Princesses, Pirates and Pumpkins

[dolphingirl47]

Once this was all sorted, thought it was high time to get some more character photos. I started off with Jiminy Cricket and then headed up to deck 4 for a photo with Snow White and Dopey. I have to say I was more interested in Dopey then in Snow White, but if they come as a team, then so be it. While I was waiting in line for Snow White and Dopey, I managed to get some nice photos of Cabo as we were approaching. We did not take very long at all. The boat was already waiting for us and by the time I had my photo taken with Snow White and Dopey, we were already heading out again.

I decided to head up to the Rainforest Room for a bit as I had some time before the next set of photos. I bumped into Graham up there. I spent about an hour chilling out on one of the heated tile loungers before getting ready for more photos and for dinner. I arranged a time when Graham and I would meet in the atrium and then I headed off to get ready. I managed to get some more portraits taken in front of the white backdrop as well as photos with Lilo, Belle and Jimminy Cricket and Pinocchio before meeting up with Graham.

We headed for dinner. I told Graham about the change of plan and we both liked the alternative so we decided to go ahead with this. I was more than a little relieved as I really did not fancy getting in that line. They had included new Shore Excursion tickets and the instruction stated that we only needed to contact the Shore excursion desk if we did not agree with the changes that were made.

Dinner that night was again at Tritons and this evening the rotational menu was served. Graham had our server choose his dinner again and he ended up with Prince Eric’s Escargot Gratines for his starter followed by “Chef Louis” French Onion Soup with Gruyere cheese crouton. He then ended up with three main courses: Grilled Beef Tenderloin with olive oil smashed potatoes, bacon-wrapped green beans and Tamarind-Barbecue reduction; “Triton’s” Seared Sea Bass with a mushroom and herb risotto, sweet onion marmalade and garnished with a potato crisp and Three-cheese Lobster Macaroni Lobster meat, Gruyere and Cheddar cheese sauce tossed with tubular pasta topped with a Parmesan wafer. He managed to eat all the meat and fish, but left most of the sides. Fortunately he still had room for the Grand Marnier Soufflé with vanilla sauce. I ended up with two soups as I do not like any of the starters on the menu so I had “Chef Louis” French Onion Soup with Gruyere cheese crouton and Tomato and Basil Soup. I then had the Beef Tenderloin followed by the Grand Marnier Soufflé.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After dinner, we had some more photos taken together. We managed to get photos with Tiana, Lilo and Stitch and Daisy Duck. We also had some photos taken in front of the white backdrop. They also had a new backdrop up that I had never seen on the Disney ships before with the bow of a ship and a sunset in the background. So we had some photos taken in front of this as well.

Once all of the photos had been taken, we headed back to our cabin, where we found a towel snake. I had a quick look at the Navigator for the next day before heading to bed.

 

[Chilly]

I do like a lemon drop martini. I had a gingerbread martini on Saturday - lush.

 

[dolphingirl47]

That sounds very nice.

 

[irongirlof12]

Corinna you photos are amazing and your cruise is so relaxing, cant wait to see and read more, your dresses are so beautiful

 

[Tammy Stringer]

Corinna just caught up with your wonderful report. I must confess the Tucker Wildlife reserve looks like a lot of fun and the Crystal Cathedral looks totally amazing.

Love the sound of the peanut butter and jelly pizza - what a novelty.

The Spa villa on the ship looks wonderful - what a lovely treat - such a great idea.

Looking forward to more and glad to read you enjoyed your Martini tasting session.

Tammy

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 11

As we now did not have to meet for our excursion until 10:00 AM, we had a bit of a leisurely morning. We had a bit of a lie in and then got our stuff together that we needed for the day. We had brought our wetsuits and also our own snorkelling gear. Once everything was packed, we went upstairs to the Cove Café for some Cappuccino and cake. Graham had a muffin and I had some chocolate filled sweet buns. We spend a leisurely half an hour enjoying our treats and chatting to the bartender. Once we had finished, we went back to the cabin. I got changed into my Burkhini and we picked up our stuff before heading to our meeting point.

They were checking in multiple excursions in the same place and they were still busy checking in excursions that were leaving ahead of ours. We were asked to help ourselves to towels and then sit down until our excursion was called. This did not take long and the check in process was very smooth. Once everybody was checked in, we were then escorted down to the forward gangway on deck 1 where were then handed over to a representative of the local tour operator. The ship was docked in a different location from where we were docked in January. So the walk to the boat dock was slightly longer, but that was no problem. I suspect that they moved quite a few people onto this excursion as they had to use two catamarans for this excursion. We were each handed a life vest before getting on board.

