Anyone "bumped" from dolphins Puerto Vallarta when booking online directly?

[crAZytwinmomma]

Has anyone booked directly with Puerto Vallarta Adventures and their Dolphins/Sea Lion experiences, gotten the email confirmation but then upon arrival not been able to keep the reservation?

 

We booked directly online after having called and they said we couldn't since we were part of a cruise ship. The problem we had is that we wanted to do the dolphin signature swim experience AND the sea lion experience with dh and I and our 5 year old twin children. On the cruise ship it said our children were not old enough/tall enough but when calling them directly (not saying we were part of a cruise ship) they said they were fine....they met the age requirement and they are strong swimmers anyway- able to dive, swim under water, do the freestyle stroke, etc -

 

not only was the price for this when booking through the cruise going to be more than twice as expensive as booking directly we called the cruise and since they said our girls were not tall enough they couldn't even do it...

 

so we booked puerto vallarta adventures directly online and reserved a room at a local hotel with the intention of cancelling the hotel reservation a week before we cruise... we reserved 3 seperate experiences for our family of 4 for $100 LESS than the cost of ONE signature swim for our family (which accorning to the cruise my girls couldn't do)

 

Anyone have problems keeping their reservation upon arriving at the dolphin center w/o an actual hotel room in Puerto Vallarta????

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience with this issue and or your general experience with this company.

 

We sail in October and are hoping to have an amazing time on our first cruise.

[Wavesprite]

I believe that Vallarta Adventures books soley with the cruise ships, so if you want to go with them, you book on your ship. I think you can book directly with Aquaventuras? I'm not positive. I had a problem booking with PA, and so we went with Aquaventuras.....

[crAZytwinmomma]

hmmm... I guess we'll see what happens and I can update after the fact...

[sherin65]

I think you can book directly with Aquaventuras?

 

We booked directly with Aquadventures Waterpark. They have a website (I called their 800#) and the cost was significantly less than through the ship. Also, our group only had 6 people and the ships tour had about 40. The waterpark there is fun too. They have some VERY fast slides.

 

http://spolster.shutterfly.com/

 

 

Here's a link to some pics. Click on Pictures and "Girls Cruise".

 

 

Sher

[tamsocal]

We booked directly with Aquadventures Waterpark. They have a website (I called their 800#) and the cost was significantly less than through the ship. Also, our group only had 6 people and the ships tour had about 40. The waterpark there is fun too. They have some VERY fast slides.

 

http://spolster.shutterfly.com/

 

 

Here's a link to some pics. Click on Pictures and "Girls Cruise".

 

 

Sher

 

we were at Aquadventures in 2007 & it was a bit rundown-- when was your trip-- have read some bad reviews about the water not visually looking clean for the waterpark area & not being kept up well- it was acceptable when we were there but wondering how it is now

[jmsnyc]

I visited both websites of Aquadventures and Vallarta Adventures. The price for AquaAdventures seemed to be only a little cheaper and factoring in the taxi, difference inconsequential.... I guess the bigger your group the cheaper the cab.

 

 

VA seemed to be about $50 cheaper for the Signature Swim. I do not think you can walk there either. The day my cruise stops there they were sold out for the 10am but open for the noon. I dont see why you cannot just book online. Does the online order form ask you for hotel name?

[crAZytwinmomma]

I visited both websites of Aquadventures and Vallarta Adventures. The price for AquaAdventures seemed to be only a little cheaper and factoring in the taxi, difference inconsequential.... I guess the bigger your group the cheaper the cab.

 

 

VA seemed to be about $50 cheaper for the Signature Swim. I do not think you can walk there either. The day my cruise stops there they were sold out for the 10am but open for the noon. I dont see why you cannot just book online. Does the online order form ask you for hotel name?

 

yes, the online form asks for a hotel name

[AZ Karaoke Girl]

I'm not sure why there are so many posts of people trying to get the dolphin swim on their own to save a few bucks. I personally did the dolphin swim in Cabo twice thru the ship and the price was actually cheaper thru the ship than if I walked up and bought a ticket at the facility and you are guaranteed to get your swim. I could have saved a few dollars (less than $10/pp) if I booked online since they offered a discount for advanced online purchase. For this experience, I wouldn't want anything to get in the way of me being able to do the swim and having to lie about staying at a hotel is just ridiculous. It is an amazing experience and worth every penny they charge.

