Cruise {Day 2 - Cozumel}

On Day 2 of our cruise, we arrived in Cozumel. Chris & I had stayed at in all-inclusive resort in Cozumel in 1996. On that trip many years ago, we had snorkeled at Chankanaab National Park and thought that would be a great place to take the kids. Carnival offered a few excursions to Chankanaab, but the visit to Chankanaab was paired up with things we really weren't interested in, so I looked around on the Internet and found just the perfect excursion for us.

I found a Manatee encounter at Chankanaab through Cozumel Tours. Admission to the park was included, so we could still do the snorkeling. When I set up our excursion, I was given a choice of times. I went with the 2:00 encounter thinking that would be a safe bet. However, I didn't take into consideration that for the cruise, we were on "Carnival" time, not Mexico time. Luckily, the time in Cozumel was only an hour different, but as that was, we were still rushing to get back to the ship on time.

Here are the kids after we just got off the boat in Cozumel.

The kids were looking into the dolphin areas.

Here's where we went snorkeling.

 Chris & Hannah

James took a snorkeling class at Boy Scout camp the week before, so this was easy for him! Hannah had difficulties with the snorkel, so she gave that up and just held her breath. She would dive down to the bottom and swim like a fish.

 Taking a break.

We took a walk around the lagoon. 

Spotted several reptiles such as this guy.

Posing in front of the lagoon.

So here we are at our Manatee encounter. The smile on Hannah's face says it all! 

Chris is shaking "hands" with a manatee.

James posed with a manatee. 

And here I am with one of the gentle sea cows.

There were 3 manatees in the water with us and there was a total of 6 people including us in the program, so we were given lots of time with the manatees. We were given several heads of Romaine lettuce to feed them. The kids described it as "the ticket munchers at Chuck E. Cheese". The manatees kept eating piece after piece of lettuce. 

The manatees were so sweet and gentle. They would just swim up to us and sort of nuzzle against us. It was one of the neatest experiences ever! We had never even seen a real manatee in person, so we were just thrilled to have this opportunity.

We made it back to the ship in time. We ordered some beverages and just relaxed for a bit so we could watch the ship sail out of the port.

I mentioned in yesterday's blog post that Hannah & I had attended a short class on door decorating. Some cruise passengers go all out and decorate their cabin doors. At the class, they announced a ship wide door decorating contest. They provided us with some supplies. Hannah came up with the idea all on her own. We started with the orange sheet in the middle. It said "The Vesper Family" and had a picture of the ship and the dates of our cruise. Then we wrote the names of the ports in each of the corners. Then after today's excursion, we added the yellow triangle with a postcard from Cozumel. Then Hannah & I jotted down what we did in Cozumel.

Here's our decorated door after Cozumel.

We had late seating for dinner. We were back on the ship before 5pm, which allowed us time to shower, rest, snack, and enjoy ourselves before dinner. Here is Chris in the "enchanted forest" which was just a little walk way to the video arcade and teen club. I thought the decor was cute!

Sue & Eric had dinner at the Chef's table on this evening. Tyler was going to join us at dinner, but he was so exhausted he fell asleep by 6:30! I don't think we saw the Washburns at all on this day, if we did, it was only in passing.

And finally, here was our towel pet for this evening.