Graham went to the front of the boat, but I decided to stay under cover as the sun was pretty strong. Once we were under way, staff came round to offer additional activities for sale like massages, power snorkelling, zip lining for kids and an introduction to Scuba diving. When I had originally looked at excursions, I was thinking that it was a shame that I did not have the time to do a "Discover Scuba" excursion, but now that it was on offer, it was no longer that tempting. I was worried that it would cut into the day too much. So I decided to just go with the flow and enjoy the free activities. Once they had offered the various paid for activities for sale, they gave out maps of Las Caletas and came around to check how many people where in each party so that they could arrange the seating for lunch. Once all the organizational matters were attended to, we had nearly reached Las Caletas and could already see it in the distance. As we were drawing near the dock, a parrot was flying overhead. This was the first indication that we would spend the day in a tropical paradise.

Las Caletas is actually part of the main land, but can only be accessed by boat. This gives it an island feel. Las Caletas is owned by the government, but the tour operator Vallerta Adventures has the exclusive rights. It very much feels like Castaway Cay and is just as pretty. Once we got off the boat, we had our photo taken with some people in native costumes and some parrots.

Once this was done, we were directed further a long the beach where tables and a buffet had been set up for lunch. According to the information about the excursion, it was supposed to be a Mexican buffet, but it was definitely more Tex than Mex. We had things like chicken wings, short ribs, pasta, etc with assorted sides. The only things that were really Mexican was a cactus leave side dish and a dessert, which was a Tequila flan. They also had some Mexican coffee in a big pot with a bottle of Kahlua next to it. Still, the food was yummy and the view was stunning. There was also a free bar so we washed our lunch down with a Margarita.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After lunch there was an opportunity for animal encounters near to the stretch of the beach where lunch was served. They had a squirrel monkey, some parrots and a snake their. I was happy to have my photo taken with the monkey and the parrot. I even was brave enough to have the parrot take a sunflower seed from my lips. However, I passed on the snake. I had got as close and personal with a snake before the cruise as I was intended to get this holiday. Graham was a bit braver than I and had a photo taken with the snake wrapped around his shoulder.

It was very hot that day and once we had met the animals, we were ready for the sea. We just headed towards the first stretch of beach when they asked everybody to come to the sport's beach for a briefing as they were about to start the free activities. So we headed over there. They were going to take groups of people for a guided snorkelling session, but we decided to pass on this. When we did a snorkelling excursion on the Panama Canal cruise, I really struggled while we were in the middle of a group, but started to enjoy myself when I had some space and could go at my own pace. They also offered sea kayaking and paddle boarding, neither of which appealed to me. We were advised that we had to wear a high visibility vest or life vest when snorkelling. Graham went to get a high visibility vest, but I decided that for the time being, I was quite happy just swimming.

 

[dolphingirl47]

When we were in Puerto Vallerta in January, the water was freezing and there was no way you could have stayed in the sea for any length of time without a wetsuit. This time the water was bath tub warm. It was gorgeous to swim in. However, there was quite a strong current and in no time at all, we had some out further than we had realised. Swimming back was hard work as we had to swim against the current. It was nothing we could not handle, but it took us a fair while and we got a good workout. Once we were back at the beach, Graham decided to give the paddle boarding a go. I was intrigued by this, but knew that I would not be able to do this with my dubious sense of balance. So I stayed in the waist deep water and watched Graham instead. He was not doing too badly until he hit a wave. Once he had handed back the equipment, he decided to go for a swim. I borrowed his snorkelling equipment and the high visibility vest and snorkelled for a bit. The snorkelling was not quite as spectacular than what we had experienced in January, but I still saw a lot of different fish.

I had started to drift a bit too close to the rocks so I decided to call it a day as far as snorkelling is concerned and swam out once more. Once we had swum out all the way to the markers and back again, we decided that we had enough exercise for the day. We stayed in the shallows near the beach and watched other people's attempts at paddle boarding. Some were very good and other attempts were just very entertaining. Just before we started to grow fins because we had been in the water for so long, we decided to get out and make use of the free bar that was just above the beach. We had a Margarita each before using the outdoor showers to get the sand off our feet and headed back to the boat dock as it was nearly time to go back to the ship.