[crAZytwinmomma]

For our family of 4 to do the signature dolphin swim w/ the cruise line it is $700. And in addtion, after talking directly to the cruise line our girls are not permitted to do it since they impose a height restriction while the actual place only imposes an age OR height restriction.

 

We also wanted to do the sea lion experience since that is more unique and we are unable to find that at "other" places. Our girls love dolphins, we've already done the SeaWorld Dolphin experience with them (not in the water) where they got to help "train" the dolphin, feed it, etc. They love dolphins and sea lions. The Wisconsin zoo does a jr sea lion trainer experience which we looked into for next summer but it can't even compare to the one in Puerto Vallarta.

 

For our family of 4 to do the

signature swim - actually in water w/dolphin & ride

dolphin experience - sounds like a meet n greet on ledge

AND

sea lion encounter

 

ALL 3 of these experiences for our family of 4 booked directly is only around $500... seems like a pretty a big price difference to me AND according to the ship my girls couldn't do the sea lion or signature swim - they are superb swimmers AND met the requirements according to the facility.

 

Hope that explains it better why we would like to book direct.

[jmsnyc]

For our family of 4 to do the signature dolphin swim w/ the cruise line it is $700. And in addtion, after talking directly to the cruise line our girls are not permitted to do it since they impose a height restriction while the actual place only imposes an age OR height restriction.

 

We also wanted to do the sea lion experience since that is more unique and we are unable to find that at "other" places. Our girls love dolphins, we've already done the SeaWorld Dolphin experience with them (not in the water) where they got to help "train" the dolphin, feed it, etc. They love dolphins and sea lions. The Wisconsin zoo does a jr sea lion trainer experience which we looked into for next summer but it can't even compare to the one in Puerto Vallarta.

 

For our family of 4 to do the

signature swim - actually in water w/dolphin & ride

dolphin experience - sounds like a meet n greet on ledge

AND

sea lion encounter

 

ALL 3 of these experiences for our family of 4 booked directly is only around $500... seems like a pretty a big price difference to me AND according to the ship my girls couldn't do the sea lion or signature swim - they are superb swimmers AND met the requirements according to the facility.

 

Hope that explains it better why we would like to book direct.

 

So you booked with VA not Aquaventuras? Did you have any issues? Did you just put down "other" when asked online?

[lisa e]

We booked the signature dolphin swim through johann and S. in PV for our July cruise back in November, no problem we had to move the trip to Sept. they said they would honor it since we booked it so long ago however they were no longer booking cruise passengers sailing to PV on Wednesday, since I have called several times to confirm..We saved approx 450.00 by not booking through carnival..they were running a special for every adult the child goes free..I plan on calling the tour company again to confirm before we leave..

I just checked my ticket it is through Vallarta Adventures and when I called they said it was about a 30 min. cab ride..

[crAZytwinmomma]

We booked the signature dolphin swim through johann and S. in PV for our July cruise back in November, no problem we had to move the trip to Sept. they said they would honor it since we booked it so long ago however they were no longer booking cruise passengers sailing to PV on Wednesday, since I have called several times to confirm..We saved approx 450.00 by not booking through carnival..they were running a special for every adult the child goes free..I plan on calling the tour company again to confirm before we leave..

I just checked my ticket it is through Vallarta Adventures and when I called they said it was about a 30 min. cab ride..

 

So you'll be there in September?

 

Please post an update on this thread if you can ;) especially regarding the general experience and if they seemed "packed" by crusiers or if you had any issues with your reservation since you are a cruise ship passenger.

 

Do they supply towels? If we do the 3 experiences I am really wondering if we will get a dry towel after each one... also is there a shower to rinse off with warm water afterwards?

[crAZytwinmomma]

So you booked with VA not Aquaventuras? Did you have any issues? Did you just put down "other" when asked online?

