jeanneg
I swam with a dolphin!
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2001
Just finished reading your excellent "live" post. I can't believe it's all over. Just a few comments of my own:
For all those who are interested in Stingray City, I can't begin to tell you how great an excursion it is! We booked privately with Capt. Marvin's and they are a real first class operation. I am petrified of all animals, so it was really a very frightening experience at first, but once we all got used to the little(?) creatures, it was fabulous. Part of the fun was listening to everyone shriek (male and female alike) when they first got into the water. Once I got used the situation, I even fed one of the stingrays and let one of the guides rub one over my back...you can't imagine how weird that feels! We did the short trip which gave us about 2 hours on or in the water. For me, that was perfect as I am not a sun person and even with sunblock, managed to get a bit of a burn.
A comment about ordering chocolate souffles from your regular servers...... Before all of you start planning to do this (and I'm sure Sandy will agree because he ordered them BEFORE he took the galley tour), I'm going to add my unsolicited 2 cents worth and recommend that you NOT do this. We took the galley tour on Thursday (sea day) and it really made you realize just how very hard those servers work and what a mob scene it must be throughout the kitchens at dinnertimes. Having seen this, I could not in good conscience ask my server to take on any more responsibilities than he already has.
A word about trying to get into Palo if yo're not 18......don't waste your time. My son will be 18 this week and even though we already had reservations booked, they checked his documents and called to say he couldn't come. When I asked if they would allow us since we were planning on celebrating his birthday early, they said even if it were a matter of one day they would still disallow it. We were disappointed of course but do understand that they have to draw the line somewhere and didn't let it get us down. My older daughter opted to dine that night with my son so only my husband and I went to Palo. It was wonderful as usual, but I was a little taken by surprised when I saw quite a few empty tables which remained empty throughout the evening and the fact that the solo male diner across from us was wearing a sloppy shirt, shorts and deck shoes! To the credit of the wait staff they treated him just as cordially had he been in a tux, but I certainly did not enjoy looking at him during my meal.
That's all I can think of to add to Sandy's great report.....if anybody has any other questions, fire away.
For all those who are interested in Stingray City, I can't begin to tell you how great an excursion it is! We booked privately with Capt. Marvin's and they are a real first class operation. I am petrified of all animals, so it was really a very frightening experience at first, but once we all got used to the little(?) creatures, it was fabulous. Part of the fun was listening to everyone shriek (male and female alike) when they first got into the water. Once I got used the situation, I even fed one of the stingrays and let one of the guides rub one over my back...you can't imagine how weird that feels! We did the short trip which gave us about 2 hours on or in the water. For me, that was perfect as I am not a sun person and even with sunblock, managed to get a bit of a burn.
A comment about ordering chocolate souffles from your regular servers...... Before all of you start planning to do this (and I'm sure Sandy will agree because he ordered them BEFORE he took the galley tour), I'm going to add my unsolicited 2 cents worth and recommend that you NOT do this. We took the galley tour on Thursday (sea day) and it really made you realize just how very hard those servers work and what a mob scene it must be throughout the kitchens at dinnertimes. Having seen this, I could not in good conscience ask my server to take on any more responsibilities than he already has.
A word about trying to get into Palo if yo're not 18......don't waste your time. My son will be 18 this week and even though we already had reservations booked, they checked his documents and called to say he couldn't come. When I asked if they would allow us since we were planning on celebrating his birthday early, they said even if it were a matter of one day they would still disallow it. We were disappointed of course but do understand that they have to draw the line somewhere and didn't let it get us down. My older daughter opted to dine that night with my son so only my husband and I went to Palo. It was wonderful as usual, but I was a little taken by surprised when I saw quite a few empty tables which remained empty throughout the evening and the fact that the solo male diner across from us was wearing a sloppy shirt, shorts and deck shoes! To the credit of the wait staff they treated him just as cordially had he been in a tux, but I certainly did not enjoy looking at him during my meal.
That's all I can think of to add to Sandy's great report.....if anybody has any other questions, fire away.
ANYWAYS: We did see barracuda!!! Had to go ask the lifeguards to make sure we were seeing what we thought we were seeing. He confirmed. We did not have our underwarter camera so don't have the proof. We also saw some huge fish called Grouper or something.
