Despite having a terrible mattress, Colby still slept like a champ :) It was hard to wake everyone up, especially since we were in a dark room with absolutely zero natural night.
Kevin climbed up to try to wake Brooke in her bunk bed...
As we headed into the Windjammer, this employee was singing a whole"Wishy Washy" song to remind guests that they needed to wash their hands before they headed inside. They used to just have hand sanitizer stations, but I'm guessing because of Covid, they've implemented hand washing instead. I totally approve, and this lady made the whole process so fun.
After breakfast, we got off the ship and headed out on our adventure.
I said this in a prior post, but it's amazing to be off the ship and really take it the grandeur of it all. When you're inside, you feel like you're walking around a building, so it isn't until you get off that you fully appreciate the sheer size!
We had a little time to shop before we needed to catch our bus over to the Dolphinaris, and Colby quickly found a "ball in cup" game that he wanted to purchase. The kids had been saving up their money for months prior to the cruise so that they could have souvenir money, and I think they both came with about $60.
Brooke found the cutest bracelet with her name on it. She was hesitant to buy it because the guy was asking $15, but I think he ended up selling it to her for $10. We had also taught the kids the concept of negotiation, so this was a prime example. They just wanted her business :)
We took a picture with the Cozumel sign, and although it's a very unflattering picture of me, it was such a cool photo op with the cruise ship in the background!
Then we walked over to where we waited for our bus.
We were standing next to a couple that seemed friendly at first, but then the man kept making comments excusing his wife "because she was very drunk". He was honestly acting more ridiculous than her, so I assumed he was the one that was drunk. And sadly, those people ended up on our bus. Within minutes, the guy, who was sitting in the front of the bus, started telling drunken stories and was swearing profusely. I couldn't believe that he would do that with children in the bus, and I could feel my blood start to boil. I kept looking at Kevin, wanting him to say something, but he commented that we just needed to distract the kids and talk with them. It was very difficult to do when I could hear everything the man was saying, but when his story turned completely inappropriate, I was about to speak up when a fellow passenger said, "Hey man, there are kids on this bus." Then the drunkard started apologizing profusely, claiming he had "no idea kids were on the bus." What a joke! I really was so disgusted by his behavior. And guess what, as soon as we arrived, they were at the bar buying more drinks.
As we waited for our turn, we sat here and watched the dolphins and took in the beauty of the whole resort. Dolphinaris definitely exceeded our expectations. The views were stunning and the whole experience was (mostly) perfect.
Shortly after arriving, one of the staff members started paying special attention to Kevin, telling him that he would "give us the best group", and "make sure we got the VIP treatment." When Kevin told me about it, he basically said, "This guy thinks I'm a sucker." Meaning, he thinks I'm gonna give him a big tip because all the "special services" were things that were already included in our excursion. But the staff member did go above and beyond to put us in the smallest group with the "best trainer", so we were feeling grateful. That is, until the drunk couple showed up in our group. They must have missed the call for our group since they were off drinking, and it was so ridiculous because they weren't following the rules. The woman kept touching the dolphin on its blowhole, even after the trainer told her repeatedly not to do that. They kept moving away from the wall which we were told to keep our backs against, so I thought they were going to be thrown out due to noncompliance. At one point, another staff member came and helped the woman out of the water because she was so drunk, and it just made no sense. Why would you pay all this money to do an excursion that you're too intoxicated to really participate in and remember?
But being so close to those incredible animals was priceless! Our dolphins were named Frida and Mercy (ages 9 and 12), and we were able to touch and interact with them for nearly 30 minutes. The trainer brought them in front of us (as we stood on a submerged platform) multiple times so we could touch them, feel their fins, and have a front row seat to all their tricks. Then we each had the opportunity to get a dolphin kiss and interact with them one-on-one. Brooke was first and was able to hold one of the dolphins flippers.
Then she received her kiss...
And finally, was able to give her a little belly rub...
Colby was instructed to make the sign for the dolphin to make her noise. Fun fact: all noises actually come from their blowhole, they only open their mouths because they've been trained to do so.
Colby received a kiss, and told everyone that asked about our cruise that the highlight of the trip was "being kissed by a dolphin."
He was able to hold her flippers as well...
We only bought one picture of Kevin and I, so I don't really remember exactly what I was able to do with the dolphin, but I did receive my kiss...
When it was Kevin's turn and he was standing in the correct position away from the rest of the group, the trainer signaled for the dolphin to splash Kevin. Kevin tried to shield himself, but there was no possible way of escaping the amount of water being splashed in his direction, haha. He was SOAKED!
After our dolphin encounter, we headed over to the snorkeling area. Brooke wanted nothing to do with snorkeling, so Kevin, Colby, and I all gave it a try. I was expecting more brightly colored fish, but we did see some pretty cool sea stars. Then we signed waivers to take kayaks out into the ocean. They had an area roped off, which was a good thing because it was pretty windy and I can imagine people would get themselves into trouble if they went too far away.
It seemed pretty quiet after we were done with all the activities, so we walked down by the dolphins to get one more glimpse. They really were so beautiful to watch and so graceful in the water.
Oh, and the kids would definitely put the pina coladas on the highlight list. They were included in our package, so they each drank about 4.
We ate a very overpriced lunch on the second level of the resort, and the view was even better from up there...
While we ate, they came around with an ipad containing all the images they took during your dolphin encounter. Since you weren't allowed cameras down by the dolphins (understandably), they take full advantage of people and were trying to charge nearly $300 for the picture package. We were warned about this on YouTube reviews we watched before booking the excursion, but people had commented that you can negotiate on the price. When I saw the pictures, I was honestly so disappointed because they didn't get any with the front of Brooke and Colby's face. All pictures were taken from a side angle, which I felt didn't capture the whole joy on their sweet faces. I still wanted the pics because they were better than NO pictures, but I really pushed hard on the fact that they weren't very good and I was definitely not buying them for $300. We went around and around with the employee, who kept checking with her boss, and in the end, we were able to get 8 pictures for $100. Definitely a better price!!
Well, the adventure didn't stop there. We aren't sure if the "VIP guy" didn't like our tip ($20, which I thought was generous), but the bus driver (who only had our family) took us to the wrong pier and we didn't realize until we were walking the shops and nothing looked familiar. He had dropped us off at the Carnival pier, but we could see our ship off in the distance. Thankfully, it was only a 10 minute walk to the correct port, but it made us realize that we needed to be less trusting and more observant!
As we walked back to the ship after an amazing day, we had to take another picture by our ship. We felt so lucky for an amazing day!
Back at our room, we found a cute bear made out of towels. Of course, Brooke needed a picture with it and claimed it as her own :)
Not surprisingly, the kids wanted to go swimming, so the fun continued. And no trip to the pool is complete without an ice cream cone (or two, haha)...
Kevin was back on the Flowrider...
Then we cleaned up for dinner. We didn't know about the themed dinners each night, but somehow we always had something that kinda worked. This night was Caribbean Night...
And we did some late night browsing/shopping after dinner! Brooke and I both wanted one of those jelly purses, bud sadly, they sold out before we actually went back to buy one.
The day had been amazing, and we had another full day in Roatan to look forward to!
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