly. :(

Okay... I just got off the phone with Anthony's Key Resort. There are members of our group that want to have some sort of dolphin encounter, and I know that our daughter would love to do it again as well, so since other than us nobody has, I'm hoping to add a dolphin experience to our tour with Victor Bodden. He has informed me that he is unable to book dolphin encounters, due to exactly the policies being mentioned here regarding cruise ships. He assured me, though, that they would be happy to pick us up from wherever we book with dolphins to provide their services from there.

So, my problem is that I went to the NCL website and the only dolphin encounter they offer is combined with a beach day and is 6 hours long. If we book that, there's no way we'll still be able to zipline or play with the monkeys, so it's not particularly appealing to us. So... back to what I started with - I've just spoken to someone at AKR. I explained to her that my ship did not offer an excursion with them and if I understand her correctly, what I'm supposed to do is call them a couple of weeks before we're supposed to be there to see if I can make arrangements. They do not take advance reservations for the dolphin encounters anyway, so I'm not sure what will happen, but I'm hoping they'll let us book since we can't do it through the ship.

I'll post back whatever I find out... in three months. If anyone else has had a similar experience, though, I'd love to know how it turned out. :)

don't mean to hijack the thread but what monkeys? We will be in Roatan and plan to do Fins and Flippers but if monkeys are an option DD will pick that in a heartbeat!

Okay... I just got off the phone with Anthony's Key Resort. There are members of our group that want to have some sort of dolphin encounter, and I know that our daughter would love to do it again as well, so since other than us nobody has, I'm hoping to add a dolphin experience to our tour with Victor Bodden. He has informed me that he is unable to book dolphin encounters, due to exactly the policies being mentioned here regarding cruise ships. He assured me, though, that they would be happy to pick us up from wherever we book with dolphins to provide their services from there.

 

So, my problem is that I went to the NCL website and the only dolphin encounter they offer is combined with a beach day and is 6 hours long. If we book that, there's no way we'll still be able to zipline or play with the monkeys, so it's not particularly appealing to us. So... back to what I started with - I've just spoken to someone at AKR. I explained to her that my ship did not offer an excursion with them and if I understand her correctly, what I'm supposed to do is call them a couple of weeks before we're supposed to be there to see if I can make arrangements. They do not take advance reservations for the dolphin encounters anyway, so I'm not sure what will happen, but I'm hoping they'll let us book since we can't do it through the ship.

 

I'll post back whatever I find out... in three months. If anyone else has had a similar experience, though, I'd love to know how it turned out. :)

Yes NCL does offer dolphin encounter only excursion. It's just not on their website. But you can book this once your on the cruise ship. You do not have to book a combo excursion to do the dolphin encounter. See your shore excursion desk once you get on the ship.

Yes NCL does offer dolphin encounter only excursion. It's just not on their website. But you can book this once your on the cruise ship. You do not have to book a combo excursion to do the dolphin encounter. See your shore excursion desk once you get on the ship.

Oh, thank you very much!!! How silly not to show it prior to cruising so that people can make advance plans.

Sarahvch, if you check the threads about Victor Bodden, or look for his site online, you will see that he has some monkeys on his property, and if people choose to tour with him, they have the option of going there to interact with them. I believe Gumbalimba park may also have monkeys... not sure on that one though. :)

Oh, thank you very much!!! How silly not to show it prior to cruising so that people can make advance plans.

 

Sarahvch, if you check the threads about Victor Bodden, or look for his site online, you will see that he has some monkeys on his property, and if people choose to tour with him, they have the option of going there to interact with them. I believe Gumbalimba park may also have monkeys... not sure on that one though. :)

Your welcome! Apparently it's just not the dolphin encounter they don't show on line, to my understanding there is more. You might want to check it at once you get on board.

And yes there is monkeys and Gumbalimba Park!

don't mean to hijack the thread but what monkeys? We will be in Roatan and plan to do Fins and Flippers but if monkeys are an option DD will pick that in a heartbeat!

Oh, geez, I've got to tell this story! I've never seen the monkeys, but Hubby sure has. A couple years ago, when we were staying in West End, a friend had told him a route for a "great run". So he set off over the mountain around dawn, came down into West Bay, and from there managed to get lost, even though all he should have done was just run along the waterfront (somewhat easier said than done, depending on the tides).

He said he was running along, pretty well whipped, as the run was a lot more grueling than he'd expected, when he saw some little houses up ahead. As he got close to the first one, a monkey came screaming out of it and nearly gave him a heart attack (thinking he was about to be ripped to shreds by a monkey, until he realized it was on a leash!) He then had to run all the way through the area with monkeys coming out of all the little huts, just going nuts.

He finally came across someone who worked there, very much surprised to see someone in the park at that hour. (I'm still not sure how he wound up in Gumbalimba Park, but that's what had happened.) He tells the story a lot better, and I still laugh every time I think of it.

I hope you like the monkeys more than he did...lol!

ee

I really hope that you can get things worked out with Anthony's Key Resort. It's been a few years ago, but we had a simply fabulous experience there. If you have a choice, definitely pick the dolphin package that includes snorkeling with them. They're SO playful and kind of ornery, too. It was a little bit scary at first because they're so big and fast, but then you realize they're just playing with you!

Good luck!

ee

We are actually doing a western caribbean cruise in june specifically because we will be able to go to Gumbalimba park and handle the monkeys. We changed from RCI to Carnival just to do it. We are also doing a private tour to the baboon sanctuary in Belize, which we did this past January. It was wonderful! We got to hand feed free wild howler monkeys. At Gumbalimba they have capuchins and howlers, and I think a spider monkey or two, from what I've been able to see online and on Youtube:

I hope those who are trying to book a dolphin excursion outside of the ship are successful. We just did a tour with Victor and had a great time! We stopped at AKR and took some great photos, we found out that on days when there aren't ships in port it's only $40 to swim with the dolphins. It really is too bad that the ships are taking over more and more of the good local excursions.

We did a sightseeing tour with Victor and stopped by to see the monkeys as well. We almost canceled the monkey stop because one lady we met our cruise had been bitten by the "ant eater" the year before, she later found out it really wasn't an anteater at all it was some other animal. When we told our guide why we had changed our mind he said that animal wasn't out and about anymore. Well we agreed to go and it was ok, my true impression is the monkeys were pretty dirty and their tails were soaking wet and dirty. DD liked them cause she is 16 and those types of things are right up her alley, however she was covered in their whatever it was covering their tails.

I too was pretty messy after my interaction and one did nip at my ankle and thankfully not break the skin however I was done after that. DH & DD went into another cage and were told the monkey was "shy", he hopped onto DD's shoulder but when DH reached his hand out it bared all his teeth and looked really angry. I don't think I would do it again, maybe through Gumbalimba but not at a private house. When we were done there wasn't any soap at the water spot to wash up so I was thankful we had some Purell.

Have fun on your cruise :)