First things first as we head down to fuel up before one of the few days I'd really been looking forward to this trip.
Picked up a little fruit and these little quiche muffin looking things from the buffet table. Fruit was really tough and the muffin things were dry.
I went simple today with a cheese omelette and sausage. I appreciate the fencing sword lookalike fruit garnish placement. You could tell that they were using two different brands at least of breakfast sausage and I wouldn't be surprised if one was pork and one was turkey. Be mindful of that if you have dietary restrictions.
Hilton Head was our first and as it turns out only tender port so the daily schedule delivered to our cabins the night before had a chart at the bottom detailing the times you could catch the "launch" both from the ship and at the dock to come back to the ship. According to Ali, Beaufort N.C. was also supposed to be a tender port but we were able to dock after all. Definitely take a picture of this chart with your phone or camera so you can refer to it once on land.
The secret word for today's excursion choices is animals! Animal interaction and lighthouses - these are a few of my favorite things! Now if only there was time for a food tour it would be the perfect trifecta of port experiences. Because of the tender and that each of these excursions could only hold so many people per session, we were all assigned a time slot by Ali. Both excursions cost $50 per person and were for the same time frames (1:30PM, 2:30PM, & 3:30PM) so I don't think anyone tried to do both options.
Option #1: Alligator and Wildlife Excursion- Wheelchair accessible, one hour length, activity level 1, camera permitted, and restrooms available. After a 5-10 minute van ride, you will embark a boat for a tour of the 600 acre Sea Pines Resort Forest Preserve. The tour is narrated by an experienced lowcountry guide. I heard from different people who went at different tour times that while some saw several alligators, the other group only saw birds and plants. The first session at 1:30PM seemed to be the most active this day.
Option #2: Dolphin Discovery Cruise - wheelchair accessible, one hour length, activity level 1, camera permitted, and restrooms available. A guide will share bottle nose dolphin facts as you cruise around the water. Boat is boarded directly from the same dock that the tender drops off. This is the one I wanted to do. We've done about 3 different alligator themed boat tours in our cruising history so I really wanted the chance to see dolphins. We were assigned the 1:30PM time slot.
With less wind and slightly warmer temperatures, the open top deck was the place to be today as our ship was greeted by dolphins galore! On a cruise ship, you might get lucky depending on location and time of year to see a pod of dolphins playing in the wake so I was amazed to see how active and prevalent they were for us today. It was like they were happy for the audience and had been desperately waiting to put on a show. You needn't wait more than a few minutes before a dolphin would either come up for air, jump, or play. I think the appearance of so many dolphins even surprised the crew because they repeatedly joked that the tender ride would be like a free dolphin tour.
Here's some pictures of what boarding and riding the tender is like as I watched the pre-tour group head over to explore the town:
We decided to try and get a quick lunch before our tour time so of course service was as slow as possible. It did pick up a little bit when we mentioned being on the first tour but we had to wolf down the food when it finally showed up.
We both went with the Roasted Turkey Club though I was a little surprised Dad (Mr. Bland) didn't ask about the roasted garlic mayonnaise. When it came, he started complaining about how "the sauce" on it didn't taste right. I said "It's the mayo." "No, it can't be the mayo." "Yes, it was roasted garlic mayo." "What?!" *Looks back at menu in disbelief* The sandwich tasted fine to me but then I'm the kind of person who uses salad dressings as sandwich condiments. A little ranch or Caesar dressing on your turkey sandwich or a little French dressing on your corn beef sandwich, try it, you'll thank me later.
Once Ali called over the intercom for the 1:30PM tours to start boarding the tender boat, we swallowed the last bites of our sandwiches and joined those who were already lining up. The crew was great about helping everyone transfer onto the tender and soon Ali joined us for the ride over so she could check in everyone on the tours.
The ride was about 10-15 minutes and very smooth on the calm waters. The dock was easy to step up onto and then we had to walk up a long ramp to reach the main level where all the shops and restaurants are located. Ali organized us to stand in groups based on whether we were the alligator or dolphin tour and then fetched the dolphin tour boat driver to let him know we were ready. We headed back down the ramp to where his boat was tied up on the other side of the same dock. The boat was fairly easy to step into but featured a long step to go from where you step in to the actual floor of the boat to walk to your seat. This was because when not getting in and out, this space was covered with a cushion and used as another seat.
Since we had reached the boat first and went as far into the boat as possible, we ended up with the first seats along the front of the boat. It gave us some great views almost all the way around without having to look around someone else. Pro tip - don't listen when your traveling partner says you don't need to bring the bigger zoom lens. We had great sightings of dolphins eating, jumping, and playing throughout the entire tour but if you want that National Geographic style shots, you need the bigger zoom lens. One of our tour mates joked that he'll look back on his vacation photos wondering why he has 50 pictures of water because he was always just a little too late in catching the dolphins on camera before they dipped back underwater.
There was another group out enjoying a sailboat tour and I'm a sucker for taking pictures of other ships/boats.
It was fun to watch their reaction when the dolphins started popping up around their boat as well.
The importance of perspective:
This was the side our balcony cabin was on:
Once we returned to the dock, I was determined to climb the lighthouse so Dad opted to grab the next tender back and return to the ship. All throughout the area are bright red rocking chairs so you can choose to simply sit and people watch or grab that drink and snack watching the water before returning to the ship.
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