Sea Turtle rescue - Cozumel

Has anyone done this Sea Turtle excursion? Would love to hear your experiences!

https://www.carnival.com/shore-excursions/cozumel-mexico/save-a-sea-turtle-experience-304269?b=6A766173376D30782B6D796B6A5358326235586277513D3D

No-one? Okay. :(

We have this excursion booked. We leave on Saturday. I'll tell you how it went when we return. My daughter really wanted to do it so I hope it's a good one!

We have this excursion booked. We leave on Saturday. I'll tell you how it went when we return. My daughter really wanted to do it so I hope it's a good one!

Thank you so much!!! This looked like such an amazing opportunity, but I was getting nervous since no one responded.

Have a great cruise, I'll look forward to your update. :)

~~Kate

I can't wait to see if anyone has anything to say on this. Considering it for our cruise in October. It looks like you can only book this through the ship, have you found this to be true ?

I have read some great reviews on the social networking page

We have this excursion booked. We leave on Saturday. I'll tell you how it went when we return. My daughter really wanted to do it so I hope it's a good one!

KyBB - how was it??

We absolutely loved this excursion!! There were 6 of us travelling together. We boarded the bus to go to the excursion and it was very nice--great air conditioner! We made a stop before arriving at the beach to go to the primitive restroom (very clean) and take some pictures. There were some roadside stands with things for sale. No pressure to buy.

We arrived at the beach and were broken up into small groups about 8-10 people per group. Our group had 8 people in it.

We received instructions on how to dig the hole and what to do when we found a turtle. Our group found 11 sea turtles! It was amazing. We also collected any unhatched eggs and hatched egg shells. Every group found turtles. Then we gathered on the beach to release them. It was a once in a lifetime experience! There were several that didn't want to dig so they took photos and watched. You were then given an opportunity to purchase a t-shirt if you wanted. They were $15 and $20 dollars.

After the activities with the sea turtles were over we all boarded the bus and had another stop at a Mayan village (replica) it was interesting--and a tequila tasting there. The tequila tasting was completely optional. There was no pressure to buy anything. After this we went back to the port and spent some time shopping and back on the ship.

We all really like this excursion! It was interactive and the guides were super friendly and informative about the area. My husband really liked it too. I don't know if we just lucked out by finding so many turtles but I'm glad we went and had this experience!

We absolutely loved this excursion!! There were 6 of us travelling together. We boarded the bus to go to the excursion and it was very nice--great air conditioner! We made a stop before arriving at the beach to go to the primitive restroom (very clean) and take some pictures. There were some roadside stands with things for sale. No pressure to buy.

We arrived at the beach and were broken up into small groups about 8-10 people per group. Our group had 8 people in it.

We received instructions on how to dig the hole and what to do when we found a turtle. Our group found 11 sea turtles! It was amazing. We also collected any unhatched eggs and hatched egg shells. Every group found turtles. Then we gathered on the beach to release them. It was a once in a lifetime experience! There were several that didn't want to dig so they took photos and watched. You were then given an opportunity to purchase a t-shirt if you wanted. They were $15 and $20 dollars.

After the activities with the sea turtles were over we all boarded the bus and had another stop at a Mayan village (replica) it was interesting--and a tequila tasting there. The tequila tasting was completely optional. There was no pressure to buy anything. After this we went back to the port and spent some time shopping and back on the ship.

We all really like this excursion! It was interactive and the guides were super friendly and informative about the area. My husband really liked it too. I don't know if we just lucked out by finding so many turtles but I'm glad we went and had this experience!

You have TOTALLY made my day - thank you! We'll be booking this. :)

By any chance anyone done this w/o going through Carnival? Can this be done on our own when we arrive in port?

By any chance anyone done this w/o going through Carnival? Can this be done on our own when we arrive in port?

Look up Cozumel Turtles on Facebook. The effort is run through the local ecology department. Unfortunately from what I’ve seen most of the local efforts are held later in the day and don’t work for when our ship is in port. I’m really NOT a cruise ship excursion person but this is one we decided to book through them since it doesn’t appear DIY is going to be possible.

Just wondering if anyone else has any experience with this excursion in the past year?  Thank-you

We did it last October and it was wonderful, we would do it in a heart beat again.   Keep

in mind you will not find all the turtles alive which is sad. But the ones you are able to rescue is Heart warming. Below is the turtles we were able to rescue from our nest. 

Thank-you so much for your feedback pjwtrouble!  I really appreciate it and the lovely photo

So just a question because I know nothing about this in Cozumel but I do know here in the US, it is illegal to tamper with any of the Sea Turtles or their nests.  Are you just randomly digging or can the experts tell where the nests are?

It's a sea turtle rescue team that helps you with the digging, I believe it is a non-profit. All the nests are marked and a lot of the turtles have already hatched out the night before. You are going in and finding the ones that could not make it out.  

