Dolphins and Ships

          You would think that getting back on the same ship would be easy and resurrect some former recollections of where to go and what to do.

                   Nope.

                   In fact we’re more confused than anything.

                   I think the problem is that we spent so much time on the Island Princess at the beginning of the year that that experience is clouding this one. It’s not a huge issue, it’s just that we can’t help comparing things. Good or bad, everything gets compared.

                          Our present home, the Regal Princess, is a gorgeous ship. She debuted in 2014, a full 13 or so years after the Island Princess. Even with scheduled refits, a cruise ship just naturally shows her age, so no matter what one does for upkeep, a thirteen-year newer ship will show better than her older sister.

                   But besides age, there’s size.

                   And this is where the biggest (no pun intended!) difference becomes readily apparent.

          Ok, it’s time to put your Thinking Caps on and remember from your lessons during the World Cruise that ships are measured in many ways, but the one used for Cruise Ships universally is the Gross Tonnage.

Oh no Don! Is this another Lesson? We thought that after the World Cruise we’d be done with those!

Yes, but it’s a short one!

This measurement is the calculated Interior Volume of the ship. It would be silly to try and calculate the cargo carrying capacity of a cruise ship in order to compare it to a freighter, so, the Maritime industry is comfortable rating vessels of different kinds and uses, with numbers that make sense inherent to those uses.

                   So, where, and how do these ships compare?

                   Or, for that matter, how do they compare to the rest of the cruise line industry?

                   The Regal Princess is now of average size at best. At one time, the Regal would have been the 2^nd largest behind the Queen Mary 2. When I sailed on the QM2 back in 2005, she was the largest in the world, coming in at a whopping 155,000 GT! Nowadays, at 143,000 GT (1,083’), the Regal is just average, but she is quite a bit larger than the Island Princess who is a svelte 92,000 GT (964’)!

                   Let’s go to the other end of this “Is bigger better?” conundrum.

                   The Wonder of the Seas, a Royal Caribbean ship, is (for now) the largest cruise ship in the world weighing in at 237,000 GT! I say “for now” because it was only just a few years ago that her older sister the Allure of the Seas was the queen at 225,000 GT.

                   So…. You can see that the differences among just these few ships is quite a bit! Believe it or not, the difference is much less significant when it comes to the measurement of their respective over-all lengths. There is only about a 200’ difference from the Island Princess to the Wonder of the Seas and when the lengths are already in the 1000’ range, what’s a few hundred more (or less!).

                   For comparison, and I promise that these will be the last ones:

 The QE II is 70,000 GT and 963’ long (1967)

           The Titanic was 46,000 GT and 882’ long (1912)

The Queen Mary (in Long Beach, California) is 81,000 GT and         1,019’ long (1932)  

So…….. you can see that the Gross Tonnage is the number to pay attention to, as the average length of these ships has not changed that much in over a hundred years!

          But there is another number that is quite important when it comes to cruise ships (and I’m going to break my promise here and do one more comparison….) 

          Passengers!

          Or to look at it another way, we are the “cargo” of this side of the maritime industry.

          Here’s a few,

          Titanic – 2400 (Steerage was not very comfortable!)

          Queen Mary – 2140 (accommodations got a tad better)

          QE II – 1777 (as you can see, the “space per passenger is getting better)

          Island Princess – 2300 (we sailed with about 1700 on board)

          Regal Princess – 3500

          Allure of the Seas – 5500

          Wonder of the Seas – Can hold up to 7000 souls when full!

And while I really do not have the desire to set sail with 7000 of my new best friends, it is only fair to understand that these multitudes are not crowded into a tiny ship, that those larger GT numbers are a direct result of berthing more and more passengers and the amenities that go along with them all having a fun time whilst on board.

Back to our ship on hand, the Regal Princess. We sailed on her in 2017 on an eleven-day Baltic Cruise. This was just Paula and I and navigating around ship was an adventure with just the two of us. On this voyage we are a party of six, Besides us, there are Barbara, Paula’s sister, and Danny, Kaitie, and Maddie (Paula’s son and his family) from Texas.

