Next up: Chapter 12 Swimming with Dolphins
Our next destination was Cozumel. a bit of a rant here before I get going. I'm not a huge fan of Mexico. I've been to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, Cabo, and a couple other places. Of all the places I've been the only one I really liked was Mazatlan because we found this really cool island (Rock Island) where they had an outdoor bar and grill, and you could ride horses on the beach. DW and I went on a cruise several years before we were married
on Carnival doing the Mexican Riviera, and went there. We found out about it from a little booth, and you had to take this rickety boat taxi across to it, loaded with a ton of people and only have about 1 inch to spare before the water comes pouring in. A bit scary, but if I recall correctly it was cheap. The funny thing was when we got to the place there were several crew members who were surprised (and I think a bit unhappy) to see us. Obviously we left them alone. The horses were in good shape and we had a nice ride. The only scary part for me was that I had a retired racehorse. So every time another horse came alongside it decided that running faster would be good. Interesting experience for my first time in a saddle.
When we got back I had this fantastic fish...it was filleted and grilled to perfection...one of the best things I have ever tasted. But the bathrooms were a whole other story.
But I digress. That was my good experience, other than that I have always found Mexico kind of dirty, with scary people and this incredible nagging fear that I would end up sitting on, or kneeling in front of, the toilet for weeks at a time. At one point we swore off Mexico in favor of US destinations where at least we did not have to worry about Montezuma.
So needless to say my expectations were not incredibly high.
Deanna did her usual waking up before the crack of dawn. Note that she doesn't do this at home, so I'm not really sure why she did this on vacation. No wonder we are always exhausted when we get back. She did the book reading and journal writing (thank god).
When I got up I went to work out. Again. Yay for me!
After I worked out and everyone got up we got dressed and headed for Lumiere's for Breakfast. Not really sure why we did that as the Buffet is so much better, faster and easier, but we did. It was not exactly spectacular as most of you know who take trips, but it was ok. We got to relax and take our time because we wouldn't reach port until 9:30.
Once we were at the port we got off pretty much right away. Deanna, Nick, DNW (Kim) and DNS9 (Chris) headed off to do Dolphin Discovery for the Royal Swim.
****Warning*****tip coming*****warning
So, you can pay to do the dolphin encounter through the ship...where you will see the dolphins, touch them, etc. Or for a few dollars more you can do the Royal Swim directly through Dolphin Discovery. I will write about it later (actually will steal from what Deanna has already written), and you will see what they did, but it was definitely worth it. Big jealousy from me as I would have loved to have gone!
Mike and I took the younger set and hopped in a cab to head to Paradise Beach. The cab driver had other ideas and tried several times to talk us into going to a different beach. But the plan was to meet everyone at the beach after they were done with their encounter so that we could hang out until heading back to the ship.
The cab ride wasn't bad, Cozumel is beautiful, definitely a nice island community. The road was straight, and it was kind of funny to see all the beach clubs, etc. that you just know suck in the tourists and all their money. very entertaining.
I had read all about Paradise Beach and how it was a nice place to go. It had a nice feel to it right off the bat. We paid our $8 and got our wristbands and went to find a place to sit down. The sand was nice, and it wasn't too crowded at that point. We plopped our stuff down and it's time for another digression.
****warning**** digression coming ******warning
So one of my issues with Mexico is a general feeling of being unsafe. I had brought my video camera (which I used for maybe 5 minutes), among a few other things. Nothing that couldn't be replaced, but there is just a feeling of having to keep an eye on my stuff that I just didn't like. Realizing that in Hawaii or Florida I would too...but I just didn't like it. I guess that's why I'm a huge fan of Castaway Cay...figure we are all in it together, so why would folks steal from us?
Anyway, remember that Nick is 4 and Kathryn is 6.
We all headed out to the water. While the beach is pretty nice, the water stank because a large portion where you enter the water had a ton of rocks which were very hard to walk on, and stubbed my toe about 50 times. This was really annoying and didn't make my experience much better.
Connor and I headed out to the Trampoline and Mike and Kathryn headed over to the Iceberg. We climbed to the top of the tramp and jumped around a bit...but there were a lot of bigger kids there and they made it really hard for Connor to jump at all. Kathryn was able to climb on the Iceberg a little bit, but she could only get about 1/2 way up. She tried this several times, and I think Connor and I went on the Trampoline twice. So the $8 that we paid was really a waste of money IMHO. They are too young. I think if you have 8 years or older you would be in good shape, but for the 4 and 6 year old set, save your money.
We wandered in and out of the water for quite some time, Connor loves to play in the sand, so we did a lot of digging and building and destroying and digging and building and destroying. Mike and Kathryn spent more time floating than anything else.
The only thing I didn't like was the pressure to buy food and drink. The waiter basically forced us to buy beer, saying that's why the chairs and umbrella's are free. Frankly I'd rather pay $10 than be forced into anything. I know nothing is free, and certainly understand that, but he was not pleased with the amount of money we spent. We ended up getting a bucket of beer, and some nachos. I ate some of the nachos, but got freaked out by Mike who was worried about the water used to wash off the veggies, etc. So I didn't eat as much as I should have because I worried about Montezuma. That stunk. We knew that the dolphin portion of our party was going at 12:30, and we expected them about 2 or so. By 12 we were pretty much ready to go. Little kids on a beach for extended lengths of time just aren't good.
