LoriSunnyn75

I wish you could remember the tour operator. That sounds exactly like what we want. Anything you could look up and check?

 

When I looked up island marketing they did not mention going to Shark ray Alley and that would be our reason to book. Ecotours is a possibility, but we want as long as possible snorkeling.

We did this same excursion to Cay Caulkner & it was through Coral Breezes tour co. It was okay, but we were held up about 30 minutes waiting on some people who were late so little time other than for lunch on the island itself. Snorkeling guide was great & the stingrays were great, although I had done this before in Grand Cayman with much larger sting rays. Long boat ride though, like 45 minutes each way I believe. You meet at their shop at the pier & go by boat.

Thanks for taking the time to post everything!!

Absolutely wonderful pics. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these. We are on the Conquest 04/21/13 & looking forward to having a great time. ;)

I have planned to book the royal swim through the dolphin discovery website independently for next April. We are a four person group, and through their website it would be less than $400 for all four of us. (There is an early booking discount that gets one ticket for free) The same excursion through Carnival would be $756! That is $350 more to go through the ship.

 

My dilemma is this: apparently they have a non compete clause that doesn't allow cruise ship passengers (on certain lines, all the lines owned by Carnival included in clause) to book independently. In order to book it, you have to lie. Great. Not sure how to handle it, and keep hoping that someone will pipe in who has done it recently, as this appears to be a new change in policy.

 

I have two 15 year olds with me, one of whom has never traveled before, and I really want to do this. I'm not crazy about lying, and would prefer not to have to do that, but $350 price difference is pretty big. If we were talking a $100 difference, I could swallow that, but...

 

So, what to do? Has anyone done this recently? Can I get away with saying I'm at a hotel? Honestly, it would be cheaper to book a room for a day than to pay the Carnival price.

 

We spend so much money on the ship (last year our S&S bill came in at $1600) that I do not have guilt about not booking through the ship. I (and the girls) have my heart set on being able to do a dorsal swim...

I had this same problem trying to book parasailing in Cozumel. The only problem is that if you say you are not with a cruise ship, they have limited slots available reserved for cruise ship passengers only & you can't book those early times when ships are in port. If you say you are staying at a hotel, they might only let you book at late afternoon times. :rolleyes: