The cruise pier in Cozumel
JR had decided in advance that he'd love to try scuba diving on this trip. There was a beginners class, which basically amounts to sitting in the swimming pool, practicing breathing through a scuba mask. When he inquired at the dive shop on the ship, the instructor said he does not need to take the beginner's class- he can skip straight to the Discover Scuba package. They would teach him everything he needs to know right on the beach and he could immediately dive for 2 hours in a coral reef. Cool. Let's do it.
He'll tell you this was the best hundred bucks he ever spent.
Meanwhile, R sacrificed scuba and snorkeling adventures to escort A & I for some beach time. The price for a taxi is posted so we didn't have to haggle with them. A steep $15 one-way, but that's the price of being a tourist. So off we go. The driver immediately asked if it's our first time in Cozumel and proceeded to give us the tourist spiel. Wait, what? Did you just say it costs $19 per person to set foot on the beach? You're kidding, right? This is insane! You come to my country and you can go to the beach for free, but you want to charge me almost $100 (counting the taxi to and from)?? Somehow this little tidbit didn't make it into any of the reviews or guidebooks I carefully researched before our trip. We were completely nonplussed. We weren't even carrying that much cash on us at the moment! The driver, who had been rapidly hurtling his taxi toward the beaches, pulled over and patiently explained again that we simply cannot go to the beach for free. When he saw he was about to lose a sale, he reluctantly offered us another option- he knows of a little place.... if we buy food or drinks, we can access their beach at no charge. We told him we don't drink alcohol, but he said soft drinks count. Ok, so we could spring for a virgin pina colada, let's do it. He was satisfied; we were shell-shocked but willing to venture on. It felt like we were living on the edge as he merged back into traffic and sped toward what we could only assume was the beaches.
A couple of miles down the road, he pulls into a thatched roof hut of a restaurant and turned us ignorant, stingy tourists over to the staff. Good riddance, he surely muttered under his breath. A waitress obligingly gave us the 5 second tour of the tiny establishment, and we went searching for the best beach lounge chairs. It was a "those over there look better... or maybe those down there" kind of thing and we ended up a bit of a ways down the beach from the original restaurant/tequila shack. We barely got our beach towels spread over the chairs before a Mexican appeared and asked if we have a pass. Once again we found ourselves listening to the explanation that the beach is not free. He explained in accented English that we have 2 choices- a $10 pass or a $15 pass, that include certain perks. Wait, we just got here and aren't ready for our obligatory drink yet. And we really don't want 2 drinks per person, we just want to sit on this chair and soak up some Caribbean sun, thank you very much. You could say we're stubborn or stingy, or you could call it not being gullible, but either way when he saw we weren't buying his sales pitch, he offered us a better deal- for $5 each we could use the beach, the chair, the umbrella, wi-fi, and he'd even throw in the sand for free. (He didn't actually say that sand part, I just stuck that in there.) We paid up because he didn't give us a choice. I had a bad feeling about it when he didn't bring us any kind of pass, although he did bring A's change for her 'beach fee' in American dollars. I asked R "what are we going to do if someone else comes along asking us to pay up? we have no proof that we did already pay." Well, after being there for a couple hours, we caught on to the system. We thought it was all one and the same, but it wasn't. There was a string of little dining establishments along that stretch of beach- we had moved down to a different one from the original drinks-only spot, so that's why we had to buy a 'pass'. All the tourists around us received the same spiel so we weren't being "taken". (And I take comfort in the fact that we weren't the only country hicks that needed the finer points of being a tourist explained to us.)
We went back on the ship for a late lunch. It was perfect because the ship was nearly deserted so we could get a window table.
Did I mention the gorgeous sunsets yet?
Yes, we're eating again. Fruit plate for our starter...
Chicken Cordon Bleu...
Strip steak...
Royal Caribbean is rated "meh" for their food quality but I'm really not sure why. We thought it was top notch, at least in the main dining room.
Because of the change in itinerary, the ship stayed in Cozumel till midnight. But we stayed on the ship after dark, going to the evening show and watching a Christmas movie on the huge screen by the pool.
Wednesday was another at-sea day, since we couldn't go to Grand Cayman. During the night we steamed out of the Gulf of Mexico and into the Caribbean Sea. As soon as we woke in the morning we could feel the water was a bit rougher than the Gulf had been. But we still didn't get seasick. Such a massive boat doesn't exactly bob around, even in the open ocean.
We spent most of that day relaxing on Deck 12 where it wasn't very crowded and protected from the wind.
Did I mention the sunsets at sea? :) Comes around awful early out there, like 4:30pm.
Sorry about the photo overload... I just can't get enough of sunsets at sea.
Wednesday night was Italian Night in the main dining room. Yes, please. Chilled strawberry soup...
Chicken Marsala...
Lasagna...
Dessert menu... there were classics they had every evening, and there were royal desserts that changed by the day...
Of course, one of the royal desserts on Italian night was Tiramisu!
JR opted for the sticky bread pudding, topped with vanilla bean ice cream instead.
Our stateroom attendant did towel art for us every evening. This time she gave the kids an elephant. Always fun to come back to our room and she what she made for us this time.
That was also the evening there was an ice skating show on the ship. Yes, there is a skating rink on the ship. We never did skate because they only allow 50 people on at a time, and even that is a bit of a stretch. But the show exceeded my expectations- it was Olympic quality skating. Photography was strictly forbidden so I don't have photos of it. However, getting yelled at by some crabby people on the way in to the theater kinda spoiled it for me. We should've held out for the Thursday evening repeat performance.
No comments:
Post a Comment