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Carnival Ecstasy 4-night Bahamas Cruise – Day #2

As a blogger, I may be compensated in some way (either pay, product, or experience) for sharing the post below All opinions are my own. ~Heidi

On Friday morning, we woke up refreshed and ready for a fun-filled day. I had splurged and booked us a Dolphin Encounter for the afternoon -something that has been on my bucket list for a long time.

Morning Day #2

We got dressed and ready and went to the buffet for breakfast, then referred to our Fun Times to see how we wanted to spend the rest of our morning.

We attended the Live Morning Show with Cam (the Cruise Director) in the Blue Sapphire Lounge. Man, that guy is very energetic and fun! He was, by far, one of the highlights of our cruise.

Afterward, we decided to try our hand at Host’s Choice Trivia in the Chinatown Lounge. As luck would have it, she chose Chocolate Trivia, and the PA Natives KICKED TRIVIA BUTT! Brian and I had totally different answers, yet we TIED for 1ST PLACE! So, we proudly walked away with a (shared) 24K plastic trophy which we shall treasure!

We were hoping for lunch at Guy’s Burger Joint, but it wasn’t open when we needed lunch, so we went back to the buffet again. (We actually ended up going to the Deli, which had pretty yummy sandwiches. As with Day #1, we weren’t tremendously thrilled with the buffet offerings.)

After lunch, we changed into our swimwear and went to figure out how to do our first ever Cruise Excursion.

Dolphin Encounter – Freeport, Bahamas

We were a little confused at first, but were quickly ushered to an area where people were waiting for various excursions. I feel like we waited pretty long, but were eventually led to a small bus where a group of us boarded and were transported to another part of the island where we were dropped off at the Unesco facility. After showing our tickets, we boarded a boat that took us to the actual location of the Dolphin Encounter.

I had my phone in a waterproof case, but I didn’t take a lot of pictures during the actual encounter. I wanted to really savor the moment and not be glued to my phone!

There were 8 people in our group and we started off seated along a dock. Two trainers were in the water with two dolphins (Exuma and Coral). They showed us various dolphin tricks.

Then, we were told to get into the water. We didn’t actually swim with the dolphins, but the water was up to my bust area, so it was fairly deep. Our group was divided into 2 sections so Brian and I were paired up with another couple, 1 trainer, and 1 dolphin – Coral (whose mother is Cayla – the dolphin from Zeus & Roxanne fame!) We were able to “pet” the dolphin for quite a long time, ask lots of questions, and just enjoy our time with her. And, of course, what dolphin experience would be complete without the infamous dolphin kiss? (I didn’t buy the pictures because they weren’t my favorite, but I need to at least prove we did this, right?!)

This experience was probably the highlight of my cruise. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND booking this Dolphin Encounter if you’re on a cruise that docks in Freeport. You can also book directly through Unexso (which, I’m told, charges only about 1/2 the price we paid through Carnival).

While in the area, we also got to visit some birds!

Evening Day #2

We couldn’t wait to get showers and get changed for dinner! I forgot to get pictures of the main menu that evening. I had another delicious piece of bread, followed by Vietnamese Spring Rolls and Chicken Parmesan. For dessert, I chose the infamous Carnival Melting Chocolate Cake.

On this night, we were seated at the next section over from the night before, and THANKFULLY we had a MUCH BETTER server! We loved him so much that we requested to be seated in his section every night for the remainder of the cruise.

Please check out the other posts in this series, linked below:

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