Day 11 - Cruise Day 3 - Cozumel, Mexico

Cozumel was amazing!  Wait, we only went one place so maybe I should say Chankanaab Park in Cozumel was amazing!!!

Whenever I go to a new country, I feel obligated to do and see as much as possible.  This trip I was in such a need for a break, the scheduled activities were much more laid back.

When Sam found out we were headed to Florida, she said she didn’t want to go to Disney.  That wasn’t negotiable but I did e-mail both kids and asked them what they did want to do.  Jason wants to go skydiving.  I looked into it but he is too young.  Samantha said she wanted to see Winter (the dolphin with the prosthetic tail), which we did, and swim with dolphins.  As is typical for me when planning trips, I did extensive research on where to go.  Dolphin Discovery in Cozumel seemed to be preferred slightly over Discovery Cove in Orlando (run by Disney).

The cruise lines have no-compete agreements with Dolphin Discovery so cruise passengers are unable to book dolphin swims directly… unless when they ask, you tell them that you are staying at a rental instead of coming in on a cruise.  Not only did it save us over $200, but we were on our own instead of being packed in a tour group.

When we were in line at the buffet for breakfast, the woman behind me asked what excursion we were going on.  With Sam in earshot, I told her we were going to Chankanaab Park.  As Sam walked away she said they were going swimming with the dolphins.  I told her we were too but that the kids didn’t know.  She said “I’ll see you on the tour”.  I said, “No you won’t; we booked direct”.  She said that she had tried and was told she had to book through the cruise line.  She asked how I was able to do it.  I said “I lied”.  She said “What a great idea…I didn’t think of that.”

Mike had a conversation in the buffet line too.  When the woman in front of him learned that this was all of our first times snorkeling, she told him to bring corn flakes.  Hold them in your hand until you get into the water then when you open your hand, all the fish will come.  So we grabbed some little boxes of corn flakes from the buffet on our way out.

As soon as we were off the ship, we took a quick taxi to the park.  I had read that the park was a wonderful place to swim and have lunch as well, so we planned to spend the whole day there.  (Another advantage of not booking through the ship.)

The park had not been open long so we easily found beach chairs.  I had purchased snorkel equipment at Wal-Mart before we left and we checked out life preservers.  Armed with our gear, we hit the water.

Before my last tour, Mike had purchased a camera for me that has rubber seals.  The thought was that it would be better to use in the super dusty environment of Afghanistan and I didn’t want to ruin my good camera.  It turned out that I didn’t love the camera with the seals and I brought the good one back to Afghanistan after R&R.  On this R&R Mike brought the camera with the rubber seals because it was also an underwater camera and it worked great under the water.



Samantha



Samantha's feet

Jason

Jason's feet

Mike and Jason



Samantha



Mike, Jason and Samantha

I loved snorkeling.  I am really glad that Mike learned about the corn flakes too because the fish were all over us.  Three of us enjoyed snorkeling.  Samantha was not a big fan.  She didn’t hate it, but she was the first to get out of the water.  She didn’t like the salt water and she wasn’t a big fan of the fish being so close to her.

After snorkeling we ordered lunch from the waiters on the beach.  It was fabulous and reasonably priced.  Our dolphin swim was scheduled for right after lunch.  I was a little worried that Sam might not enjoy swimming with the dolphins after her experience snorkeling, but she didn’t seem apprehensive.

We met at our assigned time for a quick orientation.  Then our group of 8 went to get life jackets and joined our trainer in the water.  The dolphins are in the ocean (Caribbean Sea) and a chain link fence creates the enclosure with a deck walkway on top.  There are smaller pens on both sides and a big open space in the middle.  We were tossed around some by the waves and even little fish could get through the fence and join us.  It was a very natural environment.  The dolphins appeared to be treated very well.  The water was a refreshing temperature that we adjusted to quickly.

The interaction with the dolphins was an amazing experience.  I had planned this event for Samantha but I enjoyed it just as much if not more.  We were allowed to take pictures but we bought the CD of the ones they too.  We had several interactions with the two dolphins in our group. 

Give a Kiss

Receive a Kiss

Dancing

Swim up and touch our hand

Cradle in our arms

Dorsal Tow

Sam missed them on their first pass.

Foot push (Sam passed on this one.)

Check out his feet.  All the way out of the water.

It was an absolutely amazing experience!  I loved it.  The tour description says the experience includes 30 minutes in the water with the dolphins.  It felt like much longer than that.

After the specific behaviors, the dolphins chatted and did some leaps.

That is our cruise ship in the background.

They also danced with us.  The trainer told us to put our arms up like ballerinas and twirl around.  We did and the dolphins came over and did it with us.