 

[dolphingirl47]

On the way back, we took some photos of Las Caletas as it disappeared into the distance. This time round I decided to sit at the front with Graham. We had another couple of Margaritas each on the way back. There were a couple of very drunk people who were harmless, but a bit annoying. I did my best to just ignore them. The crew also put up a silly little comedy show, which was cheesy, but had its entertaining moments.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Very soon we arrived back at the port. We took some photos of the ship before we docked. We walked back to the Wonder and took our stuff back to the cabin.

We got changed out of our swim stuff into some clean swim gear and headed up to the Rainforest Room to relax for a bit. Once I had enough of the heated tile loungers, I arranged a meeting time with Graham and then headed for the shower.

That evening they had the characters out in their Mexican outfits and I wanted to try to catch them all. In relatively quick order, I managed to see Donald, Chip and Dale, Pluto, Goofy, Mickey and Minnie.

 

[dolphingirl47]

At the prearranged time, I met up with Graham and we headed up to Animator's Palate. This evening the rotational menu was served. Graham let our server choose again and ended up with Ahi Tuna Tatare with caviar, chives and Wasabi cream, Creamy Butternut Squash Soup garnished with chives and drizzled with sour cream, Animator’s Grilled Veal Chop with roasted Red Bliss potatoes with sweet onions and a morel mushroom sauce. He chose Buckled Warm Apple Crumble with vanilla ice cream for his dessert. I decided to be a bit adventurous. Normally I always have the Roma Tomato and Portobello Mushroom on Polenta Cake with Monterey Jack cheese and red curry-coconut Marinara for my starter on this menu and I really love this dish. However, on the Panama Canal cruise, our server had brought us Wild Mushroom Risotto and Porcini Twist served with Parmigiano-Reggiano and black truffle oil to try and I loved this at least just as much. So I decided this time round to go with this. Our server told us that his favourite starter on this menu is the Polenta. I told him that I normally always go for this, but decided to go with something different this time round. He disappeared and the next thing I knew, he was back with the Polenta starter so that I did not have to miss out on either. I figured after all the exercise I had, I could eat a second starter. I also ended up with Baked Potato and Cheddar Soup with bacon bits and chives and Fire Roasted Beef Tenderloin "Carved to Order" on Wasabi mashed potatoes, sautéed Bok Choi with a tamarind-barbecue reduction sauce. I do not really like any of the desserts on that menu. So I tried to get away with not having one that day, but our server was not having any of it. After he tried to convince me that I really had to try various of the dessert, he then offered a Mickey bar. I had heard so much of them, but never tried one. So I decided to give it a go. He came back with a Mickey bar, chocolate sauce and Mickey sprinkles. He used the chocolate sauce to draw a face on the Mickey bar and then liberally added sprinkles. I have to say, it was rather tasty.

After dinner, we headed down to the atrium. I had spotted a backdrop with the logo for the Mexican Riviera cruises and I wanted some photos with this.

When the photos were taken, we headed for Wavebands. We don't often bother with the entertainment, but there is one thing we have always enjoyed: Match Your Mate. When we got there, they still had a band on stage and by cruise line standards, they were actually pretty good. We sat down and ordered a Virgin Pina Colada each and waited for Match Your Mate to start. They always have three couples: one who has only been married a short time, one that had has been married for a few years and one couple that has been married for a long time. The newly weds had been married on the ship two days earlier. This was a little bitter-sweet as this was the slot we had originally booked for our vow renewal. First the men were sent out of the room and the women were asked three questions about the men. The men were then asked to come back and were asked the same questions and were scored on how well the answers matched. Then the ladies were sent out and the men were asked three questions about them. The answers are usually hilarious, but what is even better is the reactions of the couples to the answers their partners have given. At some points, we laughed so hard that I had tears rolling down my face.

Once Match Your Mate was finished, we headed back to our cabin. We found a towel dog that our stateroom host had left us. I had a quick look at the navigator for the next day and then we settled down for the night.

 

[tiggrbaby]

Looks like you ended up with a great port tour! Loved your pics!

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

I am hoping Del and I get to go to Match your MAte...we always have wanted to on all our cruises but sometimes the kids just don't wanna head to the club. Thinking if it's late they can crash and we can go now that Syd is older and able to babysit. Plus they have the wave phones. Also glad there is a night with Mexican dress, we have mexcian stuff to get a good photo...even taking Del a sombero.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Match Your Mate tends to start either at 10:00 or 10:30 PM. You also never know how the girls will feel about the clubs this time round. The Edge looks pretty cool and the structure of the Oceaneers Club/ Lab is no longer as rigid as it was when you last sailed. It is no longer really divided by age, but the kids can choose what activities they fancy and of course they are both older now.

