What We Did in Cozumel

We stopped in Cozumel on our 6 night cruise on the Magic in February 2013 and did the Dolphin Discovery Excursion, booked through Disney Cruise Line.  I decided to book an excursion through DCL because we would have our 3 young daughters with us and while I know that Cozumel is considered perfectly safe for tourists, I was still little nervous about all of the travel advisories to nearby parts of Mexico.  I just wanted to play it safe, I guess you could say.

First, we met up with the other cruisers booked on this excursion in a lounge on the ship and were given instructions and a sticker to wear that identified us as part of the group.  We were led off the ship and down the pier, through a shopping mall area and to the place where all of the taxis line up.  Here is a picture that I took from the ship that shows the long pier with the shopping mall right at the end.  On the other side of the mall is the taxi stand:

I remember that our guide was walking really fast and it was a little bit hard to keep up with her.  I also remember that she had a really thick Spanish accent and it was really noisy and we could barely understand her.  But, we managed to not get lost or left behind and made it to the taxi stand.  There were 7 of us in our group and we were all put in a large taxi van by our guide.  The taxi was new and clean and had seat belts, which was a must for me.  By the way, I struggled before the cruise with deciding how to keep my kids safe in the taxi.  I couldn’t find much online about what cruise passengers with young kids do for car seats, but I finally discovered, purchased and used these BubbleBum Inflatable Booster Seats.  We have taken them on many, many vacations since we bought them.  They are lightweight, small and easy to travel with.  There is also the Mifold portable booster seat which I have heard good things about.  Before my youngest was big enough for a booster seat, we used this Ride Safer Travel Vest for vacations (they come in large & small, depending on your child’s weight).  At first I balked at the price, but the more I thought about lugging a car seat around, I just went for it and made the investment.  Not using a car seat was not an option for me, and we used it so many times that for me it justified the price.

So, with the girls safely buckled in the taxi, it was about a 20 minute ride to Chankanaab National Park where the excursion takes place.  I remember that we did tip the taxi driver (even though the cost of the ride was included in the excursion fee) but I’m not sure if it is expected or not.  At the entrance to the park, our guide gave us wristbands and instructions about how to get back to the ship when we were ready to return.  The entrance to the park looks like this (I didn’t take pictures here so I grabbed these from the park’s website):

Once we entered the park we were taken to a locker area and told to put ALL of our stuff into lockers (which were free).  They told us to leave everything, even our cameras (sigh…..) – they literally just wanted us in our bathing suits ready to get in the water.  I had researched ahead of time and knew about the photo racket that they have going on here (more on that later), so I knew I wouldn’t be able to take my camera (see which waterproof camera I use here).  We waited for the whole group to finish getting ready and then we were given life jackets and separated into groups of about 8-10 people.  Each group was led to a different dolphin enclosure and introduced to their trainer.  The enclosures are in the ocean with walkways built around them.  Here is another picture I grabbed from their website that shows how the dolphin area is set up:

I remember that we stood on a platform under the water and that the water was about up to my chest (I am 5′-7″).  I have read that the water depth varies with the tide and it must have been high tide while we were there.  We had to hold our daughters because the water was too deep for them to stand.  Our trainer told us all about our dolphin and how we should interact with her and had her do some neat tricks.  Then we took turns going down the line and each person got to spend a few minutes doing different things with the dolphin while a photographer took pictures.  Here are the poses that each of us got to do:

Seeing as my girls had never even been close to, let alone touched, a dolphin, they thought it was amazing!  We all really enjoyed it.  After we were done and were led out of the water, we were told that if we wanted to buy the photo CD, then one person from our party needed to go inside the gift shop and purchase it RIGHT AWAY.  They were adamant that we get in there as fast as possible because they only keep copies of your photos for a SHORT TIME in order to make room for the photos from the next encounter (or so they told us).  Grab your towel first?  NO!  Return the life jacket?  NO!  GO IMMEDIATELY!  NOW!  Okay, okay, I’m going……..So, feeling just a TAD awkward, I traipsed through the shop SOAKING wet and found the photo desk.  They pulled up my photos and told me that they would sell me a CD with ALL 150 photos for something like $180 (I don’t remember the exact amount but it was somewhere around there).  That’s like a dollar per photo!  What a great deal!!!  The only thing is that the photographer takes the pictures so fast that every 10 pictures or so are practically the exact same pose.  So, out of 150 photos, there were really only about 15 different shots when you really looked at them.  Not so great of a deal.  But, because I am a mom and I can pretty much justify spending any crazy amount of money on pictures of my kids because they will only be this age once and they will only kiss a dolphin once, blah blah blah, I forked over the money and walked away, still soaking wet, with the CD.

After we were done with the dolphins we still had a few hours until we had to leave and return to the ship.  There are lots of things to do at the park, and we spent a lot of time in the pool.  It is a great pool with a swim up bar.  These are the only 2 pictures I took of it:

There is also a small beach area where we spent a little time.  I didn’t take any pictures of it, but here is one from the park’s website:

We ate lunch at the restaurant and the food was pretty good, but the view was even better.  We sat and relaxed in the shade for a really long time just watching the girls play in the sand right next to us:

There was a snorkeling area that we didn’t use, but it looked fun.  It was at an area where there was not a beach, just a rocky shore with steps into the water.  This is what it looked like:

I could see lots of fish in the water, and I think there were some sunken statues and stuff to look at so it probably would have been neat to try.  You could rent snorkel gear for a fee (it was not included in the park admission price) but I don’t know how much it cost.

I know there were several things at the park that we didn’t even see but sounded fun.  I think there was a botanical garden area with some replicas of Mayan ruins, and I know there is a sea lion show as well.  You can look at the park’s website for a complete list.

When it was time to head back to the ship, we collected our stuff from our lockers and went back to the entrance.  We saw our guide standing there and she put us in a taxi.  This one was also a van, but not quite as new and unfortunately the air conditioner was broken.  It was a hot ride back.  We tipped this guy as well and he dropped us off right at the end of the pier.  By this time we were all hot and tired, so we made a new friend.  This guy!

There were a lot of these guys waiting to give cruise passengers rides to and from the ship, and there was no fee but they expected a tip.  I think we gave him $10 to give the girls a ride in the shade.  That pier is really long so I thought it was well worth it.  Overall it was a fun day and I’m glad we did it.

You can see my other excursion reviews here.

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