               Hence our departure from Galveston.

This is a 7-day cruise, three ports and 3.5 days at sea. We are headed to Cozumel, Belize, and Honduras for Mayan Ruins tours, some dolphin encounter’s, and submarine adventures! Unfortunately this area of the world does have a rainy season, which double unfortunately, seems to be now. But have no fear, (I will use a variation of an old adage here),

“A bad day of vacation is better than a good day at work”!

          Or something like that.

As I write this we are about an hour away from the first port of Cozumel, which we will be late arriving at because of heavier than anticipated currents between Galveston and Cozumel. It’s like flying in a head wind, there’s not much one can do about it. There are a few Tours that needed to be canceled due to the fact that they were “all day” affairs and now there is no guarantee that they would be able to get back to the ship in time to disembark, which we need to do in order to be  on time for arrival at the next port tomorrow morning.

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We are headed down to the gangway now to disembark and meet up with the Dolphin Encounter folks.

          I’ll finish this tonight after we return!

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          So, all I can say about this dolphin encounter here in Cozumel is drop what you are doing and get down here!

          The organization is called Dolphinaris and is one of the best organized and run excursions that we’ve ever been on. This was an all -inclusive type day. We were at their facility for dolphins, snorkeling, paddle boards, “beverages” 😊 and lunch.

          We all know that a good tour guide or facility employee can make or break a day spent with them. These guys went overboard and really bowled us over with their service and genuine friendliness. This facility, what they call a dolphinarium, was purpose built about twenty years ago and was in very good shape. The day itself was just what the weather prognosticators said it would be here in the rainy season.

                   Rainy.

                   And some sun!

                   Just enough of a good weather window was had while we were in the water with Lynco and his trainer, Alberto. Actually, when the sun did peek out for a minute or so, it became rather hot, so it was actually a blessing that it stayed behind a cloud or two most of the time we were in with the dolphins.

          This was event would be better classified as a Dolphin Close Encounter of the Third Kind, as we were in the water with Lynco for over forty-five minutes! Now, to be certain, the dolphin was the most experienced part of this show. He knew exactly what to do when Alberto gave him his commands. And who wouldn’t when your reward was a handful of tasty dead sardines! Lots of sardines! They eat about twenty-five pounds of food every day, and this is divided into five “feedings” which are conveniently wrapped into several encounters a day.

                   We were introduced to Lynco as a group and then each one of us individually got their chance to touch, hug, shake flippers/hands, feel his heartbeat, have him make different noises with his blowhole, splash a bunch of annoying birds sitting right behind us (waiting for sardine scraps). We had anatomy lessons, we learned about their lives in the wild (these dolphins were born here at this facility) and how to identify these almost identical creatures.

          I’ll say that there were really no negatives during this awesome experience, only a few things that could have been more positive. This day ran about $120.00 per person and was worth every bit of that and then some! There were some rules that were non-negotiable, ostensibly for the safety and health of the dolphins.

                   No jewelry, water shoes, sunscreen, hats, sunglasses, actually anything that could be dropped, and an inquisitive dolphin scoop up in their enthusiasm. That also meant no cell phones or cameras which would have yielded some incredible up-close photos!

                   But hold on….

                   There was a photographer assigned to each Encounter Group who captured all of the shots that you would want/need! Obviously for a price. Which we were mildly annoyed to find was rather steep. Steep enough to have some wallets stay in pockets. Seems that they want to get their return on their investment with  the “slow dollars vs fast nickels” business model.

                   No matter, it’s their call and they obviously get enough business doing it their way. Danny made sure to grab a few of Madison with Lynco (which is primarily why we went on this excursion). I highly recommend that you at least borrow a little kid if you decide to go on one of these types of experiences.

Their enthusiasm is contagious, to make an obvious understatement!