I am so glad that you are getting the chance to do a Mexican Riviera Cruise. We have fallen in love with those ports and I was quite sad when I read earlier today that it looks like DCL is pulling out of the Mexican Riviera in early December next year.

Corinna

 

[ForTheLoveOfDCL]

Match Your Mate tends to start either at 10:00 or 10:30 PM. You also never know how the girls will feel about the clubs this time round. The Edge looks pretty cool and the structure of the Oceaneers Club/ Lab is no longer as rigid as it was when you last sailed. It is no longer really divided by age, but the kids can choose what activities they fancy and of course they are both older now.

I am so glad that you are getting the chance to do a Mexican Riviera Cruise. We have fallen in love with those ports and I was quite sad when I read earlier today that it looks like DCL is pulling out of the Mexican Riviera in early December next year.

Corinna

I am glad we are getting to do the MR in 26 days as well!! We have decided to do the Sea Lion Encounter. I thought of doing the dolphin but would rather wait till our October cruise and do this in Cozumel. So knowing Sea Lion isn't offered as many places as dolphin excursions are. Plus they are humorous animals and I thought the girls would love them. I am very curious to see where they go if they aren't doing the MR and Alaska.

 

[Chilly]

The "Island" looks stunning.

I found match your mate really funny as well.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Day 12

We had another leisurely morning. We were not due to arrive in Cabo San Lucas until 11:00 and we had our character breakfast at 9:45 this morning so a lie in was on the cards. When we woke up, I gave Graham his Halloween t shirt, which he decided to put on straight away.

It was a bit strange to have the character breakfast on a port day when we had another sea day to come. Still, as we were not due into port until 11:00, this worked quite well. As soon as we had sat down, somebody from the entertainment department came round to tell us which characters would be present and to ask us to have our cameras ready. This was followed shortly afterwards by our serving team to take our order. I ordered sausage, omelette and hash browns and Graham let our server choose again. He ended up with scrambled egg, bacon, grilled tomatoes and mushrooms. Our server also brought out a plate of Mickey waffles for us to share.

We had just been served our breakfast, when one of the head servers brought somebody else to our table. I was not too thrilled with that. First of all, if we had known that somebody else would join us, we would have waited to order our breakfast. We also were sitting opposite each other. If we had known that there would be other people joining us, we would have sat next to each other, which would have made photos easier. The first person to arrive barely managed to say good morning. Her daughter, who arrived about 15 minutes later, did not even do that. By that stage I was getting pretty fed up. I don't know what the story was there, but one would think that if special arrangements are made for you, the least you can do is turn up on time. It also does not hurt to at least be polite. I had the feeling that they had gate-crashed our character breakfast yet they seemed to resent us being there.

Soon I was distracted by the characters arriving at our table Goofy was first with Chip following closely behind. Then there was a bit of a gap before Mickey and Pluto came by. Pluto initially seemed to bypass us as he had been to the tables around us, but then moved on. However, he did come back to see us. Minnie and Dale were last.

We had a bit of a funny moment. During the character breakfast, the servers always make silly hats out of napkins. Our server had made the tactical mistake to put Graham's hat on the table on front of him, while sorting out mine. When he turned around to sort out Graham's hat, this had disappeared. Our server could not understand what had happened. I have to say, I had not seen anything either. However, one look at Graham's snug grin told the story. He somehow managed to hide it at the speed of lightning. Our server realised this as well and got his own back. Instead of the relatively harmless Peter Pan hat, Graham ended up with a contraption with metal plate covers on either side. I had to love, but Graham was decidedly unimpressed.

