Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Dolphins Rule (in Cozumel)

The wake up call came at 7:00 ship time. I say that because the ship stays on Eastern Time despite the actual time zone we visit.

Cozumel, for example, is in the Mountain Time zone, but the ship still sails at 5:00 eastern. They made this point over and over again since apparently the ship won't wait for us if we're late.


Our excursion for today is ... Swimming With Dolphins at Chakanaab Park at 8:00 am, Cozumel time. I had no idea what to expect as far as travel time to get there, lines, etc. so we ended up getting there before 7am local time. With an hour to kill we walked up and down the shore line and grabbed some primo beach chairs. Finally it was time to check in for our Royal Dolphin Swim!

The weather was cloudy and windy, so the waves were rockin pretty good. No sooner than we stepped into the water, Casey decided she wanted nothing to do with swimming in the deep water. So she stayed on the platform while Mercedes, me, and the rest of the group swam out to play with Tatiche and pregnant Ichelle.

Even though Casey didn't do the swimming part, she did get to kiss the dolphins, be kissed by them, and tickled them on the belly button (which she thought was very cool).






The dolphin adventure lasted for about 30 minutes, then we were escorted to a little room where they showed us the DVD and photos that they took. $200 later we left the gift store and headed to the pool & beach where the kids played.


Mercedes and I decided to go for a quick snorkel and were happily surprised by all of the fish we saw!





Good thing I glanced at my watch ... before we knew it it was almost 2:00! With the whole time change and needing to be back on the ship by 2:30, so we rushed to the taxis. At the port we had to walk past all the stores selling their seriously inexpensive wares, and got back to the boat with time to spare.

Plenty of time to spare, actually.

We were stunned when the clock in the Royal Promenade read 2:15. Yes, I am a time miscalculating genius. I wanted to head back out and do a little shopping, but Casey and Mercedes didn't care to do that (big surprise there), so we spent the rest of our day at the pool and napping in the room. We skipped dinner in the Nutcracker - the food there is mediocre at best - and I headed back to the spa for a lime & ginger body scrub & massage while the kids went to a pajama party at the kids club.

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