Around 2 Mike bought the kids ice cream which entertained them a bit more. At this point we had an added stress that I didn't need. We obviously had no way to communicate with our wives and I didn't want them coming to the beach and paying their $8 since we were ready to go. So I spent the next hour in and out of the water keeping an eye on the entrance so we could dash out and tell them not to do it. We finally gave up around 3. I was miserable by this time (not that you can tell by the trip report).
So this was the best part of the visit to Paradise Beach. We went to shower off, and there was a very nice man there with a hose who would wash off your feet (the showers just didn't do the job) and the kids because they were shorter. He was so nice and patient. It was a little thing, but it went a long way toward making up for a lot of uncomfortable moments. interesting how that works.
****warning***another digression****Warning***
don't say I didn't warn you. I apologize for being grumpy. I'm not a big beach fan in general...drag all your stuff there, get all sandy, etc. If I had my way I'm not sure I would ever hit the beach, but would stay on the ship. I just don't like sand everywhere!
We grabbed a cab and headed back...the cab driver didn't speak very good English, and I was really hoping he knew where to go. Luckily he did and we got back and on the ship with no other worries...other than the fact that we had not seen the rest of our party yet...and considering they were supposed to meet us at Paradise Beach...we were concerned.
So now I will steal liberally from what DW wrote about the Royal Swim with Dolphin Discoveries. I cannot and will not speak for the accuracy of said adventures as I did not witness them with my own eyes. But I find DW to be pretty trustworthy...so here we go.
Frankly I was a bit uncomfortable plopping DW, DNW and two kids in a cab in Mexico and sending them off. Again I go back to the safety thing. But they arrived no problem at 10:45. They had an hour to kill so they took the shuttle down to the beach. Nick and Chris went out snorkeling for a bit, but it was REALLY rough. Add to that the rocks and it was pretty dangerous. We are glad that the little kids didn't come here to the beach as there basically wasn't one from the hurricane.
A little before noon they took the shuttle back to Dolphin Discovery and wait their turn. Finally at 12:20 they were ready to go. They gave them a locker to put all their stuff in (nice touch), and they watched a video about how to interact with the dolphins, etc. After that they went to get their life jackets (which you will see in a moment) and head out to their pen.
The Dolphins they got to interact with were Shadia and Amaya.
***Warning***yet another digression***
Nick LOVES animals. For at least 2 years of his lift the only channel he ever watched on TV was animal planet. He loves all thing animals, but as I'm typing this I realize that I have already shared this with you, so I'm going to stop now.
They got into the water and got to feel them as they swam by. For anyone that has never touched a dolphin, their skin feels like wet rubber. It is very cool to be that up close and personal with them. The Dolphins were trained to do various things, like pulling you while you hold onto their dorsal fins:
Nick being pulled....if this isn't a dream for someone that LOVES animals...
Deanna being pulled
and being pushed by their heads...
Nick being pushed by the dolphins!
Now, if you recall my last post, there was discussion that there was no Rasul in our lives. So Deanna had to get it from somewhere...
and Nick got in on some action too:
They were in the water for about an hour...overall they loved it. One of the best things that they have ever done, and even now, several months later, Nick continues to talk about that adventure and lists it as one of the best moments of his life.
So as I'm sure you guessed this was a cheap excursion. And after they were done they all went and watched the video that the company had made of the experience. Which naturally DW bought. Oh, and they bought all the pictures too. DW and DNW single-handedly helped build the Cozumel economy. Since I was so cheap that our waiter hated us...it was probably just as well. One the way out they threw a few extra dollars at a guy with Parrots and ended up with a cute picture:
Chris and Nick with the Parrots.
It was 2:40, time to head back, and they decided to go right for the ship instead of Paradise Beach. This was a good thing since we were no longer there...
a quick stop on the pier to purchase some Corona clothes for pirate night for Mike and Kim and they were back much to our relief. I wonder what you do if your party doesn't return
It was time to get ready for Pirate Night...but as I haven't scanned all the pictures you will have to wait for that one!!
kind of a short entry...but with Pirate night it might be to long!
Next up: Chapter 13: Pirates IN the Caribbean
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Shouldn't it be added to the "Best tips you learned from the DIS?" 
), so we figured better to let him rest. I kicked back on the bed and read...which fit well with what I could conceivably do every single day on a cruise ship. 
. Then they took us in back to the galleys. It was immaculate...pretty amazing. Consider that I can't keep my kitchen clean for 2 hours...how the heck they keep it not just clean but sparkling. Everything sparkled...and they talked to us about what they did in each part. They told us how many cakes, cookies, etc. that they make each day. There were some very cramped quarters back there...and I had a much higher respect for the servers. They have to squeeze into these area's grab food and make it back out. The assistant servers have to fight over one soda dispenser...no wonder it sometimes took forever (especially the first night. I think once they figure out what everyone wants they don't have as big of a crunch). And the gave us cookies. Always good to feed a bunch of adults on the cruise. 