After this event, Graham decided that it was time to get ready for his excursion. I was finishing my coffee and then I was ready to head out as well. This was another day that had not quite turned out the day we had planned. Originally Graham had booked a snorkelling tour, which was only offered on the second day at Cabo. So I booked my Dolphin Trainer for a Day excursion for that day as well. A couple of weeks before we left, I had an email from our travel agent to let me know that Graham's excursion had been cancelled. So he ended up booking a trip into the desert on a quad bike instead. As I did not fancy my chances to rebook my excursion for the first Cabo day, he booked his excursion for the second day. Fortunately this was offered on both days. When we got on the ship and I had a look at our excursion tickets, I realised that Graham's excursion was still as booked, but mine had been moved to the 1st Cabo day. I really did not fancy that we would be apart on both days so I headed to the Shore Excursion desk to find out what was going on. The explanation made perfect sense. The second day at Cabo is extremely short with the ship already setting sail at 13:30. This would have meant that we would not have had time for the full program. However, the dolphin facility was still going to charge the full amount. They had therefore decided to move this to the first day, when we would have more time. When I explained that we had now ended up with excursions on opposite days, they very quickly offered to rebook Graham's excursion so that both of our excursions were on the same day. Again, I was very impressed that they not only used their initiative to make sure that I got the best deal for the money paid, but that they were also flexible enough to change Graham's excursion on short notice.

We both had to check in for our respective excursions at the same time, but at different locations. Some of the excursions that were checked in ahead of mine had to fill out liability waiver forms. I started to get a bit worried as I thought that due to the nature of his excursion he probably would have to fill in one of those as well. I was also pretty sure that he would not have taken his reading glasses. Still, there was nothing I could do and in the end there was no reason to worry as he did not have to fill one out anyway.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Check in was again smooth and painless. There were three other excursions checking in ahead of mine, but it was all well organised and very quick. I had wondered how many people would do this excursion and I have to admit that I was quietly hoping that I would be the only one. This was not to be, but I was teamed up with a very nice couple.

Once we were checked in, we had a brief wait until they had spaces for us available on a tender. However, it did not take long until we were taken down to deck one and pretty much as soon as we were on board, be headed off. The crossing was nice and smooth. When we got off the tender and headed to the meeting point for the excursions, we noticed that nobody was there with our corresponding character. I was not too worried as I knew precisely where we needed to go and the dolphin facility is only a 5 minute walk from the tender port. As we headed towards the exit, we were intercepted. We were told to join the group that had the normal dolphin swim booked.

Once we got to the dolphin facility, we had to check in and fill out a waiver form. We were given gold wristbands to identify us as trainers for a day, but were told to listen out for the green group to be called as we would join them for the dolphin swim. We were sent outside to wait for somebody to get us. The setup of this facility is a bit strange. On the ground floor is the check in, a gift shop, the changing rooms, the viewing area for the photos, a snack bar and the waiting area, which looked like a beach with loungers, comfortable chairs and low tables and some picnic tables. Some of the backstage areas like water filtration and the fish house are also on this level. The dolphin pools are actually on the first floor together with a seating area for observers, outdoor showers, fridges to keep the fish cool once they have been brought up from the fish house and some backstage areas like the lab and the record keeping office. I have to say I did not expect rooftop pools, but the dolphins have a huge amount of space and the view is fantastic.

Shortly after we arrived outside, our trainer Minerva came over to introduce herself. She took us over to the snack bar so that we could pre-order our lunch so that it would be ready for us once we had finished our dolphin swim. I was pleased to spot some Mexican options on the menu and decided to go with the Chicken Quesadilla. Once we had ordered our lunch, we were sent to change. I had learned my lesson in Dubai when the dolphins did not want to know me because I was wearing a Burkhini so I had just brought a normal swim suit. We were given some water while we waited for the other groups to arrive. Each group consisted of 6 people, a trainer and one dolphin. As there were only 3 of us, we were joined by a family consisting of a father and his two daughters. We had a quick round of introductions and then we got to meet our new dolphin friend Ko. Ko is one of 4 Atlantic Bottlenosed Dolphins that they have there. They have some sister facilities at Riviera Maya on the Caribbean coast of Mexico and Ko had been transferred from there. I was a bit bemused by this. I had come all the way to the Pacific coast and I ended up swimming with an Atlantic Bottlenosed Dolphin. Still, he is a real character and I did not mind at all once I had met him. Ko is Mayan word and means mischievous. The name was a perfect fit. Our interaction with Ko did not quite start off as planned. Minerva sent him across to another dolphin and his trainer. She later explained to us that she had realised that he was not able to concentrate and wanted to be with the other dolphin. Rather than engaging into a battle of wills, she asked him to do what she knew he wanted to do anyway. However, as he ended up obeying her command, she was then able to reward him for going over to the other dolphin and then again for coming back to her. This was taking positive reenforcement to the next level, but it worked and I can understand the psychology behind it. Once Ko had been over to see his friend, he was then ready to make some new human friends and was as good as gold for the rest of the interaction. I was the only person in our group who had interacted with dolphins before so we started off by going over the anatomy of a dolphin and some ground rules on where we can touch the dolphin. Once this had been covered, we lined up in waist-deep water and Ko swum by slowly a few times so that we could touch him.

