Birthday 2013 - Cozumel

So finally the day for the long awaited dolphins had arrived. The line for breakfast in the MDR was too long if were we going to get to our tour on time. So we were forced into the WJ. I remembered why I hate the WJ. The crowd was ridiculous. I wish I had thought of Sorrento’s as an option, but I didn’t. We got breakfast though and survived it.

We then got off the ship and got to the tour spot and checked in right at the recommended time of 9:15. They directed us to wait in the shade of the fence. We then waited around in the heat for at least 45 minutes. When we finally did get under way, there was one guy with a sign trying to lead way too many people. But eventually we made it to the taxi stand, and the tour leader got us a taxi and made it to the park.
Dolphins, wonderful dolphins. I don’t have words for great this experience was, but for $119 I have lots of great pictures for how it was. We almost didn’t get the photos because we thought they said $190 for them. So we were very happy when it turned out to be $119.

The one thing I will say is that both mom and I were very glad we had rented the wet suits with our OBC from booking onboard. The water that the dolphins were in was rather cool for us. We were just barely comfortable with the wet suits on. I saw kids whose teeth were chattering, and we are cold sensitive so I was glad for the wet suits. It was well worth the $40 for the week, even though mom really only used hers that one day.

After the dolphins, we got a short interaction with a manatee. It was interesting how they were both slimy from the stuff growing on them, but then rough as they are actually closely related to elephants.  This photo is from the gallery on the picture DVD.

We then got changed and went to the sea lion show. It was fun to see.

I have a short video from the show too.

Before the show, a photographer went around and asked about pictures with the sea lion. It was only $15 for two people. The sea lion only kisses one person for the photo though. So whenever we go back at some point, we’ll go two single photos for $10 each instead.  It was a physical photo for this, and I haven't taken the time to scan it yet.

After the sea lion photo time, they offered us a tour of the dolphin area. We mostly took it for the opportunity to see the 3 baby dolphins they currently have. The baby dolphins were adorable. One of them was actually feeding from his mother when we went by. It was sooo cool. This photo is once again from the gallery on the photo DVD.  They wouldn't let you use your camera while on the tour.

The rest of the tour was okay, but was mostly stuff we had already seen as part of our dolphin experience.

We missed our scheduled return time by 15 minutes with waiting for the sea lion photo. But I begged my way with another RCI tour operator into returning with some of her people. We got back on the ship and had a sorrento’s snack. I loved the pizza, and returned to enjoy it a number of other times after this. They a vegetable panini (sp? – a grilled sandwich thing) that they made special for mom without the cheese.

We looked at the schedule then and realized we had time to make it to a ribbon to a rose crafts class. This was actually a very hard thing to do. Mine was actually really made by class leader. But I did help make mom’s. It was fun to do though.  We wore them in our hair to dinner.

We had an early dinner this night due to a plethora of available activities for this night. Mom had the chilled honeydew soup and loved it. I had the crab cake and absolutely loved it. Mom got a barely cooked salmon (as she wanted it). Some number of nights before this, Florentina had started bringing mom the menu for the next night at the end of each meal. Mom could then make any special requests then so it would work for her eating plan. I had the beef duo and loved it. No dessert for mom this night, and I had a sugar free red berry thing, which was pretty good.

We then went to watch The Croods in 3D. It was a lot of fun. We then raced to see the ice show for our 9:00 reservations. Mom really enjoyed it, and I liked it. There was a decent amount of ship movement this night, and it was really impressive that they mostly landed their jumps with those movements happening.

We ended the night with another snack at Sorrento’s for me, and a snack from Café Promende for mom. Plus we got room service for hot tea for mom, and hot chocolate and chocolate chip cookies for me.  And of course the towel animal, a snake tonight.


The picture doesn't do this justice.  He actually had a tounge that stuck out and everything.