Well having thoroughly enjoyed the past two sea days we are ready for dry land. First Stop - St. Maarten.
We had signed up for the Dolphin Excursion to Anguilla. This was our big expense of the trip, about $700.00 for 4 people. The main reason we chose to go was because DD (10) is a huge Dolphin lover (I suspect she is part Dolphin some times, since you can never get her out of the water). I thought 10 was such a great age to experience an animal that you love up close. I personally have an affinity for giraffes but have yet to see any petting zoos with those guys, but I digress...
I loved the excursion! We really chose it with her in mind, I had no idea what DS (7) would do and DH and I were really just along for the ride. Well we all really enjoyed it. We met at Rocking D bar and were split into two groups of 30 with colored bands, yellow and orange. We walked over to take a ferry from the dock to Anguilla, and then a bus to Dolphin Fantaseas. The ferry ride was a little rocky and a few got a little queasy, the weather was looking very ominous with dark clouds but thanfully it all passed. We arrived to a picture perfect blue sky and beautiful day. Once at Dolphin Fantasea, we were introduced to the staff and divided into our two color groups, I was very happy to be in the group that did the encounter first, the other half went to the beach for the morning. From there we were split again into 6 groups of 5. We were already 4 so 1 couple split up, but it only for the actual dolphin part in two different pools. So two groups of five were the first to go into the dolphin pool, my group of 5 with Al the male, and the other group with the female and baby calf (just born at Christmas). The trainer was great and taught us a lot about the dolphins, first we just observed him as he swam around, they had outfitted us with life vests & goggles. They we swam across and he swam with us, them we held out our hands and he let us pat him, and finally we all got to "kiss" him, he let us hold his head from underneath and we fed him a squid snack which we held up over the water and he bobbed up to get right out of your hand. It was really cool, I was not nervous at all, and quite suprised at myself. Then we switched pools and got to swim around with the female and observe the baby who came pretty close to see us, again we learned alot about how the mom takes care of her and how they need to teach the baby to eat fish etc. It was really interesting.
After our turn with the dolphins which I am guessing lasted about 30 minutes, we got out of the pool, rinsed off and had hermit crab races, and of course viewed the pictures they had just taken of us with the Dolphins. Then final station is in a very shallow pool with the sting rays and some other colorful fish, along with a nurse shark that the young guy got DD to feed. She was a really good sport about it.
We headed to lunch about 11:30 or so it was OK, and then had the rest of the time on the beach. The beach was beautiful, absolutely the whitest sand I've ever seen and water crystal clear. The shore line was a little odd it kind of dipped off, so it wasn't the greatest beach for kids there was also an undertow, but they loved it. All too soon it was time to head back. The 2nd group ran late with their Dolphin encounter, I don't think they have the timing completely worked out since it is a newer excursion. So we were ready to go and ended up sitting on a hot bus waiting, finally the driver decided to take us for a mini tour of the sights, before getting us back to the ferry. He drove us past some incredibly exclusive hotels with prices like ten thousand dollars a night with a ten night minimum! Back on the ferry there were some cold drinks, the trip was calmer going back thank goodness, but most of us just dozed it was a really full day. Back to St. Maarten with really no time to do anything, I had hoped to shop a little we ran to the tacky souvenir shop and the kids got t-shirts, I got an ornament so we were pretty happy. Back on the boat for showers and dinner, Tropical night.
My final thoughts on this excursion were that the cost really makes is prohibitive for a family, I am glad that we did it and figured we saved money vs. Discovery Cove. I really felt it would be a one time thing, but now that I've gone I would love to do it again some day. My DS's favorite animal is a seal, and he just asked me today when he could swim with the seals on the next cruise.
We had signed up for the Dolphin Excursion to Anguilla. This was our big expense of the trip, about $700.00 for 4 people. The main reason we chose to go was because DD (10) is a huge Dolphin lover (I suspect she is part Dolphin some times, since you can never get her out of the water). I thought 10 was such a great age to experience an animal that you love up close. I personally have an affinity for giraffes but have yet to see any petting zoos with those guys, but I digress...
I loved the excursion! We really chose it with her in mind, I had no idea what DS (7) would do and DH and I were really just along for the ride. Well we all really enjoyed it. We met at Rocking D bar and were split into two groups of 30 with colored bands, yellow and orange. We walked over to take a ferry from the dock to Anguilla, and then a bus to Dolphin Fantaseas. The ferry ride was a little rocky and a few got a little queasy, the weather was looking very ominous with dark clouds but thanfully it all passed. We arrived to a picture perfect blue sky and beautiful day. Once at Dolphin Fantasea, we were introduced to the staff and divided into our two color groups, I was very happy to be in the group that did the encounter first, the other half went to the beach for the morning. From there we were split again into 6 groups of 5. We were already 4 so 1 couple split up, but it only for the actual dolphin part in two different pools. So two groups of five were the first to go into the dolphin pool, my group of 5 with Al the male, and the other group with the female and baby calf (just born at Christmas). The trainer was great and taught us a lot about the dolphins, first we just observed him as he swam around, they had outfitted us with life vests & goggles. They we swam across and he swam with us, them we held out our hands and he let us pat him, and finally we all got to "kiss" him, he let us hold his head from underneath and we fed him a squid snack which we held up over the water and he bobbed up to get right out of your hand. It was really cool, I was not nervous at all, and quite suprised at myself. Then we switched pools and got to swim around with the female and observe the baby who came pretty close to see us, again we learned alot about how the mom takes care of her and how they need to teach the baby to eat fish etc. It was really interesting.
After our turn with the dolphins which I am guessing lasted about 30 minutes, we got out of the pool, rinsed off and had hermit crab races, and of course viewed the pictures they had just taken of us with the Dolphins. Then final station is in a very shallow pool with the sting rays and some other colorful fish, along with a nurse shark that the young guy got DD to feed. She was a really good sport about it.
We headed to lunch about 11:30 or so it was OK, and then had the rest of the time on the beach. The beach was beautiful, absolutely the whitest sand I've ever seen and water crystal clear. The shore line was a little odd it kind of dipped off, so it wasn't the greatest beach for kids there was also an undertow, but they loved it. All too soon it was time to head back. The 2nd group ran late with their Dolphin encounter, I don't think they have the timing completely worked out since it is a newer excursion. So we were ready to go and ended up sitting on a hot bus waiting, finally the driver decided to take us for a mini tour of the sights, before getting us back to the ferry. He drove us past some incredibly exclusive hotels with prices like ten thousand dollars a night with a ten night minimum! Back on the ferry there were some cold drinks, the trip was calmer going back thank goodness, but most of us just dozed it was a really full day. Back to St. Maarten with really no time to do anything, I had hoped to shop a little we ran to the tacky souvenir shop and the kids got t-shirts, I got an ornament so we were pretty happy. Back on the boat for showers and dinner, Tropical night.
My final thoughts on this excursion were that the cost really makes is prohibitive for a family, I am glad that we did it and figured we saved money vs. Discovery Cove. I really felt it would be a one time thing, but now that I've gone I would love to do it again some day. My DS's favorite animal is a seal, and he just asked me today when he could swim with the seals on the next cruise.