Once everybody was happy with each other, we started on getting him to do some different behaviours. Most of them were fairly standard for me like getting him to make various noises, having a dance and getting a kiss. Ko was also able to do something that I had never seen before. He can swim like a shark. Dolphins swim by moving their tail fluke up and down whereas sharks move their tail fluke from side to side. Well, Ko can swim by moving his tail fluke from side to side as well. I have to say I was impressed.

 

[dolphingirl47]

After we spent some time with shallow water interactions, we took turns swimming out to the middle of the pool. We had a choice of either a dorsal tow or a belly ride. I opted for the belly ride and it was amazing to feel the speed and power. While the next person was swimming out for their ride, Ko came over for some more rub downs. Once everybody had a go, each of us got a chance to pose with Ko for some photos. While we were waiting for the other groups to catch up, we engaged in a bit of a water fight with Ko. Let's just say the six of us were no match for him.

Once all groups had finished with their rides, the trainers got all the dolphins to show of their strength and power together. They started with a dolphin race where the dolphins were going around the perimeter of the pool at full speed. It was amazing to see just how fast they can swim. They then had all the dolphins perform various jumps together.

Once this was done, Ko came back to us and we were allowed to give him some fish each. After some final rub downs, he waved us goodbye.

We had a quick shower and then headed down to the changing rooms. Another trainer was waiting for us with our uniforms. In the description for the excursion it had mentioned that we would receive a uniform that would be ours to keep. Big cynic that I am, I expected a t shirt. Well we did get a t shirt with the logo of the facility on the front and a dolphin and the words "Volunteer Trainer" on the back. But we also got the same kind of shorts that the trainers are wearing and a baseball cap. We were told to go and dry off and get changed into our uniform.

Once we were all ready, we had our lunch. My Chicken Quesadilla was very tasty. Minerva joined us for lunch and we found out some more interesting things about dolphins. I told the story about the dolphins in Dubai not wanting to come near me because of my sleeves. Minerva was pretty sure that this would have happened here as well as the dolphins are not even used to wetsuits. It is too hot in Cabo all year for wetsuits. She also told a story from another facility where she worked at before she moved to Cabo. They did double foot pushes at that facility. One day one of the dolphins refused to touch the foot. They tried a couple of times and then decided to switch the dolphins around. Now the dolphin that had refused to cooperate was fine, but the other one was now refusing to engage. At that stage the trainers realised that something was wrong and asked the guest if he had ever injured that leg. He confirmed that he had fractured it 17 years earlier. The dolphins had sensed this and therefore would not touch this leg. What impressed me even more is that dolphins are able to sense pregnancies. There have been a couple of cases where dolphins reacted to a pregnancy where the woman in question did not even know that she was pregnant.

Once we finished our lunch, Minerva left us briefly to our own devices while she was sorting out our activities for the afternoon. In the meantime a couple of families that I knew from our cruise had arrived for their dolphin swim and I chatted with them for a bit.

Next up for us was a visit to the vet's office. They have two vets there and quite a sophisticated lab. I thought that was really impressive considering how small the facility is. They only have 12 dolphins. I know that the vets for all Seaworld parks are based in San Diego and Seaworld Orlando and Discovery Cove have no vet of their own. We were shown the regular test schedules for all the dolphins and some of the equipment. I think the vet office there puts many hospitals to shame. The vets are on call 24/7. At the moment they move pregnant dolphins to a bigger facility when they are in the final stages of pregnancy as they only have three pools and do not want to take space away from the other dolphins. They are hoping to expand in future and then they are hoping that they will have calves at the facility. They had signed up for an artificial insemination programme, but their only mature female had become pregnant the natural way. Their other female dolphins are still too young.

Once we had asked the vet all the we had, Minerva came and collected us again. We headed to one of the two back pools, where Ko was waiting for us. The three pools are linked to each other by gates. During the day, the main pool is separated off as this is where the interactions take place. The gates between the two back pools tend to be always open unless they temporarily have to separate a dolphin from the pod for a medical check up. Other than that, they have 6 dolphins doing the interactions and the other 6 can move freely in the two back pools until it is their time for an interaction.