Jamaica, part two
Dolphin Cove was more or less across the street from the falls, so it was a very short ride over. We were dropped off and we were escorted into the gift shop to begin. Here, there was a very hard sell to pre-purchase photos, if we purchased them ahead of time there was a discount. For 2 people, the price was $140. We decided not to purchase at that time and then we started moving on

We were walked by a "mini zoo" and some buildings, and we were told that we could explore those areas later. We would first be taken to lunch, then we would have our encounter, then have time to explore. We were then escorted to lunch; we were in an upstairs dining room where we could see some of the encounter tanks. They asked us to get in line and then we were served

We were served a very tiny portion of jerk chicken and rice with some sauce. If we wanted a beverage, we would have to pay extra for it. DH and I always carry water with us, so we were good, but I felt bad for some of the people who didn't have a beverage and had to pay $4 for a can of soda. The food was good, we both enjoyed our meals, but the portions were very tiny. One group even left to purchase food elsewhere after our meal.
After lunch, it was time for our encounter, we headed back downstairs to grab a life vest and to put our stuff in a locker. But we were told there were no lockers, and we needed to put our stuff on a bench. This stressed me out! I didn't really want to leave my bag with our id's, phones, cash, and our camera out in the open for anyone to grab. We had no other choice, a couple of other people in our group weren't able to get lockers either and felt the same. We wound up putting our stuff together and covering it with towels, but my eyes were on our stuff the whole time, which kind of took away from the encounter. We were split into two groups; we were put in the first group to meet with the shark. Our encounter was all of 30 seconds, we got in the water, petted the shark, fed it, had a picture taken and moved to the side. There were no group photos, everything was individual.
We then went to the other tank for a stingray encounter. This was even shorter, got down in the water, held a stingray, took a photo, got out of the water. We were the last couple in the shark tank and the first couple with the stingray, our total time in the water was less than 10 minutes. After we were done, we could view our photos, and we had about 90 minutes to explore the area before we were being picked up. They were really strict about taking photos of the tanks, but I managed to grab one of one of the dolphin tanks

We were pretty disappointed by this encounter; we've done dolphin and sea lion encounters in other ports and had much better experiences. Since we didn't have any photos of us as a couple, we decided not to look at our photos, if they wanted $140 as a pre-purchase, I don't even want to know what they wanted after the experience.
We then decided to explore the "mini zoo". The first animals we came across were an iguana and some parrots. Of course, you could pay to have your photo taken with them, they wanted $15 for a photo with the parrot, I didn't hear how much they wanted for the iguana. I was able to get a photo of the parrots on their own

Up next were some rabbits, they were so cute and so soft

I don't have any photos, but they also had some lovebirds. With both the rabbits and the lovebirds, you could pay to feed them. There was a small pool and hot tub, and we decided to spend the rest of our time hanging out there. We didn't get into the water, just hung out on the lounge chairs. We wound up talking with a couple of other couples who were part of our group. One of them brought up a lot of things that were missing from the
DCL write up. It mentioned us getting a welcome drink, there was more offered on the lunch (and drinks were included). It also mentioned there was a shark show and you could go snorkeling, none of those things were offered. One of the women mentioned that she was going to the Port Excursion desk and ask for a portion of her money back because she felt like we were taken advantage of.
Jumping a little ahead, I will let you know that I did go to the Port Excursion desk the next day to mention our disappointment in shark encounter part of our excursion. I had mentioned that the write up was inaccurate, that a lot of things that were in the write up weren't offered to us. The person at the desk was very apologetic, she mentioned that "several" people from our group had also mentioned how disappointed they were. I was asked if I wanted file a claim and that they couldn't guarantee that we get a refund, but they could try. I didn't want any money back, we still did the excursion, but I did ask that they rewrite the description of the excursion. I was then offered free rentals at Castaway, she offered me floats, bikes, or snorkel gear. We travel with our own snorkel gear and didn't need floats or bikes. I thanked the crew member for listening to me and really didn't want anything except for this not to happen to anyone else. I've looked up the write up a couple of times (just again as I write this) and sadly, they haven't made any changes to the write up.
Anyway, back to our day, after Dolphin Cove, we were driven back to port. We said goodbye to our guide and decided to do some shopping. I really wanted to get a Jamaica Christmas ornament. I didn't last long in the shops, every shop had multiple people working, they would follow you around and tell you to buy things, they wouldn't leave us alone! The ornaments were all the same and they were just really cheap, so I didn't buy one. I did find a sweatshirt and purchased that. We headed back on the ship to move on with our day.
I was really excited for Jamaica, but if we do another western itinerary, I don't know if we'll get off the ship. Everyone was so pushy, and I felt really uncomfortable. I loved Dunn's River Falls, but don't know if we would need to go there again. But who knows, we said we wouldn't get off the ship in Cozumel and we did. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
Once back on board, we went and grabbed some food and headed up to the adult area, it was also time to get another drink of the day.

This was the Deep Blue Sea, and it was probably my favorite! It had rum, blue curacao, and sprite. We spent a little time relaxing on the deck chairs, after a little bit of time, we headed back to our room, showered and continued on with our evening. We decided to see if we could get into the Haunted Mansion Parlor

It was pretty busy, but we were able to get a spot at the bar

The effects in here are awesome! We didn't have much time to spend because we wanted to go to the show, but we grabbed the menu and decided to do the secret menu item

You have to solve a little riddle before you can get this menu, the drinks sounded interesting, so we ordered it
Up Next: Our evening and dinner at Coco!