 

We are going with my inlaws (who are not doing the dolphin experience) and our family, so we actually booked a hotel room to use if needed for that day. They do not know we are cruise ship passengers... my only worry is that they will try to bump us to another day which is not possible for us of course. We already have our confirmation email for our 3 experiences for that day and the times.

 

We tried to book through the cruise ship and were told we couldn't (due to imposed height restriction), we tried to book directly and were told we couldn't (height and age were fine but they said they do not book cruise ship passengers). We are problem solvers so we came up with this solution...

 

PS- I am not worried about cab ride or location really, I speak Spanish just fine.

[jmsnyc]

Thanks for your reply. I misunderstood and thought you had gone already. I am only one person so the savings are not so much when I factor in the cab if I can't find anyone to share a cab with. I am still undecided and my cruise is next week. Taking the cab out of it, its $50 cheaper booking online at least 3 days in advance for the Signature Swim or the Royal Swim is about $5 less as it is called with Aquaventuras. The lower priced excursions, the savings is not that substantial.

 

Aquadventuras is safe for Royal Caribbean because they are used by Carnival.

 

They should not be able to switch you to another day without at least offering you a refund - but then I would miss the opportunity and be out the cab fare. But I think if you are firm they will let you go.

 

Since I am going soonest, I will post what I decide to do and my experience when I get back

[lisa e]

So you'll be there in September?

 

Please post an update on this thread if you can ;) especially regarding the general experience and if they seemed "packed" by crusiers or if you had any issues with your reservation since you are a cruise ship passenger.

 

Do they supply towels? If we do the 3 experiences I am really wondering if we will get a dry towel after each one... also is there a shower to rinse off with warm water afterwards?

I will let you know I called again directly yesterday to make sure the reservation was okay and all was good..I have read good reviews about PV Adventures..We too have twins 7 year old boys! We came back with them from our RCCL cruise in 2002! suprise! They are out of school the week we are sailiing and are very excited..This is the first time we have done a trip to the MR..Here is my email and I will make sure to get as much info for you as possible..lisa

lisaellyn2@gmail.com

[crAZytwinmomma]

it posted twice - so I will delete this one.

[crAZytwinmomma]

for the record we got bumped...

 

They emailed us while we actually were on the Splendor on Sunday before we left port. Had we not replied back, we did have the print out of the orginal confirmation and they may have honored it.

 

Instead we added my MIL to the signature swim only did that. They did refund our money for the rest. It was kinda frustrating since we would have booked directly had the cruise line not imposed their own restriction which the company did not have and we talked to both Vallarta Adventures and Carnival about this. It was also poor in my opinion that in the email Vallarta Adventures said they canceled our sea lion booking for 4 at 4:00 due to rain being expected in the late afternoons during the week. Yet there they said they had 2 spots open for a 4:00 sea lion experience that was from cruise ship passengers - so they lied about why we were bumped and then when there and I explained in person, they still did nothing to try to get us into any sea lion experience at all... they said we could wait around for 5 hours or so and maybe see if more spots opened up at 4pm.

 

We enjoyed the dolphin signature swim very much - really great experience - but did not enjoy the company itself.

[tracyvansmith]

for the record we got bumped...

 

They emailed us while we actually were on the Splendor on Sunday before we left port. Had we not replied back, we did have the print out of the orginal confirmation and they may have honored it.

 

Instead we added my MIL to the signature swim only did that. They did refund our money for the rest. It was kinda frustrating since we would have booked directly had the cruise line not imposed their own restriction which the company did not have and we talked to both Vallarta Adventures and Carnival about this. It was also poor in my opinion that in the email Vallarta Adventures said they canceled our sea lion booking for 4 at 4:00 due to rain being expected in the late afternoons during the week. Yet there they said they had 2 spots open for a 4:00 sea lion experience that was from cruise ship passengers - so they lied about why we were bumped and then when there and I explained in person, they still did nothing to try to get us into any sea lion experience at all... they said we could wait around for 5 hours or so and maybe see if more spots opened up at 4pm.

 

We enjoyed the dolphin signature swim very much - really great experience - but did not enjoy the company itself.

 

Thanks for letting us know.