Explorer OTS Day 5 (Thursday 10/23/25) - Gran Canaria (Canary Islands)

With several excursion options offered by Royal Caribbean (RC) for our port day in Gran Canaria, it was difficult to pick one that offered the general things we wanted to see there . . . so we booked 2 . . . a morning and afternoon half-day trip.  From what was posted on the RC cruise planner website, it looked to be no problem scheduling as there was plenty of time between them to allow for the double scheduling.  Once on the ship, however, the information being provided on the excursion tickets and the daily on ship activities guide said otherwise.  After some time spent with the excursion desk crew, we were assured "we should be OK" and that should something happen to cause us to miss the afternoon excursion, they'd provide us with a full refund.  As it turned out, it was no problem and we had a great day!

This island initially looked and felt very different than Lanzarote the day before.  Leaving the port, we drove through Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, the populous capital city of the island.  There was quite a bit of traffic as people were going about their midweek work day.  Once we were out of the city, however, the landscape changed and the towns were less hectic.

Our guide provided excellent narration of what we were seeing along the way, as well as some historical information about this and all of the Canary Islands.

The main attraction on this excursion was a tour of Bodega Los Berrazales, a 200 year old farm that produces coffee, wine and oranges.  Unlike the winery stop the previous day, this was a full cultural experience including a guided tour and full sampling of wines and coffee produced there.  We thoroughly enjoyed this experience!

Our afternoon excursion was billed as a panoramic island tour of Gran Canaria.

Our first stop was at the Dunes of Maspalomas.  Believed to have first been formed by the tsunami caused by the 1755 earthquake, the area is now protected from the throngs of tourists who flock to this popular attraction.  There are boardwalks to provide visitors an opportunity to get a closer view of the ever changing landscape.

After our visit to the dunes, we enjoyed a self guided stop in the fishing village of Puerto de Mogán.  We were given a couple of hours to enjoy the fishing dock area, shop and/or dine.  We took a short walk through town, but mostly used the visit to have a late lunch, since we hadn't eaten since leaving the ship earlier in the morning.

I'm generally not too adventurous when it comes to my meals, but I have used cruising as a way to experience food that typically would not be in my comfort zone.  We found a cute cafe with outdoor seating a couple of blocks off the main street.  Al Bek features authentic Lebanese-Syrian cuisine.  We enjoyed our the chicken shawarma and a nice frozen strawberry margarita!

On the bus ride back to the port, I was able to snap a photo of the Maspalomas Station, a radio antenna ground station used to support international space missions.  The original station was built in the 1960's by NASA to support the United States' early space missions.  It was subsequently moved a couple of miles away to the current location due to the growing population and tourism on the island.  Today the European Space Agency operates the Maspalomas Station.