Swimming with Dolphins

My family and I just returned from a five day Caribbean cruise on "The Radiance of the Seas" which is one of the ships in the Royal Caribbean fleet.  It was our second cruise, and I will probably write another Hub or two about the cruise itself and compare the first cruise to the second.  I am writing this Hub to share my thoughts on one of the onshore excursions that can be enjoyed at an additional cost.  The excursion that my family and I enjoyed on this cruise with the dolphin swim while at Cozumel, Mexico.

First of all, I have to say that the weather on December 22, 2010 in Cozumel, Mexico was absolutely gorgeous.  It was sunny with a temperature in the high 70s.  Considering the fact that we left Indiana with 3 inches of snow on the ground and 15 degree temperatures, you couldn't have asked for a better day.

We were brought to the Chankanaab National Park from the port by taxis arranged by the cruise ship.  There were several others in our 10:30 am group that paid the $99 per person for the experience of swimming with the dolphins.  I couldn't help but look at the number of people and estimate the amount of revenue generated by our single cruise ship considering the fact that there were two other times to travel to the park as well.

Once at the park, we were allowed to change into swim suits and store our belongings in a locker.  Believe it or not, the use of the locker was free!  I was shocked.  It seemed like that was the only free thing on the cruise.  We were then given instructions concerning the different hand signals that would be used with the dolphins and were then given goggles and life jackets to be worn during the swim.

One of the main reasons that we took the opportunity to swim with dolphins is that my 16 year old daughter simply loves dolphins and has since she was a little girl. The cost was a little too expensive the first time around, but since we saved some money on the cruise itself, we felt that the cost could be justified for a once in a lifetime experience.

Well, I must say that the experience was worth every penny! The water park had several areas for different groups of swimmers and our family of 8 ended up with 2 others to make a group of 10. We went through all of the different hand motions and had an opportunity to kiss the dolphin, shake hands with the dolphin, pet and hug it, as well as ride it belly to belly and be pushed on the boogie board.

The best parts were the rides on the boogie board and riding the dolphin. To ride the boogie board, we swam out about 50 yards from the platform and stuck out our legs about shoulder width apart. The goal was to keep the knees locked, and the dolphin would push on the sole of one foot propelling the rider and board back to the platform. It was also awesome to be able to ride the dolphin back to the platform belly to belly while holding on to the pectoral fins. You can see in the pictures how much fun I was having.

I was pleased that each member of the family got the opportunity to perform all of these maneuvers and did so successfully on the first attempt.  We all had a wonderful time.  Of course, there was someone from the park taking digital pictures to remember the experience and was willing to sell all of these to me on a CD.  You can see 4 of the 259 pictures in this Hub.  Although the cost for the pictures was more than I would have liked, I think it was worth it to have the memories for everyone in the family.  They have had a blast putting them all on Facebook today.