Day 09 - 10/10/2021 - At sea to Puerto Vallarto - A dolphin extravaganza

This was a really lazy day at sea. The only presentations we watched were the Q&A session with Ross, our naturalist, and the Port to Table food demonstration after lunch by Steve the Pinnacle Grill chef. This session covered preparation of carne asada and a Mexican soup. Afterwards, I positioned myself port-side on the Promenade deck up near the bow which is about 30' above the water. The view here was unobstructed and I watched a medium sized turtle float by. About an hour later off in the distance I spotted a number of dolphins. 

 

Suddenly there were dozens and dozens of dolphins swimming around the left side and under the ship. They rode the bow wave, the waves off the mid ship hull and elsewhere out away from the ship. The water was clear and one could see the dolphins' images before they broke through the surface. I saw more dolphins at one time over the next hour than I have previously seen at one time. It was impressive and there had to at least 75 in total.

 

I continued my watch and finally a small turtle floated by followed a short time later by 3 more dolphins. All in all I spent three hours on sentry duty but it was so worth it. I was there so long that people kept asking me questions about what we were seeing, what's the cruise ship in the distance? (it was the Royal Princess - I have an app for that!) What cruises do you recommend? Etc.! I must have a friendly face.  My heart is open to chatting about anything cruise related and a number of other subjects.

 

We decided to eat in the main dining room and the food was okay and we had good table mates with all but one from Washington state.  We then participated in the Wildlife trivia game with our naturalist before  attending the 9pm show which was a pianist, Hyperion Knight.  He absolutely put on a clinic on classical piano music using 3 rhapsodies from Gershwin, Romanovich and Queen.  We really regretted not being able to see him twice!  Fortunately he'll be back! He's probably the finest pianist with excellent stage presence we've seen on a cruise ship and we've seen many.

 

Tomorrow we arrive early in Puerto Vallarta and we're doing a tour a fair distance from the port.  It'll be a long day.  Stay tuned.


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