If you read my previous post on the things to do in Orange beach, you’ll know that Mr. Epic and I recently took a weekend trip to Orange Beach to celebrate our anniversary. Orange Beach was such as beautiful and relaxing place. I honestly expected that I would feel differently since it was right around spring break and is quite a touristy location for people in the MS, AL & Florida area. Although we didn’t do too much on this trip, there were three highlights to our trip that we thoroughly enjoyed – The beach, a romantic dolphin tour at sunset, and our anniversary dinner at Voyager restaurant.
The Beach
Our Saturday started quite lazily. We ate breakfast at the hotel and proceeded to the beach at noon. The weather was perfect although the sun bore quite heavily on us. The beach was behind our hotel and only about a 3-min walk from our room. It was very convenient, but best believe we paid for this convenience with the price of our hotel room. Our plan was to spend two to three hours on the beach and proceed to other plans for the day. Neither of us are swimmers, so we respected our lack of water skills and played with the waves at the edge of the water. It was a very relaxing two hours of talking, playing, eating Cheez-its, and hilariously watching a huge bird frustrate a guy fishing close to us.
Dolphin/Nature Sunset Cruise
We headed back to our room to get ready for a Dolphin/Nature Sunset Cruise hosted by Cetacean cruises. I booked this 2-hour tour by the Wharf Marina mostly because of my husband. This was going to be “his activity” as he’s very much into nature and wildlife especially if he gets to just sit and observe (Don’t be mistaken, he’s very much into very competitive activities as well). Of the many sailing agencies in Orange Beach, I picked Cetacean cruises because they had very reasonable prices, offered a smaller boat (which made it even more intimate) and we found out on the day of our cruise that they thoroughly clean and disinfect the entire boat after each tour. This definitely earned them brownie points from my germophobe husband. They also served drinks on the boat throughout the tour, but it had to be purchased, outside drinks were not permitted.
I originally booked an early morning tour, but due to unexplained reasons, it was canceled a day before we arrived. However, I was contacted by someone in their agency and upgraded to the sunset tour – free of charge! Their service made so much of a difference for me because they really wanted to make sure that it worked with my schedule. Although it threw off some of the other plans we had, I’m glad we got this upgrade because we wouldn’t have had the opportunity to watch the beautiful sunset. It was so worth it.
I also loved that the agency kept sending us reminders about dressing warm and comfortable, the timing to arrive, and traffic updates that could cause a delay. Basically, they wanted to make sure everyone made it to the tour and was comfortable. It was warm when we arrived so I thought the dressing warm part was an exaggeration, but by the end of our tour, I finally understood why. It got extremely cold once the sun started setting, which is expected in March.
During the tour itself, the crew members were courteous and the captain was hilarious! I thoroughly enjoyed his commentary, along with his extensive knowledge of the area’s history, wildlife, and flora. There were so many beautiful homes on the side of the river, some of which the captain explained had undergone continuous damage and repairs due to hurricanes in the past few years. Some residents were fishing, others just hanging out on their decks and waving to us.
As we approached a boat that appeared to have sunk to the bottom of the river, the captain told us a funny story of a man that tried to commit insurance fraud by drilling holes at the bottom of his boat. Apparently, the insurance company hired a diver to go under and investigate, and sure enough, the diver found perfectly drilled holes, along with metal shavings right where it sank. The man later abandoned the boat since things didn’t work out in his favor. The captain had other stories to complement some of the other sightings, and we enjoyed the view, as well as his other shenanigans.
However, the main star of this nature tour was the dolphins themselves. We got to experience them up close in their pods, and Mr. Epic was determined to help me hear them breathe through their blowholes. We watched what appeared to be a mom and an aunt swimming together, sandwiching a young one. Others swam isolated, coming close to the boat but not close enough to get good photos of them. After a while, they seemed sparse and passengers were advised to yell what direction they were in, so that others could spot them. I did a few yellings myself (haha) and felt like a little kid. We spotted at least 12 different ones throughout the tour and as the sun set, we saw less and less of them.
Ultimately, the tour ended with us sailing back to the harbor, while taking in the beautiful view of the sunset over the river. I highly recommend this experience to couples and families visiting Orange beach, you won’t regret it.
Voyager Restaurant
Mr. Epic and I don’t do a lot of fine dining, but this was a special occasion so we decided to go for it. I found Voyager while doing research for our trip. The photos looked great, it had a river view, and had so many glowing reviews.
I booked our reservation a week in advance, but had to change it at the very last minute due to the schedule change for our sunset tour. They were very accommodating and squeezed us in. In our reservation notes, I detailed that this was a double celebration of our anniversary and my birthday, and I wanted it to be really special. They did not disappoint.
I can tell that the staff here takes their clients seriously because we were immediately greeted with so much warmth and ushered to our table. We didn’t like the setup of our table, and they were quick to move us to an even better spot. The staff was very attentive, checked up on us frequently, and made recommendations. For our starters, I had a delicious cocktail and Mr. Epic and I shared an Ostrich Carpaccio. For our main entrees, I had the Gulf Grouper, and Mr. Epic had the Roasted Gulf Whole Fish. Both dishes were well cooked and delicious, but I wouldn’t call them extraordinary. If we come back to Orange Beach, we’ll definitely try their steaks next. Food aside, the ambiance and staff made up for anything the food was lacking.
At the end of our meal, they brought us a treat – Chocolate covered strawberries – for our celebration. They even went the extra step and put a candle in it. It was a very sweet gesture and one that we really appreciated. 10/10 would recommend for fine dining or for any special occasions.
Orange beach was a quick, mellow trip for our anniversary and I would highly recommend it for anyone seeking a relaxing getaway. I can’t speak to what it’s like in the summer or fall, but I’m already thinking about returning to find out.