Norwegian Getaway Western Caribbean Cruise: Cozumel Dolphinaris

We hit on the one-year anniversary of our Norwegian Getaway Western Caribbean cruise and I never finished writing about my experience. So I’m diving back in, just in to time relive what I was doing then through the magic of Facebook Memories.

My favorite port of them all was the last one: Cozumel, Mexico. However, because it was my favorite, it was also the busiest and I have the most to write about it. I’m going to break it up into two posts, one about the port and the other about our excursion to Dolphinaris.

On our previous Norwegian Cruise on the Sun, we swam with sea lions and I couldn’t have loved that more. When we were booking this cruise, everyone in our four-person group had a say in the excursions, but the only one I really wanted to do was swim with the dolphins. I was fine with whatever else we decided to do. So, we planned to swim with them in Cozumel.

We actually got off the boat and went right the Cozumel Diamonds International location because our traveling partners wanted to purchase a tanzanite ring and this was their last opportunity. She wanted to get it before the excursion so it could be sized. We wrapped that up and met with our group at the meeting point to head to the Dolphinaris.

We boarded vans for a four-block drive to the location. We got there and a group was already in the pool so we watched them a bit before getting ready for our turn. We stowed our belongings in lockers, showered and got our life vests, which were required to swim.

Note: Do not pay for a locker here. They have cabinets to hold stuff right at the entrance to the pool. It’s secure.  We got a quick lesson in what to expect and what to do from our guide and made our way to the pool. It was a little chillier than I expected!

We met our dolphins, Marina and Linco. We got to pet them, kiss them and dance with them. We used goggles and snorkels and watched them swim under water. They splashed us, jumped for us and then we got to ride on the dolphins!

To do this, we swam out into the water and the dolphin swam up behind us. As he or she came near, we grabbed onto their flippers and it dolphin pulled us through the pool.

The trainers were great! They would call us out to work with the dolphins one at a time. Everyone there had the opportunity to see, touch and play with the dolphins. There were adults and children in our group and it was fun for everyone!

Once we were done with the dolphins, and we were in the pool for quite a while, we had a chance to participate in other activities at Dolphinaris. First we dried off, grabbed our stuff and headed up to look at our pictures. A Dolphinaris worker was all around the pool taking pictures of us during our encounter. I basically conned the group into buying these pictures because I wanted them. It was quite expensive BUT WE SWAM WITH DOLPHINS!

Our excursion to the Dolphinaris included a buffet lunch. There were fajitas, rice and beans, hamburgers and hot dogs. It was just okay. I guess I shouldn’t be expecting too much from a place that is really there to provide sea life encounters. The best part though: Open Bar.

We had several margaritas and realized this was a good enough place as any to hang out for a little bit. Jacob and Jeremiah could enjoy some drinks while Katie and I explored the other areas, including snorkeling in a protected area. It was free so, why not.

We got our snorkel gear and walked to the snorkel area. We were told there were 15 sting rays in the pool but they would sting us. We saw tons and tons of fish right up close. There were many sting rays just swimming along with us. It was very neat. We were out there for about 15-20 minutes.

Look at all those FISH!

It was a little weird to swim with sting rays!

On our walk back through the Dolphinaris to meet up with the guys, we saw a baby dolphin! We took pictures and watched it swim for a while.

The Dolphinaris was really a lot of fun. Sure, we didn’t really get to experience the culture and life of Cozumel, but this was a lot of fun–we got lunch and to snorkel and see more than we expected.

Plus, we got to experience Cozumel on our walk back to the boat.

Yes, I said walk. You’ll have to read my next post to figure out what we decided to sign ourselves out of the Dolphinaris and hike it back the four blocks to the boat—and why it was 100 percent WORTH IT!