Just wanted to add that we just did this through Royal last week. My 8-year-old LOVED it! We happened to find a lot of turtles, and were with only one other family, so she got to save a lot:) I would definitely do this again. The only downside is I would have liked to know about the other stops they make on the excursion. Afterwards we went to a replica of a Mayan village, which was not bad. We got to taste corn tortillas and salsa, supposedly how they used to be made, as well as chocolate straight from the cocoa bean. We were just not prepared for it as it was not advertised as being part of the excursion. However, on the way to the turtles, we stopped at an out of the way shop. It was a very pretty area, and presented as a photo opportunity, but it was pretty clear that it was an effort to get us to buy something from the shop there. Other than that we really loved the trip!

23 minutes ago, DrDani226 said:

Just wanted to add that we just did this through Royal last week. My 8-year-old LOVED it! We happened to find a lot of turtles, and were with only one other family, so she got to save a lot:) I would definitely do this again. The only downside is I would have liked to know about the other stops they make on the excursion. Afterwards we went to a replica of a Mayan village, which was not bad. We got to taste corn tortillas and salsa, supposedly how they used to be made, as well as chocolate straight from the cocoa bean. We were just not prepared for it as it was not advertised as being part of the excursion. However, on the way to the turtles, we stopped at an out of the way shop. It was a very pretty area, and presented as a photo opportunity, but it was pretty clear that it was an effort to get us to buy something from the shop there. Other than that we really loved the trip!

Glad to year you enjoyed it. We are thinking of it as a future excursion. The tour description does say it goes to a Mayan village although it suggests you drive through. 

Do you know if you went to El Cedral, (with a tiny old church) or Pueblo de Maize? Or possibly even both, if you did a round trip of the island? Or was the shopping area just an Oceanside area?

trying to work out where they take you. Thanks.

14 minutes ago, c-leg5 said:

 

Glad to year you enjoyed it. We are thinking of it as a future excursion. The tour description does say it goes to a Mayan village although it suggests you drive through. 

 

Do you know if you went to El Cedral, (with a tiny old church) or Pueblo de Maize? Or possibly even both, if you did a round trip of the island? Or was the shopping area just an Oceanside area?

 

trying to work out where they take you. Thanks.

It was just a small Oceanside area on the opposite side of the island (of the port). No other stops. Just those 3.

Actually we did the excursion last week as well!  It was on August 2nd and we did it with Carnival.  It was a total of 4 hours from start to finish, and did not include a stop in Mayan village.  We had a stop at a scenic look out, and there was a place to buy souvenirs and drinks.  They only accepted cash.  I wasn't aware that this stop would happen so we didn't have a lot of cash on us and they do not take credit cards. This stop was before getting to the turtle beach.  Also recommend bargaining down the price if you find something of interest

We really enjoyed the experience.  Our family was paired with another father/daughter and we found 11 baby green sea  turtles.  Another group also found 11 at there nest, one group found 8 baby turtles, a group found only 1, and one group found zero.  It was overall a fantastic experience and our girls and the other girl in our group was ecstatic each time they found one.  We dug down about 4 feet.  One important piece of advise is that it was so gosh darn hot. One person when we got to the beach fainted from the heat.  Bring lots of water and a good hat.  There is no place for shade on the beach, and they did not have enough beach umbrellas for the groups.  So do yourself the favor and have good sun protection.  There was a photographer there who took a picture of each family holding baby sea turtles, and you could purchase the framed photo when you got back to the bus.  The ecological team also sold T-shirts.  Cash again for T-Shirts and the photo.

We would highly recommend this excursion and made some great memories.

17 minutes ago, Susan2771 said:

Actually we did the excursion last week as well!  It was on August 2nd and we did it with Carnival.  It was a total of 4 hours from start to finish, and did not include a stop in Mayan village.  We had a stop at a scenic look out, and there was a place to buy souvenirs and drinks.  They only accepted cash.  I wasn't aware that this stop would happen so we didn't have a lot of cash on us and they do not take credit cards. This stop was before getting to the turtle beach.  Also recommend bargaining down the price if you find something of interest

We really enjoyed the experience.  Our family was paired with another father/daughter and we found 11 baby green sea  turtles.  Another group also found 11 at there nest, one group found 8 baby turtles, a group found only 1, and one group found zero.  It was overall a fantastic experience and our girls and the other girl in our group was ecstatic each time they found one.  We dug down about 4 feet.  One important piece of advise is that it was so gosh darn hot. One person when we got to the beach fainted from the heat.  Bring lots of water and a good hat.  There is no place for shade on the beach, and they did not have enough beach umbrellas for the groups.  So do yourself the favor and have good sun protection.  There was a photographer there who took a picture of each family holding baby sea turtles, and you could purchase the framed photo when you got back to the bus.  The ecological team also sold T-shirts.  Cash again for T-Shirts and the photo.

We would highly recommend this excursion and made some great memories.

Yes, good to note- cash only on the east side since there is no electricity other than a few generators.

1 hour ago, DrDani226 said:

It was just a small Oceanside area on the opposite side of the island (of the port). No other stops. Just those 3.

Thanks!

Great to hear all of the recent reviews. We are doing this in 2 weeks. My daughter is really looking forward to this.