Our Last Day

was an 'at sea' day. They really did all the good shows and things on the 'at sea' days (I assume to keep everybody busy).

So we enjoyed another round of Broadway-style shows, more of the stand-up comedians on board, and other diversions.

We also both took a nap. It can wear you out running to all those places.

That afternoon, they also had a chocolate-fest. Chick decided as soon as she heard about that we would be attending.
 

 Later, we went out on deck and enjoyed an almost empty swimming pool yet again. I guess everyone else was tired too.

And I did some of this:

That night we found out about the tornadoes near home but were somewhat reassured that they said nothing about Mustang being affected.

About 4 am that next morning, my phone had gotten close enough to receive all the texts it had missed and it began crooning to us early in my text alert song. Later that morning, I checked with Hubby and found out that all was well.

We began the disembarking process after having some breakfast and getting ourselves dressed. Our transfer got us back to the airport and we headed home to a house with no electricity (although it had come back on while Hubby was picking us up from the airport).

Cozumel

Cozumel was the one we had been looking forward to because Hubby had booked a special excursion for us before we ever left.

But first we wanted to check it out.

Fortunately, this time we were docked at a pier so it was no trouble (except the pier was super, super long) to go back and forth from the ship.

And we did a few times. That morning we spent doing some tourist shopping and seeing all the people dressed up to get pictures with the cruisers. Some of them were funny, some were interesting and some were downright creepy (like the black skeletons on stilts).

 They apparently really like to celebrate the whole Mayan culture thing. When we finished that we ran back to the ship and Chick carried our purchases up to the cabin so we wouldn't be carrying them around.

We headed back to find a cab and realized at some point that the time we had booked with our excursion (3:30 in the afternoon) was a local time not ship's time.

Ship's time was still set for Florida and would stay that way making it about an hour ahead of local time. We had a whole hour to spare still. After some debate, we decided to head back to the ship and just chill until time to leave again. Fortunately, the ship didn't leave until 7:30 (or 6:30 local time) so we still had plenty of time.

We ended up leaving early anyway and just took our Kindles with us. Had I realized it was in such a neat park, I would have taken my camera too. They weren't allowed for the Dolphin Adventure but I would have liked to had several pictures from the park.

This, however, was what we were excited about.

At Dolphin Adventure, we met 14 year old Frida and her 8 month old son, Diego. They were the two dolphins we got to spend some time with.

And, because it was one of the last appointments of their day, we were the only ones who were there meeting them.

You can't really see her but here the dolphin is pushing us. And may I say it was VERY fast!

Here she was showing us just how much bigger and heavier she is than we are.

Even on her back, she's pretty fast!

And she seemed to really enjoy getting petted.

One of the strangest feeling things we did was pucker up for a kiss. Frida didn't let us know how she felt about it but she was a good sport.

A little more petting for her.

 It was probably one of the highlights of our trip. I'm really glad we did it (and we managed to save a little money by booking it ahead of time and without benefit of the ship's shore excursion desk). They are so used to cruisers there that even the cab was no issue.

On the way back, I had asked the park's info man to get us a cab to Puerta Maya when a couple who had just walked up heard me. They asked to share and we did. He ended up treating us so I only needed to tip the driver on the way back.

And we were even able to stop one more time for a final souvenir before heading back to the ship.

The next day was an 'at sea' day as we made out way back to Tampa.

Grand Cayman

We arrived at Grand Cayman the next morning. We had to leave early afternoon so we had decided to do our looking around and then come back to the ship for a late lunch.

We had to be 'tendered' from the ship. In other words, we had to put anchor in the port and have smaller ships carry us to the pier. When Hubby and I went on our honeymoon cruise, we never had to be 'tendered' at all so I'm thinking (especially after walking around there) that we landed on a different side of the island.

It had been raining the night before and it kept up with the sprinkling as the morning progressed. By the time we headed back to the ship, we were both just a little lightly damp. That was alright. Since the last tender didn't leave from the dock until 2:15, most people took advantage of that and the boat was very empty.

That worked out well because it meant Chick got to get in the pool (and convince me too despite the fact that it was freezing water) and spend a little time enjoying it with only a couple of kids to compete for space with.

The next day was off to Cozumel.

Our Second Day

was an 'at sea' day as we made our way to Grand Cayman.

They had several shows and activities going on. We participated in the digital scavenger hunt (took pictures of the things we found to show the judge) which forced us, in addition to other things, to request a picture of a woman in a red bikini, a teenager making faces on the jogging track, and for someone else to take a picture of us on the staircase.

The ocean didn't give us any problem about posing. lol

Neither did he:

 She did occasionally though.

This was taken while waiting for one of the comedy acts.

Our next day was our first stop -- Grand Cayman!

Chick's Graduation Present

was a choice between several things -- one of which was a cruise. She chose that option so off she and I went on Monday. We flew down to Tampa, Florida where we boarded the Carnival Paradise fun-ship.

After getting a bite of lunch, we explored a little while we were settled in port waiting for clearance to leave (and the rest of the passengers).

Around 4:00, we finally set sail. The transfer bus operator had pointed out this bridge that we would pass under to make it out to sea. When we got close, the activities director came over the speaker and said that there would be a mere 12 feet between the bridge and the top of the ship.

Even though they had told us there was room, it didn't stop us all from a few doubts for a moment.

The rest of the evening was spent hanging out, getting out luggage and exploring along with a lovely meal in the dining room. Our second day was an "